Quick review, that I won’t repeat 8 times over (reference to film).
This must have been “pitched” as “It’s Groundhog Day meets the Bourne Identity!”
Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up on a train. He doesn’t know why. Last he remembers he was flying helicopters in combat missions in Afghanistan. There’s a girl who knows him. There’s a woman who spills coffee on his shoe. He looks in the mirror – different face!
Then the train blows up. And he… wakes up.
Look, there’s a checklist for this stuff
- Secret military programme with dubious oversight – check
- SMPWDO led by shady scientist after moer money – check
- Fit resourceful male hero who doesn’t trust the SMPWDO – check
- Military figure has to make choice between orders and the Right Thing – check
It’s all there, all the stuff you’d expect. There’s some hand-waving and Basil Exposition style stuff around not thinking too hard about the time paradoxes… Nice to see Jeffrey Wright, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga getting work
Has this been done before, basically? Yeah, but so what. Has this been done better? Maybe, yeah. Is this entirely enjoyable hokum? Yup.
See also
Final Approach (1991)
Novel – The Tightrope Men by Desmond Bagley
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