Rating of
4/4
source code (2011) - explanation
nis - wrote on 01/23/12
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD:
Ok so here's my take on the explanation:
I'll start by laying down some facts: in the first reality (the real world) colter is half dead and sean is completely dead with only his brain's surviving 8-minute-echo part alive. The scientists connected colter's brain to sean's part brain letting him this way relive the last 8 minutes of sean's life and interact with it, so he can gain knowledge of who the terrorist is. This procedure is called the source code. What the scientists don't know is that by every time they send colter in the source code it creates a new reality.
So.. colter tries time after time after time (each time in a new reality) to find who the terrorist is and he succeeds; so when he is revived from the source code back to the first reality, he gives the info to the authorities and they stop the second bombing (in the first reality).
After that he begs goodwin to let him in another time and as soon as the 8 minutes are out to cut him off (let him die). so goodwin lets him in, in this 'final reality' where he prevends both bombings. when the 8 minutes are past goodwin (in the first reality) cuts him off but he somehow manages to continue living in the final reality. Now from here on I have 2 explanations (which are both a little flawed):
First: he continues living in the final reality because his conciousness has replaced sean's (as it had done the previous times he was in the source code) but unlike the previous times, didn't die in the source code. Now this suggests that in the final reality there are 2 concioussness of colter: one that is in sean's body and the other that's in colter's half-body. As i read from others this shouldn't be possible in quantum mechanics but there is a scene that might confirm it as a valid explanation. This scene can be viewed in the flashback sequence that colter has after the train runs him over; the flashback is of the 'cloud gate' that he saw in the final reality (in the end of the film). so if colter saw it then it can be strongly suggested that he also experienced it as well - not sean. But again maybe there are leftover memories from the fusion of the 2 brains so.. Either way the flashback scene explains the stumble that sean/colter has when seeing the monument in the final reality - he pauses and says something about fate; he feels like he saw it before.
Second: he continues living in the final reality after the freeze scene, as sean. which means as soon as goodwin cut him off he died and his concioussness also died and left sean's body with sean's concioussness (in the final reality). Now sean had also memory leftovers of the previous 8 minutes but he didn't question them as he thought it was he himself who did those actions.
This theory beats the previous on the matter i discussed about colter's 2 concioussness in the same reality.
This theory is also backed up by the brief scene before the couple reaches the cloud gate where they are talking about stuff that happened to them in the past (which only sean would've known about).
One last thing i would like to point out is the email. this is sent by colter in the final reality to goodwin in the final reality in order to have her help him (colter) in a future mission and to let her know what capabilities the source code has.
That's the best i've been able to make of this incredible film - i hope it's been helpful
