Tagline: It you thought it was just a trick of the mind, prepare yourself for the truth.
“Someone–tell me, is that woman alive, right now?”
Everyone has experienced the unsettling mystery of déjà vu – that flash of memory when you meet someone new you feel you’ve known all your life or recognize a place even though you’ve never been there before. But what if these strange, spooky feelings were actually warnings sent from the past or clues to an unfolding future?
In the captivating new action-thriller from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott, written by Terry Rossio & Bill Marsilii, it is déjà vu that unexpectedly guides ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) through an investigation into a shattering crime.
Called in to recover evidence after a bomb sets off a cataclysmic explosion on a New Orleans Ferry, Carlin is about to discover that what most people believe is only in their heads is actually something far more powerful – and will lead him on a mind-bending race to save hundreds of innocent people.
As Carlin’s investigation deepens, it not only probes through the very fabric of space and time, but becomes an innovative love story that unfolds in reverse, when Carlin discovers his puzzling emotional connection to a woman whose past holds the key to stopping a catastrophe that could destroy their future. In the split second of a glance, without words yet with complete trust, Carlin takes one chance to change everything.
Deja Vu: The Story Begins
The spine-tingling sensation of déjà vu has mystified humankind for centuries. The feeling hits at the strangest moments – when we fall instantly and madly in love with a total stranger, when we arrive at a brand new place we know like the back of our hand, whenever events occur that inexplicably feel like they have must have played out somehow, somewhere before in our lives. From philosophers to filmmakers, we have all wondered: Where does this feeling come from? Is it all in the mind or does it emerge from some deeper reality? Why does it happen? And most of all, what does it mean?
“It is these fascinating gray areas that lie at the heart of our film,” says the star of DÉJÀ VU, Denzel Washington.
A two-time Oscar winner who is regularly offered the cream of the current screenplay crop, Washington was swept up when he encountered DÉJÀ VU’s uniquely time-shifting, backwards-moving structure and its provocative exploration of one of life’s most inexplicable experiences through the lens of a love story and a crime-solving thriller. “I think we all have had the feeling that we have been somewhere before – I’ve had it, too,” Washington admits.“I used to have this dream about a particular place in Brooklyn, and then one day I went there and I couldn’t help but feel like I had been there before. It’s one of those big mysteries in life that I think everyone wants to get to the bottom of.”
Indeed, everyone who first came into contact with DÉJÀ VU was instantly intrigued. It’s not often that a screenplay arrives in leading producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s office and is purchased within a matter of hours – but DÉJÀ VU, written by Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii, was an exception to the rule.
Bruckheimer, who has become a brand unto himself with a roster of films that span many of the most popular and influential films of the last two decades, felt right away that the script was something special. Screenwriter Rossio (along with another partner Ted Elliot) had already written the wildly entertaining and phenomenally successful “Pirates of the Caribbean” series for Bruckheimer, as well such runaway hits as “Aladdin,” “Shrek” and “Zorro,” among others. But with DÉJÀ VU he and newcomer Bill Marsilii had ventured into fresh territory – taking a sleek modern thriller and poignant romance out onto the edges of modern physics’ understanding of time.
Recalls Bruckheimer, ”The concept of DÉJÀ VU was completely original, a real page-turner, and different from any other love story I had ever read. We were fortunate enough to be the first ones to get a peek at it, so we bought the screenplay within forty-eight hours of receiving it.”
Rossio and Elliot first formed their unusual writing partnership in the most modern of ways: in cyberspace.Around ten years ago, Rossio was in an America On Line chat-room talking to different aspiring writers about their careers, when he came across Marsilii, and was immediately impressed by his insights and smarts about movies. The two seemed to have an instant creative rapport.
But Terry lived in Los Angeles and Bill in New York, so they began exchanging ideas and script concepts by e-mail over the course of several years. One of those ideas was for an unconventional, intricately woven thriller/love-story that would take place unmoored from the usual rules of time. Starting with a deadly, heartbreaking tragedy, a federal agent would have to follow his sense of déjà vu and, using top-secret technology, trace his steps all the way back to the moment in time when he might have a shot at altering the catastrophe — and with it, his own chance for a once in a lifetime love affair.
