Source Code

A train is moving toward Chicago. Captain Colter Stevens, an army pilot, wakes up on the train, confused as to where he is. Christina begins to talk to him and calls him Sean. He looks through the train, distracted by every movement so he doesn't even respond to the conductor when he asks for his ticket. Colter is jumpy with Christina as well, when she tries to help him find his ticket. She asks him why he's acting so strange, but Colter tells her that he doesn't know who she is. He gets up and goes outside for a second, trying to figure out where he is, but he comes back to his seat next to Christina. Suddenly, he sees his reflection in the window, showing a different face. Colter goes to the toilet and looks at himself in the mirror, seeing someone completely different. He opens the wallet and sees the same guy there. Christina is waiting for him in front of the toilet. He tells her that he neither knows Sean nor her. Suddenly, the train explodes. Colter wakes up in a different place, hearing a female voice telling him that he's with Beleaguered Castle and asking if he's functional. He's still confused and can't answer any of the questions the disembodied voice is asking him. The voice only wants to know what happened on the train and where the explosion came from. Colter asks her who she is, and she shows up on a monitor in front of him, telling Colter that he already knows that. She tells him that they will rebuild his memory pattern and begins a mnemonic procedure. The woman reads him a passage while accompanying visuals appear on the screen. Colter isn't paying attention and is trying to get himself out of the seat as the woman continues with the exercises. Suddenly, he remembers parts of the exercise and repeats back what he had heard before. She asks for her name, and Colter calls her Goodwin. Doctor Rutledge shows up briefly on the monitor checking something, then Colter asks to talk to his father. Goodwin interrupts him and continues to ask him about the bomb on the train. She tells him that Christina calling him another name is incidental. He doesn't know who bombed the train, so Goodwin tells him that he will go back inside for 8 minutes again. Colter thinks that he's in a simulation, but Goodwin will not give him any information about his status she just insists that he find out more information about the train. Find the bomb, and you find the bomber. Colter is back on the train. Christina is telling him that she gave her notice at work and will be taking the LSAT. He hears a soda can open, and a woman spills coffee on his shoe. Colter says that it's the same train but somehow different, which Christina understands as some deep statement. He activates a timer on his watch and says that everything looks so realistic, still convinced he's in a simulation. Colter looks around for the possible bomber and jumps over to a guy asking how long the delay would be. The guy jokes around, and Christina tells him that he's a comedian. He looks around the train searching for something out of the ordinary, and he sees a student give back someone their wallet. Colter steps back on the train and remembers that the explosion came from behind him. He goes into the toilet and looks through it. Colter notices that the vent has been tampered with and opens it, finally finding the bomb. He begins talking to Goodwin, thinking she can hear him and instruct him on the next steps with the bomb. Colter leaves the bomb how he found it and gets another idea on how to find the bomber. He goes back into the cart, lies to the people that he's transit security and that there has been some kind of security breach so they have to stop using all of their electronic devices. No one really believes him, and when he sees a man still on his laptop, he closes it for him and breaks his jaw. Christina runs over to the man to help him, and Colter says not to worry because neither he nor she are real. The train explodes, and he's back. Goodwin tells him to stabilize and lower his pulse. She asks if he found the bomb, and he tells her that he did, but Colter asks to speak to Doctor Rutledge since he figured out that he's her commanding officer. Colter thinks that he was in Afghanistan just two days before, but Goodwin says that it was two months. He's still confused, but he replies to her questions about the train. She tells him that he's not in a simulation, but that real lives are at stake. Colter wants to know more before he can continue with the mission. Goodwin asks Routledge if she can tell him anything and when he confirms that she can, Goodwin tells him that the train he was on had already exploded that morning and that more attacks like that one are underway. Sean Fentress was on that train, and Colter is him now. He doesn't understand yet, but she keeps pushing for information. Colter tells her where he found the bomb and what kind of detonator it operated with. Goodwill explains that the detonation was planned to occur at the same time when a freight train was passing by, engulfing both vehicles. The bomber must've been close enough to see when that would happen to detonate the bomb. She tells him to concentrate on the passengers on his train and concentrate on performing only the tasks that she has given him. They send him back. Colter wakes on the train in the middle of the same conversation. The woman spills coffee on Christina's shoes, and she's very kind about it, which Colter comments on. He believes she's real now. Colter asks the conductor about the behavior of the passengers on the train, and the man replies that he's the one looking strange. Then, he asks Christina if someone looks suspicious to her, tells her to sit next to him, and says to think of it as a game. She jokes around about all of the people in the car, naturally not taking him seriously, commenting that he knows the people more than her because he talks to them all the time. Suddenly, Colter notices a guy coming out of the bathroom and Christina comments that they're going into racial profiling. She