WTF Happened to Total Recall?

Most would agree that Paul Verhoeven‘s Total Recall is one of the best two or three Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It’s definitely up there in the pantheon of great action movies, with it standing the test of time very well over the years, with not even a lousy remake taking the shine off this gem. Ultra-violent and often hilarious, it’s Verhoeven at his most unhinged, with Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Douglas Quaid, an ordinary guy who just might be a secret agent from Mars named Hauser.

Verhoeven directed Total Recall from a screenplay by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, and Gary Goldman (Jon Povill also receives a story credit), based on the novelette “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick. The film has the following synopsis:

Douglas Quaid is a bored construction worker in the year 2084 who dreams of visiting the colonized Mars. He visits “Rekall,” a company that plants false memories into people’s brains, in order to experience the thrill of Mars without having to travel there. But something goes wrong during the procedure; Quaid discovers that his entire life is actually a false memory and that the people who implanted it in his head now want him dead.

Rachel Ticotin, a young Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox, and more show up in this action extravaganza, which boasts a fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith. It’s a favorite of ours at JoBlo.

In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, edited by Diane Baldwin, written by Eric Walkuski, and narrated by Mathew Plale, we dig into what makes this such a classic.