I love this movie but every time I watch it I come away with more things to question. For instance the very first time we see them watching Claire in her home I got the distinct impression she seems spooked by something, its almost as if she can sense someone watching her, which we know is Denzel's character and all the others watching the time window. He's a pretty smart guy because he seems to twig onto this as well with no one at all telling him that this is a time machine. Also the fridge has the message he made during this first observation so did another version of him already make the trip back? I got the impression that there are 3 versions of him. The one we see in the first half of the movie, the one that goes back, and the other version that walks up to Claire at the end, and there's a dead version in the water with the car that exploded.
That can be frustrating. I think there were as many as 5 versions of Doug in the movie, Version 1 in the body bag when we first see him at the bombing with his cellphone ringing Version 2 Well someone had to write that message with the magnetic letters. Version 3 the version we see going back in time, but who wrote that message before if he hadn't already made a trip? That actually might be a 4th Doug, and then there's the one at the very end of the film who walks up to Claire and that makes it 5.
It's been a fair while since I've seen it, but my distinct impression was that Denzel only makes one trip back, and that for the most part everything we see has already happened. (ie: bloody rags are there because he always went back to try and save her.) So any time they change something, it simply overwrites anything that doesn't match. If that were the case, there are just the two Denzels. The one that goes back and dies, and the one that no longer has to go back. (A common time travel wrap up, you just kill off the double.) Otherwise, where are all the extra Denzels hiding? ATF agent. But he has played lots of non-cops. Blind guy, doctor, cowboy, pilot, train driver, bodyguard, submarine captain, boxer, lawyer, human rights activist...and a bunch of cops.
But if that's the case who wrote the message on her board "U can save her" before he had even time traveled? We see that message when he first observes her apartment via the machine and when he visits there later on before her funeral.
He did. You yourself said he was in the bodybag at the start of the film, so he's already been to the past, he just doesn't know it yet.
No, I mean that with going back in time that he has already done stuff in the past and his present self doesn't know yet because he hasn't gone back yet. That's why there are bloody rags and Denzel fingerprints in Paula's apartment. My take on it (again, not having watched it for some time, so if this doesn't work I apologize) was that because the past was always four days before, then everything they changed in their effort to fix the situation had an ongoing effect on the past. ie: Denzel's partner dying, the bomber adjusting his efforts due to being stymied, etc. The timeline gets updated each time they do something. By the time "our" Denzel goes back and manages to save the day, it's because of all the accumulated information he has that he manages to stop the incident.
Ah........ No you're fine it's just one of those movies. I like it but I'm always finding new things.