Parents' Guide to

Source Code

By S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Taut thriller delivers explosive images, sci-fi twists.

Movie PG-13 2011 93 minutes
Source Code Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 10 parent reviews

doctora
doctora Parent of 5-year-old
June 4, 2022
age 13+

Great beginning and middle...meh ending

This film starts off very strong and Gyllenhaal is engaging and captivating. However, as the film goes on and the multi-dimensionality becomes more coherent it somehow slips into happily ever after which feels reductive in comparison to the journey we all just went through. A well paced film that works to swallow you up which is why the end feels a bit pre-packaged. It was a captivating thriller for most of the ride.
T F.
T F. Adult
June 28, 2012
age 12+

Great fiction start to finish

If you like sci-fi, this is a gripping film for you. It has a lot that is not answered but who cares. It was great fiction start to finish. We loved it.

This title has:

Great messages
Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 10 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up with a start on a train barreling toward Chicago, sitting across from a beautiful stranger (Michelle Monaghan) who thinks he's her friend. Turns out he's no longer a soldier in Afghanistan; somehow, he's been transported inside the body of a teacher named Sean who's stuck on a train that's about to explode, killing everyone. Eight minutes later, Colter is back in his own body -- which is in a space capsule of sorts run aground in an unspecified location -- and taking orders via computer camera from a fellow soldier, Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga). She reveals that Colter is part of a highly classified military project known as Source Code. He will be thrown back on the train time and again until he finds the bomb and the person who planted it -- and stops another, bigger catastrophe from destroying the city.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10):
Kids say (54):

When a movie is branded and marketed as an action thriller, it had better be transportive; that's exactly what SOURCE CODE is. Disorienting at first, but in a way that's compelling, the movie changes things up just when you start getting comfortable with what you think the storyline is. Director Duncan Jones keeps things quick and breezy, but he sometimes seems to be ambivalent about how to paint a scene (is it funny? is it brawny?). Nevertheless, this is one movie that will definitely keep eyes glued to the screen.

As appealing as the film's intriguing (as well as vexing and, it has to be said, sometimes nonsensical) premise is, the human interest story at its heart -- the meditation on mortality -- is even more gripping. Farmiga makes true any role she's given, and Monaghan and Gyllenhaal make sparks when they share the frame. Though Gyllenhaal isn't completely believable as a soldier unspooling from the inside as the world around him unravels -- his edges need to be rougher, his desperation more intense -- he grounds his portrayal in pathos and compassion.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the film's violence. Do the explosions and peril featured in this movie have as much impact on you as other kinds of violence?

  • Which of the movie's characters do you consider to be role models? How do they change/what do they learn over the course of the story?

  • How does the film address the ideas of death and what we leave behind? What would you want your legacy to be?

Movie Details

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