tells him that he's the only other person she'd seen coming out of there, making him think for a second. Colter looks through Sean's things, but only finds her name in his notebook. He wants to go after the guy he saw earlier and makes Christina come with him. Colter tells her to wait outside the station as he follows the guy inside the washroom. He can hear him getting sick in a stall and inspects him, making him really uncomfortable. The guy leaves with Colter after him. He joins him at the bench where he's sitting on and asks to borrow his phone. The guy asks to be left alone and leaves when Colter attacks him and keeps asking to see his phone. Suddenly, the bomb explodes and he thinks that the guy may be the bomber. Not completely convinced, he goes after him again and the man pushes him on the tracks. Colter doesn't get up in time and is hit by an oncoming bus. He awakens in the other place, but neither can he hear Beleaguered Castle, nor they Colter. The place feels freezing cold and begins shutting down. The man working with Goodwin tells her that he's in trouble. Then they both go to see Rutledge, who tells them that no one has ever been in a situation like him before and that they should keep sending signals to him and see if he responds to any of them. Meanwhile, Colter finds a toolkit and manages to restart the power in the place where he's at. He begins hearing distorted voices, as Rutledge is sitting down on Goodwin's computer. Colter hears her reading the passage to him and calls out to her as Rutledge is preparing to leave. The doctor talks to him, telling him that he invented the thing he is inside of and confirms that he's in charge. As Colter tells him that he saved a passenger from the train, Goodwin comes back and continues the conversation. She tells him that saving the people on the train is outside of his mission. Colter insists that she survived, but Rutledge explains that she survived only in the source code. When asked by Colter what that means, he tries to simplify it for him. Source code is not a time travel machine, but something more similar to time reassignment. He can only go back there and report to what he has seen in a kind of parallel reality, through the eyes of Sean Fentress who is his link. Colter insists that he saved someone so Goodwin asks for her name and looks for her online. She tells Colter that Christina died that morning on the train. He still doesn't understand, but they need to send him back again because there is a second suspected attack in the center of Chicago. They think that this time the bombers will activate a dirty bomb so the city is being evacuated. The army thinks that if he can find who bombed the train, the second attack might be prevented. Before they send him back, Goodwin tells him about a handgun he can find on the train. She authorizes him to use every force necessary. When Colter wakes up on the train, he's very disappointed to see Christina there. They talk a little and it's apparent that he's slowly falling in love with her. Colter has a mission though and he gets up to achieve it. He goes looking for the gun and finds it exactly where Goodwin told him it would be. Unfortunately, the conductor catches him getting into the safe with the gun. He points the gun at him when the second conductor electrocutes him. Colter wakes up on the train again, only to see Christina next to him asking what he was doing. He doesn't know what to tell her and knows he's running out of time, so he asks her what she would do if she only had one minute left to live. Colter tells her that he would call his dad and tell him he's sorry. Christina tells him that everything is going to be okay as the bomb explodes on the train again. Before he wakes up in the other place, Colter has some strange visions involving Christina. He tells Goodwin that the gun wasn't the best idea and that he wants to speak to his dad. She brushes him off saying that she will try to do that. Colter asks her how he is doing because he doesn't understand the process. She moves aside to show him where he is being kept and tells him that she hasn't been on the other side of the source code because the specifications are tremendously narrow for a viable candidate. Goodwin doesn't want to waste more time and after she assures him that he's doing good, sends him back to check through the passenger's things. Colter is back at the train and gets to it faster. He draws the military patch that Goodwin has shown him when Christina approaches him. Colter asks her to look for his friend that disappeared in Afghanistan and gives her his real name to search for. Suddenly, he becomes suspicious of a guy talking on the phone. He goes over to him and searches through his bag, looking for something. Colter notices that a woman has a bag from an army medical center and goes up to talk to her. He asks her about the letters on the patch. She tells him that it stands for Air Force and that the N stands for Nellis. Colter asks her for her phone and calls Nelis Air Force base. He asks for Rutledge and tells the operator to tell him that Cpt. Colter Stevens is calling for him. Christina finds him and tells him that the friend he asked her to look for is dead, killed in action two months ago. Suddenly, Colter has some memories from Afghanistan and he hears Goodwin's voice again, taking him through the mnemonic exercises. When he wakes up in the other place he immediately asks Goodwin if he's dead. He tells her that he found an article online saying just that, as well as that his father received a medal for him. She tells him that he needs to focus on the train and that everything else is irrelevant. Colter insists to know and Goodwin tells him part of the truth. She says that part of his brain is still active, but that his body is a manifestation. Colter asks if he's imagining that he's in the capsule and the thing begins to fall apart. She confirms that the capsule is also a manifestation and doesn't tell him where his actual body is being kept. Rutledge