The film opens up some questions about fate that I don't think it really answered or that we really touched upon too much. When Capt. Stevens kept being pulled out of the Source Code (SC) and back into his "capsule," he saw these glimpses - call them deja vu, precognition, whatever - of himself and Christina at Chicago's Millenium Park and the big chrome bean. These scenes occurred even before he felt like saving anybody on the train or understood his situation - as if he was headed towards that future "alternate universe" no matter happened. Could it be that every obstacle that Stevens ran into (or literally ran into him - see below!) kept him moving towards that unavoidable future?
What about the morality of using Capt. Stevens as a lab rat for the Source Code? It's obvious by the end of the movie that he's in a terrible state of physical trauma, and that only his mind is the most complete and functioning part of him. At points in the film, it appeared that Dr. Rutledge was "torturing" Stevens by sending him back into the memories of Sean Fentress only to be blown up again and again. We did mention that Capt. Stevens, as a member of the U.S. military, most likely, had signed away his rights to do with his remains as his parents wished. However, it is hard to imagine a father wishing this for his son. And by the end of the film, if it has reset and everything starts anew, Capt. Stevens will continue to be used further in the GWOT (global war on terror).
One question I kept having while first watching the movie (and occasionally in rewatching it with previous philosophy classes), is what happened to Sean Fentress's essence or soul or being? Captain Stevens takes over Sean's body, his likeness doesn't change, but his demeanor and actions do, as evidenced by Christina noticing how different he is acting on subsequent trips into the Source Code. Dr. Rutledge says that Sean Fentress exists in the Source Code as an electromagnetic field. But where did his essence go? Does Sean's essence / soul / being cease to exist as soon as Capt. Stevens enters Sean's body? Or did it cease to exist as soon as he died and this "Sean" is just a shadow of his former self? Does Sean's essence go somewhere else (maybe heading to heaven or hell or limbo, depending upon what you or even Sean believed)? Is his essence maybe going some place permenantly because he doesn't come back to his body after the end of eight minutes - the bomb goes off and Sean and Christina and dozens other people die? Or since we're watching a memory replay over and over again, is the whole point of where Sean is a moot point because at that point, Sean and many others are already dead and just live on in the memory? Plus at the end of the movie, we see Sean and Christina walking by Millenium Park enjoying a beautiful spring day playing hooky in some kind of memory(?) that couldn't have happened because the bomb didn't go off. Has the real Sean returned? Or is that still Capt. Stevens in his body?
One more question that I thought of while watching the movie again was this: are all of these trips into the Source Code with all of their different outcomes just part of a multiverse? Essentially, all of these trips have the same setting, the same laws of physics still apply, the same people in them, and essentially the same outcome (except for the last one) but the one wild card that changes every time is what Captain Stevens does within the eight minutes. Do all of these of these trips comprise different versions of a multiverse? And since the theory behind a multiverse states that almost all outcomes of an event are possible, that could leave room for one "reality" in which the bomb didn't go off.
Lastly, how do you explain the ending? Goodwin and Rutledge have no knowledge of the previous day's events (if those events even occurred - but they had to have existed somewhere, b/c Stevens sent her the email - it came from somewhere, sometime, right?). And at the end of the movie, it looked as if the whole day had been reset, Capt. Stevens was alive and in his previous "state of being," in addition to the bomber being caught and the initial train bombing never having occurred.
Questions to choose from:
1. How could the filmmakers have changed the film to make it more like Plato's cave? Explain your reasoning.
2. What role did fate play in this movie? Why? Or, did fate play no role at all and why not?
3. Did the military cross the line with the use of Capt. Stevens' body and mind for the Source Code? Why or why not?
4. Where did Sean Fentress's essence / soul / being go while Captain Stevens took over his body in the Source Code? Why?
5. Is the ending a new "movie reality" (for lack of a better term)? Why or why not? Is it possible that Stevens' determination somehow merged the alternate universe with the movie's original reality?
Pick three of the following questions and answer it as fully as you can. Stay in the nuances of the question as long as you can. Your response should be a minimum of 400 words and is due Friday, March 29 before class begins.
