Déjà Vu 2006 is Tony Scott's Minority Report

  Blender Dumbass
October 19, 2025

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Tony Scott famously didn't care about the time travel plot of Déjà Vu which freaked out the writers of the film. As they said, he cared more about the action and surveillance aspects of the movie. He famously cared a lot about surveillance, as visible from his previous Jerry Bruckheimer collaboration Enemy of the State. And that means, that a sort of sci-fi surveillance movie, marks Déjà Vu as the closest thing Tony Scott did to Steven Spielberg's Minority Report.

Both Minority Report and Déjà Vu play around with law enforcement having access to a technology that can look through time. In Minority Report those were the precogs, which can see future murders. So that the police can prevent them, before they happen. The film sees good things in preventing murder, but ultimately shows that this sort of thing is too bad, when it comes to human rights. And that privacy is more important. Déjà Vu doesn't do as good of a political message, in that regard.

In Déjà Vu current day FBI has a secret tech, which they, at first, explain to be a rendering of satellite images into a 3D stream, where they can see everything. But the stream only shows things that happen 4 and a half days ago. And they can't pause or rewind anything. They can only move the 3D camera around. And maybe record what they see.

This already makes Tony Scott flex his directing muscle a bit. The images on the screen are actually footage that Tony Scott had to direct earlier. Yet because the FBI agents are adjusting the footage on the spot to see different things, the camera has to do some rather precise stuff. And, as always, Tony Scott, directs the shit out of it.

We learn later that the technology explanation given by the FBI to our main character ( played by Denzel Washington ) is bullshit. And what actually happens is a sort of weak worm-hole which allows them to peak their noses through time. Which leads to an attempt to communicate with the past, and ultimately to actual time travel of the main character. Who uses the knowledge he has from what happens next, and from surveillance he had done through this tech, to try to stop a terrorist attack.

In my review of Tony's other film Man on Fire I observed rather strong signs of depression in the man. And even compared the intensity of the film to the work of another depressed director Lars Von Trier. In this movie Tony Scott uses a VonTririan technique. He kills kids to make you care. Technically he kind of did it in Man on Fire too. But, spoiler alert, she ended up being alive.

Déjà Vu kind of tries to do the same thing. In the beginning, the film shows a terrorist attack, where a huge explosion takes down a ship full of tourists. Which include a full school of little children. One of which is played by Elle Fanning. A sister of the actor who played the little girl in Man on Fire. Later though, as the film goes into sci-fi, we see a hope. There is possibility that our main character can go back in time to stop the explosion. And therefor save all those kids and Elle Fanning's character too.

Here is an interesting observation. The film shows an example of how wormholes work. They use the basic folded paper analogy you are probably familiar with. A similar analogy later appears in Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar. And then in his next sci-fi movie ( which also has time travel ) Tenet, Nolan casts John David Washington. A son of Denzel Washington, from Déjà Vu.

Also interesting that both Dakota Fanning ( from Man on Fire ) and Elle Fanning started their careers on a Steven Spielberg produced TV series Taken. And Spielberg worked with both of them later as well. Now Interstellar is a unique movie in Nolan's filmography. It was not an original Nolan idea. Yes, in the end the screenplay was written by the Nolan brothers. But the story was in development before that. And one of the early directors attached to the project was Steven Spielberg. Some very Spielberg-like ideas are still very present in the final film.

Now Kip Thorne who was the scientist attached to Interstellar also helped with warm-hole logic for the film Contact from 1997. Which is starring Judie Foster and Jena Malone. The film was directed by Spielberg's friend Robert Zemeckis who's career would be pretty much non-existent if not because of Spielberg. And also based on Spielberg's biography by Joseph McBride Spielberg was used as an insurance policy in 1976 by the producers of Taxi Driver ( where Judy Foster plays a child-prostitute ). Basically, the producers didn't trust that Martin Scorsese knew what he was doing. I know... it is shocking now. But back then Scorsese still wasn't considered the great film-maker we know today. So producers agreed to make the film, only if Spielberg would be on set to have an eye on Marty. And help him if he doesn't know what to do. Steven probably didn't do shit. Marty was more than capable of making that movie himself. But still, I find that interesting. Also if we go back to Contact, both Contact and Interstellar have Matthew McConaughey as one of the leads.

Jena Malone and Elle Fanning ended up actually working together in 2016 on a little movie by a filmmaker from Denmark Nicolas Winding Refn. The film is called The Neon Demon. And I have absolutely no idea why I brought all of that up.

In any case, Steven Spielberg made Minority Report ( with Tom Cruise. The same Tom Cruise he later used in his War of the Worlds with Dakota Fanning. Yet again I don't know why I bring this up ). Minority Report was literally anti-surveillance. Kind of like Tony Scott's Enemy of the State. And yet, specifically being interested in making a movie about surveillance Tony Scot made Déjà Vu. A movie where both surveillance and even something similar to precrime, is a good thing that actually saves a bunch of kids.

