The biggest twist in “Source Code”? It’s not what you think.
And it won’t be apparent until the third act.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
It’s not really a thriller.
Okay, maybe it still counts as a thriller in some people’s books. But it’s not the thriller you think it’s going to be.
Remember those trailers?
From that, you’d think this was a time travel thriller about stopping the bomber. And yeah, that’s how it starts. And yeah, Jake Gyllenhaal’s character spends a large part of the movie trying to find the bomber’s identity. That’s where he starts out but by the time the third act rolls around that’s no longer his primary focus.
Again major spoilers, but in the first few minutes alert viewers will guess there’s something very wrong with Captain Coulter Stevens. His last memories are of flying a mission in Afghanistan and he has no knowledge of how he got on board the train or into the Source Code of the title. Yes, our hero is in the same boat as Bruce Willis from “The Sixth Sense.” Almost. He’s only mostly dead as Miracle Max would say. What little remains of him is being used in the experiment overseen by Jeffrey Wright’s character.
The movie quickly develops along similar lines to Duncan Jones’ breakout film “Moon.” The main character is subjected to death over and over again in a kind of science-fiction version of purgatory or hell. About halfway in, the main character’s focus shifts away from the bomber to other things, contacting his father, trying to save the girl he’s seated next to. He even exclaims to his handlers, “One death is service enough!”
By the third act, it’s escape from this perpetual nightmare that is the hero’s new goal. The bomber is identified and apprehended. If this were an Arnold or Sly vehicle you’d expect one last little flaw; a plot twist that would force the hero back into the Source Code for one last battle.
Nothing wrong with that. Would still be a great movie.
But that’s not what happens. The bomber is brought down without any further incident. Unfortunately this victory brings the hero no peace. In fact the people in charge of the project intend to keep using him.
So Gyllenhaal’s character goes back one last time — this time to create a perfect ending to the doomsday scenario he’d been reliving over and over again and to finally escape the "Source Code" scientists. His goal is to create a Heaven out of the Hell.
He easily disarms the would-be terrorist and leaves him broken, pathetic and still alive for the cops. He does it so easily that he destroys even the possibility of further menace. He then goes back to the car and convinces an out-of-work comedian to make everyone laugh. The film freezes on an image of all the people who died in the previous scenarios frozen in laughter and happiness.
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It would have been very brave of Jones if he ended the film on that image. He didn’t. He gives his character a true happy ending, albeit one with a thought-provoking twist at the end.
So “Source Code” goes from a story about a bomber on a train to a very touching science-fiction story about fate, damnation and salvation. Is it bait and switch? Technically, yes, and I’m normally a lot less happy about these things. But this was done gradually, naturally, and didn’t feel forced at all. The strong characters were guiding the plot not the other way around.
This story reminds me of what Roger Ebert said about the first “Matrix” movie. Ebert called out the movie for questioning the very nature of reality yet ending in a gunfight. “Source Code” has some of the same elements. The script raises its own questions. And it decides to answer them in the end in lieu of a gigantic shootout. I found the ending very satisfying.
But I’m going to be on guard the next time I walk into a Duncan Jones movie. Is what I’m seeing in the trailer really what’s in the movie? Of course you have to ask that question about most trailers today.