MovieChat Forums > Paycheck (2003) Discussion > question about the watch

question about the watch

posted 13 years ago by jayne75
4 replies | jump to latest

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned before and if it has, I must've overlooked it on here. What was the significance of the black policeman finding Michael's watch? Were they setting up the movie for a sequel or what?

[–] astimoli 12 years ago

At first they though Afleck was dead, dying in the explosion. Finding the watch which was undamaged, at least to the FBI agent, indicated that he was alive.

[–] ttony_at 7 years ago

I never thought about this, you're right. If the watch is intact, where's his body. So he must still be alive - the fed thinks.

Also, since the time viewing machine was destroyed and also perhaps along with the notes on how to rebuild it, the fed may have picked up the watch to later take it apart and use the technology within the watch as clues to rebuild it (setting up a sequal).
Is it possible one of the FBI saw Mike's watch alarm go off on the catwalk?

ttony_at
Tony

[–] mssyk5 12 years ago

I was under the impression that upon discovering the watch, he and "Dexter" realized that Michael had survived (because the watch had been removed and not found on his corpse) but did not want to inform their boss. Their boss wanted Michael dead at first, when he thought they would get the machine ... then for his knowledge of the machine, once it had been destroyed. Those two believed Michael from the beginning and did not care to bring him in for their boss' own, self-serving motives.

Narrative-wise, they served as characters that supported Michael's eventual realization that "if you show people their future, then they have none", which, I assume, is also one of Phillip K. Dick's original messages - though I have not read the short story.

[–] inefekt 10 years ago

So in this highly technologically advanced future world the forensics units don't DNA test all the remains to determine the identities of the victims in order to inform their next of kins?
If the character's intent was to hide the fact he was still alive then it would be in vain, the truth would soon be revealed.