The idea seemed to have enormous potential but was also unusually complex, pushing the thriller into realms where it usually doesn’t go. Soon Rossio and Marsilii were simultaneously developing the nuances of a romance-in-reverse, while also exploring next-generation surveillance technology and conversing with leading experts on the cutting-edge of String Theory and parallel universes.
Over time, Terry and Bill had each written different scenes that were fragments of DÉJÀ VU, but had never attempted to put it all together into one continuous narrative. Then, Rossio heard Jerry Bruckheimer Films was looking for a new large-scale film project and he had a feeling this story of romance, crime and time travel would resonate with the producer. He and Marsilii cleaned up what they had, and sent a first draft of DÉJÀ VU to Bruckheimer. They never looked back.
The result was wholly unlike the usual run-of-the-mill Hollywood thriller – and Bruckheimer loved that. Says Bruckheimer, “We felt that DÉJÀ VU had enormous drama to it because of what takes place around the love story. The idea that you can bring somebody back to life again is a wonderful concept. This story is risky, it’s entertaining and it’s romantic. And by bringing in Tony Scott to direct, we knew it would be filled with exciting action.” Bruckheimer knew that Scott would bring his distinctive panache with visceral thrills to the film – but also something more.
“Tony, Denzel, and I had all worked together on `Crimson Tide,’” says Bruckheimer, “but Tony and I hadn’t really done a love story together since `Top Gun.’ DÉJÀ VU presented those same elements of action and drama, but with the underpinnings of a beautiful romance tinged with incredible mystery. This was just the project to reunite us.”
Scott brought with him to DÉJÀ VU a well-deserved reputation for being not only one of the most accomplished, but also one of the hardest-working, directors in Hollywood. Famously, his vision is so specific and well-crafted that he wakes up every morning at 3 AM in order to draw his own storyboards for the day, mapping out every inch of every action scene before anyone else is even awake. Yet, typically sporting his signature pink baseball cap, khaki shorts and Cuban cigar, Scott is also renowned for making the non-stop pace of an action-thriller feel effortless to the cast and crew. Most of all, Scott is highly regarded for his unique ability to generate visual excitement and dramatic fireworks on the screen.
Sums up Bruckheimer, “Tony brings the amazing scope of his artistry to every visual aspect of a movie. That is why you hire Tony Scott. He is a great storyteller who is extremely dedicated to his craft. We both had the same goal for this film: to take you away for two hours so you can forget about everything else and just get lost in the magic on the screen….and when those lights go down you are in another world, the world of DÉJÀ VU.”
The Cast of Deja Vu
From the beginning, Jerry Bruckheimer knew exactly who he wanted to cast in DÉJÀ VU’s lead role of ATF agent Doug Carlin – the tough-minded investigator who is forced to look in wildly unexpected directions for the answers to a heartbreaking crime. The producer was instantly put in mind of Denzel Washington.
Not only is Washington one of today’s most lauded actors, with Oscar-winning roles as a corrupted police officer in “Training Day” and a Civil War soldier in “Glory,” but Bruckheimer was drawn to his skill at carving out indelible portraits of strong, take-charge characters in such films as “Man on Fire,” “The Pelican Brief” and, most recently, as the investigator in Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed bank heist movie “The Inside Man,”
Says Bruckheimer: ”Denzel is one of those actors who as a movie-goer you are always rooting for, which made him perfect for this role. As a federal agent, he’s faced with an incredible situation where he can change the past. There is a line halfway through DÉJÀ VU where Denzel’s character says `… all of my career I’ve been trying to catch people after they do something horrible. For once in my life I’d like to catch somebody before they doing something horrible. Alright? Can you understand that?’ That is the moment that you feel empathy for this tough ATF guy who has seen it all and you are completely hooked. We knew Denzel would bring this story to life, and have people in the audience want to take this journey with him.”
Adds director Tony Scott, “Doug Carlin has great intuition and Denzel is a very intuitive actor, so the fit seemed almost meant to be.”
