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Encyclopedia > Total Recall (film)
Total Recall
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Produced by Buzz Feitshans
Ronald Shusett
Written by Ronald Shusett
Dan O'Bannon
Jon Povill
Gary Goldman
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rachel Ticotin
Sharon Stone
Ronny Cox
Michael Ironside
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography Jost Vacano
Editing by Frank J. Urioste
Distributed by TriStar Pictures
Release date June 1, 1990 (USA)
Running time 113 min.
Language English
Budget $65,000,000 US (est.)
IMDb profile

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. The film's success confirmed Schwarzenegger as a major box office draw and relaunched Sharon Stone's career. Image File history File links TotalRecall. ... Paul Verhoeven in 2004 in a documentary on Z Channel Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch-born film director best known for his sometimes extremely violent science fiction films. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... Jon Povill is a American scriptwriter and television producer. ... Gary Goldman (born November 17, 1944 in Oakland, California) is American animator, director, and producer. ... Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Rachel Ticotin (born November 1, 1958 in the Bronx, New York) is an actress of Puerto Rican descent. ... Sharon Stone in 2004 Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. ... Ronny Cox as Former Vice-President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1 Daniel Ronald Cox (born Saturday, July 23, 1938 in Cloudcroft, New Mexico and grew up in Portales, New Mexico. ... Michael Ironside (born Fred Ironside February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian character actor. ... Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was a famous Jewish-American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. ... Jost Vacano (* March 15, 1940) is a German cinematographer and director of photography. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still, an archetypal science fiction film Science fiction has been a film genre since the earliest days of cinema. ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Paul Verhoeven in 2004 in a documentary on Z Channel Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch-born film director best known for his sometimes extremely violent science fiction films. ... Dan OBannon (born Daniel Thomas OBannon on September 30, 1946 in St. ... Jon Povill is a American scriptwriter and television producer. ... Gary Goldman (born November 17, 1944 in Oakland, California) is American animator, director, and producer. ... The Special Achievement Award is an Academy Award given for an achievement which makes an exceptional contribution to the motion picture for which it was created, but for which there is no annual award category. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. ... Visual effects (vfx) is the term given to a sub-category of special effects in which images or film frames are created or manipulated for film and video. ... We Can Remember It for You Wholesale is a short story by Philip K. Dick first published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in April 1966. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American science fiction writer. ... Sharon Stone in 2004 Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. ...

Contents

Synopsis

The movie begins as Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) walks hand-in-hand on the red surface of Mars with an unnamed woman. The two walk along in their spacesuits until Quaid falls down and breaks his protective helmet on a rock, causing his body to be exposed to Mars's thin atmosphere. As he begins to suffocate in the decompression and his eyes are bulging out of their sockets, Quaid suddenly wakes up: the whole experience was simply a recurring nightmare. Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the solar system, named after the Roman god of war (the counterpart of the Greek Ares), on account of its blood red color as viewed in the night sky. ... Decompresion has several meanings: in physics, decompression is the release of pressure and is the opposition of compression in medicine, scuba diving and aviation, decompression can refer to a sickness in scuba diving, decompression can refer to a stop, a chamber, a buoy, a trapeze, tables or a computer in... In common current usage, the term nightmare refers to dreams of particular intensity, with content that the sleeper finds disturbing, related either to physiological causes, such as a high fever, or to psychological ones, such as unusual trauma or stress in the sleepers life. ...


Quaid is actually a middle-class construction worker living on Earth with his beautiful wife of six years, Lori (Sharon Stone). He is obsessed with Mars, as the planet constantly comes up subconsciously in his dreams, but has no idea where the recurring reveries come from; Lori is quick to turn down his spur-of-the-moment ideas, such as a vacation to Mars's surface. Meanwhile, the planet of Mars itself is all over the news - as planet administrator Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox) has seen his efforts to control the planet and its valuable mineral wealth constantly disrupted by persistent media inquiries into rumors of alien architecture on the planet as well as deadly attacks by rebels ("freedom fighters"), who fight for a faceless and mysterious rebel leader named Kuato. Earth (often referred to as the Earth, or the earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Sharon Stone in 2004 Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. ... Ronny Cox as Former Vice-President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1 Daniel Ronald Cox (born Saturday, July 23, 1938 in Cloudcroft, New Mexico and grew up in Portales, New Mexico. ... A rebellion is, in the most general sense, a refusal to accept authority. ... Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 1990 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Paul Verhoeven. ...