intervenes, saying that they need to send him back to the train so that he can prevent another attack. Colter still doesn't agree with the way the source code works and tells Rutledge that he called him from the train that morning. The doctor tells him that he didn't receive that call and if he did - it would have been a different reality. The Rutledge receiving that call would be a different Routledge entirety. Colter needs more convincing, so the doctor tells him that the project was sanctioned by a military court. Furthermore, he tells the air force captain, that many other soldiers would love the opportunity more preferable than death, having the possibility to continue serving their country. Colter's retort to that statement is that for many soldiers one death is service enough. Rutledge promises him that he will let him die if he finishes the mission. Before he sends him back on the train, Rutledge tells him that two million Americans depend on the success of their mission and if he doesn't value his own life, he should value theirs. Then, Rutledge proceeds to take Colter back on the train over and over again with no rest period in between. He tells the soldier that they will keep doing it until he finds the bomber. Colter says that he can't do it and Rutledge manipulates him into getting him where he needs Colter to be. He plays a recording of his father giving an interview after he died, feeling sorry that they never really understood each other. Colter tells Rutledge to send him back in. Colter is back on the train and goes straight for the gun, the bomb. He takes the detonator phone out from the bomb and calls the only phone number in its call log. A man answers as Colter moves through the train. He tells him to turn around, but the man in front of him hears him and turns. Colter sits next to him and threatens him with a gun, saying that he can't kill anyone. The man swears that he was talking to his wife so he makes him call the phone again. Suddenly, another phone rings and he apologizes to him. He hears the phone outside and follows after the guy. He sees him putting his wallet back on the train and finally knows his name, Derek Frost. The doors close so he opens it with the emergency handle and jumps off so that he can go after him. Colter sees him go into a white van and goes up to him. He shows Derek the phone, but he pretends that he doesn't recognize it. Colter knows it's him though so he shows him the second bomb inside the van. He inspects the bomb and asks him where his next target is when Catherine shows up. Derek shoots them both. Colter is still alive so Derek gives him the whole speech on why he's doing it. His explanation is that the world is hell and that it needs to be rebuilt. For the world to be rebuilt it needs to be destroyed. Derek gets in the van and leaves them there. The bomb in the train explodes regardless. When Colter transitions back to the capsule, he sees the images from before more clearly. Immediately as he comes back, he tells Goodwin and Rutledge about the bomber and the van he went into. He confirms that the second bomb is radioactive. Rutledge and Goodwin congratulate him and say that his mission is over. Before they leave him, he asks to be sent back to try to save the people before he dies. Meanwhile, the army arrests Derek Frost before he can detonate the second bomb. Rutledge gets validation from his superiors about his project and Goodwin returns to talk to Colter. He talks about the possibilities of parallel realities and what different versions of people might be like there. Goodwin explains that he only saw shadows or after-images of the people that died on the train. She tells him that he can't alter the past, but Colter insists that there was a fail-safe on the explosive that he didn't see before and that she's wrong. Colter pleads with her to send him back in without approval and then switch him off. She has some trouble deciding, but still does it, telling him that at the end of his source code she will terminate his life support. Colter tells her that he'll save Christina. Goodwin says that it was an honor and wishes him good luck. Colter is back on the train for the last time. He asks Christina out for coffee and she very gladly accepts. Colter asks her to give him a few minutes to save the world. He instantly goes toward the bomb and takes out the first and second detonators. Then he passes by Derek and steals the conductor's handcuffs. While the source code is active, Rutledge gets more good reviews from his superiors as Goodwin walks into his office. He tells her to wipe Colter's memory and prepare him for a new source code. Rutledge has no intention to let him die to Goodwin's disapproval. Back at the train, Colter stops Derek from going out of the train and cuffs him to a bar. He shows him the phone and calls the police, telling them everything about Derek and the radioactive bomb in the van. Colter takes his phone and leaves him there. He sends an email to Goodwin from his phone and calls his dad. Colter tells him that he's a friend of his and that before he died he wanted to say that he was sorry. Meanwhile, Goodwin goes to the place where they are keeping his body and opens the chamber, seeing the state that his in. Colter's dad tells him that he wishes he told him that he loved him. He says that he knows it. Colter goes back to Christina. Rutledge gets a call that Goodwin is with Colter. He asks for MP's to join him at Colter's chamber and tries to unlock the door. Goodwin waits for Colter's 8 minutes to run out. On the train, Colter asks Christina what she would do if she had less than a minute to live. She says that she would make those seconds count. Colter kisses her. Goodwin switches his life support off and the MPs run inside only to see Colter's dead body. Back at the train, the explosion never happens. Colter says that everything is going to be okay. He and Christina take a walk to the Chicago bean and Colter realizes that the visions he had when transitioning were of that same moment.