Total Recall (film)

Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 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 novelette We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. At the time of its production Total Recall had the largest authorized budget for a film produced by a Hollywood studio. Despite its violence the film's success confirmed Schwarzenegger as a major box office draw and relaunched Sharon Stone's career.

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Synopsis

Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker in the mid-21st century, living an ordinary life with his wife Lori (Stone). Quaid is plagued with dreams about Mars and visits the Recall company, who implant false memories of a vacation as a cheaper alternative to an actual holiday. Quaid takes steps to have the memories of a trip to Mars implanted into his mind, but the procedure goes wrong, and Quaid finds himself pursued by killers led by Richter (Michael Ironside), and Lori (Sharon Stone), who had merely been posing as his wife, and is actually Richter's girlfriend.

Quaid is presented with a video message from his "real" self, Hauser, who had been chief of security on Mars. What Quaid learns from the video compels him to go to Mars, where he joins the struggle against the corrupt and greedy Mars Administrator, Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox). When Quaid arrives he discovers that the mutant population of Mars came into existence because of gene defects due to substandard shields that failed to protect humans from solar radiation. The Mutants also live in a section of the Mars colony called "Venusville," a seedy community of casinos, bars and prostitution houses where miners of a substance called "terbinium" (a compound vital to an unseen war being fought on Earth) gather after hours.

With the help of Hauser's girlfriend, Melina (Rachel Ticotin), and the mutant telepath Kuato, Quaid discovers the hidden knowledge that he had in his previous life: Cohaagen has found an ancient alien artifact that will release oxygen into the Martian atmosphere to make it habitable outside the enclosed colony. Cohaagen will stop at nothing to prevent this; if Mars is given an atmosphere Cohaagen's trump card of oxygen deprivation, which he uses as leverage to prevent defiance by the mutant population, will vanish, thereby eliminating his dictatorial rule. In the end, it turns out that all events up to this point were planned beforehand by Cohaagen and Hauser to find and kill Kuato, and end the rebellion among his fellow mutants. The plan succeeds, but before Quaid is destroyed forever and once again made into Hauser, he escapes his captors, activates the artifact, and frees Mars. However, the "real" events on Mars are uncannily like the events described in the implanted vacation that he purchased, so that even at the conclusion, the viewer is not entirely sure what the reality of the situation is.

Cast

Themes

The film explores the question of reality versus delusion. 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. A similar theme is found in the movies The Matrix, eXistenZ and Vanilla Sky. With a nod to Alice in Wonderland, both this movie and The Matrix have a sequence where the hero is offered a red pill that will symbolically alter their perception of reality from the new one they are experiencing to the one they were accustomed to.

Other aspects of the story, such as Quaid supposedly knowing something that will bring freedom from suppression to the revolting settlers, i.e. being "the one", have obviously had an impact on the creation of the role of Neo in the Matrix movies.

A strong case for Quaid's journey being real is that the film is not told from his perspective. Viewers are aware of events that Quaid could only be oblivious to.

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' suggests that the events and revelations on Mars were real.

Another argument for the reality of the plot is that if it were a designed "dream" adventure to Mars, Quaid would not enjoy discovering that his wife is a secret agent willing to kill him.

One last idea cementing the idea that the story was not simply a figment is also from the DVD commentary when director Verhoeven and star Schwarzenegger discuss how they wanted to do a sequel (which later got turned into 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 Spielberg/Tom Cruise film) to solve crimes before they happen. There would be no way to do this sequel if the events on Mars in the film hadn't been real.

Early on in the film it is suggested that if one's mind cannot adjust to the implanted reality, a lobotomy is the only solution. Quaid is threatened with a lobotomy during the course of his adventure. While this may be simply feeding on his fears to make his adventure more believable, director Verhoeven has suggested that, if the film is a dream, Quaid may receive a lobotomy at the end, as represented by the white light that ends the film.

A detail which furthers the debate comes early in the film, when a Rekall technician admires one of the most far-out aspects the story being implanted - a blue sky on Mars. And indeed, that's just what Hauser/Quaid creates at the movie's end. Also other details of the adventure to begin are seen in the Rekall illustrations.

Critical opinions

Many critics consider the film excessively violent. Science fiction critics point to its numerous scientific errors. Some believe that these scientific inaccuracies and over-the-top action sequences strengthen the claim that the entire plot past the point where Hauser has his memories affected is a series of fictional memories in the mind of the protagonist.

Other media

The movie was novelized (ISBN 0380708744) by Piers Anthony, noted for his Xanth fantasy series. The novel and movie correspond very well, although Anthony was criticized for the ending of his book which removed the ambiguity whether the events of Total Recall are real or a dream.

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 NES version which was notably different from the others, being developed by a different team (Interplay).

The film is also the subject of the site http://getyourasstomars.com, parodying a line repeated in the film.

Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; Best Sound and for Best Sound Effects Editing. Though it did not win in either of those categories (the awards went to Dances With Wolves and The Hunt for Red October, respectively), the film received an Oscar for Special Achievement in Visual Effects.

Trivia

The film was in development for over 10 years prior to release. The story had originally been optioned in 1974, and Jon Povills's version of the script had been written in 1975.

Dino DeLaurentis was 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." When the adaptation of Dune flopped at the box office DeLaurentis lost enthusiasm for the project and Cronenberg quit.

Due to the success of the movie, a sequel was written with the script title "Total Recall 2" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is still Douglas Quaid, now working as a reformed law enforcer. The sequel was based on another Philip K. Dick short story, Minority Report which postulates about a future where a crime can be solved before it's committed. The sequel was not filmed due to many reasons 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.

The Norwegian national anthem Ja, vi elsker is whistled by Arnold's taxi driver in one of the scenes.

2003 California gubernatorial recall election

In an example of life imitating art, or at least its title, Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California after the "total recall" of Gray Davis. See 2003 California recall.

In fact, Arnold had his campaign buses labelled as The Running Man, Total Recall, and for the press, Predators 1 through 3. All of them were based on the titles of films in which Schwarzenegger has starred.

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 2-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.

External links

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