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I liked Moon (2009), Jones's feature debut, and plan to write on it soon, but I suspect it isn't as clever as it thinks it is, and the mug and Post-It notes on WALL-E GERTY kept appearing and vanishing in annoying continuity glitches. It was clearly heavily influenced by Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) and was essentially a two-hander. The trailer for Source Code didn't look promising, and so I ended up waiting for the DVD. I'm glad I waited, although it's a film whose discussion clearly risks spoilers. You may wish to look away now. If you haven't seen the film, this might not make sense. (It might not make sense anyway.)
Here the influences are Groundhog Day (Harold Raimis, 1993) and filmed Philip K. Dick, such as Paycheck (John Woo, 2003) and Next (Lee Tamahori, 2007), and Quantum Leap, thanks to Scott Bukula's cameo. Plus Jones has cast Jake Gyllenhaal from Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001), another film with lots of timey-wimey stuff. This one seems to be an exercise in how many unbelievable premises can be fitted into a single movie.
So there's a bomb attack on a train, which is the dry run for a dirty bomb attack on Chicago.Ex-porn star Afghanistan War vet Colter Stevens happens to be the right size of a passenger on the train, and can be projected into the passenger's body to find the bomb and stop it from detonating, hence preventing the second terrorist act. There's a woman, Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) who is travelling with the person he has piggy-back on, who he must avoid chatting up, and a military officer, Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who is doing the sending and who isn't telling him everything.He seems to be able to go back and try multiple times, until he succeeds, even penetrating the terrorists' cunning Plan B. At which point we can start objecting about the time paradoxes - if he succeeds, then they don't know there's been a train explosion (because there hasn't been a train explosion), so even though he's passed on information about the suspect, they don't know to send him back in time.
Ah... let's wave our hands, and go for the many-worlds interpretation and think back to Gregory Benford's Timescape (1980), a superior piece of work, and figure that Stevens's missions create alternate possibilities in which the train doesn't crash or Chicago isn't destroyed. But then if every time an event can happen differently a parallel universe is created, then there are plenty of universes where the world is saved without his intervention.
(I have a strong memory of a radio comedy by Cliffhanger, "The Assassination of Karl Marx": "Remember, you can only travel through time twice. Travel a third time, and a sausage will stick to the end of your nose.")
But this is one of the many things you are not meant to think about. Presumably the train bomb is meant to divert resources from Chicago city centre. Why can the contact with the dead person only be for eight minutes before their death? How do they know that someone of the size and weight of the veteran they just happen to have hanging around was on the train? Presumably they've found evidence that such a person was on the train - or may be it's that they were able to find someone of the right range to piggyback on. Perhaps he's not been told the truth about what's going on - in fact we know he isn't.
And the ending - well, talk about Hollywood bolt on. It is clear that the bomber did not work alone, so it is equally clear that there is someone else around. (The film assumes the bombers only had one plan b.) Does the bomber spill the beans? Did they have time to before the bomb didn't go off after all? I think not. In fact it's pretty clear whom the second bomber ought to be, although I'm not quite sure that works anyway, with someone else as a possible other candidate. That's the sucker punch ending. (Or are we meant to think that's who it is, and the plot's loss of this point is just careless?) Instead we get a cake and eat it ending, a eucatastrophe of all eucatastrophes, where Stevens gets to tie up loose ends, someone ties up his loose ends, and yet we are left with a gooey, bless...
I really enjoyed Moon. That too had plot holes, but I don't think it insulted my intelligence as this film did. Or perhaps I'm not smart enough to realise it.
Here the influences are Groundhog Day (Harold Raimis, 1993) and filmed Philip K. Dick, such as Paycheck (John Woo, 2003) and Next (Lee Tamahori, 2007), and Quantum Leap, thanks to Scott Bukula's cameo. Plus Jones has cast Jake Gyllenhaal from Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001), another film with lots of timey-wimey stuff. This one seems to be an exercise in how many unbelievable premises can be fitted into a single movie.
So there's a bomb attack on a train, which is the dry run for a dirty bomb attack on Chicago.
Ah... let's wave our hands, and go for the many-worlds interpretation and think back to Gregory Benford's Timescape (1980), a superior piece of work, and figure that Stevens's missions create alternate possibilities in which the train doesn't crash or Chicago isn't destroyed. But then if every time an event can happen differently a parallel universe is created, then there are plenty of universes where the world is saved without his intervention.
(I have a strong memory of a radio comedy by Cliffhanger, "The Assassination of Karl Marx": "Remember, you can only travel through time twice. Travel a third time, and a sausage will stick to the end of your nose.")
But this is one of the many things you are not meant to think about. Presumably the train bomb is meant to divert resources from Chicago city centre. Why can the contact with the dead person only be for eight minutes before their death? How do they know that someone of the size and weight of the veteran they just happen to have hanging around was on the train? Presumably they've found evidence that such a person was on the train - or may be it's that they were able to find someone of the right range to piggyback on. Perhaps he's not been told the truth about what's going on - in fact we know he isn't.
And the ending - well, talk about Hollywood bolt on. It is clear that the bomber did not work alone, so it is equally clear that there is someone else around. (The film assumes the bombers only had one plan b.) Does the bomber spill the beans? Did they have time to before the bomb didn't go off after all? I think not. In fact it's pretty clear whom the second bomber ought to be, although I'm not quite sure that works anyway, with someone else as a possible other candidate. That's the sucker punch ending. (Or are we meant to think that's who it is, and the plot's loss of this point is just careless?) Instead we get a cake and eat it ending, a eucatastrophe of all eucatastrophes, where Stevens gets to tie up loose ends, someone ties up his loose ends, and yet we are left with a gooey, bless...
I really enjoyed Moon. That too had plot holes, but I don't think it insulted my intelligence as this film did. Or perhaps I'm not smart enough to realise it.