Despite warnings from a work buddy named Harry, Quaid heads to Rekall, a business that implants fake memories inside a person's mind - allowing that person to replay vacation experiences they never actually had (and save money by not going on an actual trip). Quaid is skeptical about the memory procedure, but agrees on taking a two-week "voyage" to Mars. As an added bonus, he purchases an "ego trip," where his two weeks of Mars memories are as an interplanetary secret agent who gets the girl (chosen from a product configurator to match the one of his dream) and saves the planet, rather than as himself, Douglas Quaid. Memories of blue skies and alien artifacts are thrown in the package. After he is placed inside a large machine that implants the faux memories, he begins to scream maniacally about his "mission on Mars" and "blown cover," while thrashing about. He is soon sedated by the tech-medical staff implanting his memories. The staff first believes that Quaid was simply getting his implant memories mixed up with real life, but then soon realizes that no memories were implanted as of yet. The only answer, they believe, is that Quaid was actually on Mars for an undetermined amount of time as a real secret agent, but then had his memory wiped clean of those incidents. The only organization that could do this is The Agency (essentially the futuristic FBI/CIA), which means it's better for the tech-staff to know as little as possible about Doug Quaid or any memories he may have, fake or not. Because of this, the tech-staff tries to erase Quaid's memories of ever visiting Rekall at all, then dumps him in a robocab outside. 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 OBannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. ... The term configuration system is intimately connected with the concept of mass customization. ...


When a discombobulated Quaid exits the cab near a subway, he is confronted by Harry, who draws a gun and says that Quaid shouldn't have "blabbed about Mars." With death moments away, Quaid fends off his four attackers with inexplicable skill and combat techniques. Confused and scared at his unknown fighting abilities, Quaid goes to home to protect Lori, who he fears will also be in trouble. He is shocked to find that Lori then tries to kill him with a knife. After he overpowers her, she tells him that all his memories are fake. According to her, she was acting as his wife on a job set by the Agency, and all Quaid's memories save the last six weeks are fake/implanted. As she tells Quaid that she knows nothing of his previous Mars experiences or WHY his memory was wiped, Quaid sees that Lori's Agency friends (including her real husband, Richter (Michael Ironside)) are en route to kill him. Michael Ironside (born Fred Ironside February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian character actor. ...


Quaid flees the apartment and survives a firefight through the subway before escaping from the Agency goons. Richter communicates with Cohaagen on Mars, who tells him that Quaid is to be apprehended alive (though their relationship and why Quaid is to be apprehended are not explained). Quaid checks into a cheap hotel downtown to piece things together, when he receives a phone call from a man standing outside at a pay phone. The unnamed man says that the two were Agency friends back on Mars, and had an agreement to deliver helpful goods to one another should their lives be in danger. Without explaining any more or answering questions, the man tells Quaid to come down to the phone where a briefcase will be waiting. Quaid gets the case and escapes another firefight with Richter; he then hides in an abandoned garage where he opens the briefcase, which contains money, fake passports/documents, and a recorded video message from himself. The video message to Quaid from himself reveals the following: His real name/identity is "Hauser," and Hauser worked for Cohaagen on Mars before meeting a special woman and then turning sides against Cohaagen, as Cohaagen was a greedy and cruel administrator to the planet. Though Quaid's memory is a false implant over Hauser's true memories/identity, Hauser's knowledge is still buried safely with "their" brain - and can be recovered with help on Mars - then to take down Cohaagen for good. With the help of a device, Quaid flees the garage as Richter and his thugs arrive.


After Quaid disappears, Richter heads to Mars, knowing that Quaid will certainly try to arrive there. Richter's guess is correct, and he finds a disguised Quaid trying to pass through customs on Mars. Another firefight ensues, and Quaid escapes the customs complex after stray bullets break the air shield that protects the human civilizations on Mars from the irrespirable atmosphere outside. Temporarily safe, Quaid procures a taxi driver, Benny (Mel Johnson Jr.), to show him around and stay with him for a few days as transportation. As the pair drive around the slummy establishments on Mars, Benny says that Cohaagen builds cheap domes on the planet to cut costs, charges an living fee for people to breathe the imported air, and selfishly mines the planet's rich supply of turbinium, which is a mineral that's extremely valuable back on Earth wars. The result of these harsh living conditions is that children conceived and born on the planet are mutants - many of which have psychic abilities, and support Kuato and the rebellion against Cohaagen. Thanks to instructions left by Hauser, Quaid finds his way to a hotel, then to a mutant-friendly (and, thereby, rebel-friendly) Martian brothel. At the brothel, he knows he has to contact a woman named Melina, but does not know why. Upon meeting Melina (Rachel Ticotin) - who resembles the woman he dreamt of in the beginning - she quickly slaps him in the face and begins to chastise him for disappearing after they fell in love months ago - all the while calling him "Hauser." When Quaid tells her of his memory erasure and his new identity as "Quaid," she tells him to leave. Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has a very different atmosphere from that of Earth. ... This article is concerns biological mutants; for fictional aspects see Mutant (fictional) A mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a sudden structural change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the... Parapsychology is the study of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ... It has been suggested that Mega-brothel be merged into this article or section. ... Rachel Ticotin (born November 1, 1958 in the Bronx, New York) is an actress of Puerto Rican descent. ...


