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Denzel Washington has made a lot of great films over the years, but this twisty thriller from almost two decades ago might be one of the best when it comes to melding a high-concept sci-fi twist with an action-packed mystery.
The film, 2006’s Deja Vu (which is airing this week on SYFY), stars Washington as ATF agent Doug Carlin, who, in the process of investigating a devastating terrorist attack on a ferry, comes to learn about a top secret project called “Snow White” that can allow you to look a little over four days into the past in real-time. So in this case, they’re using the tech to try and piece together the lead-up to the bombing to figure out who caused it and exactly what happened.
The cast is stacked, especially for a mid-budget thriller, with Washington joined by Jim Caviezel as the terrorist at the heart of the catastrophe, and Val Kilmer as the agent helping lead the Snow White project. Paula Patton also stars as Claire, a young woman who finds herself inadvertently wrapped up in the attack and becomes a fixation of Doug as he tries to avert her death.
Deja Vu’s unique twist on time travel
Like all good time travel stories, Deja Vu messes with your head in the way you come to perceive the passage of time and our connection to it. Framing the story around the “Snow White” tech, which effectively serves as a window into the past in real-time, is a unique twist on the time travel formula that we don’t usually see in the genre. Time travel stories can sometimes lack stakes (since, y’know, you can always go back again and change things), but in Deja Vu the clock is still running in real time. Once your four-and-a-half-day window into the past closes, it’s closed forever.
Put simply, you only get the one shot.
It’s a twisty investigation, but the Snow White tech does its job, and Doug and his team are able to identify Caviezel’s disgruntled bomber Carroll Oerstadt as the terrorist behind the ferry attack. But even with the bomber caught and the case closed, Doug can’t shake the gnawing hunch that the Snow White tech could be used to not just view the past, but alter it. First he sends a note back in time to try and warn his past self about the bomber, but the note was intercepted by his partner who is shot chasing down the lead.
It all builds and builds to the question of did all of this happen the first time around anyway, and can the past really be altered? Or are we just playing out that same four day period from the other side and seeing (and interacting) with the pieces of the story we missed the first time around?
It’s a compelling question, and we don’t get a true answer until the film’s closing act, as Doug convinces the Show White team to use the device to literally send him back in time himself to try and save Claire and avert the bombing.
After surviving the trip back, Doug aims to intervene and save Claire, while also trying to stop Oerstadt from bombing the ferry. Proving the past can be altered, he succeeds, but at great cost. Claire is saved, but to stop the bomb from killing the ferry passengers, Doug drives the truck with the bomb in it into the river to contain the blast — sacrificing himself in the process.
But this is a a time travel story, after all, so there’s always time for one last twist. Just as Claire mourns his death, the Doug from the now current timeline (who hasn’t traveled through time and is simply showing up to investigate the attempted attack) walks into view.
You’ve gotta love a good time travel twist.
If you’ve never watched Deja Vu, or just want to revisit the time travel classic, catch it airing this week on SYFY.
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