Few science fiction writers have had their work so successfully adapted for the big screen as Philip K. Dick. His short stories have attracted the talents of some of Hollywood's biggest directors (Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Steven Spielberg) and actors (Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise), resulting in some of the best hard sci-fi films of the past twenty years. With Paycheck, John Woo delivers a fast-paced thriller that retains enough of Dick's original material to satisfy all but the most die-hard fans.

The Film

Ben Affleck plays Jennings, a computer whiz who makes a living by reverse engineering cutting-edge technologies for competing companies. In the opening sequence, he does the creators of a three-dimensional monitor one better by eliminating the need for a screen at all. Due to the proprietary nature of his work, the companies who employ him require that Jennings undergo selective memory erasure after completing each task. If a project takes him three weeks, that time is wiped from his mind as soon as the work is done.

Jennings doesn't miss the lost time. He'd just as soon not remember time spent hunched over computers in a cramped room. His life, or at least what he can remember of it, is made up only of the "highlights," time spent between jobs. But the prospect a big engagement, one so big that the money he'd make would be enough to retire on, gives Jennings pause. The man offering the job is his friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), who happens to be the head of a large technology firm. But the job is expected to take three years, years that will be lost to Jennings once it is complete. Nonetheless, the prospect of a ninety million dollar paycheck is too much to pass up, and he accepts the job.

After the work is done, Jennings' problems begin. When he goes to collect his money, he finds that sometime during the past three years, he forfeited all his pay. Of course, since he can't remember anything from that time period, he can't remember why he would have done that. He also can't remember why he sent himself an envelope with twenty seemingly useless trinkets.

Getting his paycheck is the least of his worries, however. The FBI wants to know just what exactly Jennings was working on, and they're not entirely convinced he doesn't know. To make matters worse, Rethrick isn't taking any chances and sends his own men after Jennings as well. With the help of his assistant Shorty (Paul Giamatti) and the beautiful biologist Rachel (Uma Thurman), Jennings has to piece together the past three years of his life before they catch up with him.