MovieChat Forums > Paycheck (2003) Discussion > What is the point of the mind wipe?

What is the point of the mind wipe?

posted 12 years ago by taxvictim
6 replies | jump to latest

Why does Affleck get his mind wiped at all? So many other employees know what's going on, and the companies patent the technology (which puts the plans out in public). It would make little difference that one engineer remembers what he built.

Also, Uma says something like "No, he said he wasn't going to go through with the mind wipe" as if it's his decision.

Overall, however, I thought this was a decent film. Not nearly worth the scathing criticism being piled on it here.

There is one neat benefit to the mind wipe. Affleck gets to sack up with Uma again, but it's the first time. It's all new again. It would be like waking up one day and someone says "here's this hot girlfriend you've had for the past three years... you don't even have to buy her dinner. Just grab on to any parts you like and enjoy the ride."

[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 12 years ago

"Why does Affleck get his mind wiped at all? So many other employees know what's going on"

Not really. Just like Apple compartmentalizes its design and manufacturing, there are very very few people who actually know the full picture.

In the first assignment he had, he was essentially stealing another company's technology. The offending company didn't want him to tell on them anytime down the road, or worse possibly try to blackmail them.

With the second assignment, it was he and a single government physicist who essentially got his government project cancelled, so took it to market. Certainly there would have needed to be many other people working on a "time machine" to see the future, but nobody who would have known precisely what they were building. And of course the goal was to kill the physicist and frame Michael Jennings, and thus the mind wipe was needed so he wouldn't be able to tell the Feds precisely what he built or did for him.

[–] bron-tay 12 years ago

The mind wipe is just about the stupidest element of this plot. Did it exist in Dick's original story?

Engineers, like all of us, rely on their accumulated knowledge. They build on past problems and solutions to solve the next set of problems.

But worse still is the fact that this guy keeps wiping his *entire* mind, not just his knowledge of a specific project. So if, say, he started his brilliant career in the days of MS-DOS and got his mind wiped for six months, he could wake up in the world of Windows. If he does a Windows project and gets wiped for a year, he could wake up in the world of Linux. And so on. What's he do after he wakes up, go on a crash course of Byte magazine or (Latest Technology) For Dummies books? One of these days he's going to fall asleep so long that he won't be able to catch up.

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[–] spookyrat1 12 years ago

"The mind wipe is just about the stupidest element of this plot. Did it exist in Dick's original story?"

Yes it did; as did the technology that allowed one to see the future.

Bearing in mind the 50 odd years of time elapsing between the publishing of the short story and the release of the movie, the film actually kept reasonably faithful to the story.

Where I believe it went wrong was the over emphasis on the chase between Jennings, Rethrick's security guys (weren't any of them worried about being caught on cctv with their repeated inept attempts to kill Jennings) and the FBI. In other words another unrealistic action film.

The ethical aspects of the development of the future - scanning technology and the "legalised" mind wiping which IMO could have been the bases of a really interesting film, were only treated fairly superficially.

[–] brucedgo 11 years ago

Engineers, like all of us, rely on their accumulated knowledge. They build on past problems and solutions to solve the next set of problems.

Yeah, I was just thinking about that. If all the work he does now is subsequently erased, he won't ever learn anything new. And even the old knowledge would continue to get older, less clear, and less up-to-date.

... and the rocks it pummels. - James Berardinelli

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Of course it existed in the original story. It's the whole driving force behind the story!

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

"No, he said he wasn't going to go through with the mind wipe" as if it's his decision."

Among the N thousand stupidities in this movie, this was one of them that made me slap my forehead.

First of all, why would Uma's character REVEAL her emotions AND his treason plans to the 'evil boss' so readily and emotionally?

Second of all, why would they NOT wipe Uma's memory as well?

Third of all, who decides, and why, whose mind to wipe, and why?

Fourth of all, the memory wipe is part of the contract that the protagonist AGREED TO GIVE HIS CONSENT TO. Once he has signed the papers, he is lawfull obliged to 'go through with it', so if he suddenl refuses, he's renegging the contract and can end up in prison because of that. It's like taking payment for a service or product you don't provide; it's basically stealing or fraud. Both of which are considered serious crimes.

Fifth of all, this leads to ponder; did they actually physically FORCE him to be taken to the memory wipe thing? Why not just kill him, then?

I mean, they're obviously ready to kill him for the most of the movie, so why not at that particular point in time? Because the movie needs to happen?!

This movie just doesn't make sense, no matter how you slice it.