MovieChat Forums > Paycheck (2003) Discussion > Keycard...?

Keycard...?

posted 15 years ago by Ariston72
11 replies | jump to latest

Michael was able to send himself the collection of random items (his "MacGyver Bag (tm)", as I call it), because they were seemingly insignificant items that wouldn't raise any red flags with security. All except for his ACCESS CARD TO THE HIGH SECURITY SECRET LAB. Surely this would have seemed extremely suspicious to the security personnel going through his stuff. (and he had to assume they would go through his stuff, otherwise he could have just written himself a note telling himself what to do) Making this even more suspicious is the fact that the bag was supposed to contain the items he surrendered upon beginning his contract--since he wouldn't have had a laboratory keycard at that time, the presence of one in the bag would have been a clear indication that the contents had been tampered with.

Also, companies in movies always seem to be conveniently lax when it comes to deactivating the keycards/passwords/user accounts of former employees...

--Ariston
I'm never wrong--sometimes reality just disagrees with me.

[–] X-Evolutionist 15 years ago

I'm with you about the keycard. That did not make sense.

X

Reasons Why I Believe in God:
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[–] villageboy13 14 years ago

+ 1 here.

This movie has many problems, but the situation with the keycard definitely falls into the "so stupid, it's incredible" category.

[–] clouseau-4 13 years ago

I can see the scene with the world's dumbest security chief checking the contents of the envelope.

Ok, a bullet, ... no problem.
Key card for access to the lab. No problem. Oh yeah, reminds me ... don't forget to shut off his access when he's done with his work! Oooh! Shiny object!

It's spelled Raymond Luxury Yacht, but it's pronounced 'Throat-Warbler Mangrove'

[–] glaqua 13 years ago

I work in Identity Management software development, and it is depressing how many companys are lax in this regard. Without centralized software to coordinate it, it is likely that a departed employee will have several accounts and accesses left in place for an extended time.

From what I have seen in the corporate world, him continuing to have access is completely plausible, and if he had any contacts in IT, he would have known the procedures (or how lax they were), and thus able to give access at the correct place.

[–] transmentalist 13 years ago

How much smarter would it have been to have a driver's license with a suspicious magnetic strip on the back?

Y'know, looks like Affleck's license, but he looks at it closely and exposits, "this isn't where the stripe's supposed to be!"

Then he uses THAT to get back into the company.

Regardless, though, there are still a couple of OK solutions: (1) like glaqua said, every big corporation, no matter how secretive, has careless people working for it and (2) using the Machine, Affleck's character simply saw that he'd get away with sending himself that card - it's unlikely, but he saw it happen so he knew it'd work

[–] Norgler47 12 years ago

Didn't the fake Uma Thurman take his card in the cafe and put it in her pocket ?
Or did I miss a quick grabback when they started shooting ?

[–] Arseweb 9 years ago

Yeah, Affleck grabs it out of the fake Uma's bag before they run out of the cafe. It's not actually all that subtle - he makes the real Uma wait while he grabs it then says something like "right, NOW we can go".

[–] amgenus2009 12 years ago

I believe they simply trusted him to much. What harm could him having a keycard when leaving cause them? He might have been able to keep the card after either way Whatever the explanation, he was allowed to replace all of the contents, and since they raised no problem they went through. Without that card, this plot wouldn't have unfolded as well as it did.

[–] john-hitchcock 11 years ago

They actually do bring this up in the short story. I don't think they ever explain exactly how Jennings did it (though considering he didn't realize the card's significance at first it could have been that he somehow removed any markings connecting it to the company), but Kelly (the woman who gave Jennings his "paycheck" and is the closest person in the original work to filling Uma Thurman's role in this film) actually does remark with surprise about how she failed to notice such a thing.

As for how he got it, in the original story the machine was a "time scoop". In the film it's not made as clear but in the original work he was able to basically reach in and "scoop" items out of the future (in fact at the end of the story we even glimpse this, when he reaches into a meeting pulls a ticket out of Kelly's hand- the same ticket stub which shows up among Jennings' belongings when he gets paid). It's conceivable he could have obtained the card in a similar fashion, reaching into a future time and taking it from somebody. I don't know how well this logic applies to the movie but this is how it was in the original narrative.

And when Jack Crow and Buffy Summers joined forces, Edward Cullen never knew what hit him.

[–] cherns-2 10 years ago

Once in the early 1980s, I was working on contract for the then-IT-department of a provincial government ((on a mainframe). On the last day of the contract, I had a few clean-up things left to do, and figured that I'd stick around and finish up. Five o'clock and I was kicked off the system, my userid disabled. I was a bit annoyed, but I couldn't complain, because this was completely appropriate. These things should be automatic in any large organization.

[–] transmentalist 8 years ago

But he can see the future, and he saw that his card would work.

So he used the card ... and it worked.

What we get to see is WHY it worked: Rethwick expected him to come back. Rethwick actually WANTED him to come back and fix the machine.

They SAW when he used his keycard (and ballbearings) and left the door open for him ON PURPOSE.

Not a plot hole, in other words, but a legitimate mystery (why would his keycard still work) with a legitimate answer (because they want him to get back in)