Here are a few interesting articles that explore some other issues brought up in the film:
"Who is Sean Fentress? A Completely Serious Exploration of What Happened After the Ending of Source Code" - https://filmschoolrejects.com/who-is-sean-fentress-e3ddff9993a/
"Here I Am: The Identity Philosophy behind Source Code" - https://filmschoolrejects.com/here-i-am-the-identity-philosophy-of-source-code-78cbe40abd2f/
"The Philosophy Behind The Source Code" - https://maxandrews.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/the-philosophy-behind-source-code/
In the movie source code, a guy named Capt. Stevens was hooked up to a machine named the source code. We find out later that Captain Stevens was killed during a mission but was kept for continued testing on the source code. This I find inhumane for multiple reasons one of which being that he is forced to relive a tragic event countless of times, seeing innocent people die repeatedly through multiple trips. But did the Military cross the line? I don’t think so. In fact, I believe it was completely justified for the military to take such actions. We need to concern ourselves with the greater good which outweighs the needs and wants of one singular person. If it means to inflict pain and suffering one person to save countless of people, so be it. The whole point of this so-called source code program was to catch a terrorist that was going to turn the world into rubble.
ReplyDeleteAnother question arose that I was thinking about as well, and that is what happened to Sean Fentress’s soul when Stevens took over the body? We My explanation to that is, is that Sean Fentress soul never truly existed in any of the parallel universes that Stevens visited, in fact, it was only Steven’s soul which existed from the start. That’s the only way it would make sense, otherwise you would have two people embodying one body which seems impossible. But another explanation that could also be true is that Sean just ceases to exist for those 8 minutes until that bomb goes off or Stevens somehow dies.
Then we have this whole fate dilemma in this movie. Did fate play any major role in this movie? I think so. The events that occurred on each of the trip were already predetermined to happen. It was only through sheer luck that Stevens’ was able to find a parallel universe that had the desired outcomes. I personally think that each action we do is already bound to happen anyways because there is a possibility that we have already lived this life before. I’m not going to go into this whole thing in detail, but the point is regardless of what we do it’s already been done. The explanation I have for the images that Stevens saw on each trip is relatively simple. He saw glimpses of alternate realities where the bomb didn’t go off.
Source code was a great film, yet it leaves its viewers with a ton of unanswered questions. For example, did fate play a role? I feel that fate did play a role, even if it was minuscule. If I recall correctly there was a line where Rutledge said that Stevens was the first one to be used as a test subject for the Source Code. Stevens just happened to have died around the time that the massive bombings began occurring. Fortunately enough, the military was successful in bonding Capt. Stevens’ soul with Sean Fentress’ body so Stevens could prevent the bombings. Out of all the people on the train who died, Stevens bonded perfectly with Sean. Through Sean, Stevens was not only able to find out what happened to him, but he was also able to call his dad one last time and most importantly save the lives of many people. I’m sure that there were plenty of other dead soldiers who could have been used for this mission, but Stevens was chosen.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of did the military cross the line when using Capt. Stevens’ body, I must say that I think they did what was right. In better circumstances, the source code wouldn’t need a dead person’s body and would instead be able to use someone who is still alive. Maybe it would make someone unconscious while they are in the source code, but when they woke up they would still be alive. It wasn’t like the military could have just asked Stevens for his permission before just using him in the source code. And even if they did, I highly doubt they would have taken no for an answer, as the stakes were way too high and they were on a time crunch to find the bomber. And besides, just as Rutledge said, “most soldiers would jump at the chance to serve their country again.” So the argument could be made that the military just assumed that Stevens would be ecstatic to save the lives of many American people. In the end Stevens was successful in stopping the bomber, and he even got to live again in an alternate universe due to the source code.
Speaking of which, let us talk about that peculiar ending. Stevens went into the source code for what he believed was the final time. He deactivated the bomb, got the bomber arrested, convinced the comedian to entertain the people on the train, and kissed Christina again. With that, he felt complete. But suddenly, life kept on moving. He didn’t...die. In the back of his mind, Stevens thought there was a chance that he would continue living in Sean’s body, so he sent a text. If his theory was correct( and we know that he ended up being right) the source code would actually make a parallel universe, one separate yet also connected to the main reality. Now the movie does not provide us with a proper explanation for why this happened. One can speculate that maybe Stevens’ will to save the lives of the people on the train and his compatibility with Sean’s body merged them together. Maybe that’s all it takes to transfer the soul of a source code subject into another body. What if this technology could be used to let the dead souls of people live again in a new body, making us immortal? That’s just wishful thinking though.