With his strange trip now seemingly at an end, he returns to his room at the hotel, where he is visited by an unexpected guest - the Rekall television spokesman, Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith), whom we had previously seen on a TV commercial on Earth. Edgemar tells Quaid that everything that has happened (and is happening) is not real. In fact, Edgemar says, Quaid never left Rekall after coming in for his ego trip. All that he's experiencing is part of the memory implantation process. Edgemar then says that Quaid is stuck in his ego trip back on Earth, and the tech-staff is unable to jar him out of his fantasy, which they themselves are currently experiencing at this very moment. Lori enters through the hotel door, and tells Quaid that Edgemar is telling the truth, and that she entered his fantasy thanks to Rekall technology because she wants him badly to return to consciousness back on Earth and move on with their life together. Quaid is hesitant, but soon believes them. Edgemar tells Quaid to swallow a red pill, which will symbolically help end the ego trip and allow Quaid to come back to consciousness on Earth. Otherwise, Quaid could enter a state of further confusion, finding that he is Cohaagen's best friend, with fantasies of alien civilizations. Quaid puts a gun to Edgemar's head and asks the doctor if he would swear his life on this new explanation. Edgemar says yes, and explains killing him will do no good, as he's merely a figment of Quaid's imagination. Just as Quaid is about to swallow the pill, he sees a drop of sweat roll down Edgemar's head - a sign that Egdemar's nervous, and therefore, lying. Seeing this, Quaid shoots him the in head and spits out the pill. Lori breaks "character" and some Agency men break through the hotel room wall and beat up Quaid. As Lori and the men drag him to a nearby elevator, Melina appears with a machine gun and kills all the thugs. Lori disarms Melina and is about to kill her when Quaid comes to and shoots his former "wife" in the head. Roy Brocksmith is an American actor (September 15th, 1945 – December 16th, 2001) Roy graduated from Quincy University in 1970 and moved to New York where he began a career on Broadway. ...


Melina and Quaid escape as Richter arrives to the scene, seeing his friends and wife dead. Richter follows them to the brothel, where, suddenly, Melina and Quaid are nowhere to be found (as their mutant rebel friends there have quickly hidden them and are now playing dumb). An infuriated Richter, backed up by Cohaagen's army soldiers, begins a firefight with civilians and soldiers in the brothel. Cohaagen contacts Richter by video as the gunfight continues, and tells Richter to abandon the search for Quaid and exit the area immediately. Richter and his soldiers leave just as Cohaagen seals off the whole city sector and cuts off the air. It's only a matter of time before the thousands of people - many of which are mutants - run out of oxygen.


Meanwhile, Melina and Quaid have escaped through underground tunnels along with Benny and George (Marshall Bell), a freedom fighter and high-ranking officer in the resistance. George tells Quaid that they're going through tunnels to see Kuato, who will be able to read Quaid's hidden Hauser memories and see what Hauser knew when he was close to Cohaagen. The foursome reach the rebel headquarters deep inside a Martian, turbinium-rich mountain, and Quaid is taken alone by George to see Kuato. As George soon reveals, Kuato is actually a mutant who grows out of himself. Telling Quaid not to be frightened, George opens his shirt and turns away. Kuato then presses out of George's stomach. An extremely powerful and intelligent mutant, Kuato is able to tap into Quaid's repressed memories, and both see the vital information he's carrying: When Cohaagen dug into a mountain on Mars to mine the terbinium, he discovered a collosal alien artifact inside. The artifact is actually an immense suspended reactor designed to heat up and then pierce Mars's planet core (which is made of ice) and release oxygen and nitrogen into the air. Cohaagen has been exhausting himself to keep this secret hidden, because if the machine is activated and Mars suddenly has a respirable atmosphere and free air, his stranglehold on the planet would dissolve. Marshall Bell (b. ...


As Quaid and Kuato are "seeing" these hidden memories, their visions are interrupted by the room shaking. Richter's soldiers and Agency men have followed the foursome to the rebel base and now begin to shoot and kill all the rebel leaders. Quaid grabs George/Kuato, Melina and Benny, then leads them away from the shooting - but Benny suddenly shoots George and opens a door, revealing Richter. We see that Benny was working for Cohaagen the whole time. Though George is dead, Kuato is still barely alive, and, with his dying words, tells Quaid to "...start the reactor ... free Mars ..."


