Great movie, a little illogical.

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2011)

This science fiction thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, A helicopter pilot who wakes up on a train as a man called Sean Fentress. Across from him is Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), a woman he has never met but seems to know him. As he tries to figure out his situation, the train explodes and he awakes strapped inside some sort of iron room.
He is told by a woman on a screen, Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), that he is on a mission to find the bomb that destroyed the train and the ID of the person responsible so as to prevent a much larger attack on Chicago. He has eight minutes to do this.
He goes back again and again via the "source code" system that allows him to re-live what happened. It is revealed that Stevens' mind is connected to the dead Sean Fentress's brain accessing the lingering memories of the last eight minutes of his life, creating a sort of parallel universe.
It is an incredibly intriguing concept, complimented with good acting, visuals and editing. However, as with most modern sci-fi films, it futilely tries to explain the impossible with science. Although it is more believable/realistic than others like Hulk or Iron Man. But it still raised questions such as: how can Stevens move around the train and do what he wants if he is only accessing a dead guy's memories? How can he go places that Fentress would not have been in his last eight minutes, such as the bathroom of a station the train passed by?
However, this is obviously not main the point of the film. Even if it doesn't make sense it's a thought provoker and an intriguing idea. Altogether it is worthy entertainment. It's interesting that when Stevens re-lives the explosion as Sean Fentress, the same actor is used (except for his reflection). Which makes sense because it is from his point of view.
The ending was disappointing and stretched the rules of physics even further. There weren't many places to go with the ending though.