History Film / DejaVu

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

* Handguns: The only weapon in this film except [[spoiler:Claire's]] revolver and the sub-machine guns at the climax.

->'''Doug''': I said explain it to me! Not talk science.

* ScapegoatCreator: Writers Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio blame the director, Tony Scott, for concentrating on the action over the meaningful plot of the screenplay. To the extent that Rossio refused to see the film.
* ScrewDestiny: After the BecauseDestinySaidSo speech by the criminal this becomes Doug's standpoint on the whole crime.

-> '''Doug''': That broached the field, right there. That broached the field, right there. That's what broached the field.

* Technobabble: making the question 'is she alive or dead?' seem difficult and this was before the TimeTravel.

* DeadPartner: At the start Doug's partner, Larry, has his car found at the bomb site and though he is dead [[spoiler:he is killed accidently killed by Doug's note.]]

* EatTheEvidence: [[spoiler:Larry's body is fed to an alligator]] not totally eaten when found.

* Ahem: Done when making the technician to stop [[PowerPerversionPotential looking at Claire naked in the shower]] [[spoiler:in the past]].

* Ahem: Done when making the technician to stop looking at Claire naked in the shower [[spoiler:in the past]].

** This was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto. Note that 50 million homes were affected, and these ARE Harvard guys and girls that are on Snow White, after all. "Blame Canada" jokes ran amok then as well when that happened when it was surmised that the cascading power failure originated in an Ontario power plant.

** I thought this was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto. These ARE Harvard guys and girls that on Snow White, after all. "Blame Canada" jokes ran amok then as well when that happened when it was surmised that the cascading power failure originated in an Ontario power plant.

** The original "mistake" is how they are able to [[spoiler:look back in time (the discovery was completely by accident) and eventually send stuff back in time at the cost of a huge amount of power.]]

** I thought this was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto. These ARE Harvard guys and girls that on Snow White, after all. "Blame Canada" jokes ran amok then as well when that happened when it was surmised that the original power failure originated in an Ontario power plant.

** I thought this was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto. These ARE Harvard guys and girls that on Snow White, after all. "Blame Canada" jokes ran amok then as well when that happened.

** I thought this was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto. These ARE Harvard guys and girls that on Snow White, after all.

** I thought this was in reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 2003 Northeast Blackout]] which stretched from Boston to New York to Cleveland to Detroit to Toronto.

* EatTheEvidence: [[spoilers:Larry's body is fed to an alligator]] not totally eaten when found.
* EvidenceScavengerHunt: After the bomb and in Claire's house.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The song "Don't Worry, Baby" by the Beach Boys playing right before the ferry explodes.

** It's 2009 Captain Pike!

Some WikiMagic, please?

* PlotHole: We see a bunch of mysterious at the victim's apartment at the beginning. We later learn that that it was left by the protagonist, when he traveled back in time. But he didn't visit the apartment until after he [[spoiler: already saved Claire's life, which didn't happen in the original past.]] So how did the stuff get there in the original past?
** Well this makes sense if you accept that the time loop caused by Carlin's time travel is not actually stable. This means that Carlin may have tried to save Claire once before, leaving behind the evidence he later finds, but actually failed to stop the explosion. Remember the suspiciously familiar cell phone going off at the beginning of the movie? Takes on a greater significance now doesn't it?