I watched the two movies: “Deja Vu” and “Source Code. ” In this essay, I will compare the similarities and differences in the two movie plots. Both are about men who find themselves in a situation where they must travel back to a specific window of time to attempt to prevent a catastrophic event. Both, in the process of completing their mission, fell in love with a woman fated to be killed if they failed. So, these stories seem very similar, however, there are many differences within the two movies which I will explore in the following paragraphs.
In the Source Code Colter Stevens is sent to an eight minute time period to find the bomber on a train. He would be sent back to this eight minute period as an entirely different person (being injected into this person’s consciousness). Every time at the end of the eight minute mark he would die and be sent back to a pod. Inside the pod he talks to Goodwin who talks with Stevens when in his alternate reality state. Colter Stevens’ real body consists of only the upper half, due to an accident on a mission in Afghanistan which made him the perfect candidate for the job.
So in this movie the way he travels time is by superimposing his consciousness in time. In deja vu Doug Carlin an ATF agent solves the terrorist attack (A bomb was set off on a boat full of children, women and soldiers who had gotten home from war) by getting the opportunity to join a secret team that has new technology called “Snow White ? allowing the controller to go exactly 4 ? days in the past allowing the controller to capture 360 degree everywhere 4 ? days in the past.
After they witness the murder of Doug Carlin’s old friend that also worked for ATF, Doug goes back in time to fix the past and change the future by sending himself through a portal of some sort. So they’re similar in that they both have set periods they go back in time to, however, their methods are very different. Source Code and Deja Vu both have their main character fall in love. In Source Code, Colter Stevens successfully completes his mission while falling for a girl he doesn’t know though he gets to know her through repeating the 8 minutes again and again. t one point after being placed on the train again, he tried leaving the train and getting off at the first stop. Stevens tried to see if he could run away with the woman, but to no success. In Deja Vu, Doug Carlin falls in love with a girl that was used as a lead towards the beginning. At the end of the movie Carlin gets into the teleporter planning on changing the past himself. He then gets to live while able to love someone.
Even though they both fell in love the difference is that in Deja Vu the guy gets the girl at the end, and in the Source Code, Stevens dies at the hand of his handler, Goodwin, in what is best described as a fit of mercy. They had formed a relationship, and it broke her heart to know he would never be with the woman he loved, for many reasons. In both Source Code and Deja Vu the main characters completed their mission(s) and successfully traveled in time. However, in Source Code Stevens is in an alternate reality and is put into another persons body.
Stevens travels to an exact period in time and can restart, whereas in Deja Vu if Doug fails he wouldn’t have a second chance. The main character in Deja Vu Doug Carlin teleports back in time to save 300+ lives. In doing so he sacrifices himself, though the real Doug Carlin is alive. Both movies were very intriguing, though I found that there are more differences than similarities between the two. Time travel has always been a mystery for everyone and it intrigues our minds to expand out of this world.
