The source code is created from the memories of all those who died. The bomber didn't die on the train. His memories are not part of the code.
Sooooo, there would be no information from the bomber's mind in the 8 minutes (maybe from the memories of people who saw him). There would be no info about the white van, license plate, dirty bomb etc.
If Capt. Stevens really has access only to the memories of Sean Fentress then none of the actions Stevens takes in any of his missions would be possible. I.E. he would only be able to watch what Fentress and Christina Warren originally did.
So from the beginning, Stevens is going back to alternate realities. Each mission is to a different reality, possible created as branches by the missions themselves.
Dr. Rutledge and Capt. Goodwin either know this—and are lying to Capt. Stevens to keep him on task—or they are deceiving themselves, in some form of denial about what the project does in fact do.
So by the end of the film, we have:
• Reality 1 – the main body of the film, where the train does explode, and the information from Capt. Stevens does enable the authorities to stop Frost's van before it can also be set off.
• Reality 2 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 3 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 4 – Stevens & Warren get off train, Fentress is killed by a train, Warren lives, neither bombing is stopped.
• Reality 5 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 6 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 7 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 8 – Events on train altered, but not enough to save anyone or stop either bombing.
• Reality 9 – Stevens jumps off train, Warren gets off train, Fentress & Warren shot and killed by Frost. Neither bombing is stopped.
• Reality 10 – Stevens stops Frost, preventing both bombings. He sends an e-mail to Goodwin letting her know what the project can actually do. Stevens and Warren begin a relationship, Rutledge waits for a chance to use Source Code.
So Rutledge was correct in that one cannot change the past of the reality your in/from; but he was wrong in that you can experience other realities with different outcomes.
But that's the thing. In real life Source Code wasn't created from the memories of all those who died. In real life Source Code was an organic super-computer which had full access to outside databases. The first 3/4 of the movie was Colter Stevens' perception of the computer at work. All the people on the train were computer generated characters based on real-life records (DMV records, Phone Records, Etc). All the missions that he was going through was actually the supercomputer trying to calculate and predict a terrorist attack. Source Code was able to predict who the bomber would be based on that guy's anti-government internet postings. It was also able to figure out the stuff about the van through DMV databases. Source Code was a little bit like the computer in Eagle Eye.
shareIf it was all simulations in a computer, then the end with the email to Goodwin could not have happened.
So whether Dr. Rutledge knew it or not, the project was sending Capt. Stevens consciousness into Sean Fentress body in the past (albeit also to parallel realities)
They showed him looking up Goodwin's email while on the train and sending her a message.
I'm still not convinced of the parallel realities argument. He was hooked up to a super-computer not a particle accelerator. If the parallel realities slant is true, How did he get the power to bend space & time? Being hooked up to a computer just gave him trans-dimensional superpowers?
If he is just jumping between different realities, does that means the attack still happened and he's just jumping into a better world where it doesn't happen?
How it works is unimportant to the story. As far as we know in real life, time travel is impossible, so the explanation would be hogwash anyway.
The lack of an explanation does not change the plot points that confirm multiple realities and time travel.
As for causality in the film, apparently you cannot change your personal past, but you can create alternate branches.
In the main reality, the train blows up, the project stops the truck bomb, and his body is allowed to die.
In the last alternate reality we saw, he stops the train bombing, stops the truck bomb, sends the e-mail, stays there when his body in the original reality dies, and the project is still waiting to be initiated.
By my count, we saw ten separate realities (see above)
The ending really blew the movie up imho. I mean still super enjoyable, but from a logic point of view, throwing that whole "alternate reality" stuff makes it really crazy and full of plot holes.
The OP's explanation is probably right once that silly ending came into light. That Source Code somehow made Cpt Coulter an alternate universe traveller.
We must remember that Colter did not live. He was allowed to die. The last version where he kisses her and Goodwin receives the email is not within source code but in Colter's mind in some type of after life. The freeze during the kiss was the break point where the 8 minutes was up and then continues after he actually dies. The scientists had told him he could not save the train as it had already happened. Only in his own mind was it possible to save the train and that is what he created after he died.
shareWe must remember that Colter did not live. He was allowed to die. The last version where he kisses her and Goodwin receives the email is not within source code but in Colter's mind in some type of after life. The freeze during the kiss was the break point where the 8 minutes was up and then continues after he actually dies. The scientists had told him he could not save the train as it had already happened. Only in his own mind was it possible to save the train and that is what he created after he died.Yeah you may want to watch the movie again cause you kinda misinterpreted the ending. share
The explanation is that an entire parallen universe has been created (or entered), the source code is not as limited as imagined.
sharespoilers...
they are trying to imply with the ending that everything he saw was actually totally real and was just part of different parallel universes. His mind was in an alternate reality each time he went in, and he didnt need his mutilated body except as a "base" to return to every time he died. So if he died in the end-movie reality, he wouldnt wake up again in the capsule and keep his memories as per usual, because he was totally severed from that reality when Goodwin pulled the plug
So really the "endings" where Sean and his girlfriend are blown up or end up gunned down outside of the van are just as real and have just as much weight to them as the canon ending reality where he lives happily ever after (in another man's body)
Yeah the only victim in the last ending is Sean, having his mind just overwritten like that... But its a small price to pay in that universe for saving all those other people who wouldve died on the train:
http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tv/image/1411/82/1411827518352.webm
that's what the movie is all about.
shareThere would be no info about the white van, license plate, dirty bomb etc.
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