There’s no denying that Jake Gyllenhaal is a huge Hollywood A-lister now, but back in 2010, his promising career could have come to a screeching halt if it weren’t forSource Code’srelease a year later. When Gyllenhaal got into TV and film acting in 1991, it took a little bit of time for the young man’s career to fully take shape. However, by 1999, he starred as Homer Hickam inOctober Skyand launched his career as a leading man.
Two years later, he starred inDonnie Darko, and again had an influx of attention that opened doors for new opportunities. While his career saw him take on challenging roles in complex and interesting films, things almost went in a very different direction when he starred inPrince of Persia: The Sands of Timein 2010. While studios were building franchises, thePrince of Persiavideo game adaptationwas a hopeful contender, but the movie was an unmitigated disaster. Fortunately, Gyllenhaal landed on his feet when he took on a role inSource Code.
What is Jake Gyllenhaal’s best movie?
Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most popular actors of his generation and has been since his early 20s thanks to movies like Donnie Darko. Though Gyllenhaal has tackled multiple genres to great success, it seems like thriller films are where he shines the brightest. This is especially true of 2014’s Nightcrawler, in which Gyllenhaal delivers his best performance. It’s incredibly intense and suspenseful and Gyllenhaal has proven he’s great at playing a psychopath.
Source Code Gave Jake Gyllenhaal A Huge Rebound After Prince Of Persia’s Failure
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Timereceived widely mixed reviews, and despite an astonishing $200 million budget, the movie only managed to pull in $336 million at the box office (viaThe Numbers). While that may not sound terrible, the production budget is just one massive expenditure that goes into making a movie, and marketing and distribution costs can rack up hefty fees too. Add to this the fact that only a percentage of the box office actually goes back to the studio, and it’s plain to see whyPrince of Persiawas a catastrophic failure for Disney.
However, while this could have been a major blot on Gyllenhaal’s career, the actor jumped straight back into other work, and had significantly more success with a muchsmaller production,Source Code. While the film’s total box office was less than half ofPrince of Persia’s, the $140 million take home dwarfed the $32 million budget (viaThe Numbers), making it a rousing success. Thusproving that it was much less Gyllenhaal that failed to bring in audiencesand deliver a quality performance, but a lack inPrince of Persiaoverall.
The Other Movie That Saved Jake Gyllenhaal After Prince Of Persia
Gyllenhaal Hedged His Bets With Multiple Other Releases
The thing is, right up until the release ofSonic the Hedgehogin 2020, video game movies were deemed to be cursed. Almost no video game adaptation was generally seen as good, and the entire genre was considered too challenging to really consider. So, it was important forGyllenhaal to hedge his bets when it came to starring in a hopeful new video game franchise, despite the streak of bad luck. Fortunately, Gyllenhaal certainly did ensure that there would be other movies where he starred to lift him up if Prince of Persia fell short.
Prince of Persiawas a catastrophic failure for Disney.
Movies likeLove & Other Drugswere released in the same year, and again proved that Gyllenhaal’s talent was the standard, not the exception. Then, three years later, in 2013, hestarred opposite Hugh Jackmanin the thrilling mystery film,Prisoners. Neither of these quite matched the success ofSource Code, but it proved Gyllenhaal’s worth and allowed him to continue building to bigger and more exciting roles.
Source Code
Cast
Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an Army Captain named Colter Stevens who finds himself stuck in an eight-minute simulated time loop where a train explodes at the end of the timer. Disoriented and waking up in a capsule every time the simulation resets, Colter learns that the explosion was real. He is sent into the scenario repeatedly to discover the truth behind the bombing - but the truth behind the experiment may be even darker than he was prepared for.
