Déjà Vu
Film Poster
Directed by	Tony Scott
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by	Bill Marsilii Terry Rossio
Starring	Denzel Washington Val Kilmer Paula Patton Bruce Greenwood Adam Goldberg Jim Caviezel
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Paul Cameron
Editing by	Chris Lebenzon
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	November 22, 2006
Language	English
Budget	75 million USD
IMDb profile

Déjà Vu is a science fiction crime thriller directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film was released on November 22, 2006.

[edit] Plot

(Denzel Washington) plays Doug Carlin, an ATF agent who is called in to recover evidence in the investigation of a New Orleans ferry bombing. After finding evidence that shows it was terrorism, Doug finds the body of Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), staged to look as if she too died in the bombing. Investigating the possible lead, Doug heads to her house to gather evidence. While there, he discovers blood soaked gauze and towels and a message on her refrigerator saying "U CAN SAVE HER,". Upon playing back the messages on her answering machine, he finds out that she called his office shortly before the bombing. Also, although he had gloves on, his colleagues tell him that he has been careless, leaving lots of fingerprints in the house. Confused, he helps the FBI with the ferry investigation and finds out his partner was also killed in the bombing even though his partner was apparently away on vacation. FBI Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer) recruits him to participate in a special task force, in the process revealing a futuristic device that allows one to observe anywhere four days and six hours in the past. According to the investigative team's explanation, the device (which is supposedly a composite of satellite images and other surveillance) cannot be fast forwarded or rewound due to the immense volumes of data being streamed. In other words, the team has a single opportunity to look into the past before the data is lost. Pryzwarra's team asks Doug to show them where to look in order to catch the culprit responsible for the ferry bombing. As they wait for the four days to happen so as to witness the ferry bombing, Doug has them watch Claire and discovers how she came to be involved; the bomber wanted to buy her car to use for the bombing.

Doug grows suspicious of the device when the observed Claire begins to exhibit paranoia and notes that she feels as if "someone is watching" her. Suspecting that the device is more than a surveillance tool, he shines a laser pointer into the screen. Claire notices the beam just before the entire device crashes and is forced to reboot. Doug confronts the team, and demands an explanation for the machine, which he has realized is far more than a computer composite. The team admits that the machine is actually a tool capable of bending or folding time and space. In essence, they direct the flow of time back upon itself, enabling them to view past events through a wormhole. Doug immediately begins to question the possibility of them affecting the past either through a direct transportation (time travel), or through the communication of some sort of note or message. The team is initially skeptical but it quickly becomes apparent that there is no concrete theory on how they might influence the past or what they are capable of achieving. Doug persuades them to send a note through the device to the past version of himself, hoping that the 'anonymous tip' will lead his previous self to prevent the bombing. Unfortunately, the note reaches his partner in the past (who had been thought killed in the ferry bombing). The team proceeds to watch the chilling scene of the partner attempting to apprehend the suspect, but instead being killed in the process. An argument erupts over whether tampering with the past has just killed a federal agent, but cooler heads argue that he was already pre-destined to die on the ferry.

They find the killer on the screen showing the past (always 4 days and 6 hours ago), but the wormhole machine has a limited range and he drives in a direction such that he will be out of range soon. Doug takes a mobile headset camera system with him such that he can see the past in a very small area from the power source in the vehicle; he starts chasing the killer's car driving in the past. He arrives at the wrecked house of the killer, and sees a wrecked ambulance. This allows the police to identify and catch the bomber. Doug questions the bomber, a man named Carroll Oerstadt (James Caviezel) in order to get a taped confession, engaging in lengthy dialog that delves into the bomber's philosophy and mindset.

After catching the bomber, Doug is angry that Claire must still die when she could have possibly been saved. The agency shuts down the operation since they have their suspect, but before they do so, Doug illicitly uses it to send himself into the past to save the lives of Claire and of all the people aboard the doomed ferry. He cannot take a gun in the time machine. He lands up in a hospital with a message on his chest that reads "REVIVE ME". After being successfully revived, he steals a gun and for transportation he steals an ambulance. He wrecks the bomber's house with the ambulance, and succeeds in preventing Claire's death, but is wounded in the process, and so returns to her home to treat his wounds. At her home, he realizes that he was the one responsible for setting the entire chain of events off in the first place, i.e., he was the one who left the "U CAN SAVE HER" note and was the source of the bloody bandages. In essence, everything he witnessed in the present had already been changed by his going back into the past (a predestination paradox). Despite this unsettling information, the two race to prevent the bomb on the ferry from detonating. Claire waits behind as Doug moves in to defuse the bomb, but spots the bomber racing back to the ferry, tipped off to Doug's presence when he notices their vehicle parked nearby. She too races to the ferry, only to be cornered and caught by the bomber once again. The bomber ties her to the steering wheel of the bomb-rigged SUV before initiating a shoot-out with Doug and security personnel on the ferry to ensure the detonation of the explosive. As Doug and gunman stalk each other, Doug motions to Claire to start the SUV.