Washington was drawn not only to the thriller aspects of the story but to a relationship unlike any other he had ever encountered, that between Doug and Claire Kuchever, who, in a bizarre twist typical of the film’s unexpected turns, appears to die before he gets to know her. “I loved that a big part of this story is a love story in reverse. My character encounters a young woman who’s dead when he meets her, and then he gets a chance to watch her live. It sounds complicated at first, but with Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott involved, I knew it was going to be a great ride,” Washington comments.
To play Claire Kuchever, a woman with such a strong allure that she compels Denzel Washington’s Doug to figure out her mystery, the filmmakers wanted a fresh face. They chose rising newcomer Paula Patton who recently starred as the diva who develops a stage show and a love affair with Outkast’s Andre Benjamin in the musical “Idlewild.
For Patton, the chance to work with Washington was a dream come true. It also gave her a sense of déjà vu in its own right. “The relationship between me and Denzel was something that happened so organically, it made me think even more about what that feeling of déjà vu means,” she remarks. “That same experience where you meet someone and you immediately feel comfortable and connected to them – that’s what happened between Denzel and me instantly!”
Patton continues: “Working with Denzel is like working with a jazz musician. He’s with the script but it can also go anywhere. He trusts himself and his instincts so deeply. It keeps you on your toes because you never know what direction he is going to turn next.”
Washington felt an equal affinity for Patton’s performance, “My character ends up watching every move Claire Kuchever makes through satellite surveillance footage leading up to her death. It is a bit voyeuristic, but it wasn’t hard at all with such a beautiful actress as Paula Patton,” he says. “The camera loves her, and everybody in the room falls for her.
Patton especially enjoyed turning Claire into a courageous and indelible female heroine. ”Tony Scott is a true lover of women, and if you really look at his movies, all of his female characters are strong, independent and unique,” she observes. “They all have a vulnerability and sexiness to them, but they are solid people. Even with a victim, like my character Claire is in this film, she still has a very compelling strength and power.”
Also joining the cast as the prime suspect of DÉJÀ VU is Jim Caviezel, who previously made a rich impression on moviegoers in a very different role – offering a remarkable portrait of Jesus Christ in his final days in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ.” Here, he plays a darker, disturbed character, but Caviezel simply couldn’t resist the screenplay’s rare mix of unpredictable thrills with compelling questions about the nature of reality.
“The story is definitely complex, but nobody can do complex better than Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott and make it the most extraordinary movie-going experience in the process,” says Caviezel. “I love that it’s a thriller that tackles both the seen and the unseen.
Caviezel was especially excited to have a chance to work with such Hollywood powerhouses as Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott. “I can remember seeing `Top Gun’ in my junior year of high school and because of that film applying to the United States Naval Academy three times. It was my favorite film ever and suddenly I thought my destiny was to fly jets,” he recalls. “Having this chance to work with them on this film was such a pleasure – Jerry and Tony are truly good people.”
Also reunited with Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott on DÉJÀ VU is Val Kilmer who teamed up with them many years ago as a young actor making his breakthrough in “Top Gun.” Since then Kilmer has gone on to a diverse career, starring as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s “The Doors,” working with Michael Mann in the acclaimed “Heat,” collaborating with David Mamet on “Spartan” and recently joining Robert Downey, Jr. in the action-comedy “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” For this film, Kilmer had the opportunity to partner up with Denzel Washington as FBI agent Andrew Pryzwarra. That and the chance to work together with Bruckheimer and Scott a second time around were compelling draws.
Says Kilmer, “The size and spectacle of Jerry and Tony’s imagination is very big and satisfying, and their palette for action adventure unstoppable. Tony Scott is one of my favorite people, not just directors. He says good morning to 100 people on the crew by name, and his enthusiasm is what gets everyone thru the shooting day. With Jerry and Tony, what I love being around is that they’re very genuine people. They like the life they’re living and they’re generous with it and it makes for a great experience.”
Rounding out the cast is Adam Goldberg as the brainiac physicist Denny who helps Denzel Washington understand the cutting-edge science behind the strange chain of events happening to him. Goldberg is best known for his roles on NBC’s sitcom “Joey” and such feature films as “Keeping Up With The Steins” and “Stay Alive” – but had never played a character like Denny before.