Overall, Source Code was a great movie that furthered my philosophical thinking and helped me learn to become a great philosopher.
-Jordan Matthews 5th Hour
First, fate did not play a major role in Source Code. We watched Stevens go through many attempts to find the bomb, the bomber and save the train and its passengers many times. Fate should not be brought up even in the same sentence. Yes, we saw images of Christina and the Bean flash across the screen in between the Source Code and the real world, but those were just images from Fentress’ mind. Stevens simply assumed Fentress’ life, in which he saved a train and spent the day with Christina. Second, the military did not cross any lines while using Stevens’ body for the Source Code. It could be argued that not telling his Father in real life may be a questionable decision, but that’s another debate. Stevens would have simply died, if not for the Source Code. He was given the opportunity to live out a completely new life, and, as we saw at the very end of the film, we see that Stevens did, in fact, affect the real world by preventing the terror attack entirely. The military plainly allowed Stevens to continue a new life, and continue his service. Lastly, the ending occurred in the same reality as our real world reality. We see that Stevens did actually stop the terror attack altogether, as well as the fact that he notified the Captain of his whereabouts, and the news she would be imminently receiving about the failed terror attack, and how she and Stevens were responsible for thwarting it. The ending does raise an interesting question of whether Stevens just assumed Fentress’ life. I believe he did assume his life. After looking in the mirror for the first time, he sees that he no longer looks like himself, but like Fentress. Everyone sees him, and know him, as Fentress. He will have to go to Thanksgiving to see Fentress’ relatives. His parents will now be Fentress’ and possibly his children, all expecting him to be Fentress, when in fact, they are now related to Jake Gylenhaal. Lucky them. Source Code proposed very thought provoking, but random questions about fate, which was not present in the film, military ethics, which were not surpassed, and the reality in which the film ended, which would be considered our ‘real world’ or our reality. I wonder if anyone we know has been replaced by any Jake Gylenhaals or other A-list celebrities.
ReplyDeleteI chose to answer the last three questions that Mr. Wickersham posed to the class on the blog because they seemed like the most interesting. In the third question we were asked if the military crossed a line by using the captain’s body and mind in the source code experiment. In my opinion they did not because he was almost dead and they offered him a chance to use his skills for the greater good of the world and to have some sense of purpose before he died and even gave him a new life as Sean Fentress although I can also see the other side that instead of just letting him die they pulled him into this ethical dilemma and deprived him of the peace that is given to the dead and dying. Plus they killed Sean Fentress even though all of the other train passengers got to live their life like normal furthermore he didn’t even have the opportunity to give his consent and if this happened in any foreign country we would call it a human rights abuse and plop massive amounts of sanctions on them so performing this is exceedingly hypocritical. As for the fourth question I think that Sean Fentresss’ “soul” went to whatever place he believed dead people’s souls go because he was dead and I think that he just stayed dead instead of going back to his reflection/ alternate reality body in the source code. I think this because his body was occupied by the captains consciousness so seans’ essence couldn’t come back. Also Sean probably just took Capt. Steven’s ticket to the afterlife and got to party with a deity of his choice.In the case of the fifth question I will respond with yes he is in a new “movie reality” at the end of the movie because in this reality he is Sean Fentress and no longer cut in half wich in my opinion is a plus because having a lower half of a body is always a helpful thing no matter who you are. It is possible that the captain’s determination is responsible for merging the two universes however the possibility is so small that I don't think that that was what happened I think that it is more likely that the source code machine somehow transported him to the alternate reality in which he could interact with the “fate” and the people of the new world around him.
ReplyDeleteBeto R.
