Many filmmakers have deftly pondered the notion of time travel and offered viewers a chance to explore all of life's roads not taken, but Ben Ripley's 2011 thriller Source Code leaves little time for nostalgia as he takes us on a harrowing train ride through the last 8 minutes of one man's life over and over and over again.

• Source Code selected for Lincoln Road Sci-Fi film festival
• For city information for the Festival check-out South Beach

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds himself transported via a unique government program into the body of a man riding on a doomed commuter train destined to carry a bomb into a crowded Chicago suburb. Steven's mission - which gets played out again and again - is to determine who has planted the bomb in order to prevent the impending disaster in just 8 frightening minutes. When he fails (and fails and fails), the cinematic sequence is replayed with a slight tactical deviation until the attack can be averted.

• Worldwide Box Office: $147,332,697
• Nominated for 2012 Hugo Award

What keeps Source Code from running off the rails is Director Duncan Jones' confident handling of the interplay between Captain Stevens and Christina Warren (Michelle Monghan) a woman he befriends on the train. The brisk pace of the action sequences and the heightened tension of the audience's desire to solve the puzzle, save the girl and stop that train make the movie a thrilling and emotional ride!

Each time Captain Stevens relives the moments before the explosion, Gyllenhaal and the audience learn a little more about the mysterious circumstances that bought the Army pilot to this thrilling ride. Every time he tries to manipulate the events leading up to the train's crash, he figures out new ways to affect the outcome. Failing his mission, he becomes increasingly aware that his "real" life is not what it seems and the Army Captain and Source Code scientist pulling the strings behind the scenes may not have his best interests at heart. Complicating his mission even further is his increasing anxiety that only he can remedy both realities - the doomed train and his doomed participation in the scientific mission.