Quaid and Melina are taken by Richter to see Cohaagen, who then explains the final things Quaid has yet to know. Cohaagen tells them this: A year prior, Kuato's rebellion was growing substantially, and would someday completely disrupt the planet's valuable turbinium mining, if not more. All of Cohaagen and Richter's attempts to infiltrate the rebellion was thrawted because the psychic mutants could easily spot a fake. To bypass the mutants, Cohaagen came up with the idea of wiping someone's mind, so that person could truly join the rebellion and get by the mutants, unknowingly acting as a mole for Cohaagen. The man who volunteered for this erasure and assignment was Hauser, Cohaagen's cohort and best friend. Quaid refuses to believe the story, as it would mean that he was the unwitting mole who led to Kuato's death and the end of the rebellion. Cohaagen then plays another video tape. On the tape is Hauser, who addresses Quaid and says "If you're watching this, then Kuato is dead and you've led us to him. I knew you wouldn't let me down, buddy." The solidifies for Quaid that the worst is true. Mole may mean: Mole (animal), a small burrowing mammal Mole (espionage), a spy working under deep cover Mole (sauce), a Mexican sauce made from chile peppers and other spices, including chocolate Mole (skin marking), a small spot of darkened pigment on the skin Mole (unit) is the SI unit for...


Cohaagen reiterates to his soldiers that Quaid is not to be killed, as the plan following Kuato's death involved Hauser's real mind/memories being implanted back into his body. Cohaagen and Richter leave for a party while Quaid and Melina are taken to a Rekall-esque tech facility to have their minds wiped and new respective personalities implanted. Before the implantation happens, Quaid is able to free himself from the restraints and kill all the tech-staff present. He and Melina then make a mad rush through tunnels to the Martian mountains, where Quaid must turn on the reactor and give the whole planet air (especially as how thousands cut off to air are about to die). Quaid arrives at the reactor, and manages to kill Richter's men before winning a hand-to-hand fight with Richter himself, where Richter is killed. Quaid reaches the reactor's start controls but is confronted by an armed Cohaagen, who has grown incredibly frustrated in not being able to get his friend Hauser back. Quaid and Cohaagen fight. During the fight, a nearby shield to Mars's atmosphere is destroyed and the underpressure begins to suck everything and everyone out. Cohaagen is sucked out. Quaid, in a last-ditch effort before being sucked out to his doom, starts the reactor. The alien machine slowly begins to melt the ice core, which sends gigantic fissures of air out into Mars's atmosphere. As Cohaagen dies outside, Quaid is sucked out with Melina, but saved by air that escaped from the core. The new air barrels through the atmosphere and blows through windows, reaching the airless sector and saving the people.


As Melina and Quaid look upon the now-blue sky of Mars and remark at their success, Quaid recognizes that this is very similar to his recurring dream. When he asks Melina if this is a dream, she says she doesn't know, but to kiss her before they wake up.


Cast

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Sharon Stone in 2004 Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. ... Rachel Ticotin (born November 1, 1958 in the Bronx, New York) is an actress of Puerto Rican descent. ... Ronny Cox as Former Vice-President Robert Kinsey in Stargate SG-1 Daniel Ronald Cox (born Saturday, July 23, 1938 in Cloudcroft, New Mexico and grew up in Portales, New Mexico. ... Michael Ironside (born Fred Ironside February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian character actor. ... Marshall Bell (b. ... Mel Johnson, Jr. ... Roy Brocksmith is an American actor (September 15th, 1945 – December 16th, 2001) Roy graduated from Quincy University in 1970 and moved to New York where he began a career on Broadway. ... Marc Alaimo is an American actor. ...

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. 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. The Sixth Day features Schwarzenegger as an ordinary guy who visits a clone shop, where pet copies are created with copied memories. His character also wakes up confused on a cab and has to later confront whether he is "himself" or "his clone". The Matrix is a science-fiction/action film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. ... eXistenZ is a 1999 film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. ... Vanilla Sky is a 2001 film which has been variously characterized by published film critics as an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp [2], part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond[3] a love story, a struggle for the soul, or an... John Tenniels illustration for A Mad Tea-Party, 1865 Illustration by Arthur Rackham Facsimile page from Alices Adventures Under Ground Alices Adventures in Wonderland is a work of childrens literature by the British mathematician and author, Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, written under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. ... The Matrix is a science-fiction/action film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. ... The 6th Day is a 2000 action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Rapaport. ...


