When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he's ever known, he learns he's part of a government experiment called the "Source Code," a program that enables him to cross over into another man's identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack...

Chris Bacon (or Chris P. Bacon as he's better known - surely that's a pseudonym) is a name I'd not come across before in the world of soundtracks, so I didn't know what to expect from this score. The majority of projects he's composed for sees him credited as "additional music by". So it was a bit of a gamble, by the powers that be, that he was chosen for this project to produce a full score.

The music for Source Code is, in a nutshell, very impressive. There are elements of James Horner (in fact the opening track 'Source Code Main Titles' reminded me of James Horner's score for Jumanji), Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams - in fact just about every one of my favourite soundtrack composers.

Highlights for me include the main theme that appears towards the end of 'Source Code Main Titles'; 'Source Code Explained' which revisits the movie's main theme; 'Am I Dead?' which has a beautiful theme at the halfway point; the suspenseful build of 'A Real Validation'; the beautiful theme at the heart of 'Frozen Moment' and 'Everything’s Gonna Be Okay' which basically revisits the opening track.

The score to Source Code is incredibly well realised - and if this is how Bacon starts his career I can't wait until he's a veteran of his art. This feels like the work of someone who has been working in the industry for years instead of someone who is just cutting his teeth.

9

Darren Rea