Jake Stollman
ReplyDelete2. I believe that fate played a minor role in this film. Fate is the representation of the bomb going off/Stevens dying, and the breaking of this fate by destroying the second detonator is what frees Stevens from the Source Code 8-minute loop. In this sense it is not the traditional concept of fate, in that he did have the possibility to change how and where he died, but did not have the ability to stop himself from dying every 8 minutes. And since the only resistance to him dying was his own knowledge of the bomb, there was no other reason he couldn’t’ve lived.
4. Sean Fentress, essentially, completely disappeared when the Source Code booted up for the first time. Colter Stevens assumed his body and retained no memories from Fentress, as evidenced by how he fails to remember the name of the woman with which he finds himself conversing. It seems Fentress was utterly obliterated mentally. But then the question must be asked: did that version of Fentress ever exist in the first place? It seems like the surviving past the eight-minute mark that the Source Code tunnels across into a new dimension, but there is no evidence that that dimension may have even existed. There may have never even been a Sean Fentress in the first place, and his body only came into existence when Stevens’ mind, his consciousness-form, was transported across the dimensions. This stems from the “probabilistic many-worlds theory,” which states that whenever there are two or more possibilities of something occurring, a new universe will be created for both of them. Thus, when I type on this computer, there is a possibility that I will make a typo for each letter I press, and therefore, up to this point, I may have created two and a half thousand new universes, and probably astonishingly many more. Stevens jumped to a new universe, a little offset chronologically, through a hole between universes created by the Source Code.
5. The ending is indeed a new reality, due to the fact that he lives on permanently through Fentress without the aid of the Source Code. As I said, he has jumped to a new reality using the Source Code, and once the Source Code was deactivated, Stevens persisted existing, meaning that it couldn’t simply be a simulation by the Source Code. However, the two realities did not merge. While Stevens carries memories of himself dying and the train exploding multiple times, Stevens’ native reality does not otherwise affect his new reality. They are divergent, meaning that the two realities are completely separate and unaffected by each other in any way besides the thing connecting them in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI. I feel that this movie depicted Plato’s Allegory of the Cave pretty accurately. It really noticeable during the scenes right after Captain Stevens would return to his capsule and then the straps started loosely and gradually he was able to stand. Ultimately the capsule even grew in size and he was able to move around,move the screen that Goodwin was on, as the amount of light within the capsule grew more and more. This showed the amount of knowledge that Captain Stevens was gaining in between each trip that he was sent on. Which is exactly like how the man that escaped the cave was able to see more and more as he learned about the outside world.The only thing that I feel wasn't completely clear was what aspect of the film represented the shadows within the walls of the cave. I get that it could be the videos of Goodwin but I really would only say I believe that just because it matches in terms of location. The capsule is Captains Stevens version of the cave so it's logical that the videos within it would represent the shadows along walls. But I really thought that it would make more sense for it to be the images that Stevens is seeing in between the trips. Yet the images only appear in short burst which also makes me question which it really is.If you look at the images Stevens sees closely it's everything that has seen either in his actual life or stuff that he sees in the closing scene with Christina. But if the last scene is altered reality than wouldn't that also be another version of the shadows? I really have no clue and feel that could have been more direct.
III. I could understand the sense of urgency that the military felt to prevent a bombing such as the one on the train to happen again, but that really is not an excuse for putting someone who has also given so much of themselves to our society at stake once again. During the scene when Goodwin goes to the room where Captain Stevens body is held while his mind is in the capsule my heart absolutely broke. His entire lower half was completely gone. He was just completely dismembered laying on the table connected to the device used for the source code. Those who do great services such as Captain Stevens should be honored. Although they could reason that they are in the right by doing this to one individual isn't as cruel as putting the lives of everyone on the train and potential many more people in danger, I just could never be that cruel to intentionally do that. Although this would make massive advances in science and potentially could save many, I just think its so heartless.
V.. At the end of the movie Christina and Captain Stevens stand in front of the bean in Chicago, Illinois. When they look into the mirror of the bean Captain Stevens still sees the reflection of Sean Fentress staring back at him. I really thought that this movie was going to end with them looking and Captain Stevens seeing himself but really they are both still in the source code. But i wouldn't say that this would make the world that they are in a “new reality” but I definitely think that is a different one for Captain/ Sean. The whole new person and new body thing is the only reason that it would point to this being a whole new universe. I do think that it is possible that the universes are somewhat conjoined because if they were not aligned in some form or fashion how would Captain have been able to send this message/email to Goodwin explaining what had happened? It wouldn’t have even been possible!
