Source Code 2011 5*

Christina (Michelle Monaghan) & Captain Stevens (Jake Gylenhaal)

Captain Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) & Dr Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright)

Preview. Full of suspense. We are as confused as the handsome brave clever resourceful persistent hero, learning slowly along with him. We suspend belief that Christina, already sweet on Sean, in eight fast minutes falls for "the new me", Captain Wonderful inside. I was sure he died in Afghanistan two months before, so the ending was a BIG surprise. Bad and good. I have DVD now and will watch and post more mañana.

Captain Stevens wakes across from Christina in the morning commuter train to Chicago, inside the body of teacher Sean, but an explosion blows the train up in eight minutes. He wakes again in a dingy dim icy cockpit leaking oil, to Captain Goodwin on a tiny screen, ordering him to keep "on the mission". He must find the bomber, set to detonate a dirty bomb in downtown Chicago within 6 hours. Dr Rutledge's "Source Code" experiment allows Stevens to possess a compatible body, Sean, for only the same eight minutes before death. He must return and die over and over. Rutledge insists reality cannot be changed, and promises to release him at the end of this mission.

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Spoilers

Stevens follows Derek Frost (Michael Arden), who got off at the last stop, and left his wallet behind to fake death. Frost shoots Stevens and Christina dead in the parking lot, but Stevens wakes to tell Goodwin the license plate of his rented white van and road direction. Rutledge breaks his promise, and orders Goodwin to wipe Stevens' memory for a future mission.

"Tell me, one soldier to another .. am I dead?" Stevens asks for one more chance, to save everyone, and does. Goodwin relents, and lifts the cover to show the top half of Stevens' mutilated body with life support and neural connections, to release him at the last minute. Asking Christina "what would you do if you only had one minute to live?", Stevens meanwhile starts to kiss ... and finishes.

They have changed history. Stevens in his new body of Sean, walks around downtown with Christina, both taking the day off, and texts Goodwin to tell his old self "everything will be okay". After he foiled Frost, the time set in the alternate line.

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