Paycheck (2003)

What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he's being chased.

Director:

John Woo

Writers:

Philip K. Dick (short story), Dean Georgaris (screenplay)

Stars:

Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Affleck	...	Jennings
Aaron Eckhart	...	Rethrick
Uma Thurman	...	Rachel
Paul Giamatti	...	Shorty
Colm Feore	...	Wolfe
Joe Morton	...	Agent Dodge
Michael C. Hall	...	Agent Klein
Peter Friedman	...	Attorney General Brown
Kathryn Morris	...	Rita Dunne
Ivana Milicevic	...	Maya-Rachel
Christopher Kennedy	...	Stevens
Fulvio Cecere	...	Agent Fuman
John Cassini	...	Agent Mitchell
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Jude - Guard
Michelle Harrison	...	Jane

Storyline

Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer and what he does is technical jobs for certain companies and as soon as he is done, his memory of the work he has done is wiped out. Now the longest he has been contracted is 2 months. But now billionaire, James Rethrick offers him a job that would last 2 years, maybe 3, and he promises that he will probably earn 8 figures. Michael agrees. Before beginning he turns in all of his personal effects. And when the job is done, his memory is erased and he learns he made over 90 million dollars over the three years. When he goes to claim it and his personal effects, he discovers that prior to the erasure of his memory he waived his rights to the money he earned and that the items that were given to him were not the ones he gave when he began. Later he is arrested by the FBI who say that he committed some act of treason and murder. It's while he is in custody that he escapes using some the items that he was given. He later meets with a friend who gives ...

---

Plot Keywords:

memory | engineer | time | money | clue | 

---

Taglines:

Remember the future.

---

Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Action | Mystery

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Paramount Pictures [us] UIP [fr]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

El pago

Filming Locations:

Burrard SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$564,919 (Australia) (19 March 2004)

Gross:

$2,141,356 (Japan) (2 April 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Davis Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the apparently random sequence of numbers and letters shown at the beginning are included cast/credits and all the items from Jennings's envelope.

---

Goofs

During the fight in the mall, when Jennings is kicked through a window, we see the envelope and it looks flat. Yet moments later, he takes out the round container of hairspray.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Holographic Woman: It's time to wake up... and get a life. We live in a 3-dimensional world. Until now, the world of computing has been a flat world, consisting of 2-dimensional imagery. Now, through the use of exclusive breakthrough technology, ARC has made it possible for you to get a life. A-Life, where we can work and play in a lifelike world of 3-dimensional reality. A-Life, the living monitor.

---

Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #19.106 (2011)

---

Soundtracks

"Dream a Little Dream of Me"
by Gus Kahn, Wilbur Schwandt & Fabian Andre
Performed by The Singleton Quartet
Courtesy of ITM Music, Ltd.

User Reviews

James Dwan's Paycheck Review

Set in the near future Ben Affleck stars as Michael Jennings a 'reverse engineer' who hacks into new electronic technologies for rival companies to duplicate. To protect his client's confidentiality Jennings agrees to have his memory erased, but after a highly paid top-secret assignment for the shady James Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), Jennings is awoken to discover that he has forfeited his paycheck. In return he receives an envelope of seemingly meaningless items, which may well later become integral to his survival. Jennings must discover what he has been working on in the past two years before his memory was erased, and why he's been accused of murder, but time is not on his side, and he must piece together the clues he left for himself before the Feds or his former employer catch up with him.

Paycheck starts promisingly as an intelligent story with intriguing fast-paced action, but unfortunately the chase becomes relentless and the action tedious, as the characters remain underdeveloped and the script underwritten. Based on the work of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick, Paycheck doesn't live up to other cinematic adaptations of his works such as Blade Runner or Total Recall, and Dick's warped and paranoid futuristic world is unrealised in John Woo's under-designed future. This film is ultimately a disappointment which falls short of the intriguing story promised by its trailer, but nevertheless it is a better than Affleck's and Woo's respective disappointments with their previous projects Gigli and Windtalkers. On the other hand Uma Thurman has taken a backward step after her success with Kill Bill by playing such as diminutive role as Rachel the 'plant biologist,' even if that is an ass-kicking bitch of a plant biologist.

This film is at times completely unoriginal, borrowing and in some cases completely ripping off other recent films such as Memento, Minority Report and Die Another Day. Paycheck is ultimately rescued by its chase scene into which Woo crams cars, motorbikes, helicopters and a few well placed discarded pipes, topped off with a few explosions Woo shows us why he's still one of the best action directors and although this film isn't bad enough to demand your money back its not one to remember either.

3/5