Riana Richards
I’ve chosen questions 2, 3, and 5 to answer.
ReplyDeleteThroughout Source Code, I really didn’t think fate necessarily played a big role. The idea of source code, contrary to what was told to Stevens, is to change the outcome of events. I believe in the movie they’d told Stevens that he is simply to identify a bomber, but he was not told his actions would actually be changing the outcome of actual events in the real world, nor was he told immediately what was even going on. He had to uncover these things on his own. I think the fact that they are literally changing the fate of people who have died tragic deaths (over and over again) shows that fate really plays no role at all. Their “fate” was met, and then artificially reassigned.
I think the military crossed the line, but also did not. Nobody is required to donate their organs after death. I think the only reason this could legally be justified is through that. If he gave consent to his organs being used if usable after he dies, then no, legally, the military did not cross the line. I do however feel that morally, they did cross the line. Stevens was in very critical condition. He was hardly alive which we had seen toward the end of the movie. They’d even said something about how your brain is still active for a short amount of time after you die. I think if he truly was dead then no, it’s not “wrong,” but I definitely don’t think that’s something he should have been forced to experience. Military or not. Donor or not. It was very harsh the conditions they were putting him in. Though it was able to save the lives of people, is it justifiable? Do they even know source code works if it works? or do they only see the failures because when it works the whole outcome is different?
The end of the movie did seem like a new “reality.” The movie ended with Stevens going back in, catching the bomber, saving the people on the train, and he remained in that reality. Whereas everyone he’d just talked to had no idea that source code was even used. The way it was explained it sounded like source code is somewhat of an alternate reality. It was shown to actually have an effect on the real world, and the only reason Goodwin knew that at the end was because Stevens sent her an email. Through source code quantum mechanics, Stevens was able to be a part of time reassignment. It technically is a new reality, because the attacks didn’t happen, and Stevens sort of steals Sean Fentress’ identity. What I wonder though is how that works. Is the “real” Sean Fentress now alive in the real world? Is he somehow dead or lost because Stevens has assumed his identity in this alternate reality?
Rebecca Burke
Personally I do not think fate played a role in this scenario/ situation. I think that the outcome of what would’ve happened to Captain Stevens had changed based on decisions he made in both the capsule and the Source Code. For instance, Captain Stevens had said that once he got the bomber, he wanted just to die and be allowed to move on to whatever would come to him next (depending on beliefs that could be nothing, heaven, hell, etc.) However, once he did find the bomber he wanted to go back into the Source Code one last time so that he could “save the lives” of every person on the train, even though he knew that they were supposedly already dead. If he didn’t go back one last time, everything could have been much different. For example, he could have just died in the capsule and things would have ended there, or he could have not wanted to die and would have continued to part take in many different source codes in the future. I do think that the military did cross the line by using Captain Stevens’ mind and body for the Source Code. I agree, in a way Dr. Rutledge was torturing Captain Stevens by sending him back into the Source Code over and over again, because as we could see by the end of the film, these trips back and forth from getting blown up in the Source Code took a toll on Colter Stevens both physically and mentally. This trauma got to the point where Captain Stevens told Goodwin and Rutledge that after he found the bomber he wanted to die completely...which is a harsh thing to wish. Also towards the end of the film Dr. Rutledge told Goodwin that he was going to take back his promise to Captain Stevens about letting him die after he identified the bomber. I think this was extremely unfair, and would be taking advantage of Stevens completely, which would be crossing the line very much. It’s hard to tell if there was an “alternate reality” in the movie. I think that if there was an alternate reality, Steven’s didn’t create it, he may have just found a way to access it through the Source Code. I think the ending could be a new movie reality, in the sense that the “real life” was altered in the film, I also think that the Source Code world Colter Stevens was living in could have been in the same universe, but continued past 8 minutes since Captain Stevens completed his task. Maybe when Goodwin pushed the button to let Captain Stevens die, he just died where he left off in the Source Code, not in an alternate universe, and maybe the source code was, in fact capable of changing the past.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the military knew exactly what they were dealing with when using the Source Code. They knew they were manipulating a conscious brain along with their emotions and senses but not to the extent of creating a whole new reality. I'd say most people wouldn't want to be stuck in a simulated reality after they die while having someone else control their world around them. But if someone volunteers and understands what they have to go through, it should be okay. The military just needs to make some ground rules such as how many trips a single person can take, how long they can stay in the Source Code, and perhaps even granting people another shot at life. But if the military truly understood the trauma and what the person inside the Source Code has to go through, they would know that they might be taking it a little bit to the extreme.
