Total Recall (1990 film)

For other uses, see Total recall (disambiguation).

Total Recall
Film poster
Directed by	Paul Verhoeven
Written by	Short story: Philip K. Dick Screenplay: Ronald Shusett Dan O’Bannon Jon Povill Gary Goldman Uncredited: Steven Pressfield
Produced by	Buzz Feitshans Ronald Shusett
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Rachel Ticotin Sharon Stone Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox
Cinematography	Jost Vacano
Edited by	Frank J. Urioste
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date	1 June 1990 (USA)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$ 65,000,000 (est.)

Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on 1 June 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. It won a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. It was based on the story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick (whose work also served as the basis for Blade Runner, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly). At the time of its production Total Recall had the largest authorized budget for a film produced by a Hollywood studio. The film’s success confirmed Schwarzenegger as a major box office draw and relaunched Sharon Stone’s career.

Taglines

• They stole his mind. Now he wants it back. Get ready for the ride of your life.
• Your mind is the center of your life. It is everything you hear, everything you see, everything you feel...It is everything you ARE. You wouldn't know if you lost your mind...Would you know if someone STOLE it?
• What if you discovered somebody stole your mind...and there was only one way to get it back?
• In this world, they can steal your mind, erase your memory, and give you another identity. But the most dangerous thing that can happen to you is...TOTAL RECALL.
• He'll show you a side of Mars that no one on Earth has ever seen before...He should be so lucky.

Plot

The movie is set in the year 2084. Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker who has been experiencing dreams about exploring the planet Mars with a sexy brunette. After seeing an ad from Rekall, a company that sells imaginary adventures by implanting memories, he decides to buy a “vacation” on Mars from them, one in which he will take a vacation from himself by becoming a spy. Rekall calls it an “ego trip.” Before buying the vacation, Quaid is cautioned by a co-worker that Rekall are “lobotomizing people”, in reference to failed memory implants which caused the recipients to suffer permanent brain damage. Quaid disregards this warning.

After the procedure starts, Quaid has a violent outburst and tries to break free, yelling incoherently about people who are coming to kill everyone. At first, it seems as though he was merely acting out the "spy" portion of the memory implant; however, when it's confirmed that they hadn't implanted that memory yet, the doctors at Rekall realize that someone else had previously erased his memory. After narrowly subduing him, Quaid is returned home with no memories of ever going to Rekall, but then he is attacked by his friends and even his wife, Lori. She tells him that everything he remembers, including their marriage, is false—only implanted memories. While evading his assailants, he receives a phone call from someone claiming to be a former friend of his who had been asked to deliver a briefcase if he ever disappeared. The briefcase contains false IDs, money, weapons, devices, and a computer. Thanks to a video case he left to himself beforehand, Quaid starts piecing together his past on Mars as a secret agent. Pursued by Richter, a man working for Mars’ administrator, Vilos Cohaagen, Quaid travels to Mars to discover the truth.

On Mars, Quaid finds out that Cohaagen rules an airtight city via his monopoly of air production, and that the poor workers in the city’s slums have been turned into mutants from living within cheaply-produced domes that do not adequately shield against cosmic rays (which Mars’s thin atmopshere does not shield against). He soon makes several allies, such as a cabbie named Benny and the woman from his dreams, Melina, who reveals that his name is actually Hauser, and that he used to be one of Cohaagen’s men but then switched sides and tried to join the underground resistance.

Quaid is later confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar, the man from the Rekall commercials, who try to convince him that the adventure he’s had has been part of the “vacation” he bought at Rekall. Quaid is now trapped in the ego trip and needs to let them help him recuperate from the paranoia episode he is having. Edgemar convinces Quaid that his experiences to this point and his future as the leader of mutant resistance are all part of the Rekall package he’d purchased. The Rekall man offers Quaid a pill to wake up to the truth, the alternative being lobotomization since he’s still hallucinating in the Rekall facilities. Quaid is convinced until he notices the doctor is sweating out of fear. Quaid shoots the doctor in the head and a group of hitmen then storm the room and capture Quaid. Melina arrives shortly after to rescue him and in the subsequent fight, Lori is killed by Quaid himself.

