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Discovery of a Signal: An intercepted signal coming from the Moon is a classic, high-stakes science fiction
trigger, a compelling event that triggers this (fictional) mission to the
Moon.
Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, with a screenplay by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman. The film stars
Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, and Michael Ironside. Based on the 1966 short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, Total Recall tells the story of Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), a construction worker who receives an implanted memory of a fantastical adventure on Mars. He subsequently finds his adventure occurring in reality as agents of a shadow organization try to prevent him from recovering memories of his past as a Martian secret agent aiming to stop the tyrannical regime of the planet's dictator Vilos Cohaagen (Cox).
Shusett bought the rights to Dick's short story in 1974 and developed a script with O'Bannon. Although considered promising, the ambitious scope kept the project in development hell at multiple studios over sixteen years, seeing forty script drafts, seven different directors, and multiple actors cast as Quaid. Total Recall eventually entered the early stages of filming in 1987 under the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group shortly before its bankruptcy. Schwarzenegger, who had long held an interest in the project but had been dismissed as inappropriate for the lead role, convinced Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights and develop the film with him as the star. On an estimated $48–80 million budget (making it one of the most expensive films made in its time), filming took place on expansive sets at Estudios Churubusco in
Mexico over six months. Cast and crew experienced numerous injuries and illnesses during filming.
Total Recall was anticipated to be one of the year's most successful films. On its release, the film earned approximately $261.4 million worldwide, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year. Its critical reception was mixed, with reviewers praising its themes of identity and questioning reality, but criticizing content perceived as vulgar and violent. The practical special effects were well received, earning the film an Academy Award, and the score by Jerry Goldsmith has been praised as one of his best works.
Since its release, Total Recall has been praised for its ambiguous ending positing whether Quaid's adventures are real or a fantasy, and it has also been analyzed for themes of authoritarianism and colonialism. Retrospective reviews have called it one of Schwarzenegger's best films and placed it among the best science fiction films ever made. Alongside comic books and video games, Total Recall has been adapted into the 1999 television series Total Recall 2070. An early attempt at a sequel, based on Dick's The Minority Report, became the 2002 standalone film Minority Report, while a 2012 remake, also titled Total Recall, failed to replicate the success of the
original, distributed by TriStar
Pictures.
PLOT
In 2084, Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Vilos Cohaagen, who controls the mining of valuable turbinium ore. On Earth, construction worker Douglas Quaid experiences recurring dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman. Intrigued, Quaid visits Rekall, a company that implants realistic false memories, and chooses one set on Mars (with a blue sky) where he is a Martian secret agent. However, before the implant is completed he lashes out, already thinking he is a secret agent. Believing Cohaagen's "Agency" has suppressed Quaid's memories, the Rekall employees erase evidence of Quaid's visit and send him home.
En route, Quaid is attacked by men led by his colleague Harry because he unknowingly revealed his past; Quaid's instincts take over and he kills his assailants. At home, he is assaulted by his wife Lori, who claims she was assigned to monitor Quaid by the Agency and that their marriage is a false memory implant. He flees but is pursued by armed men led by Richter, Cohaagen's operative and Lori's real husband. A man who says he is Quaid's former acquaintance gives him a suitcase containing supplies and a video recording in which Quaid identifies himself as Hauser, a Cohaagen ally who defected after falling in love. According to the recording, Cohaagen brainwashed Hauser to become Quaid and conceal his secrets before securing him on Earth. Hauser instructs Quaid to return to Mars and stop Cohaagen.
On Mars, Quaid evades Richter and, following a note from Hauser, travels to Venusville, a district populated by humans and those mutated by air pollution and solar radiation within the cheaply built domes protecting the colony. He meets Melina, the woman from his dreams, who knows him as Hauser and believes he is still working for Cohaagen. In his hotel room, Quaid is confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar from Rekall, who tell Quaid he is still at Rekall on Earth, trapped in his fantasy memory and on the verge of permanent brain damage. Quaid notices Edgemar is sweating and, believing he is real, kills him. Quaid is captured by Richter's men, but Melina rescues him and Quaid kills Lori. The pair escape with taxi driver Benny to Venusville.
