MovieChat Forums > Deja Vu (2006) Discussion > Was that Denzel in the body bag?

Was that Denzel in the body bag?

posted 14 years ago by Haasino
45 replies | jump to latest

I've seen the movie several times now, and one thing I'm still trying to figure out is the scene when Denzel shows up at the scene of the first ferry bombing. He's standing near a row of body bags containing some of the recovered victims and his phone rings. Then, as he goes to answer it, he looks down at one of the body bags and seems to react as if there is a phone ringing inside the body bag as well.

I took this as a clue that the body inside the bag was the version of Denzel from a prior failed attempt to go back and prevent the bombing... and that his same phone was on his body inside the bag. My friend, however, disagrees...

What's the opinion of others? Was that another version of Denzel inside the body bag, or am I reading too far into this?

[–] abro16 12 years ago

according to actual scene,
phone rings, Doug thinks its his phone,
but when he checks,
it is not his phone but
some dead-body's phone in bag.

Now, your explanation, it could be the phone in body bag of Denzel failed attempt, could be logical.
But in truth, nothing could be said,
its just normal scenerio, when same ringtone sometimes making confusion.

[–] toymit 12 years ago

Initially,I thought it was his partners phone ringing when Denzel's character was trying to get hold of him but watching it again I can see how it could be Denzel in the body bag from a previous failed attempt.

[–] Marhleet_DR 11 years ago

It was a poignant moment where his phone wasn't ringing but a phone in a bag was still connected to someone who cared, not himself from the future, and he wasn't ringing his partner. Just another phone.

Who drags a body out of the water and the phone still works ?

[–] sudderth1027 11 years ago

That's right! How could any cell phone in one of those body bags work? Those bodies were dragged out of the water. I think the producer made a mistake in having a cell phone from one of those bags ring. That's impossible. No one in those body bags could have had a working cell phone.

[–] screen14 11 years ago

When the EM field is explained, the technician is not referring to electronic devices. He's talking about the electrical impulses from cellular activity in a living creature and mentions a hamster and a fly for example. Objects, like the note Minuti discovered, can be pushed through the EM field as long as the mass is kept low. When Denzel travels back, he leaves his phone behind to keep the mass low, not because it won't survive the field.

On the morning of the ferry blast, it is not Minuti's body and phone ringing inside the bag. Minuti's body was dumped in the water off the property the terrorist owned. It has to be Denzel's body from the first time he attempts to stop the blast. Otherwise, there would be two of him living in one time and he would run in to his former self trying to solve the case. When he stands over the body bag, he has a moment of deja vu to support what the technician said about the possibility of Denzel getting a call from the coroner to identify his own dead body, but he has no vivid recollection of that dialogue because each time Denzel travels back he doesn't realize it until he lives out the day that he climbs into the chamber and is revived in the hospital.
The problem is that the living Denzel's phone doesn't ring along with the one in the body bag, even though the number should be the same. Not only that, but the dead Denzel shouldn't have his phone, as indicated when he grabs the hand clock from Claire's place and thus repeats the same action he took in his first time travel.

[–] ithehappy 9 years ago

I think the same, more or less.

One thing is, that is Doug's body, I think I am pretty much sure about that. There are a lot of proof spread over the movie which factifies (for the lack of a better word) that.

Before going into the machine (wormhole? LOL) the technician says that no matter how hard they try Doug will end up getting a call from the coroner's office and he then would be standing over a corpse, which would be his, so there's that. Doug replies to the technician the that you can be wrong a million times but gotta be right only once. Well million times is just a metaphor here I believe, but anyway that means that hey have done the time-travelling thing a lot of time before, but each time they failed to complete the mission as per they/Doug want, until the final time, where he does everything right, I suppose.

Now how the mobile phone is there? Well I don't know. But it's his phone's ringtone (yeah it's a common ringtone, but that's not the point), cause he takes his phone out thinking it's ringing but he sees that his phone isn't ringing at all, but the phone inside the body bad is ringing, he stands there looking at it kind of surprised (here he is standing next to his own corpse perhaps, as per what the technician said to him earlier?). Now how the phone exists there is still unclear to me.

Well that's that, I can't think more about it. Saw the movie in theatre back in 06/07, I remember that time I was in college, and just finished watching the movie now, well, it's been 9 years yet the implied plot is still not fully clear, I guess that's what Deja Vu is, don't know really.

[–] the_notorious_bid 9 years ago

Carlin only goes back in time ONCE!! We are viewing it more than once. Essentially, any "confusion" on that fact is OUR Deja Vu.

The EM fields should render a cell phone useless. So, even IF a cell phone had been taken back in time, it shouldn't work. But if it did, it shouldn't work after being submerged. If it did, I may need to change my cell phone provider.

As for the body in the bag, it could be anyone. There's no proof that it's Carlin nor Manutti. Essentially, it's whomever you believe COULD be in the bag!

[–] david1806 9 years ago

Gaaahh...just watched the film and now reading all these replies, it's making my head spin, so it is!! 😨

[–] 8 years ago

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