Characters from Total Recall (2012). See here for characters from the original film. For the original book go here.
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Douglas Quaid
Douglas Quaid
Played By: Colin Farrell
- Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the original movie, this Hauser truly did turn against Cohaagen.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Doug is a factory worker ground down by life. His previous personality? Not so much.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: In Doug's first fight with the Federal Police, he grabs one of the troopers and holds him as a shield while he shoots the rest of the squad. Justified in that the troopers are wearing body armor.
- Chekhov's Skill:
- A fairly neat example in the final fight, Hauser's elite hand-to-hand combat moves prove utterly useless against Cohaagen's Synth bodyguard. However, Quaid's training as a factory worker allows him to disassemble the Synth's power supply and shut it down.
- His ability to stay calm and act methodically during a gravity switch due to frequent Fall trips also comes in handy.
- Missed Him by That Much: When Quaid ditches his phone he walks right past Lori while escaping.
- The Mole: Quaid/Hauser, though it's not that simple. While Hauser, the original, is the one who engineered the "mindwipe" plan in the first place and was thus a double agent, Quaid joins the resistance both out of agreeing with their cause, and because they aren't the ones shooting at him.
- Neck Lift: On the receiiving end when one of the Synthetics reaches a bit higher and picks up Quaid by the head.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Quaid eventually sides with the Resistance partly after seeing how bad they have it, and also because the UFB police and soldiers are constantly shooting at him.
- Spotting the Thread: Quaid realizes Melina isn't herself at the end because she doesn't have the bullet scar on her hand.
- Would Hit a Girl: Doug fights back when Lori tries to kill him.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Lampshaded by Lori when she reveals her true nature to Quaid, asking if he really thought a girl like her would ever really be married to a guy like him (although Colin Farrell is hardly ugly, and it's more along the lines of Quaid's status as a low-level factory worker coupled with living in a dump of an apartment).
Melina
Melina
Played By: Jessica Biel
- Green-Eyed Monster: Lori's taunt to Melina about her sexual past with Quaid is the impetus for their subsequent fight.
Vilos Cohaagan
Vilos Cohaagan
Played By: Bryan Cranston
- Adaptational Heroism: He is less driven by greed and more driven by genuine good intentions by only killing people in order to prevent overpopulation.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: This version of Cohaagen is an ex-military General Ripper turned politician, who's not afraid to lead from the front and can actually hold his own rather well in a fight.
- The Chessmaster: He performs terrorism and blames the Resistance for it, and manages to amass and send an invasion army to the Colony as well as annihilate said Resistance with Quaid acting as an unwilling mole. The whole thing would have gone well except Quaid sneaked into the Fall elevator in a Roaring Rampage of Rescue.
- False Flag Operation: Cohaagen engineers a series of bombings that he blames on the Resistance, in order to justify building more and more Synthetics, until he has enough to mount a full-scale invasion of the Colony.
- Gambit Roulette: A lot of Cohaagen and Hauser's master plan comes across as overly complicated and dependent on luck, although a large part of this is due to the gambit being triggered prematurely by Quaid's visit to Rekall.
- Leave Him to Me!: In the finale, Cohaagen decides to confront Quaid himself.
- President Evil: He commits an awful lot of murder to have a casus belli to conquer the Colony, which will definitely involve an awful lot of additional murder.
- Villain Respect: Cohaagen has a deep respect for Quaid and is extremely reluctant to kill him.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cohaagen's motive for exterminating the population of The Colony is the crippling overpopulation issues facing the United Federation of Britain.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted. Cohaagen personally shoots Matthias almost immediately after capturing him.
Lori
Lori
Played By: Kate Beckinsale
- Adaptational Villainy: Richter does not exist here and Lori thus lacks the sole redeeming feature from the original film. She also is a lot more murderous than her previous film counterpart.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Lori utilizes a variation of this trope with her synth detail by hiding behind the very resilient Ridiculously Human Robots during firefights.
- Composite Character: This version of Lori is a mix between Sharon Stone's Lori (ruthless secret agent posing as caring wife), and Michael Ironside's Richter (Ax-Crazy way above and beyond the requirements of the job).
- Deadly Hug: Lori to Quaid, after he tells her he's been to Rekall.
- The Dragon: Lori more or less fills the role, due to being the most seen UFB agent.
- Dragon Their Feet: Lori doesn't participate at all in the final fight, and ends up outliving Cohaagen by a couple of scenes. Then she decides to make one final attempt at killing Quaid and gets killed for her trouble.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Lori impersonates Melina in the last scene, only for Doug to notice that she's missing the bullet wound scar on her hand.
- Waif-Fu: Averted. Despite her She-Fu skills, she still gets roughed up and bruised in her fights with Quaid.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Played straight by her, when practically has Quaid's life in her hand near the end, but chooses to disguise herself as Melina and then wakes Quaid up just to mess with him.
Hammond
Hammond
Played By: Dylan Scott Smith
- Chekhov's Gunman: Expanding his role from the original film, Hammond (Hauser's old friend who contacts him after his recall) not only tells Quaid where to go get some Hidden Supplies as in the original (where he does so and then disappears), but infiltrates the soldiers that stay behind in the Resistance stronghold to restore Hauser's memories and saves Quaid (and gets shot for it), therefore dying unlike the original film.
McClane
McClane
Played By: John Cho
- Death by Adaptation: In previous versions of the story, he was still alive. Here, he gets murdered thanks to Lori orchestrating the Recall massacre.
- Race Lift: He was white in the original, but is Asian here.
Rekall Receptionist
Rekall Receptionist
Played By: Mishael Morgan
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Her counterpart, Tiffany, had shoulder length curly hair. She has her hair tied up into rolls.
- Adaptational Skimpiness: Compared to her previous movie counterpart, Tiffany, she dons a Sexy Backless Outfit. This is still more modest compared to their original counterpart, Shirley, from We Can Remember it For You Wholesale who was topless.
