The Underground Man

Paycheck and Philip K. Dick

I have long been an admirer of Philip K. Dick. I have read a great number of his novels and have seen several of them turned into films (Blade Runner, Johnny Mnemonic, Minority Report, Total Recall).

The screenplay for Paycheck was drawn from Dick's short story of the same name (which I have yet to read). Let me say though that the screenplay's plot is ingenious: the protagonist has had his memory wiped and has traded a huge paycheck (for the job that got his memory wiped) for 20 everyday items in an envelope. Neither he nor we know what he did to earn the huge sum of money and we have to follow along with him on his journey of discovery. It's somewhat reminiscent of the puzzle we follow in Memento. A great premise and decently well acted by Ben Affleck.

The film is directed by one of my favorites, John Woo. I've seen a few of the Hong Kong action flicks where he gained his reputation: Die xue shuang xiong (The Killer, 1989), Ying huang boon sik (A Better Tomorrow, 1986), and Yinghung bunsik II (A Better Tomorrow II, 1990). These all star the very charismatic and athletic Chow Yun Fat—an outstanding action star who is gradually making the transition to working in American film.

Dick was nothing short of a brilliant writer and very much underappreciated outside of science fiction circles until very close to his death in 1982. His experimentation with all manner of psychedelic drugs is evident in his writing—most notably in the engaging "A Scanner Darkly".

Contrary to the recent Wired article he was by no means a "hack", having won both Hugo and Campbell awards for his writing and being well regarding amongst the community of science fiction readers and writers.