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Nightmare Fuel / Total Recall (1990)

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  • Quaid's nightmare at the beginning of the movie, which also foreshadows what will happen at the film's climax.
  • The mere idea that your entire life up until this point was all a lie, and someone out there has stolen your real memories from you.
    • "Honey, I love you." "Sorry dear, I'm just a secret agent here to make sure you cause no shit. Our marriage isn't real."
    • Not to mention the whole reveal that Hauser was actually Cohaagen's Mole. "Quaid, go to Mars to make sense of this and help the rebellion against an evil dictator who did this to you." "Sorry Quaid, I'm actually friends with the dictator and you successfully helped us fool and kill the mutant leader, time to delete you and get my body back!"
  • The scene where Quaid uses an innocent bystander as a human shield, resulting in blood and guts splattering everywhere.
    • Bloke had already been shot dead, Quaid was using his dead body as the shield.
    • The idea of just minding your business during your commute, only to be caught up in the crossfire between a fugitive and the agents pursuing him, the latter of whom don't seem to care about collateral damage.
  • The Johnny Cab taxis feature an animatronic bust of Robert Picardo. It gets truly creepy when it becomes the robotic version of a Deranged Taxi Driver upon Quaid refusing to pay the fee and calling him a dickhead, causing Johnny Cab to SCREAM furiously with sparks coming out of his mouth, then he attempts to run over Quaid, only to crash directly into a wall and burst into flames... and then we close-up on Johnny's horribly melting face in the blazing inferno before he explodes.
    We hope you enjoyed the ride! Haha!
  • Quaid having to use a device to pull the homing tracker out of his brain through his nose. It can't be good for your sinus.
    • He puts the tracker inside the rest of the candy bar, which gets eaten by a rat, whom Richter blasts to bits in anger.
  • Quaid's fat lady mask opening up is a bit unsettling by today's standards due to the feeling of Unintentional Uncanny Valley the effect gives off, though it is rather funny at the same time. Then he tosses the head over to some guards, where it taunts them and then explodes in their faces:
    "Get ready for a surpriiiiise!" *KABOOM!*
  • Just imagine being in a place where you must remain indoors at all times, and if you step (or in this case, get sucked) outside, you'll die an unimaginably horrifying and painful death.
    • Plus the windows at this place that separate you from the outside are hardly reinforced and can be broken with a mere gunshot. Not quite the ideal vacation spot.
    • The air being turned off at the order of a megalomaniacal governor, resulting in everyone in an entire sector slowly suffocating to death.
  • Kuato's appearance. Not only does he look as if Baby Herman got re-designed by Satan, but then there's the added fact that he's protruding from the stomach of what at first appears to be a normal human.
    • Two words: Parasitic Twin
    • Despite Kuato's appearance, he is more of a Creepy Good type as he is very wise and benevolent; even using his powers to help Quaid unlock his memories about the secret conspiracy that Cohaagen is crafting.
  • Towards the end of the film when Cohaagen promises to fix Melina by making her "respectful, compliant and appreciative... just the way a woman should be!" This along with his description of her becoming Hauser's babe elevates the tech from false memories to just straight up slavery and rape. What truly veers it into this trope though is the fact that you would never know. You would just cook his dinner, make his bed, have sex with him every night and then proceed to thank him for the privilege. That is until, as we saw with Quaid, the nightmares started...
  • Richter's arms getting gruesomely ripped off, particularly as he can tell it's going to happen before hand (due to there not being enough clearance for his arms to fit) but is helpless to do anything but scream a Big "NO!", though this scene is lightened up a bit with Quaid's line "See you at the party, Richter!"
    • It's also a no-win situation. Even if he freed himself, Richter would still fall to his death.
  • What is quite possibly the CMoNF in the movie comes right at the climax with Cohaagen's death (as shown in the above image). He is sucked out onto the surface of Mars and dies an excruciating death due to both suffocation and decompression, the most memorable part being when the decompression causes his eyes, along with the optic nerves behind them, to bug right out of his sockets, all while he screams in pure agony. He very much had it coming, but still.
  • Quaid and Melina too getting exposed to the Mars atmosphere, causing their eyes to expand three sizes as they desperately gasp for air.
  • The thought that Quaid's entire adventure on Mars was just a dream and he is about to be lobotomized back on Earth.
    • Best case scenario: he wakes up just fine.

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