History Main / TotalRecall

There are two films titled ''Total Recall'':

* ''[[Film/TotalRecall1990 Total Recall]]'' - The 1990 film starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
* ''[[Film/TotalRecall2012 Total Recall]]'' - The 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell.

* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' - The 1990 film starring Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
* ''Film/TotalRecall2012'' - The 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell.

* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' - The 1990 film starring ArnoldSchwarzenegger.

[[redirect:Film/TotalRecall]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/total_recall1_2551.jpg
''Get your ass to Mars.''

A 1990 Sci-fi film based on the Phillip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale", ''Total Recall'', starring ArnoldSchwarzenegger, is on its face a sci-fi take on a spy thriller, set in memories implanted into a bored construction worker of the future... [[OrWasItADream or was it]]? Because of all the AlternateCharacterInterpretation, the film is often called "The thinking man's action movie."

Douglas Quaid (Arnold S.) is tired of life {{Twenty Minutes into the Future}}. His literal life's dream is to get his ass to Mars as a way of escaping his humdrum existence. A commercial for the Rekall brand "Ego Trip" induces Quaid to try one of the trips, which are just implanted memories of a vacation that he'd never be able to take in person. Quaid elects for an enhanced set of fake memories that cast him in the role of a super spy--sort of a memory novella that he will remember living through. When something goes wrong with the procedure, he discovers that his entire life is a lie, and that he is, in reality, a super spy working under deep cover. [[OrWasItADream Or is he]]?

The viewer is constantly challenged to decide if Quaid's experiences are real or all just a result of his "ego trip." The film is also well known for its special effects and over-the-top gore, like [[RoboCop some]] [[StarshipTroopers other]] notable Verhoeven films. Highlights include tons of [[CoolGun cool guns]], [[GagBoobs three-breasted mutants]], and a [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames bizarre]] NES tie-in game ([[RuleOfThree Or do they?]])

A less-campy remake starring Colin Farrell is due to released in 2012.
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!!''Total Recall'' provides examples of:

