The dream of editing memories the way we edit videotape is a persistent feature of the cinematic imaginary. Using technology that is almost identical to the memory erasure apparatus that appeared in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, John Woo's Paycheck is predicated on the perfect system for precluding corporate espionage. Memories, as always, are reduced to a conflation of biological cells and home movie images before they are zapped out of existence.