Source Code movie brings action

Source Code begins with a jolting start.

The film premiered on March 11 at the Paramount Theater.

It was the opening night film for SXSW film festival. It was directed by Duncan Jones, who other film Moon, which premiered at SXSW in 2009.

The story begins quickly, taking place on a Chicago train. After eight minutes of watching the film, the train explodes as another train passes by.

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) plays the role of Captain Coulter Stevens, a solider who finds himself in a metal capsule without any recollection of who where he is.

The source code is a computer program that allows a man to use it to return to the last eight minutes of another man's life. The program is part of a sector of the military, functioning to prevent terrorist attacks after they have occurred.

Michelle Monaghan (Due Date) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) star opposite of Gyllenhaal, who is thrown back repeatedly into a sort of parallel dimension where he can exist in the mind and body of another person who died in the explosion.

It should be said that Gyllenhaal and Monaghan have great on-screen chemistry. There's never a moment where the story line feels forced or contrived.

The entire goal of the "source code" is to find the bomber who planted the explosives on the train, and attempt to prevent another major attack on the city of Chicago.

The story, written by Ben Ripley, follows through despite it's winding and at times cryptic turns.

Though the repetitiveness of the first scene of the movie does tire after the fourth and fifth time, the film is both action packed and thought provoking, and rises to the challenge of both.

Gyllenhaal, Monaghan, and Farmiga, along with Jones, walked the red carpet at the sold-out premiere and participated in a Q&A with the audience after the screening.