Modeling himself after some of today’s leading physicists, Goldberg had a blast with the role, even while his own mind was being blown with everything he learned. Says Goldberg, “I play the mad scientist who knows all the theories behind wormholes and time tunnels and ways of bending time and space. It was quite daunting at times, because you can’t really improvise your dialogue when you play a physicist.”
Denzel Washington: An Explosive Career
To keep the emphasis on realistic action at the core of DEJA VU, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott brought in a number of consultants from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the agency that in real-life is charged with the investigation of all federal bombings – including such infamous events as the tragic explosion of the Alfred E. Murrah building in Oklahoma City and the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center. The film’s advisors included retired agent Jerry Rudden, who has spent twenty years involved in these and other high-profile, post-blast investigations.
Rudden worked closely with Denzel Washington to train him in ATF protocol and also to help the actor forge the emotional nuances of a typically driven and devoted federal agent. ”Denzel and I talked a lot about the investigations I had been involved with, and especially the perceptions and feelings that are involved,” recalls Rudden. “He asked how I felt at the crime scene of the Oklahoma City Bombings, and I told him the hardest thing to do is not to become personally involved in the investigation. You try and handle everything objectively, but by the same token, you are still human.”
For Washington, working with real ATF agents was invaluable. “It helped to do research with real guys like Rudden who worked on the Pentagon bombing investigation, the first World Trade Center bombing and Oklahoma City. You name it, he was there and he knows what it’s really like,” he notes. “It helped me to really understand how, as a bomb specialist, Doug is not really as good at dealing with people as he is at dealing with evidence.”
In addition to briefing and training the cast, Bruckheimer also had Rudden make notes on the screenplay, adding in touches of authenticity and assuring the film represented the way actual disaster sites are handled. Says Bruckheimer, “One of the things Jerry Rudden mentioned that really rang true with us was that when you have a bombing and hundreds of people die, each person is treated like an individual homicide victim. This approach is one of our key plot points in DÉJÀ VU, so we knew we were on the right track. We wanted the audience to know right away that this explosion was a criminal act, and not an accident.”
Rudden also collaborated with Bruckheimer, Scott and Jim Caviezel in creating a true-to-life portrait of a dangerous bomber in the character of Oerstadt. He further consulted with production designer Chris Seagers and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick on details of sets, props and costumes that would make DEJA VU all the more authentic.
Says Mirojnick, “We had books and books to research when we shot the large disaster scenes. Tony was very specific that he didn’t want our extras to look like actors and Jerry Rudden was a huge help to us in discerning the different looks we were going for. It was all so real that at times during DÉJÀ VU it felt like we were making a documentary.”
The Mystery of Deja Vu: What Do We Know?
While the action elements of DÉJÀ VU are all about realism, the unconventional underpinning of the thriller is an inquiry into just what the feeling of déjà vu really is – and what it might reveal about the workings of the universe.
Déjà vu, though a common phenomenon, has defied easy explanations by biologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and physicists. Current theories, as the filmmakers discovered, range from the psychological to the downright fantastical and include:
Some neurologists believe that déjà vu happens when the brain latches onto a single detail – a smell, sight or sound – the familiarity of which causes it to confuse the past and present for a split second
Doctors point out that many patients with temporal lobe seizures experience the feeling of déjà vu so it may originate from unexpected stimulation to that part of the brain
Some psychoanalysts believe déjà vu is a form of “wish fulfillment” – in which deep-seated psychological desires come to the fore, as they usually do in dreams, but in waking life
Those who subscribe to the theory of reincarnation believe detailed episodes of déjà vu are evidence of memories of previous lives. Scientists on the fringes of new discoveries in quantum physics have suggested that déjà vu could be the result of parallel universes that accidentally intersect when the fabric of space-time is disrupted.
It is the latter theory that plays a vital role in the development of DÉJÀ VU’s suspenseful and thought-provoking twists. In order to get a better handle on what pioneering physicists believe about how time really operates, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott went right to the source: they picked the mega-sized brains of several world-class physicists including Dr. Brian Greene, an expert on String Theory and a professor of physics at Columbia University who has written such popular explorations of general relativity and quantum mechanics as The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe.
