I have watched several movies recently, some of which are related to time traveling or prediction of future, such as Click and Paycheck. Especially the later one reminds me of some old scientific movies like Time Machine, Back to the Future, or Terminator. It’s all about changing the destiny of certain people or even the mankind.

The movie tells a story of a reverse engineer named Michael Jennings who works for some companies in reprogramming and improving the technologies they plagiarized from their rival enterprises. It’s highly confidential and illegal actually, so his memories of the works would be wiped out after the missions are completed. Later, a rich guy, James Rethrick, offers him a 3-year contract which would provide him 8 figures payment in return. Michael takes it.

After three years’ hard working, Michael finds his 90 million dollars was replaced with 20 irrelevant items, which are not even his belongings. It is himself who has done all these incomprehensible conducts. Things go quickly and soon he realizes that these items are not irrelevant or unconnected at all but very crucial to reveal the truth and save his life at the meantime. Eventually, he finds out all the clues and traces back to the vital memories he has lost.

I think it’s quite a good movie and worth being watched. If you didn’t yet, please stop here and go to find out what happens next by yourselves. If you did, let’s move on.

All these 20 items, 19 in an envelop and 1 in disguise, are the hints he tries to give himself, the memories-lost one. The project he has endeavored on is about a future-predicting machine, by which he foresaw a war ruining the entire earth and the death of his own. Therefore, he decides to destroy the trouble making machine, change the doomed tragic endings, and leaves himself the clues.

We fully understand the power of time and widely fear the unknown, which result in human’s persistent pursuit of the possibilities of time traveling or future prediction. People wish to change their lives into better ones and presume that they’re able to avoid the tragedies and create fortunes if they know what is going to happen in advance. I’ve no intention to make this prose a scientific research paper on the possibilities of time control. I’d only like to think about whether the future is convertible by human’s power. Back to the Future shows YES while Time Machine presents NO. Terminal tells NO and Butterfly Effect…well, I don’t know how to identify.

Take myself for instance. If I knew in advance that I would possess a bright future with successful career, beloved husband, and smart children, would I keep fighting hard now? If not, who would guarantee a slothful and indolent woman a favorable future life? If my future was prophesied to be a total disaster, 英语影评 dared to say my great efforts wouldn’t rescue myself from the mess and create wealth and health with my own hands?

Future is indefinite. One thing here is for sure that make another option in present life does lead to a different destiny in future. But is it the one we expect? Is it really a better one? No one knows.
Michael in Paycheck said that if you show someone their future, they have no future; if you take away the mystery, you take away hope. It may not be accurate but very close I think.
And what Rachel (Uma Thurman) said is even more impressive:
I’m not gonna change our time for anything.
Some of the best things in life are total mistakes.

Let's just grasp the present moment and leave the future to future.