Source Code - Grading/Discussion

[O'Dib]

Cloud Gate. Brought to you by Google when queried with "reflective statue chicago".

 

[Bishop76]

It's the Cloud Gate in Millennium Park. It's just a centerpiece bit of artwork for the park - a very popular tourist/photo-op spot. The wiki page explains some of the artists' themes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Actually that scene might be a reflection of Christina's backstory. She's an artist. I don't think that this is touched on in the movie. In the original draft Colter encourages her to keep on working on it when she shows examples of her work. He even gets her to sketch profiles of the passenger subjects for him; she's ready to give up and start over (something her boyfriend suggested IIRC) and that's the reason why she says "I want to show you something" and takes him to see Cloud Gate.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Thank you all.

Wasn't the Cloud Gate in nearly all the flashing images whenever Colter was pulled out of the source code? Think it was the last image in most of them.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yes it was I believe in some of them. I believe Christina was in all the flashes as well. Talk about someone making a first impression on you

 

[od0_ital]

^

Well, she was the first person he saw every time he woke up on the train.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ That's my point.

 

[Trekker4747]

Source Code

Grade: B-

-------------------------------------------------------

A fairly okay movie. even if the "science" in it is a bit muddled and confusing and sort-of conflicts with itself. The basic idea is that our "hero" is part of a secret military project that can cause a person to re-live the last 8 minutes of a victim's life and inside that 8 minutes he can seek out clues to discover what happened in a disaster. He's sent back to relive the last 8-minutes of man who was victim of an explosion on a train and discover who the bomber was; as it's believed he intends to use a radiological dirty bomb to decimate Chicago. The soldier isn't "really going back in time" according to the scientists he's just reliving what was left in the victim's short-term memory. It's not clearly laid out how he can use this science to go back and do, learn, and see things the original passenger did not.

It's all not very clear.

Our hero falls in love with a young woman sitting on the train across from him (whom the person he is inhabiting is in a possible relationship with.) There's some secrecy going on between the leaders of this project and the soldier, namely from the project leader, but really the movie doesn't make any sense and doesn't even try to make sense. It's all a huge MacGuffin and you've got to give this thing a lot of suspension of disbelief. A LOT since it takes place in present-day.

The characters aren't too interesting, the tension of what's happening on the train isn't strong and, eh.

It's a very, very, meh movie. I really can't think of anything really to say about it beyond a somewhat interesting premise. It's worth a rental, certainly not a theater viewing.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I really do think that subsequent drafts chose to enhance the love story while sacrificing everything else including a more in depth explaining of how the "Source Code" works. While I love the movie it certainly isn't the spec script that I fell in love with two years ago. The core of the script is there but it's been sliced and diced in it's rewrites.

 

[Trekker4747]

On the front on the "new Sean" will just "somehow" regain all of the information he needs in order to live the new life, but all he has to do is go to the address on his license and rummage through his house and he can probably find his Social Security Card and everything else he needs to live the new life and we'll just assume that all of his elder family are dead or suffering from Alzheimer's and he has no siblings so he's got no meaningful obligation to any of them.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I thought you guys would like to read the original review of the spec. This is how I first found out about the movie. Script Shadow USED to have the script link there as well but had to remove it. I wish I could help out and provide it myself but am not allowed to either. You could probably do a google search and find it though. It's definitely worth the read.

http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/02/source-code.html

 

[davejames]

He's sent back to relive the last 8-minutes of man who was victim of an explosion on a train and discover who the bomber was; as it's believed he intends to use a radiological dirty bomb to decimate Chicago. The soldier isn't "really going back in time" according to the scientists he's just reliving what was left in the victim's short-term memory. It's not clearly laid out how he can use this science to go back and do, learn, and see things the original passenger did not.

It's all not very clear.

I was definitely questioning that aspect of the movie myself while watching it, but I thought at the end, when

Spoiler: the ending

it was revealed he really WAS travelling back in time to the train, hence his ability to interact with different people, save the passengers, and contact the outside world

, that there was no longer a conflict there.

Even if, admittedly, that twist isn't quite as cool as the original concept.

 

[O'Dib]

From what I understand, each quantum leap was into the actual guy in the final 8 minutes of his life, but every time a different outcome was achieved it would create an alternate timeline, thus having no bearing on the one from which he was being sent out.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Pretty much it.

 

[Harvey]

I thought this short article (which quotes Jones) has an interesting perspective on the ending.

Spoiler: Duncan Jones on the ending

"So Colter Stevens, at the end of the film, begs Goodwin to let him take one more shot at sorting out this disaster on the train, stopping the bomb from going off. So he gets sent, he gets on the train, in what he discovers to be a parallel reality, stops the bomb going off, which means Sean Fentress is now dead although he shouldn’t be… Colter has basically forfeited Sean Fentress’ life just so he, Colter Stevens, can have a happy ending. I like that, because immediately although we have a happy ending, it’s ethically a little bit more ambiguous."

 

[davejames]

I thought this short article (which quotes Jones) has an interesting perspective on the ending.

Eh, I think people in that article are making a little too much out of this. Yeah the ending does raise a few interesting moral questions, but I hardly saw Colter's decision as being horribly wrong and immoral.

Ultimately he was able to save hundreds of people (even if it was to an alternate reality) who otherwise would have died on the train. And it also seemed pretty clear that Christina's interest in him only took off after his radical personality change, and after he became a lot more assertive with her, so I would hardly call that "stealing Sean's girl."

Yeah it's kinda sad that Sean had to be sacrificed for all this to happen, but frankly I don't think Colter himself has anything to feel guilty about.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The ending is supposed to be happy. I have no problem with it. Source Code at it's essence is a top secret military project after all. Sean Fentress DIED remember in the original train blast. He's not alive any more. Colter Stevens himself is dead. Source Code provided an alternate reality where Sean was SAVED by Colter himself while essentially possessing his body. If you look at it that way they're both heroes.

 

[Trekker4747]

I took me a bit to realize this but I had somehow thought the two of them were already friends and were flirting with a relationship but then I realized he only knew her as a fellow commuter on the train and had just talked to her often for that period of time every day. ("He" being the original guy.)

It would have been interesting if our hero (I'm no good with names so just try and follow me) had met the "real" commuter guy somehow in an ethereal dream or whatever and gotten some level of "permission" to take over the life. Maybe the original guy can say he was broke, just lost his job, his family was dead and he was even contemplating suicide so his life isn't worth anything to him.

It is interesting, though, that Jake Gyllwhatever is better looking that the guy he now is.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Frankly I wasn't as thrilled with Jake's casting when I first read the script. I was thinking this would be a great Chris Pine vehicle. I was pleased with Jake's performance though. Did anyone by chance happen to read the script review I posted?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I thought this short article (which quotes Jones) has an interesting perspective on the ending.

Eh, I think people in that article are making a little too much out of this. Yeah the ending does raise a few interesting moral questions, but I hardly saw Colter's decision as being horribly wrong and immoral.

Ultimately he was able to save hundreds of people (even if it was to an alternate reality) who otherwise would have died on the train. And it also seemed pretty clear that Christina's interest in him only took off after his radical personality change, and after he became a lot more assertive with her, so I would hardly call that "stealing Sean's girl."

Yeah it's kinda sad that Sean had to be sacrificed for all this to happen, but frankly I don't think Colter himself has anything to feel guilty about.

Just got back from seeing this, and I also gave some thought to the whole "What about Sean?" question. There's no way for Colter to give Sean's body back (at least not that was ever indicated) and Sean would've been dead anyway if not for Colter's intervention, so he basically traded one life for another and saved hundreds (if not millions) more in the process. I think he deserves a happy ending, all things considered.

I found the movie pretty enjoyable albeit predictable. I'd give it at least a B+. I did feel like the things that were supposed to be twists were telegraphed too early. I would've preferred to be surprised, but whatever. It was a good movie on its own terms and doesn't have anything too major to ding it for.