fascinating film employing quantum physics theory

Rating: Null/10 (21 August 2011)

Jake Gyllenhaal is the "Source Code" in this 2011 film, also starring Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, and Jeffrey Wright. Gyllenhaal plays a soldier named Colter Stevens, a pilot who actually died in Afghanistan. However, he is now on a train in someone else's body, part of a project that can put someone in another person's conscious mind but only for the last eight minutes of his life, which the brain retains. He has been put in the mind of one of the passengers. The train is going to blow up, and the terrorist is going to blow up another venue in Chicago later in the day and kill even more people. His assignment is to find out who the bomber is so that the government can stop the second bombing.
Stevens is sent back as the train passenger over and over, unable to get information on the bomber's identity. He falls for his traveling companion (Monaghan) and becomes determined to stop the first bombing so that she and the other passengers will not be killed. He is told, however, that he has not gone back in time and cannot change what has already happened.
Fascinating film that takes the theories behind quantum physics and pushes them into the realm of science fiction - though scientists are actually studying some of the ideas put forth in the movie.
As Stevens, Jake Gyllenhaal does a terrific job as a confused man who is having trouble with the different realities he is thrust into; Vera Farmiga is very good as the person running the experiment, who bonds with Stevens, seeing him as a human being instead of an experiment. Michelle Monaghan resembles a young version of the actress Terry Farrell (and I remember when she was young) and is very good as the passenger's traveling companion.
The end is thought-provoking and asks just what science will be able to accomplish as the years go on. Do we live in parallel universes? Is the past, present, and future all happening at once? Can we change the past and therefore change the future? Who knows, but it's interesting to think about.