The Source Code DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Vet Cracking Case of Domestic Terrorism

Air Force Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) has been comatose since his helicopter was shot down during a rescue mission over Afghanistan. So, the incapacitated pilot has no way of knowing that while languishing in a vegetative state he was being recruited for the “Source Code,” a top secret program aimed at enabling him to inhabit another person’s brain, telepathically.
And exactly how, pray tell, might the highly-decorated veteran accomplish such a superhuman feat? By way of some “very complicated quantum mechanics” involving “parabolic calculus” explains project supervisor Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) in inscrutable, pseudo-scientific psychobabble, not in laymen’s terms which a movie audience could comprehend.
In any case, Captain Stevens is now unknowingly being thrust into the role of hero again when a domestic terrorist (Michael Arden) kills everybody aboard a train headed for Chicago by detonating a remote-controlled explosive. The military only has six hours to prevent the crazy madman from following through with his next threat, namely, to slaughter millions by unleashing a dirty bomb downtown.
Therefore, Dr. Rutledge directs his able assistant (Vera Farmiga) to implant Colter’s mind in the cranium of Sean Fentress (Frederick De Grandpre), a history teacher who just perished on the ill-fated train. She calibrates the Source Code’s wayback machine to teleport the time-traveling, body snatcher to a point precisely eight minutes prior to the railway blast. The soldier’s subconscious assignment in that brief window of opportunity is to determine which of his fellow passengers is the maniacal murderer.
Directed by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie), The Source Code is a sci-fi adventure predicated on a farfetched premise that works only if you never pause to ponder its plausibility. Fortunately, this high-octane thriller does unfold at a breakneck pace which makes it easy to ignore just how preposterous a plot you’re dealing with.
A thought-provoking mindbender which mixes memorable elements of everything from Memento to Avatar to The Twilight Zone to The Manchurian Candidate.

Very Good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and profanity.
Running time: 93 minutes
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
DVD Extras: Cast interviews, trivia track, science focal points and audio commentary with the director, the scriptwriter and Jake Gyllenhaal.