Paycheck (2003) - 34 mistakes

Continuity: When Michael and Shorty are having lunch after Michael is released, he empties the contents of the envelope onto the table. A bit later he puts everything back into the envelope, but the bullet remains on the table under a napkin. Later in the movie, Michael empties the envelope and the bullet is in it.

Factual error: When Shorty is removing Jennings' memories in the beginning, the pictures shown are from a third person viewpoint. If they are his memories, shouldn't these be from Jennings' viewpoint?

Continuity: In the scene where the police car is chasing Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman on a bike down in a tunnel, in one shot, the police car's flashing light on top is ripped off by the low ceiling. In the very next shot, the lights are still on the top. The next shot shows the lights are gone.

Factual error: The bullet cartridge cannot be used the way Michael Jennings used it in the movie. It is not possible to fire a bullet without a gun. The casing of the bullet cartridge alone is not capable of sustaining the pressure of the gases produced by ignited powder. In order for the bullet to actually fire in forward direction the side walls of the casing must be supported by the gun barrel. Without the barrel the bullet cartridge will simply burst on the side. The bullet won't go anywhere, it will stay in the cartridge. Plastic cable tie used in the movie to hold the cartridge is not enough to make any difference.

Continuity: When Rachel takes the 'Photo Album' out of the bag and places on the bed, she places it between the bag and a white towel. However when the shot changes to show the bed again which Michael then sits on, the 'Photo Album' is sitting partially on the bag and the towel has moved. There is also other clothing on the bed that wasn't there previously.

Continuity: When Jennings is in the subway and Colm Feore shoots the man standing between them, the man falls to the ground. But when it shows Colm Feore step over the rail, the man's body has disappeared.

Revealing: During the close-up of the gas canisters, the condensation is running upwards and "into" the valve.

Continuity: In the scene where Ben Affleck is walking toward a stuffed animal stand, you see a small red dog facing toward the camera. In the next side shot, when Ben is picking up the parrot, you see the same dog still facing toward the camera when you should see the dog's side.

Continuity: Towards the end of the movie, when Michael and Rachel split up between the glass door, her left hand is cut and bloody, then it is not, then it is again, as it is pressed against the glass.

Visible crew/equipment: When Ben is on the motorcycle getting chased, and the camera is shooting him out of the cop's car, you can see the cameraman's refelection of himself sitting in the front seat.

Continuity: During the scene in the apartment after the car chase, Uma has just had a shower, and she begins to empty the bag she brought. When she reaches in to pull out his clothes, there is a silver photo album on the bed. When the shot cuts back to the bag, the album isn't there, but she pulls it out of the bag AFTER the clothes.

Continuity: When Michael and Shorty are having lunch, Michael watches the lottery numbers on the TV. He confirms the numbers on his fortune tag that has the phrase on the back, "If you only look where you cannot go, you will miss the riches below". The shot goes back to the TV, and then back to the fortune paper. If you look through the paper to the phrase on the back, it says something about a "wise man". Obviously a different piece of paper.

Continuity: When Michael Jennings first realizes that the stamps on his envelope are one of the items and he looks at the faces on the stamps through the magnifying glass lens, you see one of the eyes consisting of 9 black squares with each square being a newspaper. In the next scene, with Michael and Rachel at the school, the eye is now a round black eye with 6 white squares, with the first five being newspapers and the last being a picture of the time device screen.

Continuity: When Mike goes to meet the fake "Rachel" at the restaurant, note the yellow flowers on her table. They are centered, but against the edge of the table (where a person opposite her would sit). The next shot of Jimmy's screen shows they've moved to the far right (as seen from the fake's perspective). When Mike opens the envelope, they've disappeared completely and, a moment later, they're back (with some of the leaves curled around the stem of a wine glass).

Continuity: After the real Rachel has knocked out the fake Rachel, Mike looks over her shoulder and sees Colm Feores' character sighting a gun on her. He pulls her to the side and, in doing so, knocks over two wine glasses that were on the table. Then the shot switches to show the view from the window and the wine gasses have disappeared. A moment later as Mike and Rachel fall to the floor, they're back.

Plot hole: When Michael sees the "Birthday Clip" it is obvious that he is the one holding the camera towards the bed, but when he sits on the bed we see Michael using both hands. Who is holding the camera?

Continuity: As the truck is approaching the car from Allcom, the view is from the interior of the car (front window, the vertical panel between the windows, rear window) and the semi is right on top of the car. It switches to a wide shot and now the truck is considerably farther back.

Factual error: In the scene where Michael is patching the ATX motherboard with a paper clip, the sparks coming out of the box are ridiculously long for being low voltage flashovers, especially as the motherboard has no power supply connected to it. Even if the board would run directly on mains voltage the flashovers would only be a couple of millimeters. Furthermore, flashovers are blue, not yellow as shown.

Continuity: In the scene where Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman are going back to destroy the future viewing machine, the Mexican security guard is behind Ben Affleck then suddenly is in front.

Continuity: When Jennings is being "hung" by Ekhert's character, the fiber-optic cabling is wrapped around his neck. When he gets up to the catwalk and he pulls it off, the cabling has all of a sudden become a well spliced loop on the end of the cabling.