At the Movies: Source Code
This is the greatest thing I have ever drawn.
Source Code, starring my favourite Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, was the total opposite. I saw the trailer and scattered my scornflakes to the four winds. “Pssh and foo,” I said. “Gorgeous, creepy premise and it’s all about SAVE THE LADY, WOOO, TOTALLY UNFEASIBLE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP IS THE CRUX OF ALL ACTION.” I guffawed and rolled my eyes. “How boring. How stupid. How anachronistically unfeminist, to have the woman as a passive thing that needs rescuing.”
But I went to see it anyway, because my passion for Jake Gyllenhaal’s beautiful face is unrivalled and disturbing. And also because Duncan Jones’s breakout film, Moon, was widely touted as a dreadfully disturbing psychological affair, and I still rue the fact that I missed it at the cinema – so maybe it would have my proverbial cookies after all?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yeeeesssss, mmm, yes, mmm, thank you, Duncan, mmmm, Jake Gyllenhaal, hargleblarge he handcuffs a man to a pole, nrrgghhnnffnnff nargb.
Long intelligible answer: It certainly does. It turns out that the film’s content is the complete opposite of what the trailer would have me believe. The trailer bigs up the romantic relationship and downplays the unsettling premise. The film, on the other hand, is all about the premise, which rules the shop from start to finish, throwing up questions of morality and ethics in science, what happens to the universe when we make decisions, and the nature of a good death. The romance is a barely-there breath of something sweet and touching that’s symptomatic of the premise rather than an event all in itself.
I keep talking about this magical wonderpremise like it’s Jesus and I haven’t even explained what it is. How rude of me. Let’s fix that.
The premise, without spoiling anything, is that there is some military science (SCIENCE! more like) that allows a person to take possession of a dead person’s final memories, ten minutes before their death. This involves, of course, a poor bastard (in this case, a harassed-looking, sweaty Jake Gyllenhaal) being held prisoner in a Science Tank and forced back into some dead guy’s brain so that he can solve terrorism forever. In this case, Jake Gyllenhaal scuba dives through time and space into ten minutes prior to a big-ass explosion that detonates an entire train on the way to Chicago.
In the process of this, Jake Gyllenhaal observes the bloody, violent reality of the terrorist attack, and experiences first-hand the nature of the death the train passengers had foisted upon them out of the blue. This raises two issues: firstly, the morality of the military experiment that forces a man to repeatedly experience death from which he cannot escape. Secondly, we realise, along with Jake’s captive captain, that death without closure is worse than death itself.
So the reason, then, that there’s this romantic subplot anything, is less about OH ROMANCE, SAVE THE LADY, THE MERE PRESENCE OF A WOMANLASS MAKES MAN LOSE ALL SEMBLENCE OF RATIONALITY AND FLING ASIDE ALL PLANS AND SCHEMES FOR HER, FOR SHE IS RUBBISH GIRL! WHO CANNOT SAVE HERSELF! AND HE IS ERECTILE-TISSUE-BRAIN MAN! WHO THINKS OF NOTHING BUT WHETHER OR NOT HE CAN BESHAGGERATE A THING! and more about giving this woman – and her fellow passengers – a chance to have a good death.
Wow, that was one hell of a paragraph. What I’m saying is that Source Code doesn’t buy into the “Fuck everything, save the chick!” spiel wholesale. It touches upon it, but it’s made emphatically clear through events in the film that it’s not really about that at all. And good job too, because we all know that that kind of carrying-on is insulting to everyone involved.
Another thing: although this film deals heavily with military science – a combination of fields that stereotypically leaves women out wholesale – one of the lynchpin characters is a woman, and she’s not only steely and full of agency and poise, but she carries a bucketload of morality and cunning, too. I loved her. I was very glad she was in it to balance out the do-stuff-and-explode machismo of Jake Gyllenhaal Fighting Science.
That said, he fights science very well, and when we’re dumped right into the thick of it along with Mr Gyllenhaal’s beleaguered captain with as much explanation as he gets (that is to say, none whatsoever) the tension is wound so tight that it’s painful. It’s frightening and paranoia-inducing, and flavoured with a little pinch of Groundhog Day.
Overall, yeah! Source Code is surprising: it’s a fun and entertaining ride without being brainless. Also, I did mention the thing with Jake Gyllenhaal and he’s in a suit and he’s doing things and oh god help I’m on fire.
YOU SHOULD SEE THIS FILM BECAUSE:
- It’s not revolve-around-romance stupid as the trailer makes it out to be
- It does fun and interesting – if not necessarily innovative – things with choice-making and time
- Morals and ethics and science, oh my
- Jake Gyllenhaal, suit, things, oh god his gorgeous face etc.
- Some bits are, if you think about them, really fucking creepy
YOU SHOULD NOT SEE THIS FILM BECAUSE:
- Well, the science is fucking hilarious. Wait, that’s a reason to see it.
“yeeeesssss, mmm, yes, mmm, thank you, Duncan, mmmm, Jake Gyllenhaal, hargleblarge he handcuffs a man to a pole, nrrgghhnnffnnff nargb” is so much like how I respond every-time I read something you write. With less those people.
Your writing makes it worth getting up in the morning. Or, at least, makes it worth grasping haphazardly sideways, until my hand discovers my laptop and can bring it over to read with, in the morning.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes eeeeeeeeeeeeee
We should do drinks. Or just mash keyboards at each other over the internet. Whichever works.
Yes, this review is exactly right and spot on about everything!
I don’t think you should mock the science in a science-fiction film. It’s like going to see a werewolf film and saying “but werewolves can’t exist”.
Oh yes, of course – but some is more immersion-breaking than others.
I saw this the other night and really enjoyed it. I agree with all your points and particularly liked the Colleen Goodwin character.
I’m too scared to read this because I haven’t seen the film yet and, oh! So like to know as little about everything before I see it!
Sometimes this results in a great surprise. Mostly it results in a situation whereby I say “Dammit. If I’d have watched the trailer I would have realise it was rubbish!”.
I sense good buzz for this though, and I did love Moon. So I will check back in once I’ve seen it!
I enjoyed Source Code a lot. I particularly liked that the Jake character was portrayed as determined but frequently ineffective. (Mild spoiler): Yes, he does finally make everything work how he wants it to — but only after a dozen or so dress rehearsals that end in embarrassing failure! It’s a far cry from the usual action hero perfection.
Yes, I loved that, too – it made him completely believable as a person. Of course he’s confused, of course he’s crap; it worked beautifully to get the audience to empathise with his plight. Artfully played.