History Film / DejaVu

[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dejavuposter_7403.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:305:It's a phenomenon known as Déjà vu. It's a phenomenon known as Déjà vu.]]

-> '''Alex''': You don't have to do this.
-> '''Doug''': Maybe I already have.

2006 film starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/ValKilmer, Creator/JimCaviezel, and Creator/PaulaPatton.

Following a deadly ferry explosion on Fat Tuesday that kills hundreds of US Navy personnel and their families, New Orleans ATF agent Doug Carlin (Washington) finds the body of a woman near the wreckage who appears to have been tortured and killed ''before'' the ferry explosion.

While pursuing the evidence, he is recruited by FBI agent Pryzwarra (Kilmer) who brings him to a small team that has a machine that can view anything in New Orleans four days and six hours in the past, which they hope will help them find the killer. When Doug eventually figures out how the system works, cue the TimeTravelTropes.

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!!This film contains examples of:

* ActionGirl: [[spoiler: Claire, as shown in the timeline where she survives. Boldly threatening an ''extremely'' experienced crime investigator into lying down or evading security to the cargo area? Not too shabby for a bystander.]]
* {{Ahem}}: Done when making the technician to stop [[PowerPerversionPotential looking at Claire naked in the shower]] [[spoiler:in the past]].
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Though Doug wants to save as many people as possible, he seems to prioritize Claire a lot. [[spoiler: He'll thank his gut for making him think that, since she ends up assisting him in stopping Carroll and his bombs.]]
* ArcWords: "What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?" "I'd try."
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Is she alive or dead?" It involves a computer screen being broken spectacularly before the question is answered: [[spoiler: Claire's alive, at least when viewed through the chronoscope.]]
* BadPresent: Once time travel is introduced, the current timeline is demoted to this.
* TheBigEasy: PlayedWith, the emphasis is on a ferry rather than on the typical street events of Mardi Gras.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Larry will always stay dead no matter what Future!Doug does, and Future!Doug himself, as well as several other police and Mariners, die while stopping the bomb from blowing up the ferry. However, Claire and the ferry passengers are saved, and Claire gets to meet Past!Doug. Though he doesn't recognize her, [[ArcWords "she'd try"]].]]
* BrokenRecord:
--> '''Doug''': That broached the field, right there. That broached the field, right there. That's what broached the field.
* CarChase: Chasing a car that doesn't exist in the present, no less! Consequently, Doug appears to others to be driving crazy for absolutely no reason whatsoever. On top of ''that'', the "mobile unit" that Doug is using to actually ''see'' the car he's chasing is damaged mid-chase(because watching a little screen while you're driving is the ''definition'' of distracted driving), so he has to complete the pursuit while ''taking instructions from MissionControl'' -- and they can only see where he's facing.
* ChekhovsGun: Literally. In the chronoscope, Claire is seen hiding a revolver below her pillow when she feels that someone is stalking her[[spoiler: (actually the sounds of Pryzwarra's team talking from behind the screen)]]. It comes back again when [[spoiler: she threatens Future!Doug to lie down while she confirms his identity.]]
* {{Chronoscope}}: The key plot device. [[spoiler:If [[TimTaylorTechnology supercharged]], it even permits physical time travel.]]
* ComputerEqualsMonitor: The main monitor of the chronoscope not only shows the feed from the wormhole, it's apparently a direct line to it. Doug shines a laser pointer at it to confirm his theory that there's more to the device than the team was initially willing to tell him. Averted later when he arbitrarily smashes a secondary monitor to prove a point; sure, they're annoyed, but it's not that big a deal.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** In the BadPresent, Claire gets her fingers chopped off, shot, burned alive, then thrown to the river, in that order.
** Also [[spoiler: Larry. He gets shot first, which doesn't kill him right away, but then Carroll offs him, burns him, then throws his body to the bayou, where he's eaten by an alligator.]]
** Carroll gets the lower half of his body crushed with a car (ironically, Claire's jeep) and Doug shoots him in the head while he's distracted from the pain.
* DeadPartner: At the start Doug's partner, Larry, has his car found at the bomb site and though he is dead [[spoiler:he is accidentally killed by Doug's note]].
* DeathIsCheap: Going on the mission back in time to stop Claire from dying.
* DejaVu: Despite lending the movie its title, this doesn't occur until the end of the film [[spoiler:when Denzel Washington's character seems to recall the memories of his temporal duplicate who died just before he showed up.]]