Says Bruckheimer, “We wanted to do our best to really explore what the various characters do in DÉJÀ VU, including the scientists in our Time Window Lab. I’ve made a career of telling stories that take you inside a world you’d never be a part of, yet, we make you part of it through this movie. Balancing science fiction and science fact can be tricky and complex, but we wanted to start this dialogue in DÉJÀ VU and open our eyes to possibilities that perhaps are not as far fetched as they seem.”
To get inside the surprising world of quantum physics, Bruckheimer and Scott sat down with Dr. Greene and asked him to explain some of theories behind time travel and parallel universes to them as simply as possible. Greene, in turn, simplified the concepts on a blackboard for Bruckheimer and Scott. He explained that we live in a world in which we are not always aware of the tricks our minds play on us when it comes to the medium of time. For example, he noted that when you look at yourself in a mirror that is 8 feet away, you might think you’re seeing yourself right now, but you are actually looking at yourself as you existed 16 nanoseconds ago! (That 16 nanoseconds is the time it takes for light to reflect off your face at the mirror and come back.) So, in a sense, you are actually looking into the past. We do it all the time. It happens whenever you look up in the night sky to admire the North Star – even though it appears to be twinkling right at you, in fact you are actually peering at the star as it was 630 years ago. So one thing we know for sure is that time isn’t always what it seems to be.
Getting into even more mind-bending concepts, Green explained how some physicists now believe, based on the latest evidence, that there exist an infinite number of parallel universes in the cosmos — and that we just happen to lead our lives in one of them, unaware of the others. Once considered pure science fiction, the theory of parallel universes has now been directly implicated by recent cosmological observations. Though there are many different views of how parallel universes might operate, one of the most elegant explanations comes from an exciting new frontier in contemporary physics: String Theory. String Theory posits that the universe consists of tiny strings or membranes that vibrate in 11 dimensions. In this theory of a multi-dimensional cosmos, parallel universes could be separated from our own by as little as a fraction of a millimeter. Greene uses the analogy that our universe and everything in it might be just one thin slice of bread in an inconceivably vast loaf.
Though most of these theories still leave many questions unanswered, the potential they suggest for time travel and manipulation of the past or future is mind-boggling. As Dr. Greene says, “The realization there’s more to the universe than we are directly aware of helps us appreciate our place in the cosmos.”
Continues Bruckheimer, “Understanding parallel universes was one of our biggest challenges in developing the DÉJÀ VU story. We wanted to know by consulting the experts in this area how we could convince audiences that there really are parallel universe – that, even as I am sitting here right now, there might be yet another Jerry talking somewhere else saying something completely different. An then how do you bridge these parallel universes? That’s another area we explore in DÉJÀ VU.”
At the Time Window Lab, things become more peculiar as the scientists utilize “wormholes” to journey across the gap between past and future. Wormholes, also known as “Einstein-Rosen bridges” (based on a paper by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in which they proposed a bridge that could travel between a black hole and white hole at a speed faster than light) and “space tunnels,” are a hypothetical feature of space-time that could provide a shortcut between one point in time and another. Wormholes, similar to black holes, are created by sources of intense gravity that cause the space-time fabric to fold or distort. Just as a worm can get to the other side of an apple by journeying through its center, wormholes could provide a quick path to an alternate place in this or other universes.
So can we alter events that have already happened? Can our future really change our past? The answers are very much open to debate – and that just adds to the fun of DÉJÀ VU.
Says Tony Scott, “I want audiences to leave the theater thinking this type of travel through time is really possible. If they haven’t quite perfected this technology today, scientists will do it tomorrow. When the audience takes that leap with us, they’ll be swept up in the story.”
There Is No Place Like New Orleans
Production of DÉJÀ VU was set to begin in Fall of 2005 amidst the watery beauty and inimitably soulful atmosphere of New Orleans. But in August of 2005, the unprecedented power of Hurricane Katrina struck, devastating the city and rocking the nation. While recovery efforts began, the film was put on indefinite hold. At first Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott considered looking elsewhere in the United States for an appropriate location. But they both agreed: from the unique architecture of the French Quarter to the funky swamps of the bayou, there was simply no other place on earth like New Orleans. And it seemed that now New Orleans needed people to stand by it more than ever.
