All eyes are on Duncan Jones as he follows up his sublime trip to the Moon with an Earthbound thriller which has elements of Quantum Leap and Groundhog Day spun into the mix.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays our hero caught in a time loop of sorts, on a train which explodes and he finds himself reliving the same seventeen minutes over and over until he can discover the terrorist. As well as completing his mission he also has to discover who he is completing the mission for, and that’s about as much as we knew before this synopsis hit the internets today.
If you’re curious about the premise then I’d advise reading the first paragraph and about half of the second. The last line of the synopsis presented here pretty much gives away most of the emotional beats Jones has in store and, frankly, makes it sounds far less interesting than it actually is.
There’s a lot of expectation for this film, many people can’t wait to see Jones step behind the camera again. I’m one of them.
Here’s the full synopsis for Source Code,
Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes with a jolt to find himself on a commuter train heading into Chicago. Although the other passengers all seem to know him, he has absolutely no idea where—or even who—he is. The last thing Colter remembers is flying a helicopter mission in Iraq, but here he is in someone else’s life going through someone else’s morning commute. Before he can do anything an express train zooms by on the opposite track and a bomb explodes, seemingly killing Colter and all the other passengers.
Colter comes to in an isolation chamber, strapped to a seat, and wearing his military flight suit. He still has no idea what’s happening, except that he’s being spoken to by mission controller Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who calmly recites a series of memory questions to which Colter is shocked to realize he knows the answers. He learns he’s part of an operation called “Beleaguered Castle,” but before he can progress any further, Goodwin starts up the machinery and suddenly…Colter is back on the train, at exactly the same time he first appeared there, once again speeding through Chicago with the same group of commuters. Colter figures he’s in some kind of simulation exercise, with his task being to find the bomber onboard the train before it goes off again. Living the explosion over and over, Colter must uncover the identity of the bomber, while also figuring out what the alternative universe of “Beleaguered Castle” is. Adding to the puzzle, Colter uses the second chance opportunities to make peace with his father, and to find romance with a fellow passenger on the train.
Collider had this originally.