* DiesWideOpen: Claire, in the BadPresent.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Gunnars (and every other people in the room, actually, except for Shanti) enjoys peepi-er, "investigating" Claire, particularly when she takes a bath.
-->'''Shanti:''': ''(deadpan)'' Is there anything scientific and important in watching women bath in the nude?
* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: Not really, but the general feeling is the same. [[spoiler: Future!Doug and Claire gets to spend some meaningful hours together to bond before the former gets killed while trying to remove the bomb from the ship. Since this resets the timeline, however, Claire doesn't have to grieve for so long, because another Doug (Past!Doug) arrives at the scene, this time to a timeline where she survives.]]
* DeathOfAChild: at least in the current timeline. The ferry carries a school-worth of children. None of them get spared.
* DeadMansTriggerFinger: Variant. Having the lower half of his body crushed when Claire rams him with the car, Carroll keeps pulling the triggers of his dual H&K MP-5Ks in his agony. When Doug then shoots him in the head, he finally lets go of the triggers.
* EatTheEvidence: [[spoiler:Larry's body is fed to an alligator]], but not totally eaten when found.
* EverybodyLives: This is Doug's main goal in the film, other than [[ScrewDestiny screwing destiny]]. As he puts it: "Every time I investigate a crime, it's always after it already has been committed. I want to solve a crime ''before'' it is committed". [[spoiler: He still fails because, due to an unfortunate event happening in the original timeline, Carroll will always kill Larry, and some police and Mariners will always be killed as collateral damage. But he gets to save the ferry's 500+ passengers, as well as Claire.]]
* EvidenceScavengerHunt: After the bomb, in Claire's house and at the suspect's house.
* FoldThePageFoldTheSpace: Happens when Doug demands a LaymansTerms explanation for how the scientists established a live feed connection to a timeline four days in the past. Denny holds up a blank sheet of paper and then folds it to explain how they folded space and time to create a wormhole into the past.
* FreezeFrameEnding: The film ends with a freeze frame of the hero in his car.
* GunsAkimbo: Carroll manages to keep the multiple soldiers and policemen trying to barge into the ferry's vehicle area at bay by shooting at them in this fashion. With sub-machine guns (dual H&K MP-5Ks)no less.
* {{Handguns}}: The only weapon in this film except [[spoiler:Claire's]] revolver and the sub-machine guns at the climax.
* HeroInsurance: Aside from him saying "Send paramedics to the bridge" no mention is made of the serious injuries and possibly deaths Doug causes driving half blind that results in multiple car accidents.
* HistoricalRapSheet: The last time that the Time Machine was used to try to ''send'' something into the past instead of just viewing it, the power draw accidentally caused the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 Northeast blackout of 2003]].
* IronicEcho:
** Does it count if Doug is repeating something back to Carroll that [[spoiler:Carroll's past self technically hasn't said yet]]?
** Also, when Doug first sees Claire in the Coroner's office he calls out "Claire" to her. Later [[spoiler:When Claire first meets Doug!2, after the explosion that killed Doug!1, she calls out "Doug" exactly the same way Doug had in the Coroner's office]]
* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: It rains lightly during Claire's funeral. Justified as it is set in New Orleans, and there were concerns that the shoot in which the crew simulated rain would be interrupted by a real rain. The seasonal monsoon serendipitously delayed until immediately after shooting.
* LaymansTerms: Doug continuously does this when the scientists are trying to explain how it all works resulting in explanations using a blank piece of paper and a broken screen.
-->'''Doug''': I said explain it to me! Not talk science.
* MeaningfulFuneral: Claire's at the start.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Had Doug not write the note to his past self, [[spoiler: Larry and Claire will never be involved in the event.]] To be fair, [[spoiler: without Claire's help, he wouldn't be able to kill Carroll ''and'' disarm the bomb, though.]]
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Claire's father, though only in the current timeline. Also, the ferry carries ''a lot'' of children and adults who have parents, too. [[spoiler: No longer the case in the ending.]]
* PlotHole: The article on the [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} Other Wiki]] includes [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deja_Vu_Timeline.png a diagram]] showing that four runs of the timeline are needed in order to explain the events in the movie. In Timeline 3 (the timeline before the events of the movie) Claire is burned alive and has her fingers cut off by Carroll ''at her apartment''. Yet there is no evidence of this present in her apartment during the police investigation. Also, how would Carroll have had enough time to do all that and beat Doug to the ferry in time to set off the explosion?