The film fails to show that surveillance is bad. Like it does have the mandatory creepy moment when you think that it is not a good thing. Like when the cops and the FBI end up watching a woman take a shower without her knowledge or consent. So there is an attempt to do it. But in the of the film, the surveillance was used for good.

If anything, the film goes from "surveillance is bad" to "surveillance is not so bad". Which is a failed rhetoric. While Minority Report goes from "precrime is good" to "precrime is not good actually". Which is way more of a successful way to stay against human rights violations. Also the film has both terrorism and child safety. Literal government boogiemen to use surveillance.

Jerry Bruckheimer ( the producer ) at the time was kind of a friend of the US government. He did Pearl Harbor where if not for the US navy, the film would have been almost impossible. And he produced Tony's brother's Ridley Scott's film Black Hawk Down where a similar collaboration needed to be made. And a conspiracy theory could be formed that the film was a joined collaboration between the US navy and the Israel Defense Forces. Like, in a lot of the shots of the US base in that film you could see water bottles of "Mey Eden" an Israeli water company. Like it even says "מי עדן" in Hebrew in some of the shots.

Let's make a theory. After 9/11 everybody was crazy about terrorism. Even Spielberg made his War of the Worlds ( with Dakota Fanning ) kind of in response to 9/11. The US government was pushing for an insane amount of surveillance. And they needed to tell people about how "good" surveillance was. They could have asked Jerry Bruckheimer to return a favor. And produce a pro-surveillance movie.

The problem was that he hired Tony Scott. The same Tony Scott that earlier with the same Jerry Bruckheimer did Enemy of the State. A literal anti-surveillance movie. And a one time that both of them wanted to make a film about military Crimson Tide, the military didn't want to work with them, because the script, they thought, was against military.

That explains why Tony Scott was so obsessed about changing things in the script. Pissing off the writers. That explains why he was so obsessed with the "surveillance" aspect of it. That probably was the biggest biff he had. And why he quit mid-way during the making of the film. And had to be persuaded by Denzel Washington to come back. He probably realized what kind of movie he was making. And didn't really want to make this movie.

If Spielberg found both Dakota and Elle Fanning. And if Spielberg just made War of the Worlds with Dakota, which was in reaction to 9/11. But without making the surveillance a good thing. Maybe using Elle Fanning for the film was kind of a signal. A kind of way to say "I know this movie will not work the way I want it. Steven Spielberg did it better.".

Happy Hacking!!!

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  Troler c:0



I wonder how he compares to Michael Bay. I haven't seen neither movies.


I wonder who was the first one on cinema to do that. Not asking in literature, since Zagreus did it. "When Jupiter left his kingdom in the boy's charge, the king's jealous wife Juno (Hera), conspired with her servants, the Titans, to murder the illegitimate child. Beguiling him with toys, the Titans ambushed and killed the boy. To dispose of the evidence of their crime, the Titans chopped the body into pieces, cooked, and ate them. However the boy's sister Minerva (Athena), who had been part of the murder plot, kept the heart. When her father the king returned, the sister turned informer and gave the boy's heart to the king.">69

I am pretty use all these in your blogs to create a sort of movie WikipediA.


Comparing yourself to S. Spielberg is a bit extreme. The dude is a legend. If you want to beat him, join him.

... replies ( 1 )

  Blender Dumbass c:1



@Troler

I wonder how he compares to Michael Bay. I haven't seen neither movies.

I just made a review comparing the two, lol

Reply

  Blender Dumbass c:1

... c:0

  Troler c:0

And, as always, Tony Scott, directs the shit out of it.

I wonder how he compares to Michael Bay. I haven't seen neither movies.

He kills kids to make you care

I wonder who was the first one on cinema to do that. Not asking in literature, since Zagreus did it. "When Jupiter left his kingdom in the boy's charge, the king's jealous wife Juno (Hera), conspired with her servants, the Titans, to murder the illegitimate child. Beguiling him with toys, the Titans ambushed and killed the boy. To dispose of the evidence of their crime, the Titans chopped the body into pieces, cooked, and ate them. However the boy's sister Minerva (Athena), who had been part of the murder plot, kept the heart. When her father the king returned, the sister turned informer and gave the boy's heart to the king.">69

Jena Malone and Elle Fanning ended up actually working together in 2016 on a little movie by a filmmaker from Denmark Nicolas Winding Refn. The film is called The Neon Demon. And I have absolutely no idea why I brought all of that up.

I am pretty use all these in your blogs to create a sort of movie WikipediA.

Steven Spielberg did it better

Comparing yourself to S. Spielberg is a bit extreme. The dude is a legend. If you want to beat him, join him.

@Troler


I just made a review comparing the two, lol

Reply