PaycHEck 2003

PLOT... In the near future, Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer; he analyzes his clients' competitors' technology and recreates it, often adding improvements beyond the original specifications. To protect his clients' intellectual property and himself, Jennings, with the aid of his friend Shorty, undertakes a memory wipe to remove knowledge of his engineering. Jennings is approached by his old college roommate, James Rethrick, the CEO of the successful technology company Allcom. Rethrick proposes a lengthy three-year reverse engineering job to Jennings, requiring him to live on Allcom's secured campus until its conclusion but rewarding him handsomely with company stock. Jennings agrees, and after arranging for his long-term absence, arrives at Allcom, turns in his personal possessions, and is given a brief tour of the facility where he meets and flirts with botanist Dr. Rachel Porter. He is injected with a long-term memory marker for the post-job memory wipe.

Three years later, at the conclusion of the memory wipe, Jennings is sitting in Rethrick's office, being thanked for a successful job. On returning home, Jennings finds that while the Allcom stock has become quite valuable (about 90 million dollar), he had signed away his share near the end of his tenure. Furthermore, he finds that his personal possessions have been replaced with an envelope containing a random assortment of everyday items. He is soon captured by the FBI on charges related to the death of physicist William Dekker. Jennings is able to escape custody, finding that the items in the envelope can be used at the right time to evade capture. After warning Shorty of his plight, he finds the items pointing him to a cafe meeting with Porter. Rethrick, who has been watching Jennings' movements, discovers a message to Porter of this meeting and sends a body double to take her place to try to recover the envelope. The real Porter shows up and helps Jennings to escape from both the FBI and Rethrick's men. They take shelter at a local school, examining the remaining items in the envelope while Porter tries to convince Jennings of the relationship they shared during his tenure at Allcom. One of the stamps holds a microdot that, on enlargement, reveals several pictures taken from a machine's display showing Allcom becoming financially successful with a device that can see the future, but ultimately leading to political strife and nuclear war. Jennings realizes he must have built this device using Dekker's knowledge, and on realizing the horrors that will come, prepared the envelope using the forecasts from the machine to allow his future self to return to Allcom and destroy the unit. Furthermore, as Rethrick shortly discovers, Jennings rigged the device to malfunction, preventing Rethrick from anticipating Jennings' actions.