Paycheck
released 2003
www.ink2quill.com

“Paycheck” is an American, scifi, action, thriller produced by Stratton Leopold, David Solomon, Caroline Macaulay, Arthur Anderson, Terence Chang, John Davis, Michael Hackett and John Woo who also directed it. The screenplay was written by Dean Georgaris and is inspired by the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name. The film stars Ben Afleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti, Joe Morton, Colm Feore, Michael C. Hall, Peter Freidman, Kathryn Morris, Ivana Milicevic, Christopher Kennedy, Fulvio Cecere, John Cassini, Callum Keith Rennie, Michelle Harrison, Claudette Mink, Ryan Zwick, Dee Jay Jackson, Serge Houde, Calvin Finlayson, Kendall Cross, Catherine Lough Haggquist, Darryl Scheelar, Mark Brandon, Roger Haskett, Steve Wright, Craig Hosking, Emily Holmes, Krista Allen and many more.

Paycheck IMDb webpage

“Paycheck” is the story of Michael Jennings, played by Ben Afleck, who is an engineer that steals technology for the his multi-conglomerate, technology company. The opening scene shows Michael stealing holographic technology from an up and coming technology called Arc. Michael is essentially a corporate criminal. The scam is simple sounding enough. Michael acquires technology that belongs to someone else, reverse engineers it and then has his memory wiped to erase all evidence of the crime. He is then given a large paycheck and it’s rinse and repeat. Keep in mind that this short story was written in 1952. Yes, 1952. Anyway, things go wrong when Michael stumbles into truths far more sinister than massive corporate theft.

Let me start by saying how ahead of its time this story/film is. I’m sure people of the day, 1952, thought the likelihood of this ever happening was close to zero. And yet, we know now that this happens on a regular basis throughout the world, all the time. Some of the most widely used technologies today are the product of theft. I think that includes things the Internet, smart phones and the list goes on. Yes, the internet. So, for anyone who had doubts about the late and great Scifi author, Philip K. Dick being a visionary, well you can lay those doubts to rest.

Another thing I really liked about this film is the 90s scifi feel of the film. The film was released in 2003 which was the tail end of the 90s style of scifi films. The sets and look of the film are the end of that era and I thought that was kind of fun. The character of Michael looks sharp like everyone else in the film. Everything is very shiny with shiny people, shiny things, shiny tech too, and that is typical of that era of film making. Another aspect of stories in that era are the portrayal that protagonist can and do struggle against the ever present system. A system that often was so kind to them. Human wit has a way of winning out against the imposing technology of the day inn these stories. I love that.

Now, we live in times of great content glut. So deciding what to watch can be quite the scratch head. So although this might not be your first pick because it is dated, if you ever want to get off the beaten path of your network of family and friends’ watchlist check this out. You could even refer it to that same network if just to see their reactions. Sometimes watching an old film can be very fun. Also, the ideas in this story are more relevant today than ever and it’s a fun action film.

John Ink2Quill

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