Summary
In 2011, Jake Gyllenhaal starred in the incredible and underrated time travel movie,Source Code, which preceded the surprisingly similarEdge of Tomorrowby three years. Hollywood tends to tune in to what is in vogue and create movies that tie in with popular and trendy themes. Whether it’s zombies, irreverent comedies, parody movies, or expansive sci-fi, it’s common for these concepts to get multiple movies within a few years.
This same phenomenon occurred in the 2010s with time travel movies.Predestination,Looper,About Time, andArrivalall offered different takes on a time travel story, focused on action, romance, or other alternative genres. However, while theabsurdly underratedSource Codegot buried in the trend of releasing back in 2011, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt brought their star power toEdge of Tomorrow, making it one of the most popular and praised films of this era. Interestingly,both movies have a similar plotwhich uses a specific and fatal kind of time travel.
Every Jake Gyllenhaal Movie, Ranked From Worst To Best
He boasts a highly impressive catalog of films to date, but what exactly are the definitively best and worst Jake Gyllenhaal movies of all time?
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Source Code Released 3 Years Before Tom Cruise’s Edge Of Tomorrow
Was Source Code Too Early To The Trend?
Source Codeis a brilliant sci-fi thrillerwhich follows a man, played by Gyllenhaal, who wakes up in someone else’s body on a moving train. While he is initially disorientated, he attempts to make sense of what’s going on. However, it isn’t until he dies in an intense explosion which takes out everyone on the train that he begins to get clarity. Guided by another female soldier who is leading the operation, he learns that he is on a mission to find out who is behind the explosion, and he will continually return to eight minutes before the explosion until he figures it out.
Edge of Tomorrow’ssci-fi actionstory follows a man who is sent onto the front lines of a dangerous battle with aliens. By chance, he stumbles into one of the leaders of the alien race and manages to kill it, but this has the unintended side effect of causing him to travel back to relive a chunk of time before this moment. He then finds a female soldier who provides him with guidance and helps him to take on a mission of finding the alien leader, with each reset honing his skills and experience. It’s not a one-to-one carbon copy, butthe similarity is notable.
Is Source Code Better Than Edge Of Tomorrow?
The truth is,both movies are excellent time travel storieswith scores in the 90s on Rotten Tomatoes, but they also accomplish different things.Source Codeis more psychological and thrilling, with a tighter turnaround for Gyllenhaal’s character to uncover the mystery. The movie also has a spectacular twist ending which makes it extremely satisfying and fun to follow.Edge of Tomorrowis a larger sci-fi spectacle, with future technology, aliens, and a lot of action. As a result, either one can be incredibly satisfying to watch.
However, due toSource Code’spared back approach, and the twists in the story, it stands out as being a more clever, well-designed script and overall film.Source Codedeserves a lot more love for what it accomplished with a budget that was more than five times smaller thanEdge of Tomorrow(viaThe Numbers), and it still racked up a spectacular $140 million at the box office (viaThe Numbers). This and the ending giveSource Codethe edge, positioning it as one of thebest sci-fi movies of the 2010s.
Source Code
Cast
Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army Captain named Colter Stevens who finds himself stuck in an eight-minute simulated time loop where a train explodes at the end of the timer. Disoriented and waking up in a capsule every time the simulation resets, Colter learns that the explosion was real. He is sent into the scenario repeatedly to discover the truth behind the bombing - but the truth behind the experiment may be even darker than he was prepared for.
