Source Spot

Source Code (2011) is a Duncan Jones action/sci-fi movie that I had confused with a few others, but once we watched it, it was great.

It starts with Jake Gyllenhaal waking up on a train, in mid-conversation with Michelle Monaghan. But he doesn't know where he is, and he isn't who he thinks he is. Monaghan is talking like she is his girlfriend and he is an architect. But he thinks he is a soldier, who was just leading a squad in Afghanistan. But when he looks at his reflection in the window, he sees a stranger.

We see him taking in his environment, getting a good look at the other people on the train, looking for answers - and then a huge explosion rips through the train, killing him and everyone else.

He wakes up in a strange science chamber, with Lt. Vera Farmiga giving him a little bit of the background: The train bombing happened earlier that day. They have a new process that lets them inject someone into the mind of one of the deceased victims. They need him to figure out who did the bombing, because he's getting ready to do much worse - a huge dirty cobalt bomb in Chicago. And she puts him back on the train.

So it's sort of a time travel story, except he can't change the past. He can only observe and hope to avert another disaster. While this is going on, he is falling in love with Monaghan, and Farmiga is finding it hard to be a dispassionate minder.

This is all done in a smart way, with Gyllenhaal both sharp and smart, but not super-humanly. He is a good soldier doing what he does best, even if it takes getting blown up over and over again. The ending maybe goes off the rails a little, but in a good satisfying way. Just turn off some of your critcal facilities and enjoy.