Sci-fi as a genre is virtually as old as cinema, but good sci-fi movies are pretty much a total rarity at this point. You occasionally get a movie that takes a fresh, original spin on the genre (“Time Crimes” and “The Fountain” being good recent examples), but all too often it’s used as an excuse to stack the screen with CGI, while being totally derivative of other, better movies. It’s actually been a pretty good year for the genre, however, with “District 9” and “Moon” both proving critical hits, and the director of the latter, Duncan Jones, signed on a few weeks back to direct another hotly tipped sci-fi script, Ben Ripley’s “Source Code.” And the good news is, it’s a belter.
Like “Moon,” which nodded heavily to “2001,” “Blade Runner” and “Silent Running,” “Source Code” wears its influences on its sleeve: “The Matrix,” “Groundhog Day” and even Tony Scott’s weak “Deja Vu” are all in the mix. The difference between this and lesser scripts is that it combines them in a fresh, interesting way, with a killer plot, and more than a few thoughts in its head.
It kicks off with COLTER (to be played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a thirty year old man with a military buzz cut, waking up on a commuter train heading into Penn Station from New Jersey. The trouble is, he doesn’t know where, or indeed who, he is. His wallet tells him his name is Sean Fentress, but when he looks in the bathroom mirror, another face looks back. In a brief seventeen minute journey, he manages to freak out CHRISTINA, a fellow passenger, and then, shortly before the train arrives at its final destination, the train explodes, killing Colter and every other passenger we’ve met.
That is a fucking great opening.
Suddenly, Colter is in a tiny capsule, talking to a man named Goodwin on a video screen, who spouts technobabble at the clearly confused man, telling him he’s at something called ‘Beleaguered Castle’. He’s briefly interrogated by mysterious figures, and then told he has seventeen minutes to find the bomber. And suddenly he’s back on the train again, reliving the same events.
The script follows this structure throughout, what Ripley calls the “binary pattern,” switching between Colter’s capsule, and his attempts to solve the train bombing. If the script has a flaw, it’s that, as time moves on, the question of the bombing becomes less prominent and interesting, but that’s more because the story of Colter, and of the ‘Source Code’ itself, is so interesting. Supposedly go-to script doctor Billy Ray has been brought on to beef up the third act, and that’s probably a good call – if he can find a truly unexpected, satisfying resolution to the terrorism subplot, it’d resolve our major issue with the script.
It’s the mystery of exactly who Colter is, and why he’s been chosen for the Source Code program, that makes ‘Source Code’ such a gripping read, and hopefully, a watch. Information is given out in small parcels, principally through two characters – the sinister, bureaucratic military man Goodwin, and the benevolent Source Code designer Rutledge, although neither are exactly who they initially appear to be – a good example of the unusually complex, three-dimensional characters that inhabit the script. Even Christina, who initially appears to be close to the manic pixie dream girl archetype, is a complex, well drawn character.
We’re sure IMDB types will find some holes to pick, but the time travel/science aspect is for the most part, well handled – never drowning you in nonsensical theory, Richard Kelly-style, but still remaining far more convincing than, say “Deja Vu.” The romance between Colter and Christina is nicely handled, and there’s a rather wonderful, bittersweet ending.
Jones couldn’t be a better choice to direct – it expands the scope from his debut film a little, while playing to its strengths (great capacity with actors, love for thoughtful sci-fi). Gyllenhaal is a solid choice for the lead, and we look forward to seeing the rest of the cast fill out. We imagine that we’ll see “Source Code” hit theaters in the early part of 2011, and we can’t wait.