Source Code

***Source Code*** is a 2011 American-French science fiction thriller film.

## Synopsis

A soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train. A mission he has only 8 minutes to complete.

## Plot

U.S. Army pilot Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), last aware of being on a mission in Afghanistan, wakes up on a Metra commuter train to Chicago, at 7:40 am. To the world around him – including his traveling partner Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) and the bathroom mirror – he appears to be Sean Fentress, a school teacher. As he comes to grips with this revelation, the train explodes, killing everyone aboard.

Stevens regains consciousness inside a dimly lit cockpit. Communicating through a video screen, Air Force Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) verifies Stevens' identity, and insists he stay "on mission" to find the bomber before a large dirty bomb hits downtown Chicago in six hours. Inside the "Source Code" experimental device designed by scientist Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), he experiences the last eight minutes of another compatible person's life within an alternative timeline.[a]

Stevens is unwillingly sent back into the Source Code repeatedly in frustrating, exhausting attempts to learn the bomber's identity. He tries to warn authorities on the train and flee with Christina, escaping the explosion. Other times, he cannot locate or disarm the bomb on time and dies on the train. Rutledge insists the alternate timeline is not real. Later, Stevens learns that he has been with them for two months since being reported killed in action in Afghanistan; in real life he is comatose, having lost most of his body, and on life support while hooked up to neural sensors. The cockpit capsule is his brain's way of making sense of a missing environment. Angry to learn that he is on life support, he asks to be disconnected after the mission. Rutledge agrees.

Stevens catches the bomber Derek Frost (Michael Arden), who leaves his wallet behind to fake his own death, and gets off at the last stop before Chicago. In one run-through, Frost kills both Fentress and Christina, and flees in a rented white van. Stevens remembers the license number and direction, and the authorities use this information to catch Frost, preventing him from detonating the dirty bomb. However, Rutledge reneges on his promise, ordering Goodwin to wipe Stevens' memory for a future mission. Stevens convinces Goodwin to allow him one more try, to save everyone on the train, despite Rutledge's insistence that everyone on the train had already been killed in the explosion.

Stevens is sent back into the Source Code where he disarms the bomb, subdues Frost, reports him to the authorities, sends an email to Goodwin, and calls to reconcile with his estranged father under the guise of a fellow soldier. He asks Christina what she would do if she knew that she only had seconds left to live, and starts to kiss her. At the same time, Goodwin approaches the airtight chamber that contains Stevens' comatose body, disconnects the life support, and Stevens dies. In the alternative timeline, Stevens finishes the kiss with Christina and realizes that the timeline has become real, contrary to what was proposed by Rutledge. They continue on the train, and then walk through downtown Chicago to the Cloud Gate.

When the alternative-timeline Goodwin arrives for work at Nellis Air Force Base that morning, she receives the email from Stevens. While news breaks about Frost's failed attack, the email informs Goodwin that they have changed history. It also asks her to reassure this timeline's Stevens, who is still comatose and being held in the airtight chamber, that "everything is gonna be okay"..