Science-fiction. Fiction, yes - science, not so much...

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2013)

Here there be spoilers...
This movie, although well paced and well crafted, required much more than the suspension of disbelief one must employ with most movies; it also required suspension of physics, logic, and common sense.
Suspension of Logic. The dead soldier Colter Stevens had access to the dead train passenger's last eight minutes of existence. The passenger had no experience of the loo-bomb, the gun locker, the bomb-van, etc, therefore Colter could have had no experience of it, or of anything else outside the memories of the dead passenger. All he would have been able to do was replay the passenger's memories; anything else would necessarily be merely concocted. He would have no access to the dead girl other than the final eight minutes of the dead passenger's memories of her, so he would not be able to get her or anyone else on the train to respond to new interactions. He could only passively view the unalterable memories of the one dead passenger.
Suspension of Physics. The dead soldier and the dead train passengers shared a virtual existence, presumably within the computers of the Source Code project, yet it is claimed in the movie that a new world was created from the interactions of the ghosts of those dead folks within that machine. Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transmuted from one to the other. Where did the unimaginable amount of energy come from that would be required to create a new world? Suspension of Common Sense. The body of the dead soldier is revealed lying within a chamber. His Source Code contact Goodwin told him that he had been with them for two months. He would have been a festering lump of rotten meat by that time without life-support for his brain and other tissues: a lung machine, fresh blood infusions, etc. All that was shown as being hooked up to him was the I/O between his brain and the Source Code computers.
Suspension of Common Sense. Colter was replaying the last eight minutes of the train's existence in the world's real time (the world of the Source Code project). How did a simulation of eight minutes of a train ride turn into a time machine? How did he, an avatar in a virtual world, go back in time in the real world to send a text message to Goodwin? Suspension of Physics & Logic. If Colter was in a newly created alternate reality, he must have had great phone coverage. How else could he have texted Goodwin in her reality? Remember: in Goodwin's real time, Colter would have texted her at the end of his final visit to the train. That did not take place before the beginning of the implementation of the Source Code run but at the end. So did the Goodwin that sent him on his unauthorised final trip cease to exist, or did her world continue on its way when Colter miraculously materialised a new existence out of nothing? I guess he was texting a newly created alternate Goodwin. That dead guy Colter has some mighty god skills! Suspension of Logic. Near the end of the movie, the crutch-guy tells Goodwin to wipe Colter's memory. What good would he be to them with no memory? All his military training gone. His experience with Source Code project gone. His identity gone.
Suspension of Common Sense. One passenger is hinted at being a moslem: full beard, shawl wrapped around his neck, yet the bomber turns out to be an American. Yeah, right. Possible but not likely. The film maker must have thought it necessary to display his political correctness, or maybe he was thumbing his nose at America. Either way, he can stick it up his bum.
Suspension of Cynicism. Why did the movie have to have such a cloyingly happy ending? Feh! I rate it at five: stupid but fun. I did end up caring about the pitiable soldier, plus there was a cute girl.