ReplyDeleteSean Fentress’s body was taken over by Captain Stevens in the Source Code. When Captain Stevens enters the Source Code, it appears there's no sense of Sean anymore except for his body. Everything else about him is different. While technically everyone on the train died due to the bombing, I believe everyone in the Source Code is alive except for Sean. Sean gets replaced by Captain Stevens and his soul continues on to the afterlife. I think this because I feel as if this is the only reasonable explanation to what happened. He couldn’t of magically became someone else, he was simply replaced by someone who already died. To him, he died on that train and will always. That was his fate no matter what. Poor Sean, he's the only true casualty of the Source Code.
The ending of the movie showed the Source Code continuing to go on even after being shut down. This is a new reality in terms of Captain Stevens but the original universe in which he came from could have been a product of something like the Source Code. The new reality is just another simulated world but with the exception that someone actually knows the truth. No the realities did not merge because at the end, the original reality was able to find the terrorist after the bombing and in the new one, they found him before the bombing.
1.) I think that the movie is a very close replica of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Captain Stevens actual "body" is in the cave, his body in the Source code is like when the prisoner walks and sees the fire but is still in the cave, and the real world is the exterior of the cave. The screen with Goodwin explaining all this is like the shadows. I think to improve upon this and my critique is very nuanced but I think a physical and motorized entrance into the source code would have been better than the compulsory method that was used in the movie. I think this because in the allegory of the cave the prisoner leaves the cave and discovers newfound knowledge but by himself. I think that because he is forced into the mission of the Source Code it is less about self discovery than the original allegory.
ReplyDelete3.) I don't think that the military crossed a line by using Captain Stevens. If you buy in to the interpretation at the end of the movie, (which I will discuss later) they really give him an opportunity at a new life. Secondly, he was killed in action. Like an organ donor would be they used his body to potentially save the lives of others. Captain Stevens mind that after death would be useless is given the opportunity to be a utility to those that are still living thus justifying the military's actions in the movie.
5.) I think that the movie's intention was to suggest that the source code is accessing alternate realities. I think this because I watch a lot of Rick and Morty. And for those not familiar with Rick and Morty it is about a teenager and his grandpa going on adventures travelling across the multiverse. In Rick and Morty they have access to alternate timelines of reality. For instance, in the first season they basically destroy the planet by turning every person into Cronenberg humans. Because alternate timelines are supposed to be infinite they find an exact replica of their current timeline except the part where they fail to solve the problem and take the place of their alternate selves. In the movie the Source Code the scientist in charge Dr. Rutledge suggests that the Source Code accesses quantum theory to reassign time. I think that these two are very similar. Rick's portal gun harnesses quantum energy to create gateways into alternate timelines. It would be prudent to mention that these two pieces are fiction, I don't think that any of this is actually possible.
2.The source code relates to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in that Captain Stevens is the philosopher and that he starts out in the source code, which is his cave, and sees the shadows which are the people created by the source code. Goodwin and Rutledge are the people holding up the objects that make the shadows. But Goodwin does not know she is also in a source code just as the people holding up the objects in front of the fire still cannot see in the light of the sun. Goodwin was learning more about the outside world by talking to Captain Stevens and receiving a text message from him. Maybe she will wake up in a Capsule just as Captain Stevens did and go through just what Captain Stevens went through. In reality the philosopher is not inside a cave inside a cave inside a cave… The philosopher is inside the cave and can slowly learn about the outside world, but in the Source Code nobody will truly know about the outside world because there is none.
