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Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 1990 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Verhoeven. It won a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker in the mid-21st century living an ordinary life with his wife Lori (Sharon Stone). Quaid is plagued with an obsession about Mars. He purchases a virtual vacation on Mars to be implanted in his mind by the Rekall company. The procedure apparently goes wrong and uncovers some of his suppressed past life. He finds himself pursued by killers led by Richter (Michael Ironside) and is forced to actually go to Mars where he joins the struggle against Mars Administrator Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox). 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.
Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Jon Povill wrote the screenplay with inspiration by the Philip K. Dick short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.
The film explores the question of whether what is happening to the hero is reality or is a delusion being fed to his brain. A similar theme is found in the movies The Matrix, eXistenZ, and Vanilla Sky. Whether coincidence or intentionally done, 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 used to.
On the special edition DVD commentary by directer 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. An interview with Schwarzenegger suggests though that Schwarzenegger bought the film rights to this story himself thus securing him the lead. The "reality" of Mars segment of the film has been the subject of much debate among science fiction fans.
Many critics consider the film excessively violent, and science fiction critics point to its numerous scientific errors as evidence of Hollywood's ignorance of the laws of physics. However, it is considered a classic science fiction film.
The movie was novelized 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 as to whether the events of Total Recall are real or a dream. ISBN 0380708744
A video game adaptation was also made based on the film.
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.
Total Recall is also a name of a popular shareware learning application developed by Sharp Software in the late 1980s.
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