The mutants lead them to a hidden rebel base, where Quaid meets their leader Kuato, a mutant growing out of the abdomen of his brother George. Kuato psychically reads Quaid's mind, learning that Cohaagen is hiding a 500,000-year-old alien reactor built into a mountain that, once activated, produces breathable air but could also destroy all turbinium, ending Cohaagen's monopoly over both resources. Benny shoots George, revealing himself to be in Cohaagen's employ, and Cohaagen's forces attack the base, killing the rebels. Before he is shot by Richter, Kuato implores Quaid to start the reactor. Cohaagen disables Venusville's air supply to slowly suffocate the remaining inhabitants.
Quaid and Melina are brought to Cohaagen, who explains that Hauser was his close friend who volunteered to become Quaid as an elaborate ruse to bypass the mutants' psychic abilities, infiltrate the rebellion, and destroy it. Quaid's Rekall visit had activated him earlier than planned and Cohaagen has been helping him to survive the oblivious Richter's pursuit. Cohaagen orders Hauser's memories to be restored in Quaid and Melina to be reprogrammed as his subservient lover, but they manage to escape to the mines below the reactor. Benny, Richter, and his men attack them, but the pair outwits and kills them all.
Cohaagen awaits them in the reactor control room, claiming that activating it will destroy the planet. He activates an explosive to destroy the controls, but Quaid throws the explosive into a nearby tunnel, where it detonates and creates a breach to the Martian surface. The explosive decompression blows Cohaagen out to the surface where he suffocates and dies. Quaid activates the reactor before he and Melina are also blown out.
The reactor melts the planet's ice core into gas that bursts to the surface, forming a breathable atmosphere and saving Quaid, Melina, and the rest of Mars's population. As everyone beholds the now-blue sky, Quaid momentarily wonders if everything was a dream, before he and Melina kiss.
CAST
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid / Carl Hauser: An Earth-based construction worker with a hidden past
- Rachel Ticotin as Melina: A Martian freedom fighter
- Sharon Stone as Lori: Quaid's wife, revealed to be a secret agent
- Ronny Cox as Vilos Cohaagen: The governor of the Martian colony
- Michael Ironside as Richter: Cohaagen's ruthless enforcer
- Marshall Bell as George / Kuato (voice): Kuato is the mutant leader of the Martian resistance, conjoined to
twin brother George
- Michael Champion as Helm: Richter's right-hand man
- Mel Johnson Jr. as Benny: A Martian taxi driver
- Roy Brocksmith as Dr. Edgemar: A Rekall employee
- Rosemary Dunsmore as Dr. Renata Lull: A Rekall programmer
The Earth-based cast features Ray Baker as Rekall salesman Bob McClane, Robert Costanzo as Harry, and Alexia Robinson as Tiffany. Robert Picardo provides the voice and visual likeness of Johnnycab, an automated taxi driver.
The Martian cast includes Lycia Naff as Mary, a mutant three-breasted prostitute, Marc Alaimo as Captain Everett, Dean Norris as Tony, Debbie Lee Carrington as Thumbelina, Sasha Rionda as Mutant Child, Mickey Jones as Burly Miner, and Priscilla Allen as "Fat lady".
CAROLCO DEVELOPMENT
Arnold Schwarzenegger became aware of Total Recall in the mid-1980s, either during filming of Commando (1985) or Raw Deal (1986). He liked the script and agreed to pursue it alongside producer Joel Silver while filming Predator (1987), but the project remained unrealized due to its prohibitive budget and because De Laurentiis did not think Schwarzenegger was right for the lead role. Following DEG's bankruptcy, Schwarzenegger convinced Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, co-owners of the independent film studio Carolco Pictures, with whom he had made Red Heat (1988), to purchase the rights for $3 million, including pre-production costs. Schwarzenegger wanted to star in the film, pending rewrites to his satisfaction, and his fame and international appeal justified the studio investing the necessary budget. Carolco completed its acquisition of the majority of DEG's business and assets in April 1989. Schwarzenegger was given substantial influence over the project: he retained Shusett as a screenwriter and co-producer alongside producer Buzz Feitshans, and oversaw script revisions, casting decisions, and set construction. He described himself as effectively an executive producer without the responsibility, but he involved himself heavily because he wanted the project to work. He received a $10–$11 million salary, plus 15% of the film's profits.
