Nowadays it looks like Hollywood got a new trend in creating sci-fi movie plot. Thanks to the genius work of Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight and Inception, a combination of brain-scrambling scripts, pulse-triggering action and eye-pleasing visuals apparently is what everybody’s fond these days. But Duncan Jones got his own sci-fi way of entertaining the audience. In his latest work, Source Code, Duncan successfully deliberated his mind about parallel universe to his audience.
Similar to his previous work, Moon, Source Code also offers the complexities of quantum physics as the main theme, the only thing that differs them is the heaven and earth setting location. Literary. Staring Jake Gyllenhall as the main character, the movie started with a big confusion using a great score, unsettling tone and disorienting editing. Captain Colter Stevens (Gyllenhall) is a US helicopter pilot in Afghanistan who mysteriously separated from his unit and the next thing he knows he woke up in a commuter train heading to downtown Chicago, and eight minutes later, the train blew-up. After this triumphant perplexing scene leaves a big question mark on the audiences’ face, Jones started to put up the puzzle together by showing the original plot.
Gyllenhall seems to have hit his stride lately by picking up good role that suits him for the last couples of movies he starred in. In this movie he managed to bring up the stubborn, insubordinate and occasionally downright dumb of Stevens’ character. Supporting Gyllenhalls’ role is Jeffrey Wright, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga. There’s no doubt about these casts, one can see a convincing evil physicist act from Wright and a quite notable performance by Farmiga just like what she did in Up In The Air. And last but not least, is how Monaghan managed to bring her character to live with her natural vivacity to complement Gyllenhalls’ character.
Imagination, parallel universe, alternative realities, time travelling. Maybe only those with a degree in quantum physics might understand the science behind the movies’ plot concept. Repeating eight minutes time length between Gyllenhalls’ moment of conscious and the time the bomb explodes is pretty dull and predictable plot, but Jones’ idea in mixing all of the intrigues and resolving the puzzle piece by piece is another story. Adding the well-oiled work of Ben Ripleys’ script is another great work by the cinematographer, Don Burgess. Burgess idea in making every scene looks simple and descriptive is a plus point in this movie.
If Nolans’ Inception comes with a pulse-racing soundtrack to add the tensions, the former Nolans’ teammate from The Dark Knight, Chris Bacon comes with something a little bit different here. Jones idea in playing with his audiences’ mind is enough stimulate the tensions and their emotions, therefore the scores he works for this movie is much more calmer. The only score that appears quite notable in this movie is when Gyllenhalls’ character managed to create an alternate universe.
Roughly, one can describe this movie as a combination of Tony Scotts’ Déjà Vu and Christopher Nolans’ Inception, but with Jones’ image version of parallel universe. At the end, science fiction meet action and thriller with a happy ending romance is probably something pretty common, but this movie is something you don’t want to miss. Personally I categorize this movie as one of the must-watch movies of the year.
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