The gun battle appears to be headed for a climax until Doug suddenly begins quoting dialog from his interrogation of the bombing suspect. Doug shows his hands and exposes himself, confronting the bomber with his own beliefs, dialog, and rhetoric. The suspect seems to have a moment of memory and déjà vu, even though this previous version of himself was never interrogated. The bomber prepares to gun Doug down, but as he does Claire gases the SUV and pins him between the grill and another vehicle. Doug takes the split second of opportunity to finish the suspect with one well-placed head shot. Having killed the bomber, Doug and Claire drive the SUV with the bomb into the water to prevent it from damaging the ferry. Claire is able to escape the car, but Doug remains trapped inside as it explodes. However, as Claire waits to be questioned about her involvement, the Doug from four days and six hours ago appears, with none of the memories of his future self. He comes up to question her before the two drive off. Claire recounts something Doug had said to her after saving her from the bomber. Doug seems to remember (and replies with the same answer Claire had given to that question), but then laughs the feeling off, apparently thinking he has experienced déjà vu.

[edit] Background

Filming in New Orleans, Louisiana was delayed following Hurricane Katrina because of the devastation caused by the storm and the collapse of the Federal levees (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans). Many of the exteriors were set to be shot in New Orleans, including a key sequence involving the Canal Street Ferry across the Mississippi River. After the city was reopened, the cast and crew returned to New Orleans to continue filming; some scenes of the post-Katrina devastation were worked into the plot, including in the Lower 9th Ward. They also spent two weeks filming a scene at a local bayou, Four Mile Bayou, in Morgan City, Louisiana.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

• In the cemetery scene, the singer is Charmaine Neville and the accordionist Sunpie Barnes.
• String theorist Brian Greene was a consultant and likely helped with the theoretical physics jargon.
• The screenplay sold for five million dollars, one of the highest spec sales of all-time.

The French version of the movie poster.

• The French version of the movie poster ironically explains what déjà vu means in French.
• During a scene where Carlin is in an investigation headquarters, several computer monitors in the background show pornographic photos.
• The trailer uses the song "Hello Zepp", written by Charlie Clouser, from the 2004 thriller Saw.
• Many of the TV spots and trailers repeated the first sentence spoken by the voice over to simulate the feeling of déjà vu.
• Many of the sounds made by the computers in the control room (beeps, buzzes, clicks, etc.) are very similar to those made by the computers in Enemy of the State, a film also premised on new government surveillance equipment, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
• The idea of viewing events which occurred in the past with a viewing apparatus was explored at length in Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus. In that novel, the same progression of events is outlined, initially watching the past, then injecting items, then finally people. Another source of this concept is explored in the science fiction short story "The Biography Project" written by Horace L. Gold. An abridged version of this story can be found in The Bank Street Book of Science Fiction.
• A scene is set in the French Quarter during New Orleans Mardi Gras but the street is largely deserted.
• Several plot elements, most notably the diagram of the 'time branch,' are featured in the Back to the Future trilogy.
• The Hummer H1 driven by Denzel Washington in the bridge chase scene is modeled after an actual robot, H1ghlander, entered by Carnegie Mellon University into the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Hummer driven by Denzel Washington in the movie.

Carnegie Mellon's H1ghlander.

• Deja Vu's composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, used various loops from a previous score he made for Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth.
• In the final show down Jim Caviezel's character uses a H&K USP Tactical Pistol and two H&K MP5 Sub machine guns. The pistol was also used to wound Denzel's character in the shoulder. In the first timeline he carries a different pistol which is shown when he is arrested in the swamp.
• Val Kilmer had shirts made for the crew that said "Malcolm X, Jesus Christ, and Jim Morrison: Deja Vu. How Can We Fail?" Denzel Washington played Malcolm X in Malcolm X, James Caviezel played Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, and Kilmer played Jim Morrison in The Doors.
• In one scene, Adam Goldberg's character says out of frustration, "I need more cowbell," referencing a popular Saturday Night Live sketch.
• The USS Nimitz crew welcome is in reference to the 1980 science fiction movie The Final Countdown and The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) which have similar time-travel themes.
• Tony Scott's first PG-13 film since Days of Thunder.
• When Denzel Washington's character goes to investigate the boatyard on foot, he takes the goggles with him in his left hand and his gun in his right. In the next scene, the objects have switched hands (so does Denzel's watch). They switch again in the next scene.
• The end song as the credits rolled, "Coming Back To You", was written and performed by Macy Gray, which has lyrics fitting for a movie about time travel.
• The phrase "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants", said by the terrorist on the final boat sequence, was also used in an earlier Jerry Bruckheimer film, The Rock. This is an interesting play with the phenomenon of déjà vu within the film itself.

[edit] External links

• Déjà Vu at the Internet Movie Database
• US official website
• UK official website
• Official trailer
• Deja Vu at Rotten Tomatoes
• yourMovies interview: Jim Caviezel