Total Recall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other meanings, see Total recall (disambiguation).
| Total Recall | |
|---|---|
| Image:Total recall.jpg Film poster | |
| 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 Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Jost Vacano |
| Editing by | Frank J. Urioste |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 1, 1990 (USA) |
| Running time | 113 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 65,000,000 (est.) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| 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.<ref>Trashcity.com Review 2002</ref> The film's success confirmed Schwarzenegger as a major box office draw and relaunched Sharon Stone's career.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Douglas Quaid is a construction worker who has been having dreams about being on Mars with a sexy brunette. After seeing an ad from the Recall company, he decides to get implanted memories of a vacation in Mars. But something goes wrong during the procedure, and the doctors discover his mind has already been wiped. Returning home with no memories of ever going to Recall, his wife tries to kill him. Later, she tells him that everything he remembers, including their marriage, is false— only implanted memories. Thanks to a case he left to himself before being wiped, Quaid starts piecing together the truth about himself. Pursued by Richter, who's working for Mars administrator Cohaagen, Quaid travels to Mars to discover the truth.
[edit] 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
- Quatto - Himself
- Michael Champion - Helm
- Roy Brocksmith - Dr. Edgemar
- Ray Baker - Bob McClane
- Rosemary Dunsmore - Dr. Lull
- David Knell - Ernie
- Alexia Robinson - Tiffany
- Dean Norris - Tony
- Mark Carlton - Bartender
- Marc Alaimo - Everett
[edit] 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 entire story is simply the memory purchased at Recall gone awry. This theme has been revisited since in similarly-themed films such as The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor and Vanilla Sky, along with Schwarzenegger's own The Sixth Day.
[edit] The case for and against Quaid's journey being 'real'
A strong case for Quaid's journey being real is that the film is not told from his perspective. Viewers are aware of important events and information to which Quaid is oblivious.
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.
One last idea that would indicate that the story was not simply a figment of the protagonist's imagination (also from the DVD commentary) is 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. 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. 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.
Many details which set up the reality/imagination debate come early in the film, when Rekal technician's describe remarkably similar events to what Arnold experiences in the film down to finding alien artifacts and the girl in his dreams being available in the package he purchased.
[edit] 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.<ref>Review at Moria.co.nz, 2005</ref>
- The film grossed $261,299,840 worldwide, a box office success. Critics such as Roger Ebert gave the film mostly positive reviews. <ref>Review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, June 1, 1990</ref>
- Many critics considered the film excessively violent.<ref>Review by Janet Maslin of the NY Times, June 1, 1990</ref>
- Following the custom of mistranslating movie titles when taken to the latin market, "Total Recall" was translated as "El Vengador Del Futuro", that means "The Avenger Of The Future".<ref>Total Recall listing on Dvdventas.com</ref> In Spain it was called "Desafío Total"<ref>Total Recall's Spanish entry at Estoescine.com</ref>, which means "Total Challenge". In Turkey it was called "Gerçeğe Çağrı"<ref>Total Recall's Turkish entry at Beyazperde.com</ref>, which means "The Call For Reality".
- 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 - in the movie, the clairvoyants would be martian mutants.<ref>Overview of Total Recall DVD audio commentary at DVDtimes.co.uk</ref> 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.
[edit] 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 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.
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).
[edit] 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.
[edit] 2003 California gubernatorial recall election
Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California after the "total recall" of Gray Davis. See 2003 California recall.
In fact, Arnold had his campaign buses labeled as Total Recall, The Running Man, and for the press, Predators 1 through 3. All of them were based on the titles of films in which Schwarzenegger has starred.
[edit] 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.
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Total Recall at the Internet Movie Database
- Total Recall at All Movie Guide
- Total Recall at Rotten Tomatoes
- Total Recall at MobyGames
- Seanbaby's Review of the Total Recall video game
- Seanbaby's other review for Total Recall the video game
| Films directed by Paul Verhoeven |
|---|
| Business Is Business • Turkish Delight • Katie Tippel • Soldier of Orange • All Things Pass • Spetters The Fourth Man • Flesh & Blood • RoboCop • Total Recall • Basic Instinct • Showgirls • Starship Troopers Hollow Man • Black Book • Kneeling on a Bed of Violets |
de:Die totale Erinnerung – Total Recall es:Desafío Total fr:Total Recall hr:Potpuni opoziv it:Atto di forza nl:Total Recall ja:トータル・リコール pl:Pamięć absolutna pt:Total Recall ru:Вспомнить всё (фильм) sv:Total Recall
Categories: 1990 films | American films | Best Science Fiction Film Saturn | Carolco films | Cult science fiction films | Cyberpunk | English-language films | Films based on short fiction | Films based on the works of Philip K. Dick | Films directed by Paul Verhoeven | Films shot in Mexico | Mars in fiction | Space adventure films | TriStar films
