Review of Source Code (2011)
Seen in 2021.
A US soldier is kept alive on US soil, but he can’t remember what he’s doing there.
A hack technothriller written to merge military-industrial dystopian SF in the style of Philip K. Dick with a romantic drama, in such a way that the time-constrained Post-9/11 terrorist hunt of 24 (2001) takes on a Campbellian dimension: It’s a scenario like Possible Worlds (2000), but instrumentalized. The hero is effectively dead from the start and remains so even after his heroism recreates the universe in a Dickian ontological gambit. None of it has anything whatsoever to do with source code.
The high-concept premise and ending are so weak that the execution is doomed, but Jeffrey Wright is always good, and I also like the villain, clearly and presciently patterned after an ironic alt-right that’s seen Fight Club (1999) too many times without attaining superpowers.
References here: Edge of Tomorrow (2014).