Source Code: Does What You Do Matter?
By Marcy Kennedy (@MarcyKennedy)
Do you ever wonder how many people could have made a difference in the world, could have changed things for the better, but didn’t…because they stopped believing they could?
In Source Code, Army helicopter pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up as Sean, a history teacher on a commuter train. Eight minutes later a bomb on the train explodes, killing everyone.
Colter wakes up again, this time in a strange capsule. He finds out that he’s part of an experimental crime fighting program known as source code. A complex computer program writes a code from the last eight minutes of a person’s life and allows Colter to re-live them in order to find the bad guy.
Colter goes back again and again into the last eight minutes of Sean’s life, and falls in love with Sean’s friend Christina, also killed in the explosion. He starts to think if he can just stop the bomb from exploding and catch the bomber, he can save Christina.
The source code creator tells him he can’t change the past. Christina and all the others on the train are already dead.
Though Colter manages to identify the bomber, in the process he’s found out the truth—he was killed in Afghanistan. All that remains of him is, essentially, his brain hooked up to a computer. He can never have a normal life again. He can either continue to live through the last eight minutes of other people’s lives or he can insist they disconnect him from the computer and allow what remains of him to die.
The problem is Colter can’t accept he can’t first save Christina. He asks his handler to violate orders and send him back in one last time and then to disconnect his brain from the computer at the exact moment the eight minutes end. Even if he can’t really save Christina, he wants his last memories, his final moments, to be spent trying.
His handler takes pity on him and agrees, even though source code’s creator wants to simply wipe Colter’s memory and keep using his brain against Colter’s wishes.
Colter goes back into Sean’s final minutes. He’s learned from his mistakes. This time he disables both the bomb’s main detonator and its back-up detonator. He catches the bomber, handcuffs him, and calls the police to tell them exactly where he is and what he planned to do.
Then he asks Christina, “If you knew you only had one minute left to live, how would you spend it?”
He kisses her.
And expects that to be his last moment.
But the moment when the memory should have ended passes. Colter can barely believe it, but he walks off the commuter train with Christina. He sends his handler a text…
“At some point today, you’re going to hear about a failed terrorist attack on a commuter train near Chicago. You and I kept that bomb from going off. If you’re reading this email, then Source Code works even better than you imagined.”
Against all odds, Colter made a difference because he refused to give up and refused to stop believing he could.
The refusal to stop believing is a quality shared by all the people who’ve changed the world. (Click to tweet.)
Some of them were leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King.
Some of them were normal people like Rosa Parks who simply did the right thing and believed it would make a difference.
Some of them didn’t change the world, but they did change the world for someone. Colter didn’t save the world, but he did do something amazing for every person on that train.
None of that would have happened if they’d stopped believing what they did mattered.
Never stop believing you can make a difference.
Do you ever feel insignificant and wonder if what you do matters?
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Nov 05, 2012 @ 17:29:01
Beautiful! I haven’t seen this movie yet but I definitely want to now. I love the themes of hope and courage. They really make a story shine.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 14:03:34
I think you’ll like this movie. I was skeptical when I started to watch it. I actually turned it on one Sunday afternoon, planning to watch just a few minutes while I ate lunch. I ended up glued to my seat because I had to finish it.
Nov 05, 2012 @ 22:16:25
You tricked me into reading a movie review–and I’m glad you did, Marcy. I’d never heard of Source Code, but now I’ll rent it. Thanks!
Nov 06, 2012 @ 14:01:51
I didn’t mean to be tricky, but since I convinced you to watch this movie, I can’t feel too bad 🙂 Even though it has a scifi element too it, most of the story takes place within a normal setting.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 02:27:36
Great post, Marcy! I really enjoyed this movie. He only had eight minutes to work with each time he went back in time, and he learned to use those few minutes more efficiently each time. We don’t have to relive something over and over again before we can change someone else’s life.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 14:02:26
Too true. And we don’t have to repeat the same eight minutes to learn how to more effectively use every minute we’re given.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 02:46:56
This sounds like a movie where I would have guessed the ending!
