Friday Film Noir
Déjà Vu (2006) is a science-fiction thriller directed by Tony Scott and written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio. The story follows ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington), who is called in to investigate a deadly ferry explosion in New Orleans. During the investigation, Carlin is introduced to a classified government program that allows investigators to observe past events in precise detail, effectively letting them look several days into the past. As he studies the moments leading up to the bombing, Carlin becomes fixated on a woman named Claire Kuchever (Paula Patton), whose death appears connected to the attack. When he realizes the technology may offer more than observation, Carlin pushes the limits of the program in an effort to alter the outcome and stop the crime before it happens.
Filmed in New Orleans, the production shut down major bridges, streets, and ferry routes, turning the city itself into an active part of the story rather than a backdrop. Denzel Washington has said the film required more technical rehearsal than any project he had worked on, as scenes often had to be played twice with different emotional knowledge depending on where the character existed in time. Val Kilmer played Agent Pryzwarra with deliberate understatement, often delivering explanations of the film’s most outlandish ideas as if they barely warranted his attention. The ferry explosion combined large-scale practical effects with digital enhancement, making it one of the most expensive single sequences Scott ever staged. Scott has said the film’s goal was to make the audience feel slightly disoriented without ever losing narrative clarity.
