Paycheck

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Michael Jennings has a great job. He's a reverse engineer, paid huge sums of money to figure out how rival technology works and improve on it. In exchange for his massive paycheck, he must have his memory wiped to prevent any information leaks. Life is good.

His latest project at Allcom was supposed to be his biggest yet, lasting three years and earning him enough money to finally retire - but something has gone wrong. His 8-figure payment has been replaced by a manila envelope full of random odds and ends. The FBI wants to talk to him about his apparent involvement in the death of another engineer. And a lot of people are trying to kill him. Now Jennings finds himself in the strange position of having to reverse engineer his own future... before time runs out.

Paycheck (2003) is a film adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, starring Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, and Aaron Eckhart, and directed by John Woo. It was received poorly by critics, but made about $30 million more than its budget back at the box office.

Tropes used in Paycheck include: