Total Recall (1990): Was it all a dream?

[Liberty4eva]

Everyone needs to see this movie who hasn't seen it already.

I recently rewatched this movie and I was really surprised at how good a movie it was. I'll try to avoid spoilers for those who haven't seen it but it was part comedy, part sci fi, but mostly action. It was way more gruesome than movies that are made today with people getting shot and some getting their arms cut off and eyes sucked out. There are maybe a couple of moments where the special effects show the movie's age but, overall, it has aged well.

It's one of Arnold Schwartzenegger's best movies where Arnold discovers, to his surprise, that he is a double agent and at the end rescues an entire planet... or does he? The plot of the movie is Arnold wants to visit Mars and visits Total Rekall which is a company that advertises implanting memories of vacations which is cheaper and supposedly safer. When they try implanting the memory something appears to go wrong and from that moment on Arnold is trying to figure out who he is while fighting to stay alive as people try to kill him. The viewer is under the impression that it is real until the ending after he has rescued the planet where Arnold wonders if it was all a dream meaning that he might still have never left Total Rekall.

The entire movie can be seen on youtube for free. If you haven't seen the movie have a watch then answer the poll.

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There is no cop-out option like "I don't know". Arnold was either on Mars or he wasn't so take your pick. :)

[Amy Jade]

Total Recall is a classic

[Jamie89]

I voted 'Yes' even though I think it probably wasn't real, because I want to believe that it was :hee:

Brilliant movie though :clap1:

[Toy Soldier]

It's obviously intended to be ambiguous, but the more "realistic" (...if you see what I mean... it is sci-fi after all...) answer is that it's all his recall trip, OR that the people telling him so were right - that the Recall clinics are "butchers" and "****ed up his mind" (leaving him in a permanent catatonic state, "on vacation" forever).

It's really too much of a coincidence that the events follow so closely what's described by the travel agents at recall, and that his love interest fit his specifications at the start.

Then again... you could argue that he picks his vacation because he subconsciously remembers his past life and so is drawn to it - and that he describes Melina when asked for his "perfect woman" again because he subconsciously remembers her. Then again... it of course transpires that Hauser was working for (or even partners with) Cohagen all along and was just using Melina, so would she even be his perfect woman?...


...it's a great film either way. I spent half of my childhood watching Arnie films - I probably saw Total Recall for the first time when I was 8 or 9 :joker:

"The Running Man" edges it out as best "classic Arnie", though. Some pure 80's action cheese right there.

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