* AdaptationExpansion: [[PhilipKDick Philip K. Dick]]'s short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale".
* AllJustADream: ... OrWasItADream
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The Mars Resistance base after Cohaagen's forces attack.
* AmnesiacDissonance
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Richter gets both his arms ripped off in his death scene.]]
* ATeamFiring: Richter's goons surround [[spoiler: Hauser's hologram]] on all sides, firing from less than 10 feet away without [[spoiler: ever hitting each other even though the bullets should be passing right through the hologram.]]
* AutomatedAutomobiles: Johnny Cab on Earth.
* BadassSpaniard / SpicyLatina: Melina.
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler: Benny]] and, believe it or not, [[spoiler: Hauser.]]
* BodyHorror: Mutants, especially [[spoiler: Kuato]].
* BondOneLiner: Expected, for a Ahnold film.
** "Consider that a divorce."
** "See you ad da pardy, [[spoiler:Richta!]]"
** [[VisualPun "Screeeew youuu!"]]
* BreakingTheBonds: Quaid breaks metal shackles twice.
* BrokenRecord:
-->10 GET YOUR ASS TO MARS\\
20 GOTO 10
** "Two weeks. Two weeks...two weeks, twoweekstwotweekstwoweeks..."
* BulletproofHumanShield: Quaid uses a dead bystander this way.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Mexico City
* CatapultNightmare: At the beginning, Douglas Quaid wakes up with a jolt from a nightmare of dying of suffocation on Mars.
* CatFight: Between Lori and Melina.
* ChaseFight: Between Quaid and Richter as Benny drives Quaid to the Last Resort.
* [[{{ChekhovsGun/Film}} Chekhov's Gun]]: The hologram wrist device and the [[DrillTank drilling machine]].
* CompletelyDifferentTitle
* CoolGuns: Look for [[strike:Pancor Jackhammers]] street sweepers whenever [[TheDragon Richter]] is really pissed off. Also the cool magazine-on-the-back Calico weapons.
* CrapsackWorld: Mars is definitely this.
** Earth show signs of being this as well, [[FridgeHorror why do you think Rekall does such good business?]]
* CuckooNest: During the RedPillBluePill scene.
* CyberPunk
* DarkActionGirl: Lori, Quaid's wife.
* DarkIsNotEvil / LightIsNotGood: Ironically, the script makes [[spoiler: lovable blonde girl-next-door Lori a villain]], while [[spoiler: the dark-skinned, slutty ("sleazy," to use Quaid's term), and rude Melina is the sympathetic one]].
* DisguisedInDrag: Quaid in the "fat woman" suit.
* DisneyVillainDeath: Richter
* DivorceRequiresDeath: *gunshot* "Consider that a divorce."
* DomedHometown: The Mars colony.
* DopplegangerSpin: Quaid's wrist {{hologram}} device gives him a single image version.
* TheDragon: Richter, to Cohaagen.
** He's close to being TheStarscream if he had the chance.
*** Not really. He constantly disobeys orders, but he isn't trying to overthrow anyone.
* DrillTank: Coincidentally, defeated with [[ThisIsADrill a drill]].
* DVDCommentary: The one for this film is particularly hilarious. For one, Verhoeven's Dutch accent, coupled with Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent, serve to make it almost unintelligible. Schwarzenegger's commentary consists almost entirely of making jokes about the [[{{Multiboobage}} three-breasted hooker]], a grating tendency for [[CaptainObvious stating the patently obvious]] ("This is me as a construction worker", "I used this guy as a HumanShield and then threw him down the escalator"), and expressing how he likes certain parts of the movie because they serve to reinforce the possibility that it's AllJustADream. Verhoeven for his part has a VerbalTic that leads him to end most of his sentences with "Izznit?"
* ElevatorActionSequence
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Richter is definitely upset at the loss of his lover.
** And Cohaagen over the loss of his friend, Hauser.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: The Johnny Cab that Quaid [[CaptainCrash drives into a wall]].
* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Hauser. Mindfuck, much?]]
* ExcuseMeComingThrough: Well, he was carrying a gun, what did you expect?
* ExplosiveDecompression
* ExpositionBeam
* EyeScream: The eyes of characters exposed to the near-vacuum atmosphere of Mars.
** Even if they recover from suffocation, they should be blind after their eyes have taken that kind of abuse. But then, the entire movie seems to be a terminal case of research failure
* FadeToWhite
** This was done to suggest the possibility that Quaid was being ''lobotomised'' as suggested earlier by Dr. Edgemar.
** Or, you know, [[MindScrew that's just his vacation ending.]]
* FauxActionGirl: Subverted by Quaid's "wife" Lori. At one point, she ''seems'' to be becoming one, then proceeds to start kicking ass all over again.
* FakeMemories: Rekall's business model.
* FakeStatic: Richter (blaming sunspots), when Cohaagen is trying to give him orders.
* FetishFuelStationAttendant: Lori
* FlipFlopOfGod: The director on whether the events of the film were real or all in Quaid's mind.