Schwarzenegger hired Verhoeven as the director after being impressed by his science fiction film RoboCop (1987), for which Schwarzenegger had been considered in the lead role. Verhoeven had previously been courted by Shusett to direct the film based on his work on Soldier of Orange (1977), but declined then because he did not like science fiction. Even so, Verhoeven accepted Schwarzenegger's offer after reading the Mars hotel scene where Dr. Edgemar attempts to convince Quaid he is still on Earth. Verhoeven had wanted to avoid special effects-heavy films after RoboCop and said that he did not realize how much effects work would be
involved. He requested Goldman be brought in to help with rewrites, as well as some core personnel from RoboCop, including cinematographer Jost Vacano, production designer William Sandell, and special effects artist Rob Bottin. By this point, approximately thirty drafts had been completed, credited to a combination of Shusett and either O'Bannon, Jon Povill, or Steven Pressfield, among others. Verhoeven read each one and highlighted those he wanted Goldman to reference.
WRITING
Goldman had little knowledge of Dick's work but tried to respect the source material and work of previous screenwriters. He considered the second half of the film a concession to traditional Hollywood narratives and so retained most of the structure from Beresford's shooting script. Because the creative team wanted to commence soon, Goldman believed he did not have the freedom to make substantial changes to the script and focused on refining the existing content and making the scientific aspects more realistic. Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger agreed that everything after Dr. Edgemar's visit to Quaid on Mars was not working. Verhoeven wanted a significant change, to indicate that Edgemar could be telling the truth and Quaid is actually having a mental breakdown on Earth. Goldman rewrote the script to make it possible for the film to be viewed as both reality and fantasy. He also made Hauser an ally to Cohaagen, clearly defining Quaid and Hauser as separate identities. Goldman believed that making Hauser evil would better justify Quaid not returning to his original personality. It would also explain why Hauser becomes Quaid: to conceal his intentions from the psychic mutants. Goldman made the Benny character a villain, because he believed African Americans were typically typecast as good characters and the reveal would be surprising.
The script also had to be revised to match Schwarzenegger's action-hero public image, although Goldman tried to make it less comical than some of the actor's previous films. The meek clerk Quail was renamed Quaid, to avoid referencing then-vice president Dan Quayle, and became a muscle-bound construction worker, while fight scenes were rewritten to include more feats of strength and less martial arts or running. Second unit director and stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, among other stunt people who had worked with Schwarzenegger on Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Red Sonja (1985), said that they knew what he could physically do without looking silly. Schwarzenegger also wanted more creative methods to dispatch Quaid's foes because he had been criticized for an over-reliance on guns to kill people in films like Commando. After Goldman's first rewrite, he discussed it with Verhoeven, Schwarzenegger, Shusett, Vajna, and Kassar. Schwarzenegger and Shusett believed the climax lacked emotion, which was an intentional choice by Verhoeven, who did not take the Martian rebel plot very seriously and prioritized the intellectual aspects of the narrative. To appease Schwarzenegger, Goldman conceived of Cohaagen shutting off the oxygen to the mutants in Venusville. After nearly sixteen years in development, seven directors, four co-writers, and forty script drafts, Total Recall went into production.
BOX OFFICE & CRITICS
In the U.S. and Canada, Total Recall was released on June 1, 1990, in 2,060 theaters. It grossed $25.5 million—an average of $12,395 per theater—and finished as the number one film of the weekend, ahead of Back to the Future Part III ($10.3 million), which was in its second weekend of release, and Bird on a Wire ($6.3 million), in its third. This figure gave it the highest opening weekend gross of the year to date, narrowly beating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles's $25.4 million. This was also the highest opening for an R-rated film, and one of the ten highest-grossing three-day opening weekends ever. The film fell to number two in its second weekend, with an additional gross of $15 million (a decline of forty-one percent), behind the debut of Another 48 Hrs. ($19.5 million), and to the number three position in its third week with an additional gross of $10.2 million, behind Another 48 Hrs. ($10.7 million) and the debut of Dick Tracy ($22.5 million).
