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Mistakes

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. See more...

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Paycheck (2003) - 31 corrections

Directed by John Woo, starring Aaron Eckhart, Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman (add more)

Genres: Sci-fi, Thriller, Action, Mystery

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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The entire scene with the fake Rachel is inconsistent with the fact that Jennings met Rachel before the time he was injected with the memory marker. Accordingly, based on the plot, he would remember her just fine. [He has met her before, but what he remembers is screwing up their meeting. He does not remember that they met up again in the facility and got engaged (a second chance).]
Edit
When Affleck discovers that the thing he built is a time viewing machine, there is a long monologue where he explains that seeing into the future is wrong, could be catastrophic, etc. and concludes that he must destroy the machine. Practically a few seconds later when he arrives at the machine to destroy it, he says, "Let's see what our futures hold" and uses the device. If he just came to the explicit decision that future-vision is wrong, to the point of setting out to destroy the machine at the risk of his life, why in the world would he himself choose to view the future? There's no suggestion of "temptation" or anything, he just walks up to it and stupidly contradicts everything he just said. [In order to properly destroy the machine, he has to figure out what is going to happen in the immediate future.]
Edit Corrected by shortdanzr
When Ben Afflec gets out of the square-ish taxi right before he agrees to the three year contract, he is in the back of the taxi. Then he opens the back door to get out. This would not be a mistake except that this model is a Honda Element and it has "suicide doors". In order to open the back door you must first open the front, which would make it a horrible taxi. [Where to start? It is a science fiction movie which means there is no reason that the cab has to BE a "Honda Element", it just may look like one. Also, since he obviously did get out of the taxi by the back door - it cannot have the "suicide doors." Also, since it is a fiction movie and is not necessarily trying to depict modern times, I fail to see how this would be a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by Zwn Annwn
The pass cards for the complex where Jennings works have what appear to be a bar code along one edge. During most (if not all) closeups of the pass cards in use, that code is swiped through the reader (ie, the edge with the barcode is closest to the wall). However, when Jennings uses the card for the first time (after creating the metal detector diversion), that edge is on the bottom (closest the floor) and is not swiped through the reader, yet the door still unlocks. [I work at a large company and we use access cards with bar codes on them. Although we do swipe them for access the swipe is for the internal chip, NOT the bar code. The bar code is used by security guards with a scanner.]
Edit Corrected by Jason Hoffman
After Michael Jennings finishes at Allcom and goes home to check his shares, the date of purchase is 2003. When he signs the release form at Reddy Grant, the year is 2007. That is 4 years and not 3. [If he starts the job in December '03 and finishes the other job in January '07, that's close enough to three years for people to still say 3 years. In fact, a larger distance between the dates would still count for some people.]
Edit
When Ben Affleck tries to open the BMW with the remote control on the key, he repeatedly presses the "close"-button. The "open"-button is the one closer to the key itself, while the BMW-sign in the key is used to close. [This is not necessarily a movie mistake. It could be considered a mistake by Michael, pushing the wrong button.]
Edit Corrected by Zwn Annwn
When Michael is held in FBI custody, one of the agents takes a cigarette from Michael's package and lights it. The resulting smoke sets off the fire suppression system. In the later scene when the attorney is showing Michael the inventory of the items, you can see "cigarettes - smokeless" listed. If the "smokes" are in fact "smokeless", they wouldn't have set off the alarm. [That is not a mistake. That is the point of that scene. The FBI agent smokes the cigarette thinking it is safe as it is smokeless. In fact they're intentionally not smokeless, to help Michael escape.]
Edit Corrected by Soylent Purple Time
Before Rachel goes out and meets up with the guy that Jimmy sends to look after her before she goes to work, she puts her purse on. Initially, the purse is around her left shoulder. After she walks through the door, it is across her chest and on her right shoulder. [The strap starts across her body and the bag is on her left shoulder. They remain exactly that way as she exits the door.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
Towards the end of the movie, Colin Feore was at the controls of the machine that could look forward into the future. While he was on the machine, he was wearing a grey jacket. However, when the machine showed himself getting killed, he was wearing a brown jacket. [This is a trick of lighting. He's wearing a blue pinstripe suit and a blue striped tie during the last half of the movie. Both are clearly visible as he's standing at the machine as well as on the screen.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
In the scene where the people from Allcom are chasing Michael on the motorcycle, and the first car flips over, you can see that there is no one in the car. [If you're talking about the car that's struck by the semi, you can clearly see that the driver is thrown down onto the passenger's seat (out of view). If you're talking about the car that runs into the bulldozer, the driver is readily apparent (you can see his hands on the wheel right before the explosion).]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude
When Jennings is being dragged up to the catwalk by the cable around his neck, you can see someone's feet on the catwalk, in the upper right hand corner of the screen. [They're not "someone's" shoes on the catwalk. They're clearly Jimmy's shoes and he's standing on the mobile tower contraption.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
When the machine blows up, Umma and Ben jump from the catwalk onto transparent drapes. Umma's drapes get torn and she starts falling when Ben catches her. You then see Ben's drapes being torn but now they only fall a few feet before hitting the ground. They were much higher up to begin with. [They don't fall to the floor (which is what makes this somewhat deceiving) - they fall onto a part of the catwalk.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
Jennings rents a room after he escapes from the FBI and empties the paper bag onto the bed to see what is inside. When he looks at the slip of paper with the quote on one side and the lottery numbers on the other, the numbers are in red. In the shot of his hand placing the paper back on the bed, the numbers are black. [In the shot of his hand placing the paper back on the bed, the numbers are still red.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
In the scene where Jennings is being chased on the motorcycle, he jumps over a big pile of rocks followed by a police car. The first shot of the car has a perfect body and seconds later it's all torn up before it hits the ground. [This scene takes place in the junkyard. First off, it's not a police car that comes over the hill, it's one of the Allcom vehicles. Secondly, it is not "all torn up" before it hits the ground. There is some heavy damage to the passenger's side front (from scraping along the trailers earlier). The front of the vehicle does not "disintegrate" until it actually hits the ground.]
Edit Corrected by Tax Dude Time
Michael Jennings has bought the new 3-d TV-screen. He is setting it up, and he is wearing a tie. The angle then changes, and suddenly he isn't wearing the tie. The angle changes multiple times afterwards, and so does his wearing of a tie. [The point of the scene is that his work on the 3D screen is taking place over 2 months. It's a montage of all the work he does, so it makes sense for him to be in different states of dress and appearance.]
Edit Time
After Rachel and Michael are reunited after Michael's escape, she asks him in the hotel room if he remembers her. Michael says no, because of the memory wipe. The memory isotope wasn't injected into him until AFTER he had met Rachel, and flirted with her at the dinner party. The memory wipe should have only erased his memory back to the point of the injection, and shouldn't have affected his memory of his early meetings with Rachel. [First of all, it's entirely possible to forget meeting someone at a crowded party, especially when nothing out of the ordinary happens. Secondly, the method memory wipe had never been used on Jennings before, so it could have made memories around the injection point fuzzy.]
Edit Corrected by Nick N.
In the scene where Jennings and Rachel are trying to deactivate the device, Jennings zip-ties a bullet to one of the tanks. All Jennings said he had left were the crossword puzzle and the bullet. If this was the case, where did the zip-tie come from? [Zip ties are quite common in computer rooms with a lot of wiring like he was in at the time. Since he saw this future he realized he wouldn't need to mail himself a zip tie.]
Edit
When the machine is being described, it is stated that Einstein's theories proved that time travel is impossible. In fact, his work on relativity show that time travel is theoretically possible and Einstein, not believing or liking this, spent some time trying to find a way to prove otherwise, without success. [Einstein's theories stated that time travel would be possible if we could travel faster than the speed of light, however, his theories also stated that it is impossible for us to travel faster than light, as we have a mass. However, since light has no mass, it can be (theoretically) accelerated beyond the threshold, which is what the science of this movie is based upon. What Einstein spent much of his life trying to refute is quantum theory, not time travel.]
Edit
While Rachel and Jennings are escaping on the BMW, he asks her as they race through traffic "Was I any good on one of these?", and she says he was "OK". However, Jennings has been locked away for three years, unable to leave the facility, and bought the bike on eBay. Locked up like he was, he obviously hasn't been able to ride it on the streets before this, and didn't have a relationship with Rachel before this time (only meeting her at the party before the big paycheck offer). [It's obvious that Jennings was not "locked up", as he was able to purchase and acquire the items which he sent to himself in the envelope, as well as purchase a lottery ticket.]
Edit
If Michael Jennings saw the future after he built the time machine, he would have only seen his fate with the FBI and whatever came after that. It would have been impossible for him to see himself get shot because a different future was created after he escaped from the room. [Exactly. By ensuring that a different future would occur, Jennings was able to see that new future in the time viewer. For example, immediately after he put the glasses and cigarettes into the envelope (or even after he thought of doing so), the time viewer would show him escaping the FBI room and what happened after. He had access to the viewer many times over the course of his research.]
Edit Corrected by Phoenix
After Rachel hit the police officer with her helmet and knocked him out, whoever was in the helicopter made a comment/joke about the knocked out police officer not having seen this coming otherwise he would have gone on a stakeout. How could he have known what happened to the police officer? He was up in the helicopter and the police officer was in the tunnel. [They weren't saying the police officer didn't see it coming, they said the Jennings saw it coming, and they wondered if he foresaw a stakeout (bad joke).]
