10 Best Sci-Fi Film Premises Of The Last 10 Years

6. Source Code

Sometimes a good sic-fi concept exists solely for the purpose of allowing the film's creative team to run wild with the narrative structure. Duncan Jones' 2011 thriller Source Code is a textbook example of such a premise. The Premise: An experimental technology has been developed, known as The Source Code (a blatant misappropriation of a programming term, I was told repeatedly by the programmer friend I saw this movie with) which allows Jake Gyllenhaal's character to explore the last eight minutes of a doomed train trip through the eyes of one of the victims - that is, until he can catch the terrorist who bombed the train. This conceit allows the film to relive the same 8 minutes in a great variety of alternate timelines, backtracking over familiar faces surrounding the explosion with a keen eye for detail. It is the test of a good writer and a good director to make constantly repeating the same scene as interesting as they do here. Now, if only the ending made sense...