By mid-July, the film had earned over $100 million and was classified as a success. During the remainder of its sixteen-weekend theatrical run, Total Recall never regained the number one position, leaving the top-ten highest-grossing films by the end of July. Total Recall earned an approximate total box office gross of $119.4 million. This figure made it the second-highest-grossing film of the summer, behind the surprise success of Ghost, and the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year behind The Hunt for Red October ($120.1 million), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($135.3 million), Pretty Woman ($178.4 million), Dances with Wolves ($184.2 million), Ghost ($217.6 million), and Home Alone ($285.8 million).
Figures are unavailable for all theatrical releases outside of the U.S. and Canada, but the film is estimated to have earned a further $142 million, giving it a cumulative worldwide gross of $261.4 million, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year, behind Dances with Wolves ($424.2 million), Pretty Woman ($432.6 million), Home Alone ($476.7 million), and Ghost ($517.6
million). Taking into account production fees, interest, residual payments, and other costs, Total Recall is estimated to have returned $36 million in profit to the studio.
RECEPTION
On its release, Total Recall received mixed reviews from critics, who generally praised the production values and Schwarzenegger's performance, but criticized the violent content. Audience polls by CinemaScore reported moviegoers gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
The narrative polarized reviewers; some praised it as an above-average, complex, and visually interesting science fiction film that successfully blends humor with satirization of the genre's tropes, while others found it lacked humor, romance, or a strong narrative structure. Gene Siskel and Peter Travers believed the latter half of the film, after Quaid reaches Mars, to be where Total Recall became "mechanical", abandoning logic and artistic ambition for excessive action and violence. Travers described it as a transitory blockbuster in contrast to The Terminator (1984) (also starring Schwarzenegger), which he said would "haunt our dreams". Several reviewers agreed that the hotel confrontation between Quaid and Rekall's Dr. Edgemar on Mars, in which the former learns everything he has experienced is potentially a dream, was the best scene, and found the concept of overwriting memories and identity to be a genuinely horrifying concept. Jonathan Rosenbaum called it a "worthy entry in the dystopian" genre initiated by Blade Runner that avoided being derivative of its predecessors.
The film was often compared to Verhoeven's previous work on RoboCop, with some reviews remarking that Total Recall lacked the same "impudence and incandescence" or satirization of 1980s action films as the earlier film. Some said the film was only fun when Verhoeven inserted moments of RoboCop's camp style. The Washington Post's review compared it unfavorably with the Sylvester Stallone action film Cobra (1986), saying it was disappointing in its overuse of violence and abandonment of cynicism and creativity for machoism and misogyny. Several reviews focused on the excessive violence, with Vincent Canby describing it as part of an influx of action-adventure films featuring numerous deaths, counting seventy-four kills in the film and over two hundred in Die Hard 2. Some were concerned by the dismissive and sometimes comical depiction of the deaths, and the general reliance on violence as a solution to all problems posed. Even so, the Los Angeles Times's review said the violence never seemed to be deliberately sadistic or callous. Despite this criticism, Bottin's practical effects were roundly praised, particularly the three-breasted prostitute and mutants that provided many of the film's standout visuals, despite their sometimes perverse or macabre nature.
Reviews praised Schwarzenegger for playing against his public action hero image by portraying a confused, vulnerable, and sympathetic character, with Roger Ebert considering him vital to the film's success. Desson Howe and Travers described it as Schwarzenegger's finest and most interesting work since The Terminator. Even so, others believed the actor's "superman presence" and comic one-liners were out of place and undermined attempts to make the audience emotionally connect with Quaid's genuine fears about his identity. Janet Maslin wrote that this was further harmed by the narrative failing to emphasize his dual identities. Some reviews considered the role to be beyond Schwarzenegger's acting abilities, describing him as "unusually oafish ... a cross between Frankenstein's monster, a hockey puck, and Colonel Klink", incapable of generating a romantic connection with Stone's or Ticotin's characters. Some female reviewers were critical of the film's treatment of women, who they perceived as "hybrid hooker-commandos" and "basically whores", writing that the three-breasted prostitute is the film's idea of a "witty mutation" while Ticotin "registers less strongly than Stone's ambiguous, blonde slut-wife".
