Déjà Vu

After a deadly ferry explosion in New Orleans, federal agent Doug Carlin is sent to catalog evidence but is quickly pulled into a covert government program that can reconstruct slices of the recent past. Using a time-shifting surveillance system, investigators can replay moments and trace movements that would otherwise be lost, and Carlin begins to follow a trail that links the blast to Claire Kuchever. As he pieces together clues he becomes personally invested, testing the limits of what the technology can reveal and what should be changed. The story mixes procedural investigation with high-intensity action, keeping the mystery front and center while raising moral questions about intervening in past events.

Released in 2006, Déjà Vu was directed by Tony Scott from an original screenplay by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio, and it stars Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer and Jim Caviezel. The film blends science fiction ideas with mainstream action filmmaking.

The picture was a solid commercial performer, opening well and ultimately earning a healthy return compared with its midrange budget. Its box office success helped reinforce the appetite for big studio thrillers that fold speculative technology into a crime story.

Critical response was mixed to favorable, with many reviewers applauding Washington's central performance and Tony Scott's energetic pacing while some critics questioned the plausibility of the time mechanics. Audience response sits around a 6.9/10 average from votes, and viewers often note the film's focus on surveillance, fate, and the ethical cost of altering events to achieve justice.

Déjà Vu left a mark for fusing procedural tropes with time-based surveillance, and its premise kept coming up in later entertainment that paired crime-solving with retroactive technology. The film is often remembered for its kinetic action sequences, the New Orleans setting, and how it provoked everyday conversations about privacy, causality and the limits of cutting-edge investigative tools.