A certain influence from the Eastern philosophy is intimated when Christina tells Colter at the beginning, "Ill be moving to India to find myself." To get a better grasp of what the film is about, just keep recalling the Vedantic cosmology: the world is but a dream of Brahman. What Colter is really up to throughout is to be mindful of his so-called "mission" so that he can free himself from reincarnation, ie, a successive illusory existence mistaken for his true self. Isn't it also about our life-thrown-in-this-world? In delivering a final message of hope, Source Code differs essentially from such films as 12 Monkeys, Butterfly Effect, Donnie Darko etc., all of which either depict the dark side of altering the past or make a tragedy of any attempt to terminate the eternal recurrence. The scene that ends with the kiss (perhaps signifying a sort of unio mystica) seems to suggest that the only way out for mankind is universal love -- a kind of love that can be attained only by transcending all illusions. Source Code could have been a great film to illustrate Vedantic philosophy had it ended right there, when time apparently stops, all is quick-frozen, and the kiss lasts for ever, instead of carrying on with a parallel universe that allows the characters to live happily thenceforth -- a happy ending, to be sure, but amounting to no more than yet another illusion. Nevertheless, it is definitely one of my favourite films this year.
Source Code - Official First 5 Minutes [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxDY6QNg7nQ