I don’t think anything we do is insignificant. We may think it/we are from time to time, but you never know when the most trivial things become vitally important. Unlike the movie, whatever we do stays that way forever, which makes doing our best all the time the only way to live a happy and fulfilled life.
This doesn’t apply to the brownies I made at the weekend, which were seriously less than average 🙂
Cheers!
Nov 06, 2012 @ 14:00:37
Great point. We don’t get do-overs the way they did in the movie, so we need to make sure what we do counts and that we’re making good ripples rather than bad ones.
I’m sure those brownies couldn’t have been that bad 😉
Nov 06, 2012 @ 03:34:49
I loved that movie!
But you made me love it even more.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 13:57:01
Thanks!
Nov 06, 2012 @ 05:24:53
great review tied to an important message Marcy. I recently had an author dedicate a book to me as founder and first president of our writing group. she said her writing success was due to this group.
I was so touched. I can’t begin to tell you how moved I was. So yes, we can make a difference by doing what works for us – if we’re willing to do the work.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 13:59:16
That’s such a wonderful thing to be told 🙂 I do a lot of work as an editor, which means I’m often behind the scenes on things rather than out front and it’s easy to feel like what I’m doing doesn’t matter. Until one of my clients tells me how thankful they are for how I helped them on their book, or when I’m specifically requested because they are insistent on working with me rather than anyone else.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 05:39:49
Definitely will put this movie on my rental list. Great review and great message, Marcy! I do often feel insignificant, but even one kind word can make a difference.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 13:56:42
That’s what I try to remember when I’m feeling particularly small. I know how a simple hug or encouraging word has changed my day, and so giving those to others can help them too.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 10:24:03
Well, now I want to see the movie. It sounds a lot like DejaVu, except that Denzel Washington never doubts that he can save the girl. I rarely doubt that my actions can make a difference. Maybe because I’m a teacher it’s always been clear to me that one person can make a difference, even if it’s only with one child at a time. The only time I get a little doubty it now, election time. Sometimes I worry if my vote will be enough.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 13:34:42
My husband often feels that way around election time too. We had to cross the border to mail his absentee ballot, which meant he questioned even more if his vote would make enough of a difference to justify the cost of the ferry and the lost day. But we went anyway because we decided that every vote does matter.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 17:01:13
Haha, I was thinking the exact same thing as Emma! I still voted, though. Can’t complain about the outcome if you don’t try to have input, and whatever we think of how the presidential election works, our votes definitely matter at the local level.
As for the movie, all I can think of when I see the title is work – as in, my job. 🙂 But seriously, I love this kind of theme – it’s pretty much what my books are all about. Might have to check this one out.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 21:08:21
Yay! I got in today. This sounds like a movie I want to now watch. Thanks, Marcy. Although I agree with Nigel, the ending was predictable. I’ve always believed in the impact one person can have on another, a group or a movement. It doesn’t take much. Only a little self confidence and drive, really. Great post.
Nov 06, 2012 @ 21:36:04
I hope, my contributions make this world a better place even if I don’t think I make much of a difference. 🙂
Nov 08, 2012 @ 01:28:12
I enjoyed the movie (and forgot the name. Thanks for the nudge). Jake G. was gutsy to play a character who lost his limbs. Of course anyone that handsome has some wiggle room. This interesting premise sucked me in, even as I was thinking this is unbelievable.
We’re all making a difference, all the time, just by, shall we say, inputting and outputting. Better to put some thought into what we do and energy behind what we believe in. The butterfly effect lives!
Nov 09, 2012 @ 13:17:59
Love this post. High concept, a character we can connect with, a concept of doing something good, of keeping on no matter what. That’s what a hero is, one who tries to make a difference, no matter what. I’ll have to watch this on.