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 The Matrix movies. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Matrix is a science-fiction/action film first released in the USA on March 31, 1999, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. ...


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. A major selling point of DVD video is that its storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra features in addition to the feature film itself. ... Paul Verhoeven in 2004 in a documentary on Z Channel Paul Verhoeven (born July 18, 1938) is a Dutch-born film director best known for his sometimes extremely violent science fiction films. ... Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29, 1947) is an Oscar-winning American actor. ... Patrick Wayne Swayze (born August 18, 1952) is an American dancer, actor, singer and songwriter, memorable for his roles in the popular films Dirty Dancing (where he wrote and composed the hit song Shes Like the Wind) (1987) and Ghost (1990). ...


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. Starlog is a science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. ...


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 (unless they were having marital problems whose only hint is his dreaming of another woman).


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 Steven 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. Minority Report is a 2002 film by Steven Spielberg loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name. ... Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an A-list, Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ...


Early on in the film it is suggested that if one's mind cannot adjust to the implanted reality resulting in a Schizoid Embolus, 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. For other uses, see Schizophrenia (disambiguation). ... In medicine, an embolism occurs when an object (the embolus, plural emboli) migrates from one part of the body (through the circulation) and cause(s) a blockage (occlusion) of a blood vessel in another part of the body. ... Psychosurgery is the practice of performing surgery on the brain to treat or alleviate severe mental disease. ...


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. Violence refers to acts of aggression and abuse which causes or intends to cause criminal injury or harm to persons, and (to a lesser extent) animals and property. ...


Other media

The movie was novelized (ISBN 0-380-70874-4) 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. In addition, the novel had a rather interesting subplot wherein the aliens planted a failsafe device within their Mars technology, so that if it was 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. Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born August 6, 1934 in Oxford, England) is a writer in the science fiction and fantasy genres, publishing under the name Piers Anthony. ... Xanth is a fantasy world created by author Piers Anthony for a series of novels. ...


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). For the hip hop group, see Commodore 64 (band). ... The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ... Amstrad CPC 464, with CTM644 colour monitor The Amstrad CPC was a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. ... The original Amiga (1985) The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation (motto: ) as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ... The Atari 520ST Atari 1040STF with SC1224 color monitor The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ... The familiar Ocean logotype had an often prominent placement on the box art and is recognized by many people. ... NES redirects here. ... Interplay Entertainment Corporation was an American video game and computer game publisher and developer. ...


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. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Hunt for Red October was a 1990 film based on the best-selling novel of the same name. ...


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." Cronenberg quit the production after writing 12 screenplay drafts that were all rejected by DeLaurentis. When the adaptation of Dune flopped at the box office, DeLaurentis similarly lost enthusiasm for the project.
  • 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.

Agostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis, (born August 8, 1919) is an Italian movie producer born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples. ... David Cronenberg at Cannes 2002 David Paul Cronenberg OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian film director and occasional actor. ... Dune is a 1984 movie directed by David Lynch and based on the 1964 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. ... Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American science fiction writer. ... The Minority Report Minority Report is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick first published in 1956. ... Minority Report is a 2002 film by Steven Spielberg loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name. ... Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American film director. ... A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that is evoking and eulogizing the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognzed either by a nations government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people. ... Listen to anthem (MIDI) (audio help) // Ja, vi elsker dette landet (or: Ja, vi elsker) is the national anthem of Norway. ...

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. Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (IPA: ) (born on July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Joseph Graham Davis Jr. ... The 2003 California recall was a special election permitted under California law. ...


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. The Running Man (1982) is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. ... Total recall may mean: Total recall (memory), a term for Eidetic or Photographic memory. ... Predator is a 1987 science fiction movie that was directed by John McTiernan and released on Friday, June 12, 1987. ...


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. Total Recall 2070 was a science fiction TV series first broadcast in 1999 in Canada and later the same year on Showtime. ... Blade Runner is an influential 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott which depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019. ...


External links

Films directed by Paul Verhoeven
Business Is Business • Turkish Delight • Katie Tippel • Soldier of Orange • Spetters • The Fourth Man
Flesh & Blood • RoboCop • Total Recall • Basic Instinct • Showgirls • Starship Troopers • Hollow Man
Black Book

  Results from FactBites:
 
Blade Runner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (6776 words)
Film critics were polarized as some felt the story had taken a back seat to special effects and that it was not the action/adventure the studio had advertised.
The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently used in university courses.
However, Ridley Scott publicly disowned the workprint version of the film as his definitive Director's Cut, citing that it was roughly edited and lacked the score composed for the film by Vangelis.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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