With the film hitting theaters in about six months, there has been scant in the way of official stills or details surrounding Duncan Jones‘ “Source Code.” But while we await a trailer for the film which we would guess is coming very soon (the film hits UK cinemas on March 11, 2011 a month before it lands stateside on April 15, 2011) a spoiler-ish plot synopsis has arrived courtesy of the American Film Market.
Here’s what we’ve known thus far: “Source Code” centers on a soldier, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is part of an experimental government program investigating a terrorist incident. He finds himself in the body of an unknown commuter living and reliving a harrowing train bombing until he can find who is responsible for the attack. The cast is rounded out by Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright and comedian Russell Peters. In the synopsis you can read after the jump, you can bet comparisons to “Inception” and “Groundhog Day” will be thrown around, but the expanded summary (which really only seems to cover the opening act of the film) certainly raised our interest even more for the film.
You can read the synopsis after the jump, but seriously, if you’d rather not know about the film, you might just want to read something else instead:
Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes with a jolt to find himself on a commuter train heading into Chicago. Although the other passengers all seem to know him, he has absolutely no idea where – or even who – he is.
The last thing Colter remembers is flying a helicopter mission in Iraq, but here he is in someone else’s life going through someone else’s morning commute. Before he can do anything an express train zooms by on the opposite track and a bomb explodes, seemingly killing Colter and all the other passengers.
Colter comes to in an isolation chamber, strapped to a seat, and wearing his military flight suit. He still has no idea what’s happening, except that he’s being spoken to by mission controller Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who calmly recites a series of memory questions to which Colter is shocked to realize he knows the answers.
He learns he’s part of an operation called “Beleaguered Castle,” but before he can progress any further, Goodwin starts up the machinery and suddenly Colter is back on the train, at exactly the same time he first appeared there, once again speeding through Chicago with the same group of commuters.
Colter figures he’s in some kind of simulation exercise, with his task being to find the bomber on board the train before it goes off again. Living the explosion over and over, Colter must uncover the identity of the bomber, while also figuring out what the alternative universe of “Beleaguered Castle” is. Adding to the puzzle, Colter uses the second chance opportunities to make peace with his father, and to find romance with a fellow passenger on the train.