Lead Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal
The plot goes like this. Capt. Colter Stevens (acted by Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up to find himself in an unknown place. He is only able to communicate to others via a video feed. Later on, he finds himself being transported to the body of another man and relives the latter's last 8 minutes alive. His purpose, to find the bomb that caused the death of his "host" and a thousand more.
When I first saw this plot (of course, not the same wording), I was thrilled. I doubt I'd be able to compare Inception to any other recent movie, so I only thought about it being comparable to the interest the Vantage Point got from me.
But, lo and behold, I was speechless at the end of the movie. Why? The plot is so improbable! It's like a suspense thriller turned sci-fi turned fairy tale. If there's anything good to it, I'd say its the capacity of the film to keep the viewer from saying, "huh?" by adding more scenes that doesn't make sense.
Okay. Here's my concerns. First, the concept of source code itself. It's supposed to let the subject, which is the captain, live the last eight minutes of the life of the host, which is the dead guy. Now, the creator of the program reiterated that source code is like a clock, the events can only be visited, never altered. If that's the case, how can the captain see things the dead guy never did? Like the location of the bomb? And how come, when he says something else for each "return", the people around him react accordingly?
So then I told myself, hmmm... maybe they're dealing with alternate realities. Maybe source code can access alternate realities? There are still a lot of loopholes but at that point I can continue watching. But then, here comes a text message the captain sent from one of his "returns" to the person who walks him through the mission, saying that source code is able to alter reality. I'm like, WHAT? Is this scene from an alternate reality? Did the bombing cause the original reality to disappear?
And then, I see the captain and his love interest, walking safely from the train, without any injuries whatsoever. It's still the captain, but his reflection is that of the dead guy he constantly returns to. The ending shows that they'll leave happily ever after, but then the question is, what happened to the consciousness of the dead guy? Is this a fairy tale version of the body snatchers?
Geez, at the end of the film, I had too many questions that I ended up doing the most sensible thing--don't talk about it. Movies like this make me want to watch Inception again...