“I was already in love with New Orleans, having made several films here,” says Bruckheimer. “Tony had never been there before, but he too fell in love with the all the French and Spanish influences. The city has a distinct culture that is unforgettable, and Tony and I both knew this was right for the story of DEJA VU. New Orleans deservedly became a character in the film.“
Unable to give up the dream of shooting in the city, the filmmakers stayed in close contact with the New Orleans Film Commission as recovery efforts progressed, hoping a time would soon come when they could safely return. By early 2006, the city had begun to rebuild its infrastructure, and the production of DÉJÀ VU didn’t waste a second, becoming the very first film to start shooting in New Orleans post-Katrina – and setting an example for other productions that New Orleans was open again for filming.
Continues director Tony Scott, “We had adapted the DÉJÀ VU script to take place in some of the most interesting New Orleans locations and show the incredible landscape through the story’s car chases and ferry sequences. DÉJÀ VU is set against a city in a time warp, a beautiful time warp, much like New Orleans.”
The New Orleans locals were especially supportive of DÉJÀ VU bringing the excitement of the movies back to their city. ”While filming on the streets of New Orleans, everyday locals would come up to me and thank us for bringing this film here, for helping us revitalize their city in need,,” recalls Bruckheimer. “Tony and I, and the cast and crew felt extremely proud to be part of the rebirth of the city and the return of the film industry there.”
When the production held an open casting call for extras at a mall in Metarie, the community demonstrated overwhelming interest as over 5,000 people showed up ready to take part. The production also garnered the support of many local government organizations including the Coast Guard, National Guard, New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans Fire Department, EMS, Department of Transportation, Port of New Orleans, Army, and others that lent assistance when needed, whether it be closing down a bridge for a car chase or securing an area for a large pyrotechnic explosion.
Just being in New Orleans during those early days of its recovery was extremely moving for cast and crew. Says Denzel Washington, ”I was truly inspired by the people that I met in New Orleans who were fighting to get back their lives. Katrina was a tragedy beyond imagination. I got in my truck everyday and just took rides around the city by myself to see mile after mile of devastation. I’ll just never forget what I witnessed.”
Besides providing job opportunities and priming the local economy, DÉJÀ VU also left its mark behind in subtler ways. When shooting at night on the ferry at Algiers, the art department had to put up additional lighting on the Missisippi Bridge to be able to see the New Orleans skyline in its glory. Many locals commented that the bridge never looked so good since Katrina. New large signage was custom-made on the ferry docks, and the owners of the docks liked them so much they ended up leaving it all there.
Production also coincided with the emotional first Mardi Gras to take place after Katrina. A decision was made to film one of the parades at night, and on February 26th the DÉJÀ VU crew took to world-famous Canal Street to capture the Endymion Krewe parade in progress with multiple cameras. During the sequence nothing was altered — Mardi Gras was filmed as it was, celebrating even in the midst of tough times.
Key to the mystery and action in DÉJÀ VU is the shattering ferry blast that kicks off Doug Carlin’s investigation. So once in New Orleans, the filmmakers leased the Alvin Stumpf Ferry, a massive, 225-foot long, 75-foot wide, 50-foot high boat that typically runs between the Canal Street and Algiers ferry landing on the Mississippi River.
For a little over a month the cast and crew of DÉJÀ VU made the ferry and the Mississippi River their daily work site. In close quarters cars exploded, guns were fired, and hundred of background players re-created the chaos of a major disaster. Then came the pivotal moment: a simulated pyrotechnics explosion with flames that would rage 350 feet high, all undertaken in the middle of the Mississippi River, under the Crescent City Connection bridge, while Tony Scott and his camera department targeted fifteen cameras on the cataclysm. (In order to prevent undue alarm at the flaming spectacle, New Orleans media warned the public ahead of time.)
The aftermath of the deadly explosion was equally complex to capture, with key action moments filmed in the Turning Basin of the Mississippi River. Additional elements of the ferry sequence aftermath were shot in the calmer waters of a giant tank on a soundstage. Here the filmmakers and the stunt crew had complete control over the elements as they sank cars and shot the principal actors in action with underwater cameras.