Edit
After Jennings fixes the time machine, he goes up to the platform to activate it. He first presses several buttons with his right hand then places his hands on the proper spots. Next he clicks the buttons under his right fingers several times while activating the machine. If his memory of the machine was entirely erased, how does he know how to work it? [It was pointed out earlier in the movie that the memory erase for the three year period was a chemical process this time, not a physical one. Therefore, he will regain some memories of this period as time goes on. An action that he repeated frequently would be stored in his brain as conditioning, a type of memory that is very difficult to erase - the same way you still know how to ride a bike years later.]
Edit Corrected by Phoenix
When Affleck's character remembers his "death", which is of him falling off the catwalk, you can see that the person falling is a stunt person. That scene is shown twice, once when he was sleeping in the motel and the other time is when Jennings & Rachel use the machine again. [Similar to the entry about the missing bullet wound, this is also being taken literally at face value, remember this is an uncertain future. The face is fuzzy, I think it was deliberately done as a clue that he may not be the one to be killed. They probably could have done the effect with Ben suspended a couple feet off the floor and some blue/green screen work instead of a stunt double but used the double to add to the uncertainty.]
Edit
In the beginning of the film, they show a white hand that has all the lines of the hand labeled on it(like where someone's lifeline is), I'm not sure if this is a real line or not but I swear one said "guacamole line". Joke perhaps? [If you slow down the scanning of the white hand it says "quadrangle," not guacamole. ]
Edit
Right at the start, when they wipe Jennings memory, you can see a woman put a bottle of champagne down and then Jennings and the woman have sex. But since this is exactly the order it actually happened, shouldn't that have been reversed in the memory wiping scene? [Not if the memory cells containing the earlier experiences were destroyed first. And you don't remember things backwards, do you?]
Edit
Wouldn't the access pass in the envelope be deactivated once Ben Affleck signed all the papers, leaving Allcom? [As a matter of good security practice, they would have deactivated the pass. However, once they realized he was going to try to re-enter the facility, they wanted him to get to the lab and fix the machine. Therefore, they would have reactivated the card to allow him to get into the lab (they also pulled the guards away so he could enter freely).]
Edit
The bullet that is fired at Ben and shown time and time again from the future is a whole bullet. It still has the casing on it; only the tip fires out of a gun. [There is no casing on the bullet after it is fired. It looks a little like there is because there is a circular groove on the butt of the bullet, but the casing for the bullet is missing. When they show the bullet in the gun, the casing is wider at the bottom, tapering in towards the bullet half way up its length. After it is fired, the bullet shows completely straight sides - no ridge that the casing would have presented.]
Edit Corrected by Garlonuss
When the "substitute" Doctor Porter is asked by Ben what is his favourite baseball team, surely his best friend Jimmy, who is telling her what to say, would let her know the correct answer thereby avoiding suspicion? [The "substitute" doesn't really needed to tell him this information. She already has the card and he was going to be killed, as she said "who cares?"]
Edit
When he moves the newspaper from the bottom of the bird cage to get the lottery ticket there are no bird droppings on the paper - unlikely as the birds have been in the cage for some time. If it was clean newspaper just put into the cage then someone else would have found the ticket. [The newspaper is cleaner than one would think, however, there is at least ONE bird dropping on the newspaper, right by his finger as he lifts it.]
Edit
Jennings says he could only move things into the delivery envelope addressed to himself if they were innocuous items cleared by security. Why would they allow him to export a security pass? [Jennings could only get innocent items out of facility security. His pass would have been a perfectly ordinary item for him to carry in and out of the building during his three year service. He obviously wasn't confined to the building during his stay. For the follow-up question of why he couldn't include a letter to himself in the envelope he substituted for the original, recall he got picked up by the FBI who went through his envelope. If he had communicated to himself; he'd have been communicating to them as well. It also seems likely that [don't know the character name] gave up on finding Jennings after he found the watch, even though he knew Jennings was alive. Jennings couldn't have recreated the machine without his partner, and they didn't have the machine intact. Also, since Jennings had beaten them all every step of the way with his foresight, he'd have arranged to have protected himself against further investigation. He, perhaps better than anybody else at the end understood that they were simply wasting their time - he had beaten them before they even began.]
Edit
When Ben Affleck is figuring out where he sabotaged the machine, he says there are only two things left in the envelope: the bullet and the crossword puzzle. Why didn't he consider the watch on his wrist? He had no idea what it did, and it hadn't triggered yet. [Mike already assumes that the watch has been 'used' since it was taken out of the envelope in the beginning by the FBI agent and put on his wrist. The watch had a double purpose; identifying that the contents of the envelope was his (the tan lines matched), and warning him to 'go'. Even though it's second purpose hadn't been served yet, it's assumed that anything outside the envelope shouldn't be needed anymore, therefore he wouldn't second guess this.]
Edit Corrected by tavenger5