MovieChat Forums > Paycheck (2003) Discussion > Lottery Time Frame error!!!

Lottery Time Frame error!!!

posted 17 years ago by sectorsevenggg
37 replies | jump to latest

This movie had sooo many plot holes, but I want to talk about the last one: the lottery ticket. So when he's in the future he finds out what the winning numbers are and makes a professional looking fortune (as opposed to a hand-written one). Now he gets the envelope in the past with the numbers and needs to buy a ticket before the drawing. He watches the numbers being drawn on TV, so he's too late. How could he buy the right ticket in the future and leave it in the bird cage? In the future after he knows the numbers, it is not possible to buy a ticket after the drawing. He did not buy the ticket when he went back to the past, the ticket was left in the cage from the future...a ticket he could not have bought.

[–] Buskieboy 8 years ago

It is not a plot hole. He saw the future lottery numbers, bought a ticket for that draw which is a few days after his memory wipe, but he buys a ticket just before that happens and hides it. He also camouflaged them to look like a fortune cookie fortune with that line as a clue to look under the bird cage newspaper liner. Otherwise he would NEVER have made the connection as to what the numbers meant, and he couldn't make it obvious like writing "$90 million dollar lottery numbers for July 3rd are: 1 2 3 4 5 6..." or someone might have figured it out. Anyone seeing it would have dismissed it as a useless fortune cookie fortune as it seemed.

It actually is one of the more clever things he does in the movie!