ReplyDelete2) I think fate plays a small role in almost everything. So many things occur that are out of our control, for example the ticket for the exact train a bomber has targeted. If there had been a different combination of passengers (aside from the bomber) would the captain have found the bomber in the same amount of time? You can marry someone and that's in your control but its fate that you met them. Captain Stevens made many decisions in order to find the bomber but he was bound to find the bomber eventually, given that he was put back in the train infinitely many times.
3) I don’t think the military crossed a line because near the end of the movie Rutledge implies that Captain Stevens’s sacrifice saved many lives. Being a military captain. Captain Stevens already exemplifies someone willing and wanting to sacrifice for the safety of others. Captain Stevens is only one person suffering compared to the large numbers that could be suffering, whether they be suffering directly and physically or indirectly and emotionally.The Captain also has no memory of his previous mission. After finding the bomber he is given a new project not remembering the Chicago train mission. This eases the suffering Captain Stevens goes through because he does not have to deal with the torturous memories but it also respects him much less.
I think the capsule that Captain Stevens’ in illustrates a good image of the cave in Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Everytime Captain Stevens’ goes into the capsule back from the Source Code, he is trapped in these different straps and restraints holding him against the wall. At first Stevens’ capsule was very small, compact, and dark, he could not even stand up straight. After every trip his capsule would grow bigger and become lighter until he could stand up tall, even move around, and see everything inside of the capsule. I believe as he gained more information from the Source Code his capsule grew and the light got brighter, I feel like they’re directly proportional. This relates to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave because when the first prisoner left the cave he gained so much more information that when he came back to the cave it didn’t look the same to him. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners saw the shadows on the wall that told them “what everything was.” Goodwin in the Source Code was Captain Stevens’ version of those shadows against the wall. The only way I feel that the film could have made it more like Plato’s cave is if they didn’t let Stevens’ see Goodwin, if they only let him hear her.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the military did cross the line with the use of Capt. Stevens’ body and mind for the Source Code because he is an American soldier who died fighting for his country and instead of letting him die and go into his afterlife, they have his brain connected to all these wires and making him complete these missions in this Source Code when he has no idea what is going on, where he is, if he is alive, or anything else. I believe that Capt. Stevens deserved and earned the right to a peaceful death.
I do believe the ending of the movie was the new reality. In the end of the movie, Capt. Stevens’ memories and personality was forever stuck in Sean Fentress’ body. In the final scene, Captain Stevens and the girl were looking at their reflection in the Bean, but although Capt. Stevens had his old memories, he sees Sean Fentress’ body and he is stuck looking like that forever. But I have some questions, what happened to Sean Fentress and his memories and the spirit of him that was formally in that body? Did the real Sean Fentress just die? Is he gone forever? Did it die with the other Sean Fentress in the other dimension when the train exploded?
Brody H.
Hailey VW
ReplyDeleteFate completely played a role in the film. Whether or not the film proves that fate was real or unreal is a separate question. I do think that the end of the movie, the arrival at The Bean, and asking the question, "Do you believe in fate?", as well as the images projected throughout the movie nod to the audience that, yes, fate is real and Sean has met some of his. Fate can not be changed, but I do think it has to reach action potential before all of the causation can fire to arrive at the final effect, or out come. I do think that Sean was meant to save the people on the train, and end up at the bean, but he could not have cheated or got there sooner. Everything that happened prior was essential to the final (or so far final) out come at the end of the film.
I believe that Sean Fentress' soul and mind truly died while his body was able to live on and provide the technological support for Captain Stevens and the government to find success with Source Code. This is completely plausible if you subscribe to the idea that the mind and body are separate. If truly separate, one must be able to live without the other. And if you continue to build off of this idea, then the body and bodyshould be able to be mixed and matched, right?
I do not think that the ending is a new reality because, as already discussed, if I am watching the movie with the mind set that fate is real, nothing new can be created. If the movie's reality, Sean Fentress' fate, and Captain Steven's fate were all combined into one, then it was meant to be all along. And even if it the film had not ended that way, then that alternate ending (alternate not as in a different possibility in the space and time realm but "alternate ending" from a movie making stand point) was meant to be the true ending all along.