Says Bruckheimer, “It was really something to see 20 stunt people jump from the ferry at different levels — some from as high as 25 feet. Several of the stunt people lit themselves on fire before jumping. It looked so realistic it was incredible.”
Chases Through Time
Beginning with the ferry explosion, the tension in DÉJÀ VU builds on both a psychological level and a physical level. As the story crescendos, so too does the action, with innovative chase scenes that not only travel the roads – but also travel through time.
For the actors, the challenges were intense. As the bombing’s prime suspect, Oerstadt, Jim Caviezel was especially put to the test, over and over again. In one riveting scene, Oerstadt is smashed right through with a car – which necessitated that Caviezel shoot the stunningly realistic scene inside a steel cage for his own safety. Notes the actor, “They put me in a cage and then ran two cars into me. It took everything in me not to say no. All I kept thinking was if this cage collapses, there goes my legs.”
Caviezel also had to shoot physically demanding MP-5 machine guns. To prepare, he trained in preproduction with ATF agents who let him feel the full throttle of these powerful weapons by practicing with live rounds. “I knew my gun-toting had to look believable for the scene to get the intensity it deserves. Even though on film I had blanks, I wanted to show that realistic torque and pressure. Especially against Denzel Washington. I had to prepare on the highest level.”
Washington also had to face moments of fear. “There was this day when we were shooting under the Mississippi bridge and just to get down to the set we had to climb over railings and shimmy on narrow planks while 350 feet in the air,” he recalls. “I saw Tony Scott go over the side, but you know he has experience rock climbing. That is when ego comes into play. My faith was tested but it was cool, fun and exciting.”
Meanwhile, newcomer Paula Patton was not only zip-tied, bound, gagged and beaten, she also had to shoot a scene submerged in the treacherous Mississippi River – with her hands tied to a 5 lb. steering wheel prop. She explains: “I had no protection; just this little sundress on with a leather jacket. No flotation devices. Tony wanted it to look real. Suddenly there I was kicking in the heavy river currents, literally kicking for my life. The Coast Guard and stunt crew were standing by in case of any trouble. I was scared but didn’t want to say no to Tony, and we got the shot.”
Scott is particularly proud of the film’s intricately choreographed car chases which he hopes will take the high-speed scenes that often become audience favorites to the next level. “The car chases in this movie are so cool and nothing has ever been done like them before,” says Scott. “Because of the time travel elements, you will see a split-level chase happening both four days in the past and in the present moment. The four days in the past chase is happening at night in the rain, and the present day chase is happening during daytime commuter traffic. Denzel spins around and is suddenly driving against traffic. I think at one point there are 5 car wrecks in the span of 15 seconds. It’s pretty amazing.”
The majority of the car action was set in motion on the Mississippi Bridge which connects the west and east banks of New Orleans. The bridge is 300 feet high so there was absolutely no room for mistakes even while flipping cars right and left. Stunt coordinator Chuck Picerni of Stunts Unlimited comments: ”Everything had to be precise. We had to make the chase on the bridge exciting, but at the same time think about safety and the aspect that we were closing down this major thoroughfare. I think at one point with the local precision drivers and stunt professionals we had a stunt crew of over 50 people orchestrating the car chase sequences.”
Veteran action cinematographer Paul Cameron, who previously worked with Denzel Washington on “Man on Fire,” enhanced the visual excitement of the chases even more with a special camera rig called the Ultimate Arm — which feature a large arm that can swing the camera 360 degrees around a car in five seconds.
Still, not all of the chases in DÉJÀ VU happen in cars. Jim Caviezel got to try his hand at a chase scene that takes place aboard the whizzing airboats that ply the bayous swamps — all while three helicopters were hovering just above his head to capture birds-eye aerials.
“Boy that was hairy,” says Caviezel. “You don’t want to go full speed in an airboat because the steering is all over the place and the boat leans so easily. There was a point when a helicopter was overhead, there were two other airboats in the water, and three police boats. Suddenly there were 12-foot swells in the water, and on top of that gun fire. I am lucky our stunt team were such great athletes as they controlled the situation to make it easier on me. I am sure it will look great on film.”
