What does Chicago look like from inside a constantly exploding Metra train?
What we see: Director Duncan Jones delivers a hi-tech thriller about covert military operations, identity changes, and alternate realities, but mostly Jake Gyllenhaal being repeatedly sent into the last eight minutes of a Metra passenger’s life to alternatively beat up unsuspecting commuters and look all doe-eyed. Oh, and the train explodes, multiple times and from all different angles in varying degrees of slow motion.
On this tour: Helicopter shots of a sunny day by the river and lakefront in the Loop and Near North Side, along with a scene in an inbloom Millennium Park, make the wait until proper springtime that much more painful. The 33rd Street entrance to the Illinois Institute Of Technology’s campus also gets some good cameos, but unfortunately, most involve a train derailing and exploding in front of it. The real star is the Metra itself —or “Chicago Commuter Rail,” according to the logo—which grabs plenty of screen time both inside and out. Also, the light at the end of the tunnel is apparently just the Bean, or at least that’s what happens each time Gyllenhaal moves between bodies. Get to work on that one, conspiracy theorists.
Local standout: The Metra’s claustrophobic quarters prevent any local shout-outs, but there is a poster up in the station advertising Chicago’s favorite T. Rex, the Field Museum’s Sue.
Da stereotypes: They’re more so disaster movie tropes than Chicago stereotypes—the wise guy, the greasy businessman, the suspiciously shifty guy, the arguing couple, the wary middle-aged woman, the awkward student—but that’s pretty much the standard Metra commute anyway, except maybe with a little bit less group therapy. The movie does sorely miss two major types: the guy who plays music through his cell phone speaker and the guy who flips the seats and takes up two rows to himself.
How we fare: As a peace offering, the movie is frontloaded with aerial shots of downtown that capture just how beautiful the lakefront appears on a sunny spring day. But minutes later, a Metra train transforms into a fiery mess over and over again, so it’s a bit tough to recover from that. When it’s not busy blowing up, though, the familiar bi-level interior of the Metra ends up looking like the USS Enterprise. The normally weak and jerky sliding interior doors open with a brisk whoosh, and everything in the bathroom is satisfyingly buttonoperated. The trains also apparently have room for lots of secret crawl space and a locked up pistol that’s easily obtained with a big flashlight and some elbow grease. Add to that a fresh coat of paint, some TVs, a car with scenic overhead windows, and an onboard Dunkin’ Donuts, and Source Code’s version of the Metra looks downright awesome.
Most films distort a city’s real life layout (clearly with the lone intention of pissing off locals), but Source Code manages to pretty uniquely bungle its geography. Most of the movie takes place on a train; it’s stuck on a track from point A to B, so you’d think it would be near impossible to screw that up. The onboard announcement destines the train for Union Station, but the aerial shots closer to the city show the train running along the Dan Ryan Expressway and blowing up in front of IIT. That places it on the Rock Island Line, which, unfortunately, terminates at LaSalle Station. Fair enough—that’s just one route manipulation. But those proud of their public transportation nerdery will fume as the train later pulls into Grant Park instead (an onboard map that clearly shows the full CTA grid won’t help either). Though the movie did shoot at stations like Downer’s Grove and Orland Park, much of it was filmed in Montreal, which is most likely the setting for the fictional and prominently featured Glenbrook station. Really though, it doesn’t even matter if the station is actually native when the name is spot-on suburban Chicago.