Around 2011, Jake Gyllenhaal starred in Source Code, a time travel movie that is underrated because of how it made up for the actor’s other, less-than-stellar time travel movie from just one year earlier. Over the course of his career, Jake Gyllenhaal has been the star of numerous movies with rather unique premises. He has played a creepy crime scene photographer, a closeted cowboy, and a college professor obsessed with his doppelgänger. However, one especially interesting trend in Gyllenhaal’s career occurred between 2010 and 2011, when he starred in two time travel films: one good and one bad.
Gyllenhaal’s good time travel movie was Source Code. Released in 2011, the movie follows Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, a helicopter pilot who is given the ability to relive the final minutes of a deceased man’s life. He does this in order to figure out who bombed the train that the man died on. Yet, Colter decides to try and stop the tragedy altogether with what little time he has on hand. The movie earned a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and on a budget of nearly $32 million, grossed $147 million at the box office.
Source Code Was A Much Better Time Travel Movie Than Prince Of Persia
How Source Code Does Time Travel Better
What makes Source Code really stick out as an underrated Gyllenhaal movie is the fact that it came directly after a much worse time travel movie: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In that 2010 film, Gyllenhaal stars as Dastan, the adopted son of the king of Persia. After receiving a dagger that gives the holder access to the Sands of Time, Dastan teams up with a princess to protect the treasure and Persia at large. Unlike Source Code, Prince of Persia earned a disappointing 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, despite its impressive box office performance of $336 million.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
is based on a video game of the same name.
Source Code also uses time travel in a better way than Prince of Persia. While Prince of Persia’s time travel is somewhat inconsequential to the rest of the plot, and is pretty basic in that the characters can go back in time, Source Code is more unique. Colter goes back in time, but also inhabits the body of someone else and only exists in this time loop for a few minutes at a time. This makes Source Code so much more interesting than Prince of Persia, which ends up burying its time travel under other swashbuckling fantasy elements.
What Went Wrong With Jake Gyllenhaal’s Prince Of Persia Movie
Prince Of Persia Is Too Basic
Ultimately, Prince of Persia’s misstep with its time travel element is essentially what brings the whole movie down. According to critics, Prince of Persia never attempts to be different from any other historical fantasy film. It has all the ingredients of the genre, but the end result isn’t successful because it is entirely predictable. Audiences certainly like to see certain tropes or elements from a film, but they need to be surprised and interested as well. Unfortunately, Prince of Persia wasn’t able to maintain this type of engagement, even if its premise was good enough to bring in large audiences.
Prince of Persia sticks out among Jake Gyllenhaal’s wider filmography, and it isn’t just because of its poor Rotten Tomatoes score. As previously mentioned, Gyllenhaal has been known to take on weird and at times controversial roles. His movies often break the mold or bend genres. In this way, Prince of Persia simply doesn’t fit the brand he has built over the years. So, in that sense, Prince of Persia was not just a critical flop. It was also a poor choice for Jake Gyllenhaal’s career.
Source Code & Prince Of Persia Aren’t The Only Jake Gyllenhaal Time Travel Movies
Why Donnie Darko Is Gyllenhaal’s Best Time Travel Movie
Fortunately, Gyllenhaal’s history with time travel movies isn’t just extremely good or extremely bad. One of the actor’s very first movies was Donnie Darko, a sci-fi thriller that follows Gyllenhaal as Donnie, a troubled teen who begins to see a man in a bunny suit who is predicting the end of the world. Donnie Darko is trippy, intense, and weirdly funny. It also has a star-studded cast including Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and even a young Seth Rogen. It has a solid 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In many ways,
Donnie Darko
stands out as one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s best and most underrated performances, just like
Source Code
.
Ultimately, Donnie Darko is definitely up there with Source Code as Jake Gyllenhaal’s best time travel movie. If Source Code’s time travel is more complex than Prince of Persia’s, Donnie Darko’s time travel beats them all. The movie is so odd that it can be hard to figure out at times. Yet, that doesn’t ruin the quality of the movie at all. In many ways, Donnie Darko stands out as one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s best and most underrated performances, just like Source Code.