History YMMV / TotalRecall1990

** The most famous one of all: is the whole film actually real, or is Quaid still in the simulation? This is a case where even the creators aren't very sure; Verhoeven says it's a fantasy, Schwarzenegger says it's real.

** "Baby, you make me wish I had three hands." [[note]]Just as much as the [[BestKnownForTheFanservice three-breasted mutant]] Benny was referring to, this meme also has relevance to the odd shape of the [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 Nintendo 64]] controller.[[/note]]

** Arnold's glaringly misshapen "head" when he takes off his "Two Weeks" Lady helmet/mask.

** To some people, this is the movie where Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger got [[GroinAttack ballbusted]] not one, not two, but ''[[RuleOfThree three]]'' times. By [[EvilIsSexy Sharon Stone]], no less. He also got another one albeit non-violently by another woman who squeezes his balls softly. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bf4VoIsVuQ See here]].

* EvilIsSexy: Lori, played by the ever-so-lovely Creator/SharonStone.

* AdaptationDisplacement: As covered under AdaptationExpansion on the main page, much of the film's content did not appear in the original Phillip K. Dick story, with the subsequent popularity of the film doing much to obscure the original story.

* MemeticMutation: Like most Schwarzenegger films, most of the memes surrounding this film come solely from the man's iconic accent and delivery style, not to mention a number of other more memorably-delivered lines by other members of the film's cast:

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The beginning of the main theme by Jerry Goldsmith sounds suspiciously similar to Music/BasilPoledouris's ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian'' theme. Alternatively, you could think of pounding tympani as a {{Leitmotif}} that follows Arnold Schwarzenegger around through most of his movies.

%% * AdaptationDisplacement: See AdaptationExpansion.

* CompleteMonster: In the Creator/DCComics adaptation of this classic action flick, by Creator/ElliotSMaggin & Tom Lyle, [[BigBad Chief Administrator Vilos Cohaagen]] lacks his film counterpart's VillainousFriendship with Carl Hauser, while still retaining all the evil. As leader of the Mars colonization efforts, Cohaagen brutally overprices the sell of oxygen to the citizens of the colonies, uncaring that many of them are slowly dying from being unable to pay Cohaagen's prices, and, upon discovering a likely way to provide infinite oxygen across the planet, Cohaagen covers it up to retain his power over the inhabitants. When rebel forces continuously try to oust his treachery, Cohaagen devises a plan with his partner Carl Hauser to mind-wipe the latter, turning him into an ideal rebel fighter, then using this new personality, Douglas Quaid, to lead Cohaagen to the rebels. Once succeeding in this, slaughtering the entire rebel group, Cohaagen attempts to revert Quaid back to Hauser, laughing all the way about asphyxiating the entirety of Venusville [[ForTheEvulz for fun]]. Cohaagen ultimately showed his [[LackOfEmpathy lack of care]] for Hauser when, after Quaid escapes the attempted reversion of his mind, Cohaagen callously orders him be killed, and spends his last moments using [[LoveInterest Melina]] as a hostage in an attempt to murder Quaid, securing his rule over Mars once and for all.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: [[http://www.joueurdugrenier.fr/total-recall-et-predator-nes-2/ The NES/Amstrad/Commodore 64 game.]] With the most epic (read: with [[HitboxDissonance the most annoying hitbox]]) [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative fight against a hat-throwing hobo]] you'll ever see in a video game.

** [[Spoiler:Cohaagen's]] face as he grossly inflates from his decompression death can be NightmareRetardant given how he ends up vaguely looking like Creator/RodneyDangerfield.

* {{Narm}}: Every damn scene that requires Quaid to scream in distress, stretching from the first few minutes of the film all the way to the last, thanks to Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger's infamously limited acting abilities that result in him giving some of the most cartoonishly [[DullSurprise flat]] {{angrish}} imaginable. The end result sounds less like he's freaking out and more like he's peeling off the world's largest bandage.

* AngstWhatAngst: Finding out your entire life was a lie and all your memories are fabrications would be enough to send any normal person into an existential crisis. Quaid takes the news that everything he knew was a lie surprisingly well.

** Just how evil was [[spoiler: Hauser]] originally, especially considering he was best buddies with Cohaagen, a contemptuous sociopath in every other regard? Considering that [[spoiler: the uncover operation as Quaid with Lori posing as his wife]] was supposedly all his idea, were Richter's reasons for wanting his blood solely for his actions as [[spoiler: Quaid]]?

* Sugarwiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:

* MemeticMutation: Like most Schwarzenegger films, most of the memes surrounding this film come solely from the man's iconic accent and delivery style, not to mention a number of other more memorably-delivered lines by other members of the film's cast.

* Sugarwiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: The film has well-made models and prosthetics, and the only brief CGI, in the X-ray scanner, looks simple but holds up.

* UncannyValley:

** The characters when their eyes bulge out of their heads when getting decompressed by Mars' atmosphere, which for some either can come off as {{Narm}} or [[NightmareFuel/TotalRecall1990 Nightmare Fuel]].

** Sharon Stone is playing a woman that offers to be "tied up" then plays [[Film/BasicInstinct a woman that ties people up]].