Melina and Quaid then flee and eventually meet resistance leader Kuato, who is revealed to be a mutant growing out of his own brother’s stomach. With Kuato’s psychic help, Quaid sees a mysterious alien machine in the Martian mines, but then Cohaagen’s forces storm the resistance hideout. Kuato is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, with the help of Benny, who is a traitor. Cohaagen then reveals that Lori really was Richter’s wife and Hauser willingly had his mind wiped in order to gain Kuato’s trust; the whole incident, with the exception of Richter’s maniacal pursuit of Quaid, was planned. Cohaagen provides another video that Quaid’s alter ego, Hauser, left for himself. Cohaagen also reveals that the alien machine is real, and that he’s decided to eliminate all the rebels by cutting off the air supply to their section of the city. He orders Quaid’s mind to be restored to Hauser’s and Melina’s mind be altered to be subservient. Quaid refuses to go back to being Hauser, and manages to escape with Melina. They hurry to reach the alien machine and activate it. As Melina and Quaid rush to the alien machine, Quaid kills both Richter and Benny on the way. Quaid activates the machine over Cohaagen’s protests that it will destroy the planet. In the struggle to activate the machine, Cohaagen is sucked out of the compound onto the airless surface of Mars where he dies of asphyxiation and decompression. Quaid and Melina almost die from exposure to the atmosphere as well, but the alien machine activates, creates a breathable atmosphere that saves them and the mutants just in time to see blue sky on Mars.

As Melina says that it is like a dream, Quaid wonders if the whole thing has been real or if he is still in an implanted fantasy. Melina replies “Well then kiss me quick before you wake up." Just as they kiss each other, a bright flash of white light illuminates the screen, and the credits roll.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger—Douglas Quaid/Hauser
• Sharon Stone—Lori
• Rachel Ticotin—Melina
• Ronny Cox—Vilos Cohaagen
• Michael Ironside—Richter
• Marshall Bell—George/Kuato
• Mel Johnson, Jr.—Benny
• Michael Champion—Helm
• Roy Brocksmith—Dr. Edgemar
• Ray Baker—Bob McClane
• Rosemary Dunsmore—Dr. Lull
• David Knell—Ernie
• Debbie Lee Carrington—Thumbelina
• Alexia Robinson—Tiffany
• Dean Norris—Tony
• Mark Carlton—Bartender
• Marc Alaimo—Everett
• Robert Costanzo—Harry
• Priscilla Allen—The Fat Lady
• Mickey Jones—Bearded Man

Themes

The film explores the question of reality versus delusion, a recurrent theme in Philip K. Dick’s works. The plot calls for the lead character and the audience to question whether the character’s experience is real or being fed directly to his mind. There are several visual and informational clues which point in both directions. Verhoeven and Dick play up the intentional ambiguity to the very end and the viewer is left wondering whether or not the events actually happened, if the entire story is simply the memory purchased at Rekall gone terribly awry, or if in fact Rekall had simply delivered on its original promise of “action” and “adventure.” This theme has been revisited since in similarly-themed films such as The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor and Vanilla Sky.

On the special edition DVD commentary by director Paul Verhoeven, he states that using Arnold as opposed to others who had been considered (Richard Dreyfuss, Patrick Swayze) leans more towards the film being real, as audiences would not want Arnold in an action film that turned out to only be a dream.

In an interview with Starlog magazine, Schwarzenegger stressed the challenge of acting in the film, “Because you’re not coming in with the same character that you’re going out with. Hauser’s an interesting character, but Quaid’s just this big program...” Schwarzenegger’s reference to Quaid as a “program,” an unreal personality designed to hide Hauser, suggests that the events and revelations on Mars were real.

One last idea (also from the DVD commentary) that would indicate that the story was not simply a figment of the protagonist’s imagination is broached when director Verhoeven and star Schwarzenegger discuss how they wanted to do a sequel (which later became Minority Report), using Quaid as the hero of a firm that uses psychics (Martian mutants brought back to Earth for the proposed Verhoeven/Schwarzenegger sequel; Precogs in the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film) to solve crimes before they happen. If the events on Mars in the film hadn’t been real it would be impossible to have Quaid star in a sequel.

Early on in the film it is suggested that if one’s mind cannot adjust to the implanted reality, resulting in a schizoid embolism, a lobotomy is the only solution. Verhoeven has suggested that if the film is a dream, Quaid may receive a lobotomy, as represented by the white light that ends the film.

In the end Verhoeven states quite clearly in the special edition DVD commentary (on which Schwarzenegger also comments) that Quaid may indeed be on the table at Rekall living out a fantasy. He points out that the imagery on the screen at Rekall show the alien machine (which was a complete secert on Mars), the girl of his dreams that he asked for and a blue sky over Mars. Verhoeven points this out as Quaid is going to sleep. When Quaid/Hauser is confronted by his wife and the Rekall spokesman, Verhoeven is quick to point out that the spokesman goes on to detail the entire second half of the movie. Verhoeven also says that the movie fades to white instead of the normal fade-to-black, due to the fact that Quaid may be about to be lobotomized by the Rekall doctors at that point. Of course, Quaid himself notes that he dreamt about Melina before ever going to Rekall, which is true: in the first scene of the movie he has a dream in which he is climbing on the surface of the planet in a protective space suit, the glass helmet of which later breaks, turning his dream into a nightmare. He is climbing with a companion, but it is not Lori (whom he wakes up next to), but Melina. On the commentary Schwarzenegger disagrees with Verhoeven on the meaning of the ending.