* PrisonRape:
-->'''Carroll''': ...you'd better have some divine intervention, buddy. You're gonna need it.\\
'''Doug''': You'd better have some K Y. You're gonna need it.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/ElleFanning, sister of Creator/DakotaFanning, appears as one of the many children on the ferry boat.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Carroll is a one-man militia, a guy who aced all of the tests needed to enter the military... except for the psych, which came back as "too damn crazy". He calls himself a patriot who is doing what he needs is necessary to raise awareness of how unprepared America is in terms of terrorism... and thus he deems 500 deaths, including many children, as both a "[[TheNeedsOfTheMany necessary sacrifice]]" and "[[BecauseDestinySaysSo it was fate]]".
* ScrewDestiny: After the BecauseDestinySaysSo speech by the criminal this becomes Doug's standpoint on the whole crime.
* ShoutOut:
** The cover story for the Time Machine and its usage for (incredibly accurate) reconstruction of an area involves the (supposed) deployment of a satellite network called "[[Literature/SnowWhite The Seven Dwarfs]]".
** The terrorist's name is [[Creator/LewisCarroll Carroll]].
* SingleTear:
** At the end [[spoiler:Claire does this when she and Doug are in the car with the bomb and she's certain she's going to die]].
** After Doug's interrogation of the terrorist responsible for the bombing, he lets out a single tear after he confides in Doug his belief that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo everything is inevitable]].
* SoundtrackDissonance: The song "Don't Worry, Baby" by the Beach Boys playing right before the ferry explodes and at the end [[spoiler:which is the same time as the start.]]
* SpySatellite: The official cover of the time viewer program (code-named "Snow White") is that it controls an array of super-sophisticated satellites that can make a super-detailed simulation of an area (this absurd amount of detail is also the reason why there's a 4-day delay and why it can't be rewound or recorded). Doug eventually calls bullshit on how over-complicated this set-up is and thus is finally told about the wormhole.
* StableTimeLoop: Doug's mission is to avoid one since he wants to save Claire and the ferry victims. If Doug failed in the movie there is a good chance that this would have started a multi-timeline loop where Doug is creating clues in one timeline that he subsequently eliminates the next time he goes back in time starting the entire process over.
* StuffBlowingUp: Very much so. It starts with the gigantic fireball that destroys a ferry and never looks back.
* TechnoBabble: Making the question 'is she alive or dead?' seem difficult and this was before the TimeTravel.
* TimeIsDangerous: Sending a living person through the chronoscope disrupts electrical activity inside of their bodies, sending them into convulsions and disrupting their heart. To counter this, Doug transports himself into an ER with the words "REVIVE ME" written on his chest.
* TimeTravelTenseTrouble:
** The team's not exactly sure how to describe [[spoiler:Claire's]] existence (or lack thereof) as they are observing [[spoiler:her]].
** Also evidenced by the page quote.
* TwoferTokenMinority: Pryzwarra's team developing the chronoscope machine is all white males, except for Shanti, who is a black woman.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: At first glance, the movie seems to have more plot holes than a golf course... unless one sees through the rather convoluted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deja_Vu_Timeline.png storyline]]. Good luck figuring this out the first time you're watching the movie.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Carroll is your typical post-9/11 paranoid that believes that the United States are unprepared against terrorist attacks (and too blind to see this), and decides that ''performing'' a terrorist attack (with the biggest casualties possible, a "sacrifice" in the multiple digits) will drive the government to assume a more hard-core stance on preventing future attacks.
* WesternTerrorists: Type 1: The bomber is discovered to be [[spoiler:a disgruntled and mentally unstable US citizen who was denied entry into the US military]].
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: In regards to [[spoiler:Doug's note to himself, which Larry picked up and caused his death]] this was already done but subverted when [[spoiler:Doug himself goes back and stops the ferry boat deaths from happening]].
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* CarChase: Chasing a car that doesn't exist in the present, no less! Consequently, Doug appears to others to be driving crazy for absolutely no reason whatsoever. On top of ''that'', the "mobile unit" that Doug is using to actually ''see'' the car he's chasing is damaged mid-chase(because watching a little screen while you're driving is the ''definition'' of distracted driving), so he has to complete the pursuit while ''taking instructions from MissionControl'' -- and they can only see where he's facing. One gets the feeling the entire movie was an excuse to film this CrazyAwesome scene.

* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Carroll is a one-man militia, a guy who aced all of the tests needed to enter the military... except for the psych, which came back as "too damn crazy". He calls himself a patriot who is doing what he needs is necessary to raise awareness of how unprepared America is in terms of terrorism... and thus he deems 300 deaths, including many children, as both a "[[TheNeedsOfTheMany necessary sacrifice]]" and "[[BecauseDestinySaysSo it was fate]]".

Following a deadly ferry explosion on Fat Tuesday that kills hundreds of US Navy personnel and their families, New Orleans ATF officer Doug Carlin (Washington) finds the body of a woman near the wreckage who appears to have been tortured and killed before the ferry explosion.

While pursuing the evidence, he is recruited by another government agent (Kilmer) who brings him to a small team that has a machine that can view anything in New Orleans four days and six hours in the past, which they hope will help them find the killer. When Doug eventually figures out how the system works, cue the TimeTravelTropes.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Carroll is your typical post-Nine-Eleven paranoid that believes that the United States are unprepared against terrorist attacks (and too blind to see this), and decides that ''performing'' a terrorist attack (with the biggest casualties possible, a "sacrifice" in the multiple digits) will drive the government to assume a more hard-core stance on preventing future attacks.

* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: In regards to [[spoiler:Doug's note to himself, which Larry picked up and caused his death]] this was already done but subverted when [[spoiler:Doug himself goes back and stops the deaths from happening]].

* InfantImmortality: Averted, at least in the current timeline. The ferry carries a school-worth of children. None of them get spared.

** The cover story for the Time Machine and its usage for (incredibly accurate) reconstruction of an area involves the (supposed) deployment of a satellite network called "[[Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs The Seven Dwarfs]]".

2006 film starring Creator/DenzelWashington, Creator/ValKilmer, Creator/JimCaviezel, and Paula Patton.

* BlackBestFriend: Inverted. Mixed-race Claire has a White Best Friend, Beth.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Claire's father, though only in the current timeline. Also, the ferry carries ''a lot'' of children and adults [[CaptainObvious who have parents, too]]. [[spoiler: No longer the case in the ending. Thanks, Doug.]]

* PhlebotinumAnalogy: Alexander uses a blank A4 piece of paper to explain the "Time Window".

* GunsAkimbo: With sub-machine guns no less.

* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Carroll is a one-man militia, a guy who aced all of the tests needed to enter the military... except for the psych, which came back as "too damn crazy". He calls himself a patriot who is doing what he needs is necessary to raise awareness of how unprepared America is in terms of terrorism... and thus he deems 300 deaths, including many children, as both a "[[TheNeedsOfTheMany necessary sacrifice]]" and "[[BecauseDestinySaidSo it was fate]]".

* RightWingMilitiaFanatics: Carroll is a one-man militia, a guy who aced all of the tests needed to enter the military... except for the psych, which came back as "too damn crazy". He calls himself a patriot who is doing what he needs is necessary to raise awareness of how unprepared America is in terms of terrorism... and thus he deems 300 deaths, including many children, as both a "[[TheNeedsOfTheMany necessary sacrifice]]" and "[[BecauseDestinySaidSo it was fate]]".

* StuffBlowingUp: Very much so.

* CarChase: Chasing a car that doesn't exist in the present, no less! Consequently, Denzel's character appears to others to be driving crazy for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

* YanksWithTanks: The film involves personnel and assets from the [[CoastGuard US Coast Guard]], [[SemperFi US Marines]], and US Navy.

** The cover story for the Time Machine and its usage for (incredibly accurate) reconstruction of an area involves the (supposed) deployment of a satellite network called "[[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs The Seven Dwarfs]]".

* BrokenRecord

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: In the BadPresent, Claire gets her fingers chopped off, shot, burned alive, then thrown to the river, in that order.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Larry will always stay dead no matter what Future!Doug does, and Future!Doug himself, as well as several other police and Mariners, die while stopping the bomb from blowing up the ferry. However, Claire and the ferry passengers are saved, and Claire gets to meet Past!Doug. Though he doesn't recognize her, [[ArcWords "he'd try"]].]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Claire and Future Doug drive the car with the bomb inside off the ferry. He helps her escape but he himself is trapped and dies. The man who comes to pick her up is Past/Present Doug and cue ArcWords and the Beach Boys.]]

** Also, when Doug first sees Claire in the Coroner's office he calls out "Claire" to her. Later [[spoiler:When Claire first meets Doug2, after the explosion that killed Doug1, she calls out "Doug" exactly the same way Doug had in the Coroner's office]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Doug's note to self [[spoiler:leads his partner to his death]].

%%* {{Western Terrorist|s}}: Type 1.

* WellIntentionedExtemist: Carroll is your typical post-Nine-Eleven paranoid that believes that the United States are unprepared against terrorist attacks (and too blind to see this), and decides that ''performing'' a terrorist attack (with the biggest casualties possible, a "sacrifice" in the multiple digits) will drive the government to assume a more hard-core stance on preventing future attacks.
* WesternTerrorists: The bomber is discovered to be [[spoiler:a disgruntled and mentally unstable US citizen who was denied entry into the US military]].