LEGACY
Since its release, several publications have named Total Recall as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Rotten Tomatoes named it one of the 300 essential films to watch, and it is also listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 83% approval rating from the aggregated reviews of 75 critics, with an average score of 7.4/10. The consensus reads, "Under Paul Verhoeven's frenetic direction, Total Recall is a fast-paced rush of violence, gore, and humor that never slacks." The film has a score of 60 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
In a 2012 retrospective, Vulture wrote that despite its anachronistic aspects, such as outdated technology, Total Recall remained relevant, particularly in its themes of the oppressed fighting back against their oppressors, which was compared to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement. Discussing the film in 2016, The A.V. Club described it as one of the best 1980s-style action films. Other publications have called it one of Schwarzenegger's most entertaining films and one of his best roles. The film's score, by Jerry Goldsmith, is considered among his finest work and, in his own words, one of his "greatest scores".
A 2020 Inverse retrospective argued that Total Recall, not Blade Runner, was the best adaptation of Dick's work, despite its deviations from the source material. He argued that Blade Runner presented a stylish and cool future, whereas Total Recall presents an "ugly, banal, and grimy" future. Similarly, he believed Quaid's upbeat, amoral antihero protagonist was closer to Dick's traditional protagonists. Even so, Comic Book Resources wrote that "its weirdness and appreciation of dumb-fun" meant that it would probably never be as highly considered as Blade Runner or films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). To mark Schwarzenegger's 75th birthday in 2022, Variety listed Total Recall as the fourth-best film in his 46-year career.
CULTURAL INFLUENCE
Total Recall became one of the most expensive films ever made in its time, and one of the last big-budget films to use almost entirely practical special effects. It is also seen as among the films responsible for a significant rise in the costs of film production because of the high salaries studios like Carolco paid to stars with international appeal such as Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Mel Gibson, recouping their investment by selling their films to the rapidly growing film markets outside of the U.S. and Canada. Alongside the boost to Schwarzenegger's career, Total Recall also redefined Stone from a model to a legitimate film star.
A 2020 SyFy article credited Total Recall as one of three action films, along with Terminator 2 and True Lies (1994), that revived Schwarzenegger's career after a series of less successful action films such as The Running Man (1987), and Red Heat. Schwarzenegger recounted coming across the film on television that year, and believing it still held up, saying: "that is really great filmmaking ... when you can, after 30 years, watch a movie and it still feels the same." Schwarzenegger also named his 2012 memoir Total Recall.
In 2020, The Guardian wrote that, with hindsight, Total Recall formed the middle of Verhoeven's unofficial science fiction action film trilogy about authoritarian governance, following RoboCop and preceding Starship Troopers (1997). Quaid's line, "consider that a divorce", after killing Lori, is considered one of Schwarzenegger's most iconic one-line quips from his filmography, and the three-breasted prostitute, portrayed by Lycia Naff, is regarded as an iconic character in cinematic history. Although she eventually came to terms with the role, Naff was initially embarrassed by her appearance in Total Recall and avoided interviews or fan interactions, saying "I decided not to answer every letter from every prisoner in the world who was writing to me ..."
Total Recall influenced films such as The Matrix, The 6th Day (2000), also starring Schwarzenegger, as well as other media such as Rick and Morty, South Park, and The Expanse. It has been referenced in politics when, during his 2020 address to the Austrian World Summit climate conference about the urgency of their 2050 climate neutrality goal, Dutch politician and European Commissioner for Climate Action, Frans Timmermans, said, "it's been 30 years since Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop — I mean these things go so fast ... we have to act now and we can."
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