Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Captain Colter Stevens who is mysteriously removed from his Army unit in Afghanistan only to awaken and find himself sitting opposite Christina Warren, appealingly played by Michelle Monaghan, as the two ride together on an apparently doomed commuter train heading towards Chicago. 

The third strong role in this film is Vera Farmiga, who seems to have become the "It Girl" after her breakout performance opposite George Clooney in "Up in the Air." Good for her, as I like her. Farmiga portrays Colleen Goodwin, who serves as Captain Colter Steven's military handler while he is repeatedly sent to live out the same tension-filled eight minutes on this commuter train before a bomb blows it up, killing all on board. 

The rules as set up by something called the Source Code Program run under military auspices and directed by Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) somehow allow the consciousness of another human being to be penetrated during the last eight minutes of that person's life. Don't ask me how this is done, but the abstruse rules of this illogical setup are such that the consciousness of Captain Stevens, who may or may not be clinically dead in everything but a portion of his brain, is sent to occupy the body of someone with whom he shares some sort of compatibility. 

The process of how this is done or the parameters of availability are left unexplained. Neither is it explained how they know who is on that train on that particular day, nor is it explained how they can identify that receptor person, but not the bomber. You can make your own rules in the sci fi genre, but at least they should pretend to have some kind of logic.

Back to this commuter train, and at the moment that receptor person happens to be Sean Fentress. He is sitting across from Christina Warren (Monaghan) on a commuter train as they both head into Chicago for another day at work. The two clearly know each other as Sean had earlier given Christina some much-needed career advice for which she is grateful for having accepted. 

Unfortunately, Sean's consciousness is now possessed by the mind of Captain Stevens, who does not know who Christina is, where he is, or why he is riding this train. He acts like a crazy man when he first finds himself sitting across from her, because his last memory is of serving with his combat unit back in Afghanistan. His mind keeps alternating between his old reality in Afghanistan and this new reality until his handlers tell him to get a grip on this new reality, because his mission is still to save lives.

Like "Groundhog Day," Coulter keeps coming back again and again to relive the same eight minute time frame, and each time he comes back he builds upon his prior experiences so that he is better able to search for more clues as to the identity of the mad bomber who seems to be using this bomb as a diversionary tactic before he sets off a dirty nuclear bomb somewhere near the center of Chicago. If you understand the logic or the necessity for the bomber to be doing this, then you are a better person than I am.

Each time after the train blows up Captain Stevens finds himself back in some metal capsule kept in isolation until he regains consciousness. Then Goodwin and Dr. Rutledge prod his memory for more and more clues until he is once again sent back with the latest set of instructions to ride that commuter train with Christina. 

During these multiple episodes Colter becomes more and more emotionally involved with the sweet Christina, who he knows full well will end up being "collateral damage" in this horrific explosion. Will he be able to save her and affect her destiny and possibly his own as well? 

Another strength of this film is that it shows Chicago at her best. The scenes taken from the air of this beautiful city are just awesome, but there are some illogical scenes and place settings as well. The commuter train seems to be coming in from the northwest suburbs, but the mad bomber (Michael Arden) is shown driving on Interstate 94 across the Calumet quarry on the far south side of Chicago, doubtless because this made for a more impressive scene from the air. Another scene on broadcast television from a television chopper shows the panicked population streaming from the city before the bomb blast, but how would they know this? I'm sorry, but there are just too many scenes and plot points to pick apart in this movie. 93 minutes and rated PG-13 for some violence including disturbing images and language.