Earlier in the movie, shortly before Quaid is about to be implanted with Rekall memories, a technician holds up a memory capsule and exclaims, "oh look, here's a new one, blue sky on Mars!" At the end of the film viewers do indeed see blue skies on Mars.

It is noteworthy that a sequel to Total Recall, with Schwarzenegger due to return as Quaid, was being planned, but the idea was eventually scrapped. It is uncertain how the explanation of an implant gone awry would have fit into the story of the sequel.

Development, reception, distribution, and sequels

• Dino De Laurentiis was originally listed as the producer, and between 1983 and in 1984 David Cronenberg was attached to direct with studios in Rome and locations in North Africa. According to Cronenberg every major director had looked at the project but fell out with Shusett who wanted a pure action adventure, described as “Raiders of the Lost Ark on Mars.” Cronenberg quit the production after writing 12 screenplay drafts that were all rejected by De Laurentiis. When the adaptation of Dune flopped at the box office, De Laurentiis similarly lost enthusiasm for the project.

• The film grossed $261,299,840 worldwide, a box office success. Critics, such as Roger Ebert, gave the film mostly positive reviews.

• The film was initially given an "X" rating. Some violence was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more over-the-top scenes for an "R" rating.

• Many critics considered the film excessively violent.

• “Total Recall” was translated as “El Vengador del Futuro” (“The Avenger of the Future”), in Latin America. In Spain and Portugal it was called “Desafío Total,” which means “Total Challenge.” In Turkey it was called “Gerçeğe Çağrı,” which means “The Call for Reality.” In Italy it was called “Atto di Forza,” which means “Act of Strength.”. In Poland it was called “Pamięć Absolutna,” which means “Absolute Memory.” In Israel it was called “זיכרון גורלי,” which means “Fatal Memory.”

• Many parts of the film were filmed in Mexico City. The futuristic subway station and vehicles are actually part of the Mexican public transportation system, with the subway cars painted gray and television monitors added.

• Due to the success of the movie, a sequel was written with the script title “Total Recall 2,” and with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character still Douglas Quaid, now working as a reformed law enforcer. The sequel was based on another Philip K. Dick short story, “The Minority Report” which postulates about a future where a crime can be solved before it’s committed—in the movie, the clairvoyants would be Martian mutants. The sequel was not filmed, but the script survived and it was changed drastically and contained greater elements from the original short story. The film was eventually directed as a sci-fi noir thriller as Minority Report by Steven Spielberg and opened in 2002 to box-office success and critical acclaim.

Other media

The movie was novelized (ISBN 0-380-70874-4) by Piers Anthony. The novel and movie correspond fairly well, although Anthony was evidently working from an earlier script than the one used for the film, and was criticized for the ending of his book which removed the ambiguity whether the events of Total Recall are real or a dream. In addition, the novel had a subplot wherein the aliens planted a failsafe device within their Mars technology, so that if it were misused or destroyed, the local star would go nova and therefore prevent the species from entering the galactic community. It coincided with a comment earlier in the novel that astronomers were noticing an abnormal number of recent supernovae, giving some indication that the aliens seeded their tech as part of some galactic experiment in technological maturity.

A video game was made based on the movie, featuring 2D platformer scenes and top-down racing scenes; a version was released for popular 8-bit home computers (Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC), and the popular 16-bit home computers (Amiga and Atari ST). The game was developed and released by Ocean Software. There was also a much-maligned NES version which was notably different from the others, being developed by a different team (Interplay).

Comedian Andy Samberg played (a) Kuato in a skit on Saturday Night Live.

The ending of the South Park episode Asspen references Total Recall.

Many shows and movies, such as Family Guy and Knocked Up reference the three breasted prostitute seen in the brothel on Mars.

Awards

Academy Award	Result
Best Sound	Nominated
Best Sound Effects Editing	Nominated
Special Achievement in Visual Effects	Won

Television spin-off

In 1999, there was a television series named Total Recall 2070; however, the show had far more similarities with the Blade Runner movie (also inspired by a Philip K. Dick story) than with its own namesake. The two-hour series pilot, released in VHS and DVD for the North American market, borrowed footage from the film, such as the space cruiser arriving on Mars.

See also

• Simulated reality

External links

• Total Recall at IMDb
• Template:Amg title
• Total Recall at Rotten Tomatoes
• Total Recall at MobyGames