Secrets of Surveillance: Creating the Time Window Lab
Doug Carlin’s search to understand what happened at the moment the ferry bomb exploded and what it has to do with his past and future ultimately takes him to one of DÉJÀ VU’s most intriguing locations: the secret Time Window Lab in which Doug can view surveillance footage of past events.
The lab was built on a stage in Los Angeles under the aegis of production designer Chris Seagers, who was given a distinct mission from Tony Scott: to give the lab a raw-edged, high-tech feel in which everything was digital and state-of-the art and yet cables, wires and ducts were exposed. Says Seagers, “Tony wanted it to feel like the lab was a work in progress, that everyday the scientists and Secret Service would come in and hack away at trial and error to improve it. Plus, he wanted the feeling that these people spend their entire day working intensely in the Lab, so there is also a chaos to this very tight, claustrophobic space.”
The whole concept of the Time Window Lab reflects a new world in which visual surveillance is increasingly used to watch over human traffic at airports, gas stations, ATM’s, stores, offices and on freeways, as well as to reconstruct criminal activity. Indeed, prior to Katrina, New Orleans already had in place a surveillance system with six satellite cameras at various locations, though these were destroyed during the storm. Surveillance also came to fore in the story of the recent London Underground bombings, as the culprits were apprehended using clues provided by the cameras set up in the underground system.
Thus, at the center of the lab’s design is the main surveillance screen, made up of 72 tiles, so that an image at any given time can be blown up from one foot to 20 larger-than-life feet. A special video unit crew was assigned the task of capturing every visual that appears on the tiles. Ultimately, over 500 hours of footage were shot that would be edited and projected in this Time Window Lab set.
High Speed and High Definition: The Visal Design of Deja Vu
The look of DÉJÀ VU is as innovative as its storyline. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “Tony Scott’s films have a signature look with fast cuts and unusual camera angles. In DÉJÀ VU, he uses many unique visual techniques to enhance the storytelling.”
Rather than sticking to one form of camera equipment, DÉJÀ VU uses a high-tech fusion of several, including the high definition Genesis camera, which provides the ability to shoot in low light while maintaining high-quality, as well as being incredibly mobile. Cinematographer Paul Cameron was thrilled to use them. “We couldn’t have shot DÉJÀ VU without using Genesis cameras because they gave us a ton of flexibility,” he comments. “The main reason for using Genesis conceptually in DÉJÀ VU is our Time Window Lab set that looks into the past had to be photographed on a stage with rear screen projection. We wanted the absolute sharpest clearest image so that when we re-photographed the Time Window with actors in front of it, it would be absolutely sharp and 3D as possible.”
In a movie first, the visionary Time Track camera by Digital Air, which has been used often in film to create a stop motion frozen look, was used as an effect in DÉJÀ VU. When shooting interiors of Claire’s House, the movement of Paula Patton was tracked with trails to produce a stunning ghosting effect as 160 small cameras lenses shot in sequence. A Lydar camera, which was originally made for the military, was also used to scan structures such as Claire’s house to show diagrams and create a sense of place in the Time Window Lab. The Lydar technology is not able to scan human beings, so Tony Scott asked DÉJÀ VU’s visual effects house, Asylum, to create a computer-generated Lydar version of a person. Asylum created an additional 100 visual effects shots for the film.
In addition, several military techniques such as Infrared, Thermal Imaging, and Heat Impulse visual imagery were utilized in DÉJÀ VU, adding further to the realism.
For Tony Scott, using different cameras was just another way of getting to the heart of a story that is about the way love and action occur in split-seconds that seem divorced from the usual framework of time. “I see different cameras sort of like different tools used in an investigation,” he summarizes. “All the imagery used in DÉJÀ VU works to make the story’s mix of romance, crime investigation and time travel more convincing.”
These production notes provided by Touchstone Pictures.
Deja Vu
Starring: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg
Directed by: Tony Scott
Screenplay by: Terry Rossio, Bill Marsilli
Release Date: November 22th, 2006
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, brief sexuality, a scene of drug use.
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $64,038,616 (35.5%)
Foreign: $116,518,934 (64.5%)
Total: $180,557,550 (Worldwide)