This Time Travel Movie Starring Denzel Washington And Val Kilmer Was The Perfect Follow-Up To Minority Report

Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report asked important questions about free will, and just four years later, a different sci-fi action-thriller starring Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer explored similar ideas: Déjà Vu. Tom Cruise’s Precrime Chief John Anderton and Denzel Washington’s ATF Special Agent Douglas Carlin are both law enforcement agents who push technology further than anyone else ever has to change the future. While Minority Report 2 never happened, the thematic link between the two films makes Déjà Vu a spiritual successor.

Based on the novella The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick, Minority Report takes place in the near future, set in 2054, and using Precogs to predict a crime that is yet to be committed is a technology so well-established that it’s about to be expanded nation-wide. Déjà Vu is set in the present of 2006, where a metaphysical breakthrough allows for the same ideas Minority Report‘s story posits about destiny and predetermination to be played out by looking back in time rather than forward.

Déjà Vu’s Time Travel Story Flipped Minority Report’s Premise

Minority Report is built around the idea of stopping something that has not yet happened. Through the Precogs, Precrime agents know who and when crimes are committed, but not where or why. Déjà Vu introduces “Snow White,” a space-time bridge between the present and a very specific past, exactly four days and six hours previous. In Déjà Vu, Denzel’s Carlin is recruited to help solve a bombing that has already occurred. Using Snow White, Carlin uses clues of when and how to solve who, essentially working off of the inverse information that the red balls provide the Precrime Unit.

In Déjà Vu, because Carlin approaches Snow White’s abilities from a cop’s angle instead of a scientist’s, he pushes past the mathematical probabilities to prove it is possible to not just observe the past, but interact with it. Carlin first sends a note back and then eventually himself, changing the course of the future and preventing the bombing from succeeding. Minority Report looks to the future to stop a crime that is believed to be inevitable from happening, but Déjà Vu does the reverse: looking at the past to create a different future.

Minority Report vs. Déjà Vu: Which Time Travel Movie Was Better?

History Remembers This Major Collaboration In Minority Report

After many rumored collaborations between Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, Minority Report was a highly anticipated summer blockbuster between these two film titans. Even with a high budget for the era, Minority Report was a box office success, recuperating over three and a half times its budget. Critics and audiences responded well to Minority Report, with the sci-fi film even winning an Oscar for Best Sound Editing. By comparison, Déjà Vu had a decent box office total, making back more than double the budget, but overall had mixed reviews – despite being the third of Denzel Washington’s films with director Tony Scott.

Minority Report and Déjà Vu pose similar questions but approach the topic with different tones and genres. Minority Report is hard sci-fi with a cyberpunk aesthetic and elements of horror as well, and Minority Report‘s iconic use of AI is shockingly ahead of its time. Déjà Vu is more of a crime thriller with a time-travel hook. Both Minority Report and Déjà Vu are excellent movies about fate, but Minority Report is the time travel story film history remembers.