A technical wizard learns that his memory has been erased.
Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer who does technical jobs for certain companies and as soon as he is done, his memory of that work is wiped out. Now the longest he has been contracted is 2 months. But now billionaire, James Rethrick offers him a job that would last 2 years, maybe 3, and he promises that he will probably earn 8 figures. Michael agrees. Before beginning he turns in all of his personal effects. When the job is done, his memory is erased and he learns he made over 90 million dollars over the three years. When he goes to claim it and his personal effects, he discovers that prior to the erasure of his memory he waived his rights to the money he earned and that the items that were given to him were not the ones he gave when he began. Later he is arrested by the FBI, who say that he committed some act of treason and murder. It's while he is in custody that he escapes using some the items that he was given. Later he meets with a friend who gives him some information that helps him understand what is going on. At the same time Rethrick sends his people to pursue him for him.—[email protected]
Jennings is the best reverse-engineer in the business. He is hired by clients to take apart other companies technologies and find out how they work. He is hired to do a special job against the advice of some of his associates. When the job is completed, all memory of what he has been working on is erased from his mind, and that's when his problem really starts. He is hunted for something he has no recollection of doing and has only a little time to work it out. He has sent himself 19 seemingly unconnected objects, before his memory was wiped, to allow him to put the puzzle together and discover just what has gone on and what he has done. But the authorities are after him and time is very quickly running out.—Alan Scott
Jennings is an engineer who works for a company that uses their rivals' technology, alters it slightly, and has his memory wiped after each job. James Rethrick offers him a job and tells him that the job will take three years and afterwards his mind will be wiped. Against his friend Shorty's advice, Jennings takes the job. When his mind is wiped, he heads to the bank to collect his multimillion paycheck--and discovers that during the erased years, he signed away the money and exchanged it for a group of 19 seemingly-worthless items. This film follows his efforts to uncover the secret of just what he was working on and what the items are for, to evade arrest, and to explore his relationship with Rachel Porter (Thurman), a bioscientist, who is a vital part of triggering what is left of the scraps of memory he retains.—anonymous
Computer engineer Jennings awakens one day to discover that the last three years of his life and the work he did for a man named Rethrick during that time have been erased from his memory. He also learns that he agreed to the three years secret work and erasure in exchange for a huge sum of money. But when he goes to collect his paycheck, Jennings learns that before his memory was erased, he gave up the money in exchange for a small bag of worthless clues and trinkets. When the Feds come looking for him, Jennings must go on the lam and try to put together the last three years so he can prove his innocence. Using the strange trinkets he previously left for himself, he goes in search of Rethrick, for whom he used to work, and how he knew that these worthless items would save his life.—Chuck Sambuchino
In the near future, Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) 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 (Paul Giamatti), undertakes a memory wipe to remove knowledge of his engineering. Most of his assignments last for about 2 months.Shorty has the technology to target individual memory cells and can eliminate them with precision to ensure only selected memories are erased.
Jennings is approached by his old college roommate, James Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), the CEO of the successful Seattle 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 and a guaranteed eight figure payout.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 (Uma Thurman). John Wolfe (Colm Feore) is Rethrick's head of security.Jennings is injected with a long-term memory marker for the post-job memory wipe. Jennings has to deposit all his personal effects, which will be returned to him when the job is over.Jennings is teamed up to work with Dr. William Dekker.
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 (around 92 million dollars), he had signed away his share near the end of his tenure 4 weeks ago. Furthermore, he finds that his personal possessions have been replaced with an envelope containing a random assortment of everyday items like a can of hair spray, match box, sunglasses etc.
Soon after, the FBI capture him, and Agent Dodge (Joe Morton) interrogates him on charges related to the death of physicist William Dekker (Serge Houde). Dodge says that Dekker was working on a classified government project, when it was shelved 3 years ago. Dodge believes that Dekker sold his classified work to Rethrick, but they cannot prove it since Dekker died. But patent applications filed by Allcom have resemblance to Dekker's designs and all the applications have been signed by Jennings. Dekker was working on a laser designed lens that he claimed could see around the curvature of the Universe, allowing one to look into the future.
Dodge won't believe it when Jennings claims that he had his memories wiped for the last 3 years. Dodge tries to read Jennings's memory but cannot find any coherent images.Jennings is able to escape custody, finding that the items in the envelope can be used at the right time to evade capture. Dodge takes a smoke from Jennings's envelope, which triggers the fire alarm. Jennings wears the sunglasses, which allows him to see in the dark and escape. He finds a one-day bus passes and uses that to evade the pursuing FBI agents.
Meanwhile, Rethrick is puzzled by Jennings's escape as he was supposed to die that afternoon (indicating that the machine Jennings built had the power to predict the future). Rethrick checks the machine that Jennings built and figures out that he has put a lock on it in the form of a hardware virus. Rethrick believes that somebody changed something, which is why Jennings was able to evade certain death.
After warning Shorty of his plight, he finds the items pointing him to a cafe meeting with Porter (The matchbox was coated and revealed the name of the cafe). Jennings realizes that he built a machine that could see the future. He then used the machine to see his own future, and then planted this to be able to change it. Jennings and Shorty are attacked by Rethrick's men when Rethrick figures out that he does not need Jennings to fix the machine, but Jennings manages to escape, again. He uses the hair spray and the lighter to burn up his pursuers. Wolfe confronts Jennings inside the subway tunnels and leaves him to die from an oncoming train, but Jennings uses the safety pin to switch off the tracks, stopping the track and thus escaping again.
Rethrick studies Jennings' habits while at Allcom and discovers that he became romantically involved with Porter and left a secret message to meet her at a cafe later that day. He sends a body double Maya-Rachel (Ivana Milicevic) to take her place to try to recover the envelope. The real Porter shows up and helps Jennings 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 of newspaper headlines taken from a machine's display showing Allcom becoming financially successful with a device that can depict future events, but the resultant doomsday visions ultimately lead to a series of self-fulfilling prophecies resulting in financial panic, political strife and America launching a first strike nuclear war.
Jennings realizes he must have built this device based on Dekker's invention, 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.
Jennings and Porter return to Allcom and make their way to the machine room undetected, jamming the door behind them. Jennings determines the location of the defective circuit and removes it, subsequently rigging the machine to explode in a few minutes. Jennings uses the machine one last time, seeing a vision of himself being shot by an FBI agent in the catwalks above the machine.
Soon, Rethrick's men storm the room, and after a brief firefight, Jennings and Porter escape to the catwalks. Rethrick is waiting there, holding them at gunpoint, the same tableau Jennings previously saw. When Jennings' watch, taken from the envelope, beeps, Jennings ducks in time to avoid the FBI agent's bullet which ends up killing Rethrick. The machine is destroyed, and Jennings and Porter escape the FBI in the chaos. When Agent Dodge and his men arrive and investigate, they take sympathy and report Jennings killed in the destruction.
In the film's conclusion, Jennings, Porter, and Shorty have opened a greenhouse nursery. Jennings recalls a fortune cookie note from the envelope and discovers one last act he had done with the machine, foreseeing the results of a 90-million-dollar lottery and leaving the winning ticket in Porter's birdcage.
