MovieChat Forums > Paycheck (2003) Discussion > It starts with a paradox right off the b...

It starts with a paradox right off the bat!

posted 8 years ago by Buskieboy
4 replies | jump to latest

Ok, I know there are all kinds of "time paradox" or "time plot holes" posted in here, but the one that really takes me out of the movie is....

When he checks online about his huge paycheck and sees he has $92,000,000 in an account he goes to do the paperwork and get some cash and set up his investments etc. He is told he forfeited his shares 4 WEEKS AGO! How could the online account show the money he gave up a month prior? Shouldn't it have had an balance of ZERO?
BAD plot hole there and it just goes on and on and on......

If they had simply had him look at his ORIGINAL printed certificate with his balance and THEN find out the bad news it would have made more sense.
What it does do is make him think as to WHY would he do that, and the weird stuff in his envelope creates a mystery for him to solve. Forfeiting almost $100,000,000 is a great way to give yourself a slap in the face to "wake up" and figure it out!!

They created their OWN "PLOT HOLE" that was just a stupid "script" mistake. But it takes you out of the movie in any regard.

To make this, albeit FUN, movie better they should have had a bunch of writers get together, brainstorm and tighten the script, finding things like the subject of THIS post and cleaning the script up and making it a better movie!

[–] cain19822004 8 years ago

He doesn't check his account, it's a stock calculator of some kind, he's seeing the current value of the amount of stocks he thought he had.

[–] Buskieboy 8 years ago

No it isn't. Watch again. He is logged into the actual website of the holding company where his stocks are. It is the same kind of think as if you were checking your bank account online. Why would he feel the need to "check" how much his stocks are when he thinks he actually HAS the stocks? Why wouldn't he, like he DOES DO in the movie, log in to see his actual stocks value/account? Checking a "stock value calculator" would be an asinine thing to do.
What they should have done is have him look at some kind of paper account, printed before he forfeited the shares with what the value was then, and then have him go to the holding company to do the paperwork etc to collect his shares AND THEN find out the bad news.
It's a stupid mistake because they wanted us to see the value, but they did it wrong and "created" a plot hole when they didn't have to.

QED

😀

[–] pfnuesel 8 years ago

You might have missed that, but he's only checking what his shares would be worth. No plot hole there. Also, you might be misinterpreting what QED means

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Stocks are not like money in an account. Their value fluctuates, and you can't get a direct value from your account (and it would probably be more like an estimate anyway, until you cash in the stocks) necessarily.

You can see how much stock you have from your account (and he already knows that), so it's just easiest simply to calculate how much they're worth at the moment - after all, the value fluctuates constantly (or at least daily), so there's no solid, exact, direct amount you have, it's always a calculation based on that exact moment.

Therefore, it's easier, quicker and makes more sense to just separately calculate how much N amount of stock would be worth right now, instead of logging into the account and checking it that way - you'd have to log in, use password and perhaps captcha, and all that crap.

Much faster, easier and makes more sense to simply quickly calculate a rough estimate as the quickest path to knowing how wealthy you are.

Besides, this is what he does in the movie, as far as I remember (I might be incorrect, but I am too lazy to check right now). So I think you are wrong, but I can't be 100% sure at the moment.