What the Hell is wrong with you Jared. You busting out a Theory Time. And No Voice over by Paul. Theory Time. Damn all you had to do was insert Audio when Editing? Missed Opportunity
I bet you came from England and moved to America. England did have only 4 channels until 1997. Total Recall premiered for the first time on British television in 1993.
As a 32 year old man, it pained me that I had never seen total recall or running man, so I watched both in one night last week. I've seen all of his other films but never got around to these two. Arnold was such a G in his prime
Corporatecat230 I'm 42 and it wouldn't surprise me you haven't seen these 2 films. I first saw these movies when I was around age 10. So you wasn't even born when they was first released.
Your parents have failed you, you poor thing, my nephews and daughter grew up with gremlins flight of the navigator total recall ect even found the 89 teenage mutant ninja turtles film for them to watch oh and 80s/90s cartoons they loved them. Check out Logans run really good Sci fi film even if it's old . Swear they got the idea for tinder off that lol if you watch it. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it. Demolition man is another great 90s one
@@tyrant7583 Yes but I still grew up with VHS's. I've seen every single Arnold movie, those two just fell by the waistside. As a cinophile, you can't watch all movies.
I was 10 when this movie came out. My parents would not allow me to go see it. Later that year we went to Disney world and stayed in a hotel in Kissimmee and me and my brother got to have our own room and we were allowed to order any movies we wanted to watch and lo and behold Total Recall was on that list. Needless to say I couldn't order it fast enough. That's was the greatest time I ever had on vacation was watching that with my brother while we ate food from the snack bar. God I miss having times like that with my little brother.
Total Recall was one of the best action, adventure, Spy, sci-fi, head trip movies ever made. Arnold plays the heck out of this role. And just can't be beat.
Although I consider TR to be one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, and Arnie was great, I honestly feel like prime Van Damme would have been slightly better in the role as Quaid. His martial arts ability / choreography would have been so much better + Van Damme had a quiet man mystique that would have fitted in well with the whole Mars mystery.
This movie is so much deeper than I would have thought. I watched it when I was younger and promptly categorized it as a good summer blockbuster. I’ve seen it on TV a couple times since but now I need to go back with all the knowledge you just dropped and experience it again… for the first time!
I am not convinced that the whole thing is a dream. A few things that back that up is his wife's concern when he talks about the dark haired woman before going to recall, his construction worker buddy being suspicious of his desire to try out the dream vacation, and the doctor coming in to convince him that none of it is real. The bead of sweat and nervousness of quaid taking the bait is what did it for me. However, the ending is a bit too good to be true though. Heck... now that I'm typing it out... maybe it might be a dream? Either way, still one of the best scifi movies of all time and a personal favorite. It effected me so much as a kid that I still get regular dreams to this day about being in the total recall world and get worried that my wife is secretly my handler preventing me from remembering my secret spy life. 🤨 Great video!!!
@@Chugg.Norris We know it was a dream, there is no getting past the blue sky on mars...that's a new one comment. I don't know how you explain that remember it was said prior to them giviing him injection!!! Clearly it was implanted and whever happens after that, it all ends with blue sky on mars, well no way you can aruge it. Also, 41A is the exact woman seen in the moive, however, we first see her prior to him going under! Man how I thought it was not a dream at one time is just incredible. Great fucking moive.
Verhoeven and Arnold admit it was a dream on the commentary track. It is possible they meant for it to be more ambiguous initially, but the final edit is clear.
It could be that those are machine edits of the ego's access to its real memories in order that it can be convinced that going to Total Rekall activated his real ego, and this therefore is just the ego trip trying to take hold. He's lying there, but the machine is convincing him that this "never happened" the way he thinks, and he is fighting for his life to get out of there, when in fact the machine is just cleverly hiding from him that he is lying there as it takes him to Mars in his mind. The same way that a dream state takes hold over the ego. This technology has to work at least that well for him to walk around thinking he's a construction worker because Verhoven wants him to. It's all really a play on the power of the dream state, the fragility of the ego, and something of a bit of Zhuangzi in there, with his butterfly dreaming of being a man.
You missed an important point, Quaid didn’t just shoot Edgemoor, he shot because of the bead of sweat, which shouldn’t have occurred if Edgemoor was still in Recall. Hence, Quaid was not dreaming. Also, the soundtrack to this film is fantastic.
Paul Vehooven has said in an interview that IT WAS a dream! And that he gets lobotomised after. He did not make it clear, in my opinion. Which makes it work either way, depending on the viewer. I have seen this movie a ton of times and I always thought is was real. But after knowing it was a dream and spotting the couple of clues ( which are blink and miss them..) I am sad to say that I had got it wrong all these years. Great movie none the less.
I brought up the sweat bead too, but I still feel it was all a part of the dream to further sell it to Quaid. I think the threat of lobotomy is also just to up the stakes of the adventure and if you pay attention to what the tech says in the beginning all of this was a part of the deal.
@@codd84 - i always thought it was real as well but questioned the photos at Rekall because they didn't make sense for it to be real. I guess i just wanted it to be real, lol
@@leefr76 - good point. Why would some hot major babe be married to a construction worker? And some of her facial expressions i question before Quaid even goes to Rekall
I have a simple theory as to why it might all be real: the cutaways. Typically in dreams, the protagonist is present in each situation or at least near by to perceive said situation. But in here, there are scenes where Quaid isn’t present but the action goes on. How would this be happening if he was dreaming?
Movie logic doesn't always work so we are always left with "why the cut aways if it's a dream" I think it's just a loophole. However I always bring it back to it's not wether it's real or not but what is it about humans desires and what would we do to live our dreams, it's even more depressing,. The concept are we ever I control of our decisions or are we living a dream, are we figments of a more powerful beings dreams, ala Azzatoth the ancient cosmical ancient God.
People are well aware of some of Arnold's most iconic one liners. "I'll be back" "Get to the chopper!" I think there's one that people have slept on. "Give these people AIR! 😂😂😂
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED COLLATERAL DAMAGE AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED ERASER AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED THE END OF DAYS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED TOTAL RECALL AND I'VE GOT THOSE MOVIES ON DVD AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED TWINS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED CONAN THE BARBARIAN WHEN HE WAS A VERY YOUNG MAN AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED THE END OF DAYS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED ERASER AND I'VE GOT THOSE MOVIES ON DVD AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED COMMANDO AND HE WAS THE GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA USA 😁
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WHO is Austrian WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED PREDATOR AND I'VE GOT THIS MOVIE ON DVD AND THE ACTOR KEVIN PETER HALL WAS THE PREDATOR AND HE PUSSED BUTTONS ON IT'S ARM AND A NUCLEAR POWER CELL DESTROYED HUNDREDS OF ACRES OF RAIN FOREST AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WAS RESCUED BY A CRAZY HELICOPTER PILOT AND HE WAS THE GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA USA 😁
18 วันที่ผ่านมา
Sometimes, when I'm working on a difficult project alone, I say "Baby, you make me wish I had 3 hands."
Melina is seen in his dream as well as being described by his wife prior to him visiting Recall. I was so perplexed by whether it was a dream or not that I read the book adapted by Piers Anthony. It leans a lot more towards it being real. Its very similar to the movie but goes into more detail about the aliens plot line.
Hauser and Cohaagen would know how she looks like and have her surveillance photos too, as well as reactor. And it was revealed that Cohaagen controls Rekall - so the whole thing was planned, implanted and staged.
Quaid dreams of the girl, then describes her to Rekall and they put her in the dream. Of course she is going to look like her, he tells them exactly what the basic elements of her are and then his mind fills in the rest. His wife looks at him the way she does because she knows that he is dreaming about a different life to the one they have, and most likely suspects he will cheat on her.
The secret is: the people insisitng "it's clearly just in his head" are the same that deny "Die Hard is a Christmas Movie" or hate Pineapple on Pizza... we will one day move evolutionary past these joykills ;)
I remember watching this with my dad as a kid. Every time I think about my dad and I growing up, revolved around watching all these 80s/90s action films and nobody was more iconic than Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's just a lot of really fond, nostalgia memories I have from that time, regardless of how good (or not) the movies actually are.
You completely left out perhaps the strongest argument that Quaid was in real life. When the Dr guy who was sent from Recall began to explain the adverse consequences of killing him and not taking the pill, Quaid observed not only a tone of panic but also a bead of sweat on his brow. If the doctor was just a program, why would he exhibit human responses to stress? This is what convinced Quaid and the audience that he was actually living these events.
what if Quaid was desperetly looking for something real? i remember one famous quote from Matrix when Morpheus said ''We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's dangerous. The mind has trouble letting go.'' so by that definition.. Quaid was already too attached to the dream
The mind plays tricks on you.....and I think it was another instance of the memory implant creating that bead of sweat and giving Quaid confirmation that he was truly a clever agent. I still think it was all a memory implant.
Quaid's psychological subconscious fabricated the bead of sweat dripping from Dr. Edgmar's forehead to give Quaid a reason to believe Dr. Edgmar was lying so he could shoot Dr. Edgmar, killing Dr. Edgmar in Quaid's mind and remain trapped in his fantasy ego trip and false memory implanted adventure forever. Quaid didn't wanna return to reality in truth.
The said panicked tone was frustration by Dr. Edgmar trying to pull Quaid back into reality from his chemically induced psychological fantasy ego trip and implanted dream. Imo it is a dream gone wrong at Rekall in reality on Earth from the beginning after Quaid is put under for the false memory implant procedure at Rekall on Earth onwards. The fact that everything Bob McClane said would happen at Rekall happened may have been coincidence but the fact that literally everything Dr. Edgmar predicted and foreshadowed would happen to Quaid in his false memory implant procedure sabotaged dream experience did in fact happen accurately and in order, wasn't just coincidence too. Quaid was dreaming of Melina and Mars before the Rekall Center operation because Douglas Quaid was unhappy, bored and dissatisfied with his real life on Earth as a typical average man and construction worker married to a beautiful, athletic, blonde trophy wife, Lori, and secretly always fantasized being something larger than life itself, a super secret Martian government agent and spy in his scenario, living on Mars and fantasized being with a sleazy, athletic, brunette woman vs his blonde trophy wife in reality on Earth, which Quaid's subconscious personified as Melina in his dreams of Mars and Quaid suffocating to death symbolized Quaid feeling suffocated by his life and reality on Earth he needed to escape from. The fade to white ending symbolized Quaid waking up from his lobotomy on Earth in reality. Lori, as Quaid's wife, and Harry, Quaid's best friend and co-worker on his construction job, acted suspicious and strange before Quaid went to Rekall when Quaid mentioned going to Rekall for the false memory implants because Lori and Harry had suspicions that Quaid went to Rekall before and doesn't remember. Hence their concerned, shady, uncomfortable behavior and attitude towards Quaid.
Great breakdown. My dad let us rent this as a kid even though I was way too young lol and remember seeing the trailer for T2 on the VHS and us being so hyped. Nostalgia
nah it was a dream. when he goes into recall and they are setting up his ego trip, the guy in the background exclaims " oh wow the sky is blue on mars" or something to that effect of a blue sky. what happens at the end of the movie? sky turns blue. hes in a dream.
@@dylanwillyams The fun thing about the movie is that the director said that when they we're putting the movie together, they wanted both possibilities (dream or reality) to be true at the same time. With both hints that it could be real, and hints that it could be fake present in the movie
@@travishultine3072 The evidence that this is all a dream was pretty clear on first viewing in the theater and it remains clear today: (1) "Blue sky on Mars. That's a new one" (2) Melina's picture is at Rekal. Not someone who looks like her. It's Rachel Ticotin's photo. (3) "Rate some alien stuff for us." "Two headed monsters?" (Arnold not a fan) Then they flash a picture of the reactor. (4) and finally, on the commentary track both Verhoeven and Arnold admit it was a dream.
This is honestly such a perfect movie and I feel like, despite it bieng very well known and recognised for bieng so great, it's still underrated. Such a clever film, with an AMAZING script.
its old but definitely not under rated, except by kids who can't watch something with such bad video. I say this liking the movie, but its like most people from my generation can't watch black and whites or movies without sound. It was good for the generation it was created for. The fact that it has staying power only means its due to our sci fi fascination now. Once we go to space, we won't be too interested in space movies, as that will be just another location. So it will be forgotten in 30 years, and I mean that loosely forgotten.
I had major nostalgia vibes watching your breakdown, I have not seen this in at least 15 years. I agree completely that this was a dream sequence. I’m loving all your breakdowns and I hope you can do more nostalgic movies like this, thanks!
A few counterpoints. Quaid, or Howser, did not go to recall until AFTER he dreamt of Milena. The dream was the reason he went. He initially wanted to go to mars, but was discouraged by those around him. Next, all the details for his secret agent trip were done while he was in the chair. A chair that was designed to give him what he wanted. It is extremely likely that he was starting to remember his old life, and the chair was pulling that information from his subconscious to be used in his fantasy. That "Blue skies on mars, never seen that before" comment was telling, as his subconscious was creating that for use in the agent trip. Everyone else would not imagine that, hence never seen before. He states that the reactor creates air, making it more likely than not that he had been to the alien structure, so again, the machine would integrate that desire into his memory implant. Nothing would break the immersion faster than having something the person knows show up wrong in an implanted memory. As a programmed double cross to fool mutants, it was a good plan. Hence why Cohagen sends all the help. If he was an elite agent for Cohagen, and his memory implant was filing, that would explain the sudden change to combat capable. Finally, implanted safety memories do not sweat. Or look visibly scared. And the explanation was stupid. He shoots the fat doctor, and the fat doctor comes right back and explains that he isn't in the real world. There is no reason they can't implant him twice.
That mind reading theory is kinda stretched. Also, he had to be fully in machine to make it work. About the fat doctor-it's strange that Rekoll would send someone unfamiliar and untrusty. It would make more sense to send doctor which he talked to, especially if death means nothing. Also, the following action probably haven't give a space for the next visit.
@@levsonc The machine would absolutely have to be able to "read your mind" or the whole thing wouldn't work. I mean you could go on a fake family vacation where they substituted random people for your family, but that wouldn't bring much value. Again, the machine needs to know what you know in order to tailor the experience. The idea that a machine could only write memories, but not read them is more of a stretch.
@@DeadManWalking-ym1oo Except we know that the machine CAN copy a persons memories, and would have to. As an example, he dreamt of milena BEFORE going to recall, it was the reason he went, and we see on the machine a picture of a person he shouldn't have known. The entire premise is based on erasing Howser, implanting Quid, and when the mission is over erasing Quaid and reimplanting Howser. More than that, he would not have known his "wife", or his apartment, or his history, or his job without the implant of Quaid. If you suddenly forgot how to do your job, or what your wife looked like, or where you worked, or anything about your life beyond vague concepts, you would get pretty suspicious, especially given that the technology exists to erase and implant memories. It would probably be more accurate to say "suppress" memories as one of the techs refers to a "memory cap". Now the way the brain actually works is pretty interesting, and believe it or not we have memory alteration machines now. As of right now they can only see the location of a memory(or in some cases a trigger point for seizures) and target the area for irradiation, erasing the memory or short circuiting the area responsible for the seizures. Cutting edge stuff. It is not inconceivable that in 50 years we could save and playback memories, assuming we discover the translation matrix and everyone is similar enough to have widespread deployment of the technology. If every brain speaks a different language, then the tech is impossible to be used in a widespread manner. Finding the person talking in a quiet room is easy, translating what he is saying can be hard.
I believe this version of the movie is intended to present both possibilities of being real or a dream as equally as they could. For me it is not a dream because of several small details that seriously refute it being a dream. The bead of sweat, the sudden personality change at Rekall about his cover being blown, etc.
Don't forget Lori; your wife wouldn't suddenly try to kill you after you've refused a sedative...she said she was an avatar there to help guide him out of a dream...
@Imperial_Cosmonaut that's true, but also she only reacted after he shot the doctor, which I could see as Doug's mind falling back into the dream and taking back control of events, I'm watching it rn as I type this and the movie so perfectly balances both sides that's it's making my head hurt lol. that being said I think I'm leaning slightly towards it being real
How can an average construction worker have such a beutiful wife? A woman like that had never married someone that couldn't afford her, so it is definitely a dream
This, for me, was Arnold's first truly cerebral film. The first where you actually have to pay attention. Smart script, brilliant effects and iconic characters. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
It seems that every time I have watched that movie I learn something more that I didn't realize previously. I have seen that movie at least 20 times. I think I have exhausted all the information I can get out of it. I love movies that leaves you with an uncertainty of what the ending actually is. Another great movie like that is Predestination with Ethan Hawke. Definitely a mind bender.
Maybe The True Reason There Are So Many Things That Make You Think It Is All A Dream Is Actually The Fack That He Already Did The Total Recall Thing Is Because Thay Got His Memories Or Something And Made Is Into A Dream And The Rest Is All A Coincidence Is Because He Started To Remember And Decided To Make Those Choices For His New Memory
Being a kid...14, when this came out(still can't believe it was 1990, really thought it came out in the 80s) I always felt that it wasn't a dream. The scene with the doctor sweating really sealed that in for me. Watching this breakdown, even though I've seen this film more than 20 times, has flipped it on me and I think you're right, it is a dream. I think that my thinking it was not a dream, really shows how naive I was and wanted the happy ending to be the truth. Now, as an adult of 46 I know that there are very few happy endings in life and you're lucky to make it out of the jungle alive. Excellent breakdown. Such a classic film and so ahead of its time. 33 years later and they still can't make them this good, as even the not perfect special effects are actually amazing and are perfect because they don't take you out of the film. Love learning about the behind-the-scenes details, like the Mexico subway, and how the mutants are from the mind of Cronenberg. Just an outstanding breakdown and stroll down memory lane.......or was it a dream?? Dun Dun DUN!!
This came out when I was a kid. I usually don't watch sci-fi or action movies, but I loved Schwarzenegger movies. I still think that he wasn't dreaming when he returned to Mars. He was there and knew it too well to just be a dream. Plus, the theme song for Total Recall is my one of my favorites. It fits with the movie so well.
I was born in 1980, and had a father who loved all the Sci fi, horror, and action movies and totally let us watch everything. This was an extreme movie to watch at that age, it scared the crap outta me but that's because the practical effects were AWESOME! Not a fan of the remake though. OG Totall Recall all the way.
First of all, very enjoyable. I got a big kick out of your review with all the fine detail. Total Recall is one of my favorite sci-fi movies. I can only say the movie leaves up in the air on if it's a dream or not, and after all these years it still makes you ask that question.
I've always leaned more towards it being reality and not a dream. I think for me it's the scene when he awakens going nuts shouting "you blew my cover". The doctors sedate him and Mclane says he's just living out the secret agent role, but she says its impossible because they haven't implanted yet. During this exhange between the doctors and mclane, Quaid is unconscious so if it is his own dream he doesn't benefit from this exchange between them and it's never brought up again. My theory is (and probably a weak one 😆) is that Quaid regained his memory as Houser during that outburst. But then they wiped his memory of ever going to recall that day which in turn wiped his Houser memory, then dumped into a taxi. So why would that be in his dream if he can't remember that happening. For the rest of the film he never recalls being Houser again, but Cohegen can't take the risk if his memories return. Also the look Harry gives Quaid at the construction site, it's not a look of concern for his "friend" being lobotomized if he goes to rekall but more of a look of 'sh*t if he goes to recall memories might come back'. I think its reality. Great review btw 👌
The idea of him seeing Melina on the Rekall computer is also very debatable as well. He's falling asleep when that happens, his POV was blurry etc. We already know he dreams of her every night which is pre-rekall. So that theory doesn't hold up either.
All that, plus the third person scenes where Arnold isn't present. How would someone dream up transitions scenes he's not even in? Leaning more towards reality.
@@markrothenbuhler6232 I think the main theme of the film is how the outcome is truly meant to be as ambiguous as possible. How would we even know what's real?? I lean towards reality myself but everytime i see the ending, I come back to the simple fact we wouldn't know anyways. It's real to Quaid/Houser. Edit: Verhoven did his best to carry on Dicks work by keeping that ambiguity and the film is better because of it
This is one of my favorite movies. I was soooo stoked to play Red Faction back in '01 when it came out because it reminded me of this movie. Still one of the best sci-fi films. It also touched off my love for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I've since watched almost every single movie he's ever done - including Hercules in New York.
Curiously enough, in the book, Douglas Quail did go to Mars. But his memory was erased. And he saved the world while a kid by preventing an alien species from invading Earth. It's a more psychological stuff (PKD style) but they went the other way around with the movies. Great book and awesome film.
Exactly! I read the book 15 years before the movie was produced, and once watched the movie, I always thought that should have deserved a second parte, if they had follow the original book's ending .
I think the genius of this film story is that it leaves you to decide for yourself which is real, do you want the happy ending or the bleak ending. I like to think it's ambiguous enough to never be sure.
It's not ambiguous AT ALL. The movie spells it out for you MULTIPLE TIMES. See the guy who came to Mars just to tell him that he was in fact dreaming? Find me ONE GOOD REASON someone would travel through space to tell a random guy, who isn't dreaming, that he is in fact dreaming... See what I mean? You're not dreaming right now, right? Imagine a reason for someone coming from Japan and tell you that you're actually dreaming right now... Let me know if you find any. Bad guy #1: "this secret agent is going to make our plan fail" Bad guy #2: "Boss, I have an idea, what if we tell him that he's in fact dreaming?" Bad guy #1: "this is genius!!!! That way, he'll stop chasing after us!!! MOUHAHAHAHAHA" Bad guy #3: "Are you guys for real right now?! 😅"
@@SLRModShopwell that and the fact at the start of the movie when they’re putting him into the machine the technicians say “hmm blue sky on Mars” literally gives away the ending & on top of that he literally designs the female he meets lol
There are actually _THREE_ different possibilities of what happens in _Total Recall:_ 1. The whole thing actually happens to Schwarzenegger's character 2. Everything after Arnie goes to Rekall is a dream gone wrong, and he ends-up lobotomized 3. Everything after Arnie goes to Rekall is a dream that plays-out exactly the way it was supposed to, the Edgemar character shows-up to make the dream more interesting The first possibility is the least likely, but which of the remaining two is the most likely? Personally, I favor the third as I've always interpreted the fade to white at the end as being him waking-up in the chair. ...of course there's also the possibility that there is no right answer, its whatever yoo want it to be (and that's probably the case)
First off, I love this channel, thank you for your work!❤ Always mashing the like button like it was a fly! My favorite line in this movie has become my own personal inside joke. A one man inside joke that really sets a blaze when someone knows what I'm talking about, and I have two of these, one is from this movie the other is a bit more complicated, so to save time, if anyone wants to know what the second one is reply to this, and I'll respond in kind, for now, here is this one... When Arnie holds Ironside down in the elevator and his arms are chopped off, Arnie says, "See you at the party Rictor" And not only is this just absolutely absurdly funny, he isn't going to be at the party and even if he were he's now without arms!!! It's the best line I think in almost all movies it's that way to me it's up there in the top 5. Especially when it can be made into an inside joke. So we know this movie, and the line, well, my family doesn't watch sci-fi stuff it's really a house full of woman and it's just me my Father in-law and a neutered cat in this war. Well anytime something comes up that's a shame, or it's been ruined, or something I wanted to do gets changed, I say, See you at the party Rictor. And no one knows what I'm talking about until this one time I said it in a doctor's waiting room this guy looked up smiled and pointed at me Total Recall, and I said yup and he laughed oh that's funny and my wife is like what's going on? And I just say you'd have to have seen the movie to understand the reference. And that Taxi cab driver is a really good actor because he freaked me out as a kid and still some as an adult, I didn't trust him right from the get go. I saw this movie in the theaters it was a really big deal back then. Another film I hope you guys do some day if you haven't already is "BIG TROUBLE LITTLE CHINA" Thanks❤
Unobtanium was actually mentioned in the movie The Core (2003) and then in Avatar (2009). Quipped.. "The actual name has 19 syllables, so I just call it Unobtanium". It was a substance that became stronger as it was heated and compressed more, making the perfect material to create a ship that would go in to the Earths core.
The origins are actually much older than that. It's an old engineering joke, like the retro-encabulator. It's like a parody term for an absurdly hard to get substance that is demanded by the specs. It was probably used earlier, but the first recorded usage was at in the 50s at Lockheed and was actually referring to titanium, which was very rare at the time.
I've always been a huge fan of the original Total Recall. This recall was awesome - love the details to illustrate it was a dream, not real. I really enjoy this video.
I think it must have been real because of that scene where he briefly unexpectedly awakens as hauser during the implant procedure. Then the staff manage to sedate him and wipe his memories of the occurrence and his entire visit to recall, and then when he subsequently awakens in the cab, he has no memory of how he got there.
I will be honest, When I watch the movie - I am always treating it as real too... But the example you gave - NAH! That's a bad example... Why? Because that's a Movie Plot in many movies... A Protagonist goes to a Secret Meeting, Gets Drugged and wakes up somewhere with no idea how they got there... It is Quite Literally a Movie Script and would 100% be something that Rekall would have used for Reference. There is also another hint though that something is not right... Something I have only just noticed and it is in that same scene. Rekall KNOW Quaid's home address, Why have the Johnny Cab drive him around randomly? Maybe they don't want another Lawsuit or something, but again... Isn't it better to put him in a cab and have him dropped off somewhere random... And then get rid of the Cab as its bound to have "Storage Media" so would be Evidence of their involvement! It is not a person you can pay to keep their silence! When you think more carefully about it - Some aspects of that scene do not fit with Reality! Now, I am just Nitpicking... But its also why I love the movie! Either Explanation WORKS... And to me, I believe that IT WAS REAL! 100% it was supposed to be reality just as it was in Philip K. Dicks original Short Story... But its shot so well that BOTH Ideas are Viable and that makes it a BRILLIANT MOVIE!
@@Phoenix2312 I take your point, and it is possible that him waking up momentarily as hauser during the implant procedure could have actually been a part of the ego trip package, however, the fact that they wipe his memory and he subsequently awakens in the cab with no memory of it illustrates that the scene was not intended to be part of the ego trip package, and was only for the benefit of the viewer to, later in hindsight, understand that even the quaid persona was implanted by the agency, and that recall’s procedure unintentionally deprogrammed the quaid persona and he reverted to hauser until they managed to sedate him again and perform the wipe. Least that’s the way I’ve always seen it. But great movie. I wish they still made them this good today.
@@entwinedturnip I agree... I mean, how many movies today do we honestly still talk about the way we do this one? Very few... One thing you can say for quite a lot of old movies... even back to the black and white days - There was a passion in the writing that is missing today!
I remember that the tech says that it’s not the ego trip because they never got to implant it. This happens while Arnold is sedated. It must not be in his mind.
Why would a Recall implant of a secret agent include waking up at the Recall location? It makes the customer hostile to your organization. Then after he's dumped, his buddies come up saying "You went to Recall didn't you" before trying to kill him. If implants are a vacation, the characters should be fabricated and/or you have little interaction with the key figures. Your wife and friends trying to kill you should not be in the programming out of fear of lobotomy. If it's a dream, Recall is actively lobotomizing people with this implant more often than not.
They need to release a Remastered and Uncut Version of this movie I really thoroughly enjoyed this Movie. It is all over the place and seriously has a lot of things to think about and literally has so much going on I feel it has been influential in inspiring technology and future concepts that have been implemented and some yet to be ...
Great video and pretty convincing that it was all a dream... except for Melina being with him on Mars at the beginning of the movie. The only way that might be explained away is that it's just Quaids' ideal fanatsy woman, the girl of his dreams (literally) and he almost superimposes her onto the more generic female type on the monitor, when he's at Rekall. Either way, this is a great movie and one of Arnie's best roles - the fact people are still debating whether it was all a dream, over 30 years later, shows how iconic this movie really is
In the directors commentary verhoven states pretty clearly that he envisioned the entire story as the dream. That's why it fades to white instead of black at the end of the movie... Arnold is actually having the embolism He was promised when he didn't exit the dream...
Only problem is all the scenes without Arni where characters are still playing out their role. If its a dream nothing wld exist without Arni perceiving it. But it cld just be a plot hole n poor directing.
I think your opinion that it was an embolism is an assumption on your part, because I watched the director's commentary and I didn't get that feeling at all. I got the feeling that Arnold Schwarzenegger is basically us in our dreams, and at the end of the movie it's insinuating the end of the everyday guys fantasy while watching it.
@@misterriktus151 that's what I always thought too; especially when Lull, McLane, and Ernie are talking about Arnold while he's knocked out in the rekall chair
@candleAbba22 It's not my opinion- the director himself explicitly states in the DVD commentarye that he made the movie from the point of view that it was a dream....just go back and listen to the commentary it's right there...
Not a dream. Look at the scene immediately after they knock him back out at Rekall. A conversation takes place, that Quade is unaware of, in which they confirm that it is real. There are numerous scenes, that don't involve Quade and he never becomes aware of, that confirm this as reality. These events would never have happened if it was a dream. Things don't happen, outside of someone's dream, that falsely support someone's dreams. If they hadn't included those scenes or at least made him aware of these events later, then it could be a dream. Quade never became aware of those events and they couldn't have happened if it was a dream.
I always thought it was a dream, but not that he got lobotomised. I was always thought (and still do to an extent) that the concept if such a trip can't work unless the passenger (Arnie, the audience) really thinks there's something at stake. I always liked to think he woke up fine having had the trip of his life, as he'd originally planned to have. I'm sure that is wrong but I'm a suckered for a happy ending 😊
Excellent review! The only thing I'd add that I always found interesting was that throughout the film it's implied that Cohaagen doesn't want to start the reactor because he wants to control the air on Mars. But at the very end of the film, even when at risk of being sucked out and killed in the hostile environment, he's still begging for Quade to not push the button, and that it'll kill everyone. I always found that interesting, that he really believed pushing the button would be a bad thing.
The reason I originally thought this wasn’t a dream was because of all the scenes that play out without Arnold in them. In a dream the character would always be present.
Total Recall is such a classic. It keeps you guessing. Is it reality or a fantasy? At the end of the movie, it's left to us the audience to decide if it's real or a dream.
I always thought it was all just a dream. But that’s the beauty of it. There’s no right or wrong answer. The ending was smartly ambiguous and the viewer is free to interpret the movie how they want.
@@Mr_Rob_otto there definitely is a right answer though. The right answer is that he wasn't dreaming. There are so many clues that it absolutely can't be a dream. The sweat on his head right before he kills them, you wouldn't have sweat in recall. Getting memories back before even going into the machine, conversations that happened when he's not even there. It absolutely positively was not a dream and it's not even an opinion it's fact
@@thickerconstrictor9037 Other than the director himself saying it's a dream? Sorry, but, I'm going to take the guy who made the film's opinion overyours.
My dad took me to see this in the theater when I was 9 years old. I have a six year old kid now and I cannot envision a world where I let her see this in three years AND YET this movie delighted and amazed me in a way that sticks with me in such a positive way to this day.
Yet, if your nine year old told you they like to play with the toys of the opposite sex..you'd probably run straight to the sex change clinic and get them on puberty blockers...🤣
It's up to you but being that you could handle it and it had a positive impact why would you not want your kid to experience it. I think its what all parents do and see their kids as kids because they want them to stay kids and not see them as the continually growing and changing people they are. However it really doesnt matter because even if u choose to show them the movie, so many times kids dissapointingly dont even like it because "its old"
Like in Bladerunner, the beauty of the story is that both scenarios are equally plausible: is Deckard a replicant? Is Quaid an agent? Both stories feature protagonists that question their perception of reality. It makes sense that the audience is equally bewildered as the protagonists. We the audience have the same information they do. Which means we have the same questions. That we still debate the question at the core of these movies is a testament to their depth and longevity. A definite answer to the questions posed by these movies would rob them of their appeal.
I think there is only one thing that happens in the whole film that makes the 'real' option seem plausible...and that's him dreaming of Melina at the start. Other than that I agree with the video that it was all a memory implant.
Back in the day, Blockbuster stores used to sell off popular VHS tapes once they'd been rented out (worn) so many times. I remember going through the 'bargain bin' and coming across this one. As an Arnie fan, I couldn't resist it. The tape went to a charity shop years ago, but I still re-watch the digital version from time to time, if only to roll my eyes at the VFX and Arnie's one-liners.
Dean Norris also played the lead swat team member in terminator 2 during the attack on cyberdyne. he's the one who yells "everybody get out!" before miles dyson dies and detonates the explosives.
The problem with the "it was all just a dream" ending to any movie is how does one person's dream include scenes that the dreamer isn't in, and isn't aware of? How does Dorothy's dream in Wizard of Oz include the wicked witch spying on her without her knowing? If it's all part of her dream, she would have seen that part. Regardless of the writer's intention, it's still a paradox that just can't be explained.
I was looking at the movie to see if everything after he gets into the machine is from his point of view, and the very next scene is where the secretary is painting her nails and then we see Quaid fighting to get out of the machine -- not from his point of view.
@@jeffrey8959 Even more telling is the scene where the villains are tracking him on a map without him knowing it. Not to mention how he had to "design" Melina. His wife, and the guy from his work are in the movie later. If it were a simulation, how would the programmers know what they looked like?
It's simple, I've had a few dreams where I experienced an action like sequence taking place and saw the POV of people trying to take me out in said dream and get back to my perspective in the dream and then I was none the wiser because my character of me my dream wasn't supposed to know that yet.
@@mageside But if it were a programed simulation, it wouldn't have scenes like when the bad guy kisses Sharon Stone, and it turns out she's actually married to him. How could that be part of Arnold's Recall trip?
I leaned more towards it being reality as well. The sweat on Edgemoor's face, Quaid waking up at Recall before they implanted him with the vacation. Then you got his friend telling him not to go to Recall makes me think he was there to see if Quaid every regains his memory as Houser. Whether he was dreaming, or it was real this is a great movie.
I freaking love Total Recall! I have sat many friends don to watch the movie and was even more excited knowing my wife never saw it. This movie had me on the edge of my seat when I was a kid and hits all the nostalgia today.
great video, the thing that makes total recall a genius film is that the story can go both ways of whether it’s a dream or not. It’s all up to the person watching it. I saw an interview with arnold where he said it was always meant to be interpreted that way. People underestimate this film, you can prove the theory either way & I can’t think of any other movie where you can look at it from either point of view & still be right.
@Anubis-hl6wh that's the point of the movie, it's purposely left to the viewer to interpret the movies for themselves. Eli wasn't blind in the movie but the subtle clues allow certain viewers to interpret another meaning to the movie. They don't make many good movies like these.
I still remember when I saw this in probably ‘90 when HBO would do the free sample weekends, I was ten and had seen the trailer on tv. When the opening credits began I can still remember how psyched I was. Such a classic flick
I love how the ending is left open to be interpreted differently depending on the person. I personally believe in the “it’s a Recall” ending just because many of the plot elements, a pic of Melina and even the reactor is pictured right before he goes under. Now from there it still leaves two endings even if it is a recall. The first is the flash to white at the end was the end of his recall and that he wakes up to his old life. The other (the one I go with) is that the doc he killed inside the recall was legit thus by killing him his mind was set that the recall was reality and that the light at the end was what the doc told him would happen… he was lobotomized.
No, the fade to white at the end as opposed to the typical classic Hollywood movie fade to black ending before the casting credits was to symbolize Quaid waking up from his lobotomy in reality on Earth.
Something to consider, Total Recall sells memories. I assumed they had to get memories from somewhere and in the spy case it was Quaid before he was Quaid. When given the memory the adverse reaction was because they just gave him his own memory back with the alterations Total Recall had made, mainly the ending as Quaid never activated the martian reactor even though he had seen them.
Actually, Douglas Quaid was Carl Hauser, Cohaggen's top henchman and lieutenant next to Richter, that Cohaggen ordered the Rekall Center on Mars to turn into Quaid in order to use Quaid as a mole/double agent/spy to infiltrate the Martian Resistance and help Cohaggen and his men kill Kuato.
The Edgemore scene is the biggest proof it's true; if it were a simulation, they'd just load him in again to say "see? It's all a dream" but they didn't, proving the dude actually died by being shot in the head.
I saw Total Recall in a 70mm theatre in Los Angeles on the night it was released. It was so disturbing that when I got home, I just plopped on the floor and sat there for a couple of hours, nearly catatonic. It wasn't so much the gruesome violence that got me (although that played its part), but the scene where their faces are sucked apart that really got me.
I still don't believe this movie is mostly a dream for the simple fact of we got to see a scene that Arnie wasn't in. That makes no sense if it's a dream because that scene wouldn't have existed. You don't dream things where you aren't present for them.
A lot of people, including my also much younger self, got swept away by the action, cool spy story, quato-ness lol, and victory over the bad guys happy ending, taking it all at face value as reality...totally forgetting that when setting his "vacation" up, they described all of the events pretty much that would happen if he chose that adventure...and it actually makes the movie even more awesome that it was able to distract us enough to think it was all real...
I agree it is a dream, but I like to think the whole lobotomy thing was part of the secret agent trip. Basically a way of making it seem more real. So, if he hadn't shot that guy in the head and taken the pill instead, the story would have concluded in the same way (he would have ended up being taken to the same room where they reactivate Hauser). It was just there to add excitement/danger and the illusion of choice. The only reason anyone thinks he's being lobotomised at the end is because that guy said he would be, but we have no way of knowing how true that is.
It's been a long time since I've seen it, but when Quaid is bringing up the idea of going to to Rekall to one of his work friends, the guy expresses some doubts and mentions some previous incident where the procedure went wrong and they had to lobotomize the customer. The possibility was introduced long before he ever set foot in the office, so there's certainly reason to believe that if he's dreaming, the impending lobotomy might be very real.
labotomy is typically used when a patient is violent. they'd have no reason to labotomize a guy who is asleep. I'd say it was all a dream and when it's over, he'll wake up all happy from a nice happy dream then have to go back to his mundane life as a laborer. but maybe his wife in real life is melina and not Sharon stone
@@martnava1661 Honestly if you woke up from a dream that real you'd probably start to question reality and you'd be too far gone to go back to a mundane life. You'd probably think you were somehow tricked into being an average person at that point.
Without analyzing details, I always thought that regardless of which events were real or in a dream, the real character was an agent and had his memory wiped, then the recall process reverted at least some of the wiped memories. The confusion and mixing of real events and predicted dream events for me are explained better by his fragile mixed mental state, and much like the movie Momento, we’re taken along with his point of view versus being an unaffected observer.
You missed the part when he's at recall when Bob tells the doctor he's just acting out the secret agent part of his program and she says that's impossible because they haven't implanted it yet
It is an interesting concept and it certainly makes you think. Personally though I think it wasn't a dream and the events were real. Others have pointed out some things that make more sense being real as opposed to a dream. For me, it is the bead of sweat that Quaid reacts to when Edgemar is trying to convince him that it is all a dream. If he was in fact implanted into the simulation as he claims, he would not be in fear for his own safety and may even encourage Quaid to shoot him in order to be sent in again and again. It isn't stated that if the dreamer dies in the dream then they die for real so Edgemar would have nothing to personally lose from dying in the simulation beyond a bit of frustration.
Why would Edgemar have to risk his life to convince someone that ISN'T DREAMING, that they are in fact dreaming?! Why no one understands that if Arnold wasn't in a dream, Edgemar would have no reason to tell him that he was in a dream?! It's like Morpheus trying to find Neo to tell him that he's in the Matrix... But wait, when the Matrix doesn't actually exist!!! What kind of logic is even that?! If he's dreaming then you have a reason for the doctor to show up If he's not, you have no reason for him to show up He showed up... There you have it. Arnold is dreaming. Also, the movie is telling you that ^-^ Now let's address how Lord of The Ring is actually about time travel ahahahaha
@@SLRModShop The Agency paid or coerced him to? They dont seem to have a problem with killing people. Edgemar would just show up over and over if it were fake. All they would have to do is insert something nonsensical into his dream. I've occasionally had lucid dreams. How about have his real wife come in while the villain dream wife was there?
@@albinoman13bt If the guy's hooked up on a machine situated in the building where people want to kill him, the best course of action is to kill him while he's hooked up on the machine... Not to mess up with his dreams. Edgemar's presence on Mars ALONE is enough to prove that he's dreaming. Also, there is the elephant in the room... It's an action movie with Schwarzy in it, the chances that this movie has deep layers are 0% ^-^ This movie needs to be taken at face value. Schwarzy is sleeping. Everything indicates that. Don't forget that everyone he met in the company somehow managed to casually predict his future... If he's not dreaming, then we have a few characters that have some explaining to do. "You'll go to Mars, realise that you're a secret agent and save the planet" What are the odds that saying that to someone happens to be true?
@@SLRModShop Not zero. It makes no sense to say he's in a dream from the perspective of Rekall. A dead customer costs money. If they are controlling the dream then there's no reason to not try harder. In their universe people seem to go back and forth to Mars all the time so Edgemar being on Mars doenst seem unreasonable. Besides, that "turbinium" seems so valuable they'll go to any length to keep it coming. In the Edgemar scene, if it's a dream, his "wife" shows up to convince him that he's dreaming only to turn on him at the end of the scene. That would imply she hooked herself into a machine that is frying his brain to convince him to leave, only to try to kill him. That scene would make zero sense. Quaid is dreaming about Mars before ever going to Rekall. The news talks about Kuato and the alien artifacts. The guy selling him the dream tells him he'll be on a mission, which he isn't. At face value, the movie implies its no dream. The title is about a man having a "total recall", which Ironside's character worries about when Quaid isn't around.
@@SLRModShop seriously, of all people commenting here, you have the worstly worded arguments. I nearly got a stroke trying to decipher your points; keep it simple dude. And your actual point is a weak, irrelevant argument. who cares if Edgemar was flown there, or even lives on Mars to begin with. Your argument reminds me of this one autistic commentor who said it MUST be 100% a dream, because oxygen flowing out of the ice wouldn't make the atmosphere blue, that it's red because of mars' high iron content...like wtf? (He was even wrong about the science of it, besides it being irrelevant)
The real question was never if it was a dream or not. It was obviously a dream. The real question was: is the lobotomy warning a part of the dream or is the lobotomy warning not a part of the dream?
I've always thought that the events we see transpire are actual reality. My reasoning is simple. Despite there being enough evidence to build a solid argument from either opposing perspective, what becomes the decisive factor for me is that when Quaide goes to recall, he never actually goes through their memory implant process. They are quite explicit on this point.
But….that is said once he’s ’inside the dream’, and could just be creating the plot of his dream.’ Pretty brutal as far as vacations go, but he did pick the Spy
Plus, if that part was after the "dream" already started, the lab crew/"dream characters" are talking about an unconscious dreamer in 3rd person...not typical for a dream
Total Recall is one of my go-to movies when I feel like having something to watch but don't feel like getting involved in something new. I saw it in the theater and have seen it so many times since then that I can quote large swathes of it. I've made an argument for it being a dream and for it being real and could convince myself of either. If I have to be honest, I think that it's real, right up until the very end. I believe that all three of them did die when they landed outside, but that Quaid's mind "filled in" the end as he passed, giving himself a happy ending. I also believe that there really was a "blue sky on Mars," but that it took a little longer than the ending apparently shows, which is why Quaid, Melina, and Cohagen all die. Anyway, it's one of my favorite films of all time. Thanks for your take on it!
I remember watching this movie as a kid and was very confused. Now as an adult I can say that I still don't understand it. In the end, I think it was all a dream. It also reminds me of another movie: "Sucker Punch"
In contrast to the book, the film doesn’t hide it is a dream. They have actually adopted the ending to explain it to those missing the information spoken in the background in the film at about 16m35s, where the technician commenting about the dream to be implanted as a new program called, Blue Sky on Mars. With this information, if you’ll jump to the last minute of the film and the question is answered. This was general information in my film school at 1995, coming directly from Mr Verhoeven on a visit to our sUniversity. Might have been lost in history :(
Of course, it's basically the crux of the whole movie. This guy only argues the dream interpretation though, I didn't see him bring up alternate arguments
Total Recall and Sucker Punch are essentially the same movie. When I saw this upon release in the theatre, I was waiting for the end shot to be Arnie in an OR being lobotomized.
it was one of the movies that stays in your mind and keeps his place there like an unforgettable memory. not like many new movies that you watch and forget
It can’t be all in his mind . The dr literally says she never even gave him the secret agent trip yet …. Not to mention the video of Hauser later talking to quaid …
Check out our breakdown of Unbreakable here - th-cam.com/video/aFvyWVhbHrI/w-d-xo.html
What the Hell is wrong with you Jared. You busting out a Theory Time. And No Voice over by Paul. Theory Time. Damn all you had to do was insert Audio when Editing? Missed Opportunity
Luc Besson’s Fifth Element video when? Hehe
Robocop, total recall and starship troopers are in the same universe. Not die hard 😂
I bet you came from England and moved to America. England did have only 4 channels until 1997. Total Recall premiered for the first time on British television in 1993.
I don't consider 1990 "90s" 1990 is 80s.
As a 32 year old man, it pained me that I had never seen total recall or running man, so I watched both in one night last week. I've seen all of his other films but never got around to these two. Arnold was such a G in his prime
Running man, the original hunger games
Corporatecat230 I'm 42 and it wouldn't surprise me you haven't seen these 2 films. I first saw these movies when I was around age 10. So you wasn't even born when they was first released.
Your parents have failed you, you poor thing, my nephews and daughter grew up with gremlins flight of the navigator total recall ect even found the 89 teenage mutant ninja turtles film for them to watch oh and 80s/90s cartoons they loved them. Check out Logans run really good Sci fi film even if it's old . Swear they got the idea for tinder off that lol if you watch it. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it. Demolition man is another great 90s one
As a 32 year old boy what size jean shorts are you wearing?
@@tyrant7583 Yes but I still grew up with VHS's. I've seen every single Arnold movie, those two just fell by the waistside. As a cinophile, you can't watch all movies.
I was 10 when this movie came out. My parents would not allow me to go see it. Later that year we went to Disney world and stayed in a hotel in Kissimmee and me and my brother got to have our own room and we were allowed to order any movies we wanted to watch and lo and behold Total Recall was on that list. Needless to say I couldn't order it fast enough. That's was the greatest time I ever had on vacation was watching that with my brother while we ate food from the snack bar. God I miss having times like that with my little brother.
I love stories like this !
Oh, I see, you ordered the "Dream Family Vacation" memory package..... very good choice.
That's about as good as life gets
Total Recall was one of the best action, adventure, Spy, sci-fi, head trip movies ever made. Arnold plays the heck out of this role. And just can't be beat.
What about Commando?
Yes, thanks to the genius of Paul Verhoeven who also directed Robocop and Starship Troopers. The dude has an impressive resume
This movie made Doom 1993 and Doom 3 2004
Although I consider TR to be one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, and Arnie was great, I honestly feel like prime Van Damme would have been slightly better in the role as Quaid. His martial arts ability / choreography would have been so much better + Van Damme had a quiet man mystique that would have fitted in well with the whole Mars mystery.
This movie is so much deeper than I would have thought. I watched it when I was younger and promptly categorized it as a good summer blockbuster. I’ve seen it on TV a couple times since but now I need to go back with all the knowledge you just dropped and experience it again… for the first time!
I am not convinced that the whole thing is a dream. A few things that back that up is his wife's concern when he talks about the dark haired woman before going to recall, his construction worker buddy being suspicious of his desire to try out the dream vacation, and the doctor coming in to convince him that none of it is real. The bead of sweat and nervousness of quaid taking the bait is what did it for me. However, the ending is a bit too good to be true though.
Heck... now that I'm typing it out... maybe it might be a dream?
Either way, still one of the best scifi movies of all time and a personal favorite. It effected me so much as a kid that I still get regular dreams to this day about being in the total recall world and get worried that my wife is secretly my handler preventing me from remembering my secret spy life. 🤨
Great video!!!
Proving the movie was effective... it is a dream 👌
@@Chugg.Norris We know it was a dream, there is no getting past the blue sky on mars...that's a new one comment. I don't know how you explain that remember it was said prior to them giviing him injection!!! Clearly it was implanted and whever happens after that, it all ends with blue sky on mars, well no way you can aruge it. Also, 41A is the exact woman seen in the moive, however, we first see her prior to him going under! Man how I thought it was not a dream at one time is just incredible. Great fucking moive.
Verhoeven and Arnold admit it was a dream on the commentary track. It is possible they meant for it to be more ambiguous initially, but the final edit is clear.
@@8584zender Truth!
It could be that those are machine edits of the ego's access to its real memories in order that it can be convinced that going to Total Rekall activated his real ego, and this therefore is just the ego trip trying to take hold. He's lying there, but the machine is convincing him that this "never happened" the way he thinks, and he is fighting for his life to get out of there, when in fact the machine is just cleverly hiding from him that he is lying there as it takes him to Mars in his mind. The same way that a dream state takes hold over the ego. This technology has to work at least that well for him to walk around thinking he's a construction worker because Verhoven wants him to. It's all really a play on the power of the dream state, the fragility of the ego, and something of a bit of Zhuangzi in there, with his butterfly dreaming of being a man.
You missed an important point, Quaid didn’t just shoot Edgemoor, he shot because of the bead of sweat, which shouldn’t have occurred if Edgemoor was still in Recall. Hence, Quaid was not dreaming.
Also, the soundtrack to this film is fantastic.
Paul Vehooven has said in an interview that IT WAS a dream! And that he gets lobotomised after. He did not make it clear, in my opinion. Which makes it work either way, depending on the viewer. I have seen this movie a ton of times and I always thought is was real. But after knowing it was a dream and spotting the couple of clues ( which are blink and miss them..) I am sad to say that I had got it wrong all these years. Great movie none the less.
@@codd84 if Sharon Stone was my real wife in 1990, I wouldn’t carry on about going to Mars, I would be quite happy at home!
I brought up the sweat bead too, but I still feel it was all a part of the dream to further sell it to Quaid. I think the threat of lobotomy is also just to up the stakes of the adventure and if you pay attention to what the tech says in the beginning all of this was a part of the deal.
@@codd84 - i always thought it was real as well but questioned the photos at Rekall because they didn't make sense for it to be real. I guess i just wanted it to be real, lol
@@leefr76 - good point. Why would some hot major babe be married to a construction worker? And some of her facial expressions i question before Quaid even goes to Rekall
Total Recall, The Running Man, Terminator (1&2), Predator,... Legendary movies of my childhood. They simply don't make them like that any more 🥺
Robocop
@@Dutch1954 *I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLOR* 😛
The beauty and the beast
Raw deal is a classic to.
Yeah. I look for movies like that all the time. And I cant find any at all.
I have a simple theory as to why it might all be real: the cutaways. Typically in dreams, the protagonist is present in each situation or at least near by to perceive said situation. But in here, there are scenes where Quaid isn’t present but the action goes on. How would this be happening if he was dreaming?
Exactly
I think the cutaways were only created for us, the viewer.. but who knows. I think it's all in his head, since it's exactly what he paid for!
Yes ,that's what I was thinking
Movie logic doesn't always work so we are always left with "why the cut aways if it's a dream" I think it's just a loophole.
However I always bring it back to it's not wether it's real or not but what is it about humans desires and what would we do to live our dreams, it's even more depressing,.
The concept are we ever I control of our decisions or are we living a dream, are we figments of a more powerful beings dreams, ala Azzatoth the ancient cosmical ancient God.
This is why I feel that its real. The parts without Quaid wouldn't happen.
People are well aware of some of Arnold's most iconic one liners. "I'll be back" "Get to the chopper!" I think there's one that people have slept on. "Give these people AIR! 😂😂😂
I quote "get your ass to Mars" more often than I should.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED COLLATERAL DAMAGE AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED ERASER AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED THE END OF DAYS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED TOTAL RECALL AND I'VE GOT THOSE MOVIES ON DVD AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED TWINS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED CONAN THE BARBARIAN WHEN HE WAS A VERY YOUNG MAN AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED THE END OF DAYS AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED ERASER AND I'VE GOT THOSE MOVIES ON DVD AND HE WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED COMMANDO AND HE WAS THE GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA USA 😁
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WHO is Austrian WAS IN A MOVIE CALLED PREDATOR AND I'VE GOT THIS MOVIE ON DVD AND THE ACTOR KEVIN PETER HALL WAS THE PREDATOR AND HE PUSSED BUTTONS ON IT'S ARM AND A NUCLEAR POWER CELL DESTROYED HUNDREDS OF ACRES OF RAIN FOREST AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WAS RESCUED BY A CRAZY HELICOPTER PILOT AND HE WAS THE GOVERNER OF CALIFORNIA USA 😁
Sometimes, when I'm working on a difficult project alone, I say "Baby, you make me wish I had 3 hands."
Melina is seen in his dream as well as being described by his wife prior to him visiting Recall. I was so perplexed by whether it was a dream or not that I read the book adapted by Piers Anthony. It leans a lot more towards it being real. Its very similar to the movie but goes into more detail about the aliens plot line.
Hauser and Cohaagen would know how she looks like and have her surveillance photos too, as well as reactor.
And it was revealed that Cohaagen controls Rekall - so the whole thing was planned, implanted and staged.
Quaid dreams of the girl, then describes her to Rekall and they put her in the dream. Of course she is going to look like her, he tells them exactly what the basic elements of her are and then his mind fills in the rest. His wife looks at him the way she does because she knows that he is dreaming about a different life to the one they have, and most likely suspects he will cheat on her.
The secret is: the people insisitng "it's clearly just in his head" are the same that deny "Die Hard is a Christmas Movie" or hate Pineapple on Pizza...
we will one day move evolutionary past these joykills ;)
Excellent book.
@@Ugly_German_Truths its was real, Die Hard wasn't a Christmas movie and pineapple pizza is great.
I remember watching this with my dad as a kid. Every time I think about my dad and I growing up, revolved around watching all these 80s/90s action films and nobody was more iconic than Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's just a lot of really fond, nostalgia memories I have from that time, regardless of how good (or not) the movies actually are.
I concur. Watched allot of them with my dad as well.
I watched all of his movies with my dad too.
I just "recalled" watching T2 with my dad at the cinema too. Thanks for bringing back that old memory.
Likewise, I thank my dad massively for my taste in movies
@@gutshotgreaserlucky guy
"See You At The Party Richter!"
Ma man
I always remember that he shouts "there's your arms!" as he threw Michael Ironside's arms after him.
@felixjones9198 I feel like I remember this too.
"Consider that a divorce."
You completely left out perhaps the strongest argument that Quaid was in real life. When the Dr guy who was sent from Recall began to explain the adverse consequences of killing him and not taking the pill, Quaid observed not only a tone of panic but also a bead of sweat on his brow. If the doctor was just a program, why would he exhibit human responses to stress? This is what convinced Quaid and the audience that he was actually living these events.
what if Quaid was desperetly looking for something real? i remember one famous quote from Matrix when Morpheus said ''We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's dangerous. The mind has trouble letting go.'' so by that definition.. Quaid was already too attached to the dream
The mind plays tricks on you.....and I think it was another instance of the memory implant creating that bead of sweat and giving Quaid confirmation that he was truly a clever agent. I still think it was all a memory implant.
Quaid's psychological subconscious fabricated the bead of sweat dripping from Dr. Edgmar's forehead to give Quaid a reason to believe Dr. Edgmar was lying so he could shoot Dr. Edgmar, killing Dr. Edgmar in Quaid's mind and remain trapped in his fantasy ego trip and false memory implanted adventure forever. Quaid didn't wanna return to reality in truth.
The said panicked tone was frustration by Dr. Edgmar trying to pull Quaid back into reality from his chemically induced psychological fantasy ego trip and implanted dream. Imo it is a dream gone wrong at Rekall in reality on Earth from the beginning after Quaid is put under for the false memory implant procedure at Rekall on Earth onwards. The fact that everything Bob McClane said would happen at Rekall happened may have been coincidence but the fact that literally everything Dr. Edgmar predicted and foreshadowed would happen to Quaid in his false memory implant procedure sabotaged dream experience did in fact happen accurately and in order, wasn't just coincidence too. Quaid was dreaming of Melina and Mars before the Rekall Center operation because Douglas Quaid was unhappy, bored and dissatisfied with his real life on Earth as a typical average man and construction worker married to a beautiful, athletic, blonde trophy wife, Lori, and secretly always fantasized being something larger than life itself, a super secret Martian government agent and spy in his scenario, living on Mars and fantasized being with a sleazy, athletic, brunette woman vs his blonde trophy wife in reality on Earth, which Quaid's subconscious personified as Melina in his dreams of Mars and Quaid suffocating to death symbolized Quaid feeling suffocated by his life and reality on Earth he needed to escape from. The fade to white ending symbolized Quaid waking up from his lobotomy on Earth in reality. Lori, as Quaid's wife, and Harry, Quaid's best friend and co-worker on his construction job, acted suspicious and strange before Quaid went to Rekall when Quaid mentioned going to Rekall for the false memory implants because Lori and Harry had suspicions that Quaid went to Rekall before and doesn't remember. Hence their concerned, shady, uncomfortable behavior and attitude towards Quaid.
... Wouldn't the dream have ended at the moment of Edgemar's death? I mean, being lobotomized would have ended it all at that point.
Great breakdown. My dad let us rent this as a kid even though I was way too young lol and remember seeing the trailer for T2 on the VHS and us being so hyped. Nostalgia
There is just enough to keep you thinking its not a dream but real dispute all the coincidences, and thats why i love it. Great video
I think this movie is so well done its entirely upto the audience to make up their own mind eitherway. Masterpiece.
nah it was a dream. when he goes into recall and they are setting up his ego trip, the guy in the background exclaims " oh wow the sky is blue on mars" or something to that effect of a blue sky. what happens at the end of the movie? sky turns blue. hes in a dream.
@@dylanwillyams The fun thing about the movie is that the director said that when they we're putting the movie together, they wanted both possibilities (dream or reality) to be true at the same time. With both hints that it could be real, and hints that it could be fake present in the movie
@@travishultine3072 The evidence that this is all a dream was pretty clear on first viewing in the theater and it remains clear today:
(1) "Blue sky on Mars. That's a new one"
(2) Melina's picture is at Rekal. Not someone who looks like her. It's Rachel Ticotin's photo.
(3) "Rate some alien stuff for us." "Two headed monsters?" (Arnold not a fan) Then they flash a picture of the reactor.
(4) and finally, on the commentary track both Verhoeven and Arnold admit it was a dream.
This is honestly such a perfect movie and I feel like, despite it bieng very well known and recognised for bieng so great, it's still underrated. Such a clever film, with an AMAZING script.
And premiered the teaser for Terminator 2 Judgment Day.
Oh yes totally agree. One of my all time favorite movies
its old but definitely not under rated, except by kids who can't watch something with such bad video. I say this liking the movie, but its like most people from my generation can't watch black and whites or movies without sound. It was good for the generation it was created for. The fact that it has staying power only means its due to our sci fi fascination now. Once we go to space, we won't be too interested in space movies, as that will be just another location.
So it will be forgotten in 30 years, and I mean that loosely forgotten.
I had major nostalgia vibes watching your breakdown, I have not seen this in at least 15 years. I agree completely that this was a dream sequence. I’m loving all your breakdowns and I hope you can do more nostalgic movies like this, thanks!
A few counterpoints. Quaid, or Howser, did not go to recall until AFTER he dreamt of Milena. The dream was the reason he went. He initially wanted to go to mars, but was discouraged by those around him. Next, all the details for his secret agent trip were done while he was in the chair. A chair that was designed to give him what he wanted. It is extremely likely that he was starting to remember his old life, and the chair was pulling that information from his subconscious to be used in his fantasy. That "Blue skies on mars, never seen that before" comment was telling, as his subconscious was creating that for use in the agent trip. Everyone else would not imagine that, hence never seen before. He states that the reactor creates air, making it more likely than not that he had been to the alien structure, so again, the machine would integrate that desire into his memory implant. Nothing would break the immersion faster than having something the person knows show up wrong in an implanted memory. As a programmed double cross to fool mutants, it was a good plan. Hence why Cohagen sends all the help. If he was an elite agent for Cohagen, and his memory implant was filing, that would explain the sudden change to combat capable. Finally, implanted safety memories do not sweat. Or look visibly scared. And the explanation was stupid. He shoots the fat doctor, and the fat doctor comes right back and explains that he isn't in the real world. There is no reason they can't implant him twice.
Love how this comment has no replies since nobody can disprove this comment. You totally got the movie king
That mind reading theory is kinda stretched. Also, he had to be fully in machine to make it work. About the fat doctor-it's strange that Rekoll would send someone unfamiliar and untrusty. It would make more sense to send doctor which he talked to, especially if death means nothing. Also, the following action probably haven't give a space for the next visit.
@@levsonc The machine would absolutely have to be able to "read your mind" or the whole thing wouldn't work. I mean you could go on a fake family vacation where they substituted random people for your family, but that wouldn't bring much value. Again, the machine needs to know what you know in order to tailor the experience. The idea that a machine could only write memories, but not read them is more of a stretch.
@@xaero5150 My point was, that he wasn't fully connected to the machine at the moment, and it's essential to read mind.
@@DeadManWalking-ym1oo Except we know that the machine CAN copy a persons memories, and would have to.
As an example, he dreamt of milena BEFORE going to recall, it was the reason he went, and we see on the machine a picture of a person he shouldn't have known. The entire premise is based on erasing Howser, implanting Quid, and when the mission is over erasing Quaid and reimplanting Howser. More than that, he would not have known his "wife", or his apartment, or his history, or his job without the implant of Quaid. If you suddenly forgot how to do your job, or what your wife looked like, or where you worked, or anything about your life beyond vague concepts, you would get pretty suspicious, especially given that the technology exists to erase and implant memories. It would probably be more accurate to say "suppress" memories as one of the techs refers to a "memory cap".
Now the way the brain actually works is pretty interesting, and believe it or not we have memory alteration machines now. As of right now they can only see the location of a memory(or in some cases a trigger point for seizures) and target the area for irradiation, erasing the memory or short circuiting the area responsible for the seizures. Cutting edge stuff. It is not inconceivable that in 50 years we could save and playback memories, assuming we discover the translation matrix and everyone is similar enough to have widespread deployment of the technology. If every brain speaks a different language, then the tech is impossible to be used in a widespread manner. Finding the person talking in a quiet room is easy, translating what he is saying can be hard.
I believe this version of the movie is intended to present both possibilities of being real or a dream as equally as they could. For me it is not a dream because of several small details that seriously refute it being a dream. The bead of sweat, the sudden personality change at Rekall about his cover being blown, etc.
Don't forget Lori; your wife wouldn't suddenly try to kill you after you've refused a sedative...she said she was an avatar there to help guide him out of a dream...
@Imperial_Cosmonaut that's true, but also she only reacted after he shot the doctor, which I could see as Doug's mind falling back into the dream and taking back control of events, I'm watching it rn as I type this and the movie so perfectly balances both sides that's it's making my head hurt lol. that being said I think I'm leaning slightly towards it being real
How can an average construction worker have such a beutiful wife? A woman like that had never married someone that couldn't afford her, so it is definitely a dream
@@doncarlodivargas5497 that's bleak
@@smaacckk1094 - yes, i am terribly sorry, reality is pretty bleak, most unfortunately i consider that little detail as a 100% sure proof of my claim
This, for me, was Arnold's first truly cerebral film. The first where you actually have to pay attention. Smart script, brilliant effects and iconic characters. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
It seems that every time I have watched that movie I learn something more that I didn't realize previously. I have seen that movie at least 20 times. I think I have exhausted all the information I can get out of it. I love movies that leaves you with an uncertainty of what the ending actually is.
Another great movie like that is Predestination with Ethan Hawke. Definitely a mind bender.
@joetroutt7425 Heard of that film, might have to check it out.
I love this movie, and I'm 100% happy to leave it as "could be either"
Let us know your thoughts on the movie below
Maybe The True Reason There Are So Many Things That Make You Think It Is All A Dream Is Actually The Fack That He Already Did The Total Recall Thing Is Because Thay Got His Memories Or Something And Made Is Into A Dream And The Rest Is All A Coincidence Is Because He Started To Remember And Decided To Make Those Choices For His New Memory
Love the breakdown! Surprised you didn't mention Rick and Morty when talking about David Cornenberg.
Only a movie in my top 10! Maybe the best sci-fi action movie ever made. Thank you!!!! Now, GET YOUR ASS TO MARS!!!
Being a kid...14, when this came out(still can't believe it was 1990, really thought it came out in the 80s) I always felt that it wasn't a dream. The scene with the doctor sweating really sealed that in for me. Watching this breakdown, even though I've seen this film more than 20 times, has flipped it on me and I think you're right, it is a dream. I think that my thinking it was not a dream, really shows how naive I was and wanted the happy ending to be the truth.
Now, as an adult of 46 I know that there are very few happy endings in life and you're lucky to make it out of the jungle alive.
Excellent breakdown. Such a classic film and so ahead of its time. 33 years later and they still can't make them this good, as even the not perfect special effects are actually amazing and are perfect because they don't take you out of the film.
Love learning about the behind-the-scenes details, like the Mexico subway, and how the mutants are from the mind of Cronenberg. Just an outstanding breakdown and stroll down memory lane.......or was it a dream?? Dun Dun DUN!!
Loves these classic breakdowns.
Can you do Contact with Jodi Foster next?? I love that movie!
This came out when I was a kid. I usually don't watch sci-fi or action movies, but I loved Schwarzenegger movies. I still think that he wasn't dreaming when he returned to Mars. He was there and knew it too well to just be a dream. Plus, the theme song for Total Recall is my one of my favorites. It fits with the movie so well.
Well done man. I didn’t think it was a dream until I was older and I as able to properly understand the movie.
I was born in 1980, and had a father who loved all the Sci fi, horror, and action movies and totally let us watch everything. This was an extreme movie to watch at that age, it scared the crap outta me but that's because the practical effects were AWESOME! Not a fan of the remake though. OG Totall Recall all the way.
Fuck that remake. Trash.
Is his favourite horror film the thing
Me too.
Same! Born 79 l could watch all these masterpieces
First of all, very enjoyable. I got a big kick out of your review with all the fine detail. Total Recall is one of my favorite sci-fi movies. I can only say the movie leaves up in the air on if it's a dream or not, and after all these years it still makes you ask that question.
By far one of my favorite movies. I can never get tired of it. ❤
Same. It’s a classic
An absolute classic I first saw in my childhood and will still watch to this day. I wish they still made movies like this.
yeah, most associatedly, you did your 'homework'! excellent work and you didn't ruin the movie for me!
I've always leaned more towards it being reality and not a dream. I think for me it's the scene when he awakens going nuts shouting "you blew my cover". The doctors sedate him and Mclane says he's just living out the secret agent role, but she says its impossible because they haven't implanted yet. During this exhange between the doctors and mclane, Quaid is unconscious so if it is his own dream he doesn't benefit from this exchange between them and it's never brought up again. My theory is (and probably a weak one 😆) is that Quaid regained his memory as Houser during that outburst. But then they wiped his memory of ever going to recall that day which in turn wiped his Houser memory, then dumped into a taxi. So why would that be in his dream if he can't remember that happening. For the rest of the film he never recalls being Houser again, but Cohegen can't take the risk if his memories return.
Also the look Harry gives Quaid at the construction site, it's not a look of concern for his "friend" being lobotomized if he goes to rekall but more of a look of 'sh*t if he goes to recall memories might come back'.
I think its reality. Great review btw 👌
The idea of him seeing Melina on the Rekall computer is also very debatable as well. He's falling asleep when that happens, his POV was blurry etc. We already know he dreams of her every night which is pre-rekall. So that theory doesn't hold up either.
Exactly
All that, plus the third person scenes where Arnold isn't present. How would someone dream up transitions scenes he's not even in? Leaning more towards reality.
@@markrothenbuhler6232 I think the main theme of the film is how the outcome is truly meant to be as ambiguous as possible. How would we even know what's real?? I lean towards reality myself but everytime i see the ending, I come back to the simple fact we wouldn't know anyways. It's real to Quaid/Houser.
Edit: Verhoven did his best to carry on Dicks work by keeping that ambiguity and the film is better because of it
It was a dream..
The director later confirmed the white light at the end was Quaid being lobotomized, or suffering irreversible brain damage
Just rewatched this a couple weeks ago, awesome to see a new breakdown. Been loving all these breakdowns of movies that weren’t released recently.
best action sci fi movie ever. Does not take itself too seriously and is just full of great one liners.
This is one of my favorite movies. I was soooo stoked to play Red Faction back in '01 when it came out because it reminded me of this movie. Still one of the best sci-fi films. It also touched off my love for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I've since watched almost every single movie he's ever done - including Hercules in New York.
Is Red Faction seriously similar to this movie? I've never played it
I was the same when Red Faction came out.
Curiously enough, in the book, Douglas Quail did go to Mars. But his memory was erased. And he saved the world while a kid by preventing an alien species from invading Earth. It's a more psychological stuff (PKD style) but they went the other way around with the movies. Great book and awesome film.
Exactly! I read the book 15 years before the movie was produced, and once watched the movie, I always thought that should have deserved a second parte, if they had follow the original book's ending .
Not necessarily. In the book it is not at all clear whether those things really happened or were implanted
By far one of the best 90's movies made and it stands the test of time
i watched it for the first time today
it was as insane
I think the genius of this film story is that it leaves you to decide for yourself which is real, do you want the happy ending or the bleak ending. I like to think it's ambiguous enough to never be sure.
It's not ambiguous AT ALL. The movie spells it out for you MULTIPLE TIMES.
See the guy who came to Mars just to tell him that he was in fact dreaming? Find me ONE GOOD REASON someone would travel through space to tell a random guy, who isn't dreaming, that he is in fact dreaming...
See what I mean? You're not dreaming right now, right? Imagine a reason for someone coming from Japan and tell you that you're actually dreaming right now... Let me know if you find any.
Bad guy #1: "this secret agent is going to make our plan fail"
Bad guy #2: "Boss, I have an idea, what if we tell him that he's in fact dreaming?"
Bad guy #1: "this is genius!!!! That way, he'll stop chasing after us!!! MOUHAHAHAHAHA"
Bad guy #3: "Are you guys for real right now?! 😅"
@@SLRModShop no doubt. some real mental gymnastics going on by some to even think it's a possibility. perfect use case of Occam's razor.
@@SLRModShopwell that and the fact at the start of the movie when they’re putting him into the machine the technicians say “hmm blue sky on Mars” literally gives away the ending & on top of that he literally designs the female he meets lol
EVERYONE RUIN THIS GUYS DREAM!
@SLRModShop do imaginary dream people have to travel distance?
There are actually _THREE_ different possibilities of what happens in _Total Recall:_
1. The whole thing actually happens to Schwarzenegger's character
2. Everything after Arnie goes to Rekall is a dream gone wrong, and he ends-up lobotomized
3. Everything after Arnie goes to Rekall is a dream that plays-out exactly the way it was supposed to, the Edgemar character shows-up to make the dream more interesting
The first possibility is the least likely, but which of the remaining two is the most likely? Personally, I favor the third as I've always interpreted the fade to white at the end as being him waking-up in the chair.
...of course there's also the possibility that there is no right answer, its whatever yoo want it to be (and that's probably the case)
First off, I love this channel, thank you for your work!❤ Always mashing the like button like it was a fly!
My favorite line in this movie has become my own personal inside joke.
A one man inside joke that really sets a blaze when someone knows what I'm talking about, and I have two of these, one is from this movie the other is a bit more complicated, so to save time, if anyone wants to know what the second one is reply to this, and I'll respond in kind, for now, here is this one...
When Arnie holds Ironside down in the elevator and his arms are chopped off, Arnie says, "See you at the party Rictor"
And not only is this just absolutely absurdly funny, he isn't going to be at the party and even if he were he's now without arms!!! It's the best line I think in almost all movies it's that way to me it's up there in the top 5.
Especially when it can be made into an inside joke.
So we know this movie, and the line, well, my family doesn't watch sci-fi stuff it's really a house full of woman and it's just me my Father in-law and a neutered cat in this war.
Well anytime something comes up that's a shame, or it's been ruined, or something I wanted to do gets changed, I say, See you at the party Rictor. And no one knows what I'm talking about until this one time I said it in a doctor's waiting room this guy looked up smiled and pointed at me Total Recall, and I said yup and he laughed oh that's funny and my wife is like what's going on? And I just say you'd have to have seen the movie to understand the reference.
And that Taxi cab driver is a really good actor because he freaked me out as a kid and still some as an adult, I didn't trust him right from the get go.
I saw this movie in the theaters it was a really big deal back then. Another film I hope you guys do some day if you haven't already is
"BIG TROUBLE LITTLE CHINA"
Thanks❤
Unobtanium was actually mentioned in the movie The Core (2003) and then in Avatar (2009).
Quipped.. "The actual name has 19 syllables, so I just call it Unobtanium". It was a substance that became stronger as it was heated and compressed more, making the perfect material to create a ship that would go in to the Earths core.
I knew I wasn't the only one that watched that movie.
I knew I didn't dream watching The Core!
The origins are actually much older than that. It's an old engineering joke, like the retro-encabulator. It's like a parody term for an absurdly hard to get substance that is demanded by the specs. It was probably used earlier, but the first recorded usage was at in the 50s at Lockheed and was actually referring to titanium, which was very rare at the time.
I've always been a huge fan of the original Total Recall. This recall was awesome - love the details to illustrate it was a dream, not real. I really enjoy this video.
You don’t say original you just say total recall. You must be under 30.
I think it must have been real because of that scene where he briefly unexpectedly awakens as hauser during the implant procedure. Then the staff manage to sedate him and wipe his memories of the occurrence and his entire visit to recall, and then when he subsequently awakens in the cab, he has no memory of how he got there.
I will be honest, When I watch the movie - I am always treating it as real too... But the example you gave - NAH! That's a bad example... Why?
Because that's a Movie Plot in many movies... A Protagonist goes to a Secret Meeting, Gets Drugged and wakes up somewhere with no idea how they got there... It is Quite Literally a Movie Script and would 100% be something that Rekall would have used for Reference. There is also another hint though that something is not right... Something I have only just noticed and it is in that same scene.
Rekall KNOW Quaid's home address, Why have the Johnny Cab drive him around randomly? Maybe they don't want another Lawsuit or something, but again... Isn't it better to put him in a cab and have him dropped off somewhere random... And then get rid of the Cab as its bound to have "Storage Media" so would be Evidence of their involvement! It is not a person you can pay to keep their silence!
When you think more carefully about it - Some aspects of that scene do not fit with Reality!
Now, I am just Nitpicking... But its also why I love the movie! Either Explanation WORKS... And to me, I believe that IT WAS REAL! 100% it was supposed to be reality just as it was in Philip K. Dicks original Short Story... But its shot so well that BOTH Ideas are Viable and that makes it a BRILLIANT MOVIE!
@@Phoenix2312 I take your point, and it is possible that him waking up momentarily as hauser during the implant procedure could have actually been a part of the ego trip package, however, the fact that they wipe his memory and he subsequently awakens in the cab with no memory of it illustrates that the scene was not intended to be part of the ego trip package, and was only for the benefit of the viewer to, later in hindsight, understand that even the quaid persona was implanted by the agency, and that recall’s procedure unintentionally deprogrammed the quaid persona and he reverted to hauser until they managed to sedate him again and perform the wipe. Least that’s the way I’ve always seen it. But great movie. I wish they still made them this good today.
@@entwinedturnip I agree... I mean, how many movies today do we honestly still talk about the way we do this one? Very few...
One thing you can say for quite a lot of old movies... even back to the black and white days - There was a passion in the writing that is missing today!
I remember that the tech says that it’s not the ego trip because they never got to implant it. This happens while Arnold is sedated. It must not be in his mind.
Why would a Recall implant of a secret agent include waking up at the Recall location? It makes the customer hostile to your organization. Then after he's dumped, his buddies come up saying "You went to Recall didn't you" before trying to kill him.
If implants are a vacation, the characters should be fabricated and/or you have little interaction with the key figures. Your wife and friends trying to kill you should not be in the programming out of fear of lobotomy.
If it's a dream, Recall is actively lobotomizing people with this implant more often than not.
Good job. So much research and consideration clearly go into all of your content!
They need to release a Remastered and Uncut Version of this movie I really thoroughly enjoyed this Movie. It is all over the place and seriously has a lot of things to think about and literally has so much going on I feel it has been influential in inspiring technology and future concepts that have been implemented and some yet to be ...
Great video and pretty convincing that it was all a dream... except for Melina being with him on Mars at the beginning of the movie. The only way that might be explained away is that it's just Quaids' ideal fanatsy woman, the girl of his dreams (literally) and he almost superimposes her onto the more generic female type on the monitor, when he's at Rekall.
Either way, this is a great movie and one of Arnie's best roles - the fact people are still debating whether it was all a dream, over 30 years later, shows how iconic this movie really is
There's no good evidence that it was a dream. Everything points to it being real. If it's a dream then it is full of plotholes
In the directors commentary verhoven states pretty clearly that he envisioned the entire story as the dream. That's why it fades to white instead of black at the end of the movie... Arnold is actually having the embolism He was promised when he didn't exit the dream...
Only problem is all the scenes without Arni where characters are still playing out their role. If its a dream nothing wld exist without Arni perceiving it. But it cld just be a plot hole n poor directing.
I think your opinion that it was an embolism is an assumption on your part, because I watched the director's commentary and I didn't get that feeling at all. I got the feeling that Arnold Schwarzenegger is basically us in our dreams, and at the end of the movie it's insinuating the end of the everyday guys fantasy while watching it.
@@corporatecat230 yeah why must he be lobotomized or have an embolism…..why can’t he just wake up?
@@misterriktus151 that's what I always thought too; especially when Lull, McLane, and Ernie are talking about Arnold while he's knocked out in the rekall chair
@candleAbba22 It's not my opinion- the director himself explicitly states in the DVD commentarye that he made the movie from the point of view that it was a dream....just go back and listen to the commentary it's right there...
Total Recall started my journey with Philip K Dick. I am always thankful to this amazing movie for that.
Not a dream.
Look at the scene immediately after they knock him back out at Rekall. A conversation takes place, that Quade is unaware of, in which they confirm that it is real. There are numerous scenes, that don't involve Quade and he never becomes aware of, that confirm this as reality.
These events would never have happened if it was a dream. Things don't happen, outside of someone's dream, that falsely support someone's dreams. If they hadn't included those scenes or at least made him aware of these events later, then it could be a dream. Quade never became aware of those events and they couldn't have happened if it was a dream.
Iam 47 and that movie blew me away back in the day's - greetings from Germany 👍😁🖖
I always thought it was a dream, but not that he got lobotomised. I was always thought (and still do to an extent) that the concept if such a trip can't work unless the passenger (Arnie, the audience) really thinks there's something at stake. I always liked to think he woke up fine having had the trip of his life, as he'd originally planned to have. I'm sure that is wrong but I'm a suckered for a happy ending 😊
thank you I got a little depressed thinking the guy was lobotomized, your theory made me happy
Great retro review, my head think it's a dream, my heart goes with reality
Kind of the opposite for me; the "real" interpretation requires critical thinking, while the dream one you just take what is told to you at face value
Excellent review! The only thing I'd add that I always found interesting was that throughout the film it's implied that Cohaagen doesn't want to start the reactor because he wants to control the air on Mars. But at the very end of the film, even when at risk of being sucked out and killed in the hostile environment, he's still begging for Quade to not push the button, and that it'll kill everyone. I always found that interesting, that he really believed pushing the button would be a bad thing.
I noticed that, too, and always thought it was a brilliant touch. 🖖😀
I first time you have been suggested. Great name for a channel.
The reason I originally thought this wasn’t a dream was because of all the scenes that play out without Arnold in them. In a dream the character would always be present.
Total Recall is such a classic. It keeps you guessing. Is it reality or a fantasy? At the end of the movie, it's left to us the audience to decide if it's real or a dream.
I always thought it was all just a dream. But that’s the beauty of it. There’s no right or wrong answer. The ending was smartly ambiguous and the viewer is free to interpret the movie how they want.
@@Mr_Rob_otto there definitely is a right answer though. The right answer is that he wasn't dreaming. There are so many clues that it absolutely can't be a dream. The sweat on his head right before he kills them, you wouldn't have sweat in recall. Getting memories back before even going into the machine, conversations that happened when he's not even there. It absolutely positively was not a dream and it's not even an opinion it's fact
@@thickerconstrictor9037 Other than the director himself saying it's a dream? Sorry, but, I'm going to take the guy who made the film's opinion overyours.
@pinealdreams1064 I just checked and the director said its both a dream and reality simultaneously
@@YonkoAgenda We never really find out if it is. It's really left up to us to decide.
My dad took me to see this in the theater when I was 9 years old. I have a six year old kid now and I cannot envision a world where I let her see this in three years AND YET this movie delighted and amazed me in a way that sticks with me in such a positive way to this day.
You let your dad down
Yet, if your nine year old told you they like to play with the toys of the opposite sex..you'd probably run straight to the sex change clinic and get them on puberty blockers...🤣
You're a better man
It's up to you but being that you could handle it and it had a positive impact why would you not want your kid to experience it. I think its what all parents do and see their kids as kids because they want them to stay kids and not see them as the continually growing and changing people they are. However it really doesnt matter because even if u choose to show them the movie, so many times kids dissapointingly dont even like it because "its old"
Oh, I see, you ordered the "Father/Son Inter generational Family Dilema" memory package..... very good choice.
Like in Bladerunner, the beauty of the story is that both scenarios are equally plausible: is Deckard a replicant? Is Quaid an agent? Both stories feature protagonists that question their perception of reality. It makes sense that the audience is equally bewildered as the protagonists. We the audience have the same information they do. Which means we have the same questions. That we still debate the question at the core of these movies is a testament to their depth and longevity. A definite answer to the questions posed by these movies would rob them of their appeal.
I think there is only one thing that happens in the whole film that makes the 'real' option seem plausible...and that's him dreaming of Melina at the start. Other than that I agree with the video that it was all a memory implant.
Back in the day, Blockbuster stores used to sell off popular VHS tapes once they'd been rented out (worn) so many times. I remember going through the 'bargain bin' and coming across this one. As an Arnie fan, I couldn't resist it. The tape went to a charity shop years ago, but I still re-watch the digital version from time to time, if only to roll my eyes at the VFX and Arnie's one-liners.
If I remember correctly, the lady at the Recall place mentioned that she never actually loaded the dream program when he broke outta there.
Dean Norris also played the lead swat team member in terminator 2 during the attack on cyberdyne. he's the one who yells "everybody get out!" before miles dyson dies and detonates the explosives.
He’s good in The Lawnmower Man also👍
@@lifeinthelabyrinth its been a minute since I've seen that movie.
@@shadowgb She’s an absolute Gem! That ending is too good!!
The problem with the "it was all just a dream" ending to any movie is how does one person's dream include scenes that the dreamer isn't in, and isn't aware of? How does Dorothy's dream in Wizard of Oz include the wicked witch spying on her without her knowing? If it's all part of her dream, she would have seen that part. Regardless of the writer's intention, it's still a paradox that just can't be explained.
I was looking at the movie to see if everything after he gets into the machine is from his point of view, and the very next scene is where the secretary is painting her nails and then we see Quaid fighting to get out of the machine -- not from his point of view.
@@jeffrey8959 Even more telling is the scene where the villains are tracking him on a map without him knowing it. Not to mention how he had to "design" Melina. His wife, and the guy from his work are in the movie later. If it were a simulation, how would the programmers know what they looked like?
Agree. Always thought Wizard of Oz was more than a movie .. a documentary. Like the Truman Show. We're all Truman, and we're all Dorothy
It's simple, I've had a few dreams where I experienced an action like sequence taking place and saw the POV of people trying to take me out in said dream and get back to my perspective in the dream and then I was none the wiser because my character of me my dream wasn't supposed to know that yet.
@@mageside But if it were a programed simulation, it wouldn't have scenes like when the bad guy kisses Sharon Stone, and it turns out she's actually married to him. How could that be part of Arnold's Recall trip?
I leaned more towards it being reality as well. The sweat on Edgemoor's face, Quaid waking up at Recall before they implanted him with the vacation. Then you got his friend telling him not to go to Recall makes me think he was there to see if Quaid every regains his memory as Houser. Whether he was dreaming, or it was real this is a great movie.
I freaking love Total Recall! I have sat many friends don to watch the movie and was even more excited knowing my wife never saw it. This movie had me on the edge of my seat when I was a kid and hits all the nostalgia today.
great video, the thing that makes total recall a genius film is that the story can go both ways of whether it’s a dream or not. It’s all up to the person watching it. I saw an interview with arnold where he said it was always meant to be interpreted that way. People underestimate this film, you can prove the theory either way & I can’t think of any other movie where you can look at it from either point of view & still be right.
Like book of Eli
@@deavyhick6803 another gem, good pick. Nobody knew eli was blind the first time watching
@Anubis-hl6wh that's the point of the movie, it's purposely left to the viewer to interpret the movies for themselves. Eli wasn't blind in the movie but the subtle clues allow certain viewers to interpret another meaning to the movie. They don't make many good movies like these.
I still remember when I saw this in probably ‘90 when HBO would do the free sample weekends, I was ten and had seen the trailer on tv. When the opening credits began I can still remember how psyched I was. Such a classic flick
I love how the ending is left open to be interpreted differently depending on the person. I personally believe in the “it’s a Recall” ending just because many of the plot elements, a pic of Melina and even the reactor is pictured right before he goes under.
Now from there it still leaves two endings even if it is a recall. The first is the flash to white at the end was the end of his recall and that he wakes up to his old life. The other (the one I go with) is that the doc he killed inside the recall was legit thus by killing him his mind was set that the recall was reality and that the light at the end was what the doc told him would happen… he was lobotomized.
No, the fade to white at the end as opposed to the typical classic Hollywood movie fade to black ending before the casting credits was to symbolize Quaid waking up from his lobotomy in reality on Earth.
I agree, the "coincidences" are easily explained as subconscious memory on the part of Hauser, who had seen the relics and Melina before.
He dreamt of Melina before Rekall.
He also was never given the secret agent implant.
The director literally confirmed that it was the latter of those two options btw :)
Something to consider, Total Recall sells memories. I assumed they had to get memories from somewhere and in the spy case it was Quaid before he was Quaid. When given the memory the adverse reaction was because they just gave him his own memory back with the alterations Total Recall had made, mainly the ending as Quaid never activated the martian reactor even though he had seen them.
Actually, Douglas Quaid was Carl Hauser, Cohaggen's top henchman and lieutenant next to Richter, that Cohaggen ordered the Rekall Center on Mars to turn into Quaid in order to use Quaid as a mole/double agent/spy to infiltrate the Martian Resistance and help Cohaggen and his men kill Kuato.
Brilliant concept!
Dude, I'm seeing these fan theories like yours, and they're leagues cooler than the standard dream vs reality debate
The Edgemore scene is the biggest proof it's true; if it were a simulation, they'd just load him in again to say "see? It's all a dream" but they didn't, proving the dude actually died by being shot in the head.
That's actually a brilliant point
👏👏👏👏👏
I saw Total Recall in a 70mm theatre in Los Angeles on the night it was released. It was so disturbing that when I got home, I just plopped on the floor and sat there for a couple of hours, nearly catatonic. It wasn't so much the gruesome violence that got me (although that played its part), but the scene where their faces are sucked apart that really got me.
I was 12 and saw this in the theater in 1990. It was awesome. I loved it then and still do.
I always thought the Recall employee mentioning "that's a new one, blue sky on Mars" was the nail in the coffin. Definitely a dream.
The faces when they are expose to the outside still haunts me....
That and dude with deformed child on his belly 😭
Hey. She says "I haven't implanted it yet" it's not a dream.
I saw this when it first came out. It deeply impressed 16-year-old me and I love it to this day 😊
I just watched this at 38 and was amazed at the production quality. It felt like an early 2000's film and the intensity was felt from start to finish.
I still don't believe this movie is mostly a dream for the simple fact of we got to see a scene that Arnie wasn't in. That makes no sense if it's a dream because that scene wouldn't have existed. You don't dream things where you aren't present for them.
A lot of people, including my also much younger self, got swept away by the action, cool spy story, quato-ness lol, and victory over the bad guys happy ending, taking it all at face value as reality...totally forgetting that when setting his "vacation" up, they described all of the events pretty much that would happen if he chose that adventure...and it actually makes the movie even more awesome that it was able to distract us enough to think it was all real...
I agree it is a dream, but I like to think the whole lobotomy thing was part of the secret agent trip. Basically a way of making it seem more real. So, if he hadn't shot that guy in the head and taken the pill instead, the story would have concluded in the same way (he would have ended up being taken to the same room where they reactivate Hauser). It was just there to add excitement/danger and the illusion of choice. The only reason anyone thinks he's being lobotomised at the end is because that guy said he would be, but we have no way of knowing how true that is.
Exactly.
It's been a long time since I've seen it, but when Quaid is bringing up the idea of going to to Rekall to one of his work friends, the guy expresses some doubts and mentions some previous incident where the procedure went wrong and they had to lobotomize the customer. The possibility was introduced long before he ever set foot in the office, so there's certainly reason to believe that if he's dreaming, the impending lobotomy might be very real.
labotomy is typically used when a patient is violent. they'd have no reason to labotomize a guy who is asleep. I'd say it was all a dream and when it's over, he'll wake up all happy from a nice happy dream then have to go back to his mundane life as a laborer. but maybe his wife in real life is melina and not Sharon stone
@@martnava1661 Honestly if you woke up from a dream that real you'd probably start to question reality and you'd be too far gone to go back to a mundane life. You'd probably think you were somehow tricked into being an average person at that point.
One of my favourites movies I could watch it over and over 😅
Without analyzing details, I always thought that regardless of which events were real or in a dream, the real character was an agent and had his memory wiped, then the recall process reverted at least some of the wiped memories. The confusion and mixing of real events and predicted dream events for me are explained better by his fragile mixed mental state, and much like the movie Momento, we’re taken along with his point of view versus being an unaffected observer.
You missed the part when he's at recall when Bob tells the doctor he's just acting out the secret agent part of his program and she says that's impossible because they haven't implanted it yet
It is an interesting concept and it certainly makes you think.
Personally though I think it wasn't a dream and the events were real.
Others have pointed out some things that make more sense being real as opposed to a dream. For me, it is the bead of sweat that Quaid reacts to when Edgemar is trying to convince him that it is all a dream. If he was in fact implanted into the simulation as he claims, he would not be in fear for his own safety and may even encourage Quaid to shoot him in order to be sent in again and again. It isn't stated that if the dreamer dies in the dream then they die for real so Edgemar would have nothing to personally lose from dying in the simulation beyond a bit of frustration.
Why would Edgemar have to risk his life to convince someone that ISN'T DREAMING, that they are in fact dreaming?!
Why no one understands that if Arnold wasn't in a dream, Edgemar would have no reason to tell him that he was in a dream?!
It's like Morpheus trying to find Neo to tell him that he's in the Matrix... But wait, when the Matrix doesn't actually exist!!! What kind of logic is even that?!
If he's dreaming then you have a reason for the doctor to show up
If he's not, you have no reason for him to show up
He showed up... There you have it. Arnold is dreaming. Also, the movie is telling you that ^-^
Now let's address how Lord of The Ring is actually about time travel ahahahaha
@@SLRModShop The Agency paid or coerced him to? They dont seem to have a problem with killing people. Edgemar would just show up over and over if it were fake. All they would have to do is insert something nonsensical into his dream. I've occasionally had lucid dreams. How about have his real wife come in while the villain dream wife was there?
@@albinoman13bt If the guy's hooked up on a machine situated in the building where people want to kill him, the best course of action is to kill him while he's hooked up on the machine... Not to mess up with his dreams.
Edgemar's presence on Mars ALONE is enough to prove that he's dreaming. Also, there is the elephant in the room... It's an action movie with Schwarzy in it, the chances that this movie has deep layers are 0% ^-^
This movie needs to be taken at face value. Schwarzy is sleeping. Everything indicates that. Don't forget that everyone he met in the company somehow managed to casually predict his future... If he's not dreaming, then we have a few characters that have some explaining to do.
"You'll go to Mars, realise that you're a secret agent and save the planet"
What are the odds that saying that to someone happens to be true?
@@SLRModShop Not zero. It makes no sense to say he's in a dream from the perspective of Rekall. A dead customer costs money. If they are controlling the dream then there's no reason to not try harder. In their universe people seem to go back and forth to Mars all the time so Edgemar being on Mars doenst seem unreasonable. Besides, that "turbinium" seems so valuable they'll go to any length to keep it coming.
In the Edgemar scene, if it's a dream, his "wife" shows up to convince him that he's dreaming only to turn on him at the end of the scene. That would imply she hooked herself into a machine that is frying his brain to convince him to leave, only to try to kill him. That scene would make zero sense.
Quaid is dreaming about Mars before ever going to Rekall. The news talks about Kuato and the alien artifacts. The guy selling him the dream tells him he'll be on a mission, which he isn't.
At face value, the movie implies its no dream. The title is about a man having a "total recall", which Ironside's character worries about when Quaid isn't around.
@@SLRModShop seriously, of all people commenting here, you have the worstly worded arguments. I nearly got a stroke trying to decipher your points; keep it simple dude.
And your actual point is a weak, irrelevant argument.
who cares if Edgemar was flown there, or even lives on Mars to begin with.
Your argument reminds me of this one autistic commentor who said it MUST be 100% a dream, because oxygen flowing out of the ice wouldn't make the atmosphere blue, that it's red because of mars' high iron content...like wtf? (He was even wrong about the science of it, besides it being irrelevant)
This movie was amazing! VHS was worn out. Rewind, play! Loved it!
The reflection in the mirror thing (18:55) is what seals the deal for me. It was most definitely a dream.
The real question was never if it was a dream or not. It was obviously a dream. The real question was: is the lobotomy warning a part of the dream or is the lobotomy warning not a part of the dream?
I've always thought that the events we see transpire are actual reality.
My reasoning is simple. Despite there being enough evidence to build a solid argument from either opposing perspective, what becomes the decisive factor for me is that when Quaide goes to recall, he never actually goes through their memory implant process. They are quite explicit on this point.
But….that is said once he’s ’inside the dream’, and could just be creating the plot of his dream.’ Pretty brutal as far as vacations go, but he did pick the Spy
@@jasonkesser Indeed.
You left out the part where he says he never implanted the chip at all
Plus, if that part was after the "dream" already started, the lab crew/"dream characters" are talking about an unconscious dreamer in 3rd person...not typical for a dream
Total Recall is one of my go-to movies when I feel like having something to watch but don't feel like getting involved in something new. I saw it in the theater and have seen it so many times since then that I can quote large swathes of it. I've made an argument for it being a dream and for it being real and could convince myself of either. If I have to be honest, I think that it's real, right up until the very end. I believe that all three of them did die when they landed outside, but that Quaid's mind "filled in" the end as he passed, giving himself a happy ending. I also believe that there really was a "blue sky on Mars," but that it took a little longer than the ending apparently shows, which is why Quaid, Melina, and Cohagen all die. Anyway, it's one of my favorite films of all time. Thanks for your take on it!
Excellent Review. Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily, Life is but a Dream.
I remember watching this movie as a kid and was very confused. Now as an adult I can say that I still don't understand it.
In the end, I think it was all a dream. It also reminds me of another movie: "Sucker Punch"
In contrast to the book, the film doesn’t hide it is a dream. They have actually adopted the ending to explain it to those missing the information spoken in the background in the film at about 16m35s, where the technician commenting about the dream to be implanted as a new program called, Blue Sky on Mars.
With this information, if you’ll jump to the last minute of the film and the question is answered.
This was general information in my film school at 1995, coming directly from Mr Verhoeven on a visit to our sUniversity. Might have been lost in history :(
You left out the bead of sweat running down Edgemar's face that tipped off Quade that he was reallly there.
I always thought that if it was a dream, that guy was just a part of it and he was supposed to be killed off
Of course, it's basically the crux of the whole movie.
This guy only argues the dream interpretation though, I didn't see him bring up alternate arguments
Great review. It's a dream
Epic I’m loving these deep dives
Total Recall and Sucker Punch are essentially the same movie. When I saw this upon release in the theatre, I was waiting for the end shot to be Arnie in an OR being lobotomized.
it was one of the movies that stays in your mind and keeps his place there like an unforgettable memory. not like many new movies that you watch and forget
It can’t be all in his mind . The dr literally says she never even gave him the secret agent trip yet …. Not to mention the video of Hauser later talking to quaid …
Im 31 and when i was a kid this movie was on cable tv all the time, ive probably seen this movie over 300 times
This was the most awesome thing my eyes saw as well when I was 10.
Kids today really missed out.