** In the commentary, Schwarzenegger leans more to it actually happening, whereas Verhoeven leans more towards it being the ego-trip.
* {{Foreshadowing}}
* TheFundayPawpetShow: Cast Member Arthur Branswagger's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZGu4aK_DPY signature song]] is the parody "Total Recallin'"
* GirlOfMyDreams: Melina, to Quaid.
* {{Gorn}}: ''Tons'' of it.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: Quaid's memory implantation at Rekall. Supposedly.
* GroinAttack: Multiple examples
* HandyCuffs: Quaid, after he's captured by the bad guys on Mars.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Marc Alaimo, best known as Gul Dukat on ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', enjoys one of his more prominent (if typically brief) film roles in a career of bit part work as the captain of the guards in the Martian spaceport.
** Mary the three breasted hooker spilled hot chocolate on Captain Picard on ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
** Tim the mutant is played by a young Dean Norris, best known as Hank on ''BreakingBad''
* HeyItsThatVoice: The Johnny Cab is voiced by, and modeled after, Robert Picardo, of ''StarTrekVoyager'' fame.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:"I never wanted this. I wanted Hauser back. But no. You ''had'' to be Quaid!"]]
* {{Hologram}}: Generated by a wrist device.
* HotChickInABadassSuit: Lori on Mars.
* HumanShield: The poor bastard on the escalator with the backpack.
* [[IDontPayYouToThink I Don't Pay You To Think]]: Cohaagen gives a version of this as he berates a subordinate:
-->'''Cohaagen''': First you try to kill Quaid, then he escapes!
-->'''Richter''': He had help from our side, sir.
-->'''Cohaagen''': I know that.
-->'''Richter''': But I thought...
-->'''Cohaagen''': Who told you to think? I don't give you enough information to think. You do what you're told. That's what you do.
* IHaveAFamily: Benny the cab driver has four kids to feed, and likes to bring it up to potential fares. [[spoiler: [[BlatantLies Or was it]] [[TheMole five?]]]]
* IndyHatRoll: Quaid, right after arriving on Mars, to escape enemy pursuit.
* InsideAComputerSystem
* InWorkingOrder: The switch that activates the alien device.
* LockDown: Happens twice.
* LookBehindYou: How the {{Hologram}} wrist device is used.
* LotusEaterMachine: Rekall has one, and will plug you in for a modest fee.
* MadeOfPlasticine
* ManchurianAgent: Quaid
* MemoryGambit
* MindScrew: Quaid's entire adventure follows the plot of the super spy vacation he orders, as described by the Rekall salesman. Coincidence?!? [[OverlyLongGag Or was it?]]
* MinionShipping: Richter and Lori.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Benny, and technically Quaid as well.]]
* MomentKiller: While Quaid and Melina are kissing in the catacombs.
* {{Multiboobage}}: The triple-breasted hooker
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Richter, about Lori.
* NeckSnap: In Quaid's first fight against Cohaagen's goons, one of them checks out this way in a rather gratuitous fashion.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Quaid and Melina, who somehow instantly recover from [[spoiler:Decompression]] fairly quickly, despite it being previously shown to turn people into jelly.
** It seems that the [[spoiler: Alien reactor]] also managed to bring the pressure to Earth-Norm, but it still shouldn't have been that fast.
* NoOSHACompliance: Rather than kicking in automatically, the emergency pressure doors in the Mars spaceport terminal have to be manually activated while potentially (as happens in the film) fighting against being sucked into a near-vacuum.
* NoteToSelf: the video messages Hauser leaves for Quaid.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Hauser basically says this to Quaid, pointing out that that's ''his'' body and he wants it back. So TryNotToDie.
* OrWasItADream: The ending is intentionally ambiguous about the nature of Quaid's fantasy.
** And if it was, has it GoneHorriblyWrong, or not? [[MindScrew Does the film end with him being lobotomized, or is that just the end of his vacation??]]
** If it was not a dream, then it has GoneHorriblyWrong for [[spoiler:Hauser]].
*** And it all comes down to whether the the scene between when they start the implantation process and when Quaid wakes up in the Johnny Cab is a part of the halucination or if it really happened. And there's absolutely nothing that says one way or the other.
* {{Planetville}}: Even the presence of other tropes reinforce this. For example, [[spoiler:the atmospheric pressurization is so fast]] that if it was interpreted as accurate, it not only shrinks the colony to appreciable city-size, but the ''whole damn planet''. Subtropes include:
** ItsASmallWorldAfterAll: Mars has ''one'' red light district (Venusville), and is arranged into sectors that number enough to be designated ''letters of the alphabet''.
*** Since we don't know how much of Mars was colonized, it's possible that the human population there all lives in the same city.
** OneWorldOrder: Cohaagen.
* PreMortemOneLiner:
** ''[[spoiler:Benny!]] Screw you!''
** "See you at the party, [[spoiler:Richter!]]".
** From [[spoiler: the bomb itself]]: "Get ready for a surpriiiise!"
* ProductPlacement: Fuji Film, Jack in the Box, Pepsi, and more.
* PsychicPowers: Kuato and a number of other mutants.
* PublisherChosenTitle: See AdaptationExpansion above.
* PunchClockVillain: [[spoiler: Lori]]
* PutTheirHeadsTogether: Quaid to two of the {{mooks}} who attacked him after he left Rekall.
* LaResistance: The mutant rebels.
* RareGuns: The Pankor Jackhammer.
* RedHerringShirt: Quaid masquerading as a woman.
* RedLightDistrict: Venusville on Mars.
* RedPillBluePill: A choice offered to Quaid by a Rekall psychologist.
* TheRedPlanet: Quaid spends most of the film on Mars.
* [[SchrodingersButterfly Schrodinger's Butterfly]]
* ScienceMarchesOn (Geology): Mars having an ice core turned out to partially true.
* [[{{ShoutOut/Films}} Shout Out]]: To ''Capricorn One''.
* ShrugOfGod: The director.
* SpareBodyParts: A prostitute on Mars has extra assets.
* SpitefulSpit: Melina to Cohaagen.
* TakingYouWithMe: Richter and Johnny Cab both try this on Quaid.
* TanksForTheMemories
* TheTelltaleDrapes: Quaid realizes Lori and the doctor are about to kill him from the bead of sweat rolling down the doctor's head.
* {{Terraform}}: [[spoiler:Mars, at the end of the movie.]]
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Quaid does this right after he slaughters the five agents trying to kill him on Earth, before he goes back to his "wife" Lori. He actually has their blood on his hands at the time.
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Hauser leaves instructions to Quaid, anticipates how Quaid is going to react at various points, and seems to know roughly how long it'll take him to remove the tracking device, before continuing.
* ThisIsADrill: Quaid to Benny.
* TitleDrop
-->'''Richter:''' In an hour he could have total recall.
* TroubledProduction: The Mexico City shoot was considered a nightmare for most of the cast and crew. Many cast and crew members got sick at one point from contaminated water (the only major members of the production who didn't get sick were Schwarzenegger, who had remembered being sick during the Mexico shoot of ''{{Predator}}'' and took special precautions, and producer Ronald Shusett, who would give himself B12 shots each day to avoid illness) and the air was so polluted that Schwarzenegger recalled having trouble breathing on most days.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: We have seen the future, and it is the public transportation system of Mexico City.
* UncleTomfoolery: Benny the cab driver, [[spoiler: until he reveals himself as a mutant collaborator]]. And especially after [[spoiler: that turns out to be a lie and he was EvilAllAlong.]]
* UsedFuture
* VideoPhone: Used a lot on Mars. Talking to someone on Mars was as easy as phoning them up on Earth. In fact, Cohaagen (when on Mars) uses his vid phone to call Richter (on Earth) without any technical difficulties.
* VillainousBreakdown: Richter has a brief one after [[spoiler:Lori's death]], but pulls himself together quite quickly after nearly killing himself and his head goon.
* WhamLine:
--> '''Cohaagen:''' "Now, here's a message from someone you trust..." (switches on computer screen)
--> [[spoiler: '''Hauser:''' Hey, buddy!]]
* TheWarOfEarthlyAggression: Mars Resistance version.
* YouFailPhysicsForever: Mars is roughly under half an AU from Earth at closest approach, meaning it should take at least three minutes each way for the video phones to send messages.
** There are so many things wrong with Mars in this film. The finale is especially egregious though: melting the frozen core of the planet fills the atmosphere with water, turning Mars into an earth-like, perfectly viable planet. [[SarcasmMode Yeah, it makes perfect sense.]]
* YourHeadAsplode: Subverted, where the exploding head is a bomb-rigged animatronic prosthesis which Quaid wears as part of a costume. His deception uncovered, [[HeyCatch he tosses the head to his pursuers]], in whose hands it cracks wise and then asplodes. Also averted and played straight, since the thin Martian atmosphere causes one bad guy's head to a splode. Arnie and his gal narrowly avoid the same fate.
* XanatosRoulette: Cohaagen's plan.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]]:
-->'''Vilos Cohaagen:''' Richter goes hog-wild screwing up everything that I spent a year planning. Frankly... I'm amazed it worked!

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** And Kuato over the loss of his friend, Hauser.

* UncleTomfoolery: Benny the cab driver, [[spoiler: until he reveals himself as a mutant collaborator]].

->'''Fat Lady:''' ''(smiling)'' Get ready for a surprise!

* IKnowThatGun: Abundant examples, since the film is set in 2084.

* MindScrew: Quaid's entire adventure follows the plot of the super spy vacation he orders, as described by the Rekall salesman. Coincidence?!?