FILM · 1990 · USA
Total Recall
- Directed by
- Paul Verhoeven
- Runtime
- 113 min
- Studio
- Carolco Pictures, Ronald Shusett/Gary Goldman Productions
258 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Rekall, a virtual vacation company that manufactures memories. When something goes wrong during Quaid's memory implant procedure, his life turns upside down, leading him to question what is reality and what isn't.
258 Interesting Facts About Total Recall
Interesting Facts (18)
- #001
After seeing Sharon Stone's performance as Lori in this film, director Paul Verhoeven cast her in Basic Instinct (1992) because of her ability to play a character who can shift from a shy, alluring lover into a demonic person and back again in an instant. He said Stone was like that in real life as well.
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Paul Verhoeven signed on to the film in the fall of 1988. Shooting began in Mexico City because of the metro station's futuristic architecture (built in a style called "new brutalism," characterized by large amounts of concrete in angular shapes) and because Estudios Churubusco in Mexico could accommodate the huge interior production. Five hundred people worked on the film; over six months they built 45 sets connecting eight sound stages. At the time, Total Recall (1990) was the second most expensive film in history after Rambo III (1988).
- #004
When the film began pre-production in Australia under director Bruce Beresford, Patrick Swayze was signed to play Quaid. However, early in pre-production Dino De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt. After hearing about this, Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded Carolco to buy the script for him.
- #005
Arnold Schwarzenegger felt the original trailer was bad and misrepresented the film, failing to reflect its scope and oddity. TriStar Pictures did not know what to do with the film. Schwarzenegger raised the matter with producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters and had them watch the film and then the trailer. They agreed on a short sell of the film, so a new campaign was produced along with a new trailer.
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- #008
While shooting the fight scene between Lori and Melina, director Paul Verhoeven asked second unit director Vic Armstrong to choreograph the fight not as a "catfight" but more like a martial arts fight, so that it would feel like two "warriors" fighting each other rather than just two women. In his DVD commentary, Verhoeven notes that this is probably the first time we see two women fighting normally in a feature film rather than in a catfight.
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About three weeks before the film's planned theatrical release, public awareness stood at only 43%, which Arnold Schwarzenegger called "absolutely disastrous." He was able to persuade producer Mario Kassar and the rest of the production company Carolco to spend more money on advertising. As a result, the film opened with 99% public awareness and became a major financial success.
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Paul Verhoeven and special makeup effects supervisor Rob Bottin clashed constantly before and during the making of RoboCop (1987), to the point that their disagreements nearly turned violent. After arguing intensely about a particular scene, Verhoeven got his way, and Bottin swore he would never work with him again. However, when they went to the film's premiere and saw how well that scene turned out, the two instantly forgave each other. Bottin later gladly accepted Verhoeven's offer to work on this film and was given the freedom to create his own Martian creature designs.
- #018
One of the scenes heavily re-edited to obtain an R rating was the escalator shootout, in which Quaid uses a human body to shield himself from bullets. Nevertheless, in a 2014 interview with Empire, director Paul Verhoeven said: "That scene on the escalator, [.] I think it was much worse when we shot it than what you see now. I always had problems with the MPAA. But the censors don't understand that when you cut it, it actually becomes more violent. When you cut it, you lose the nudity and the comic-book element. If you shorten it, it becomes more realistic."
Production Story (128)
- #019
When Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon first began working on the script in the 1970s, they realized that by the special effects and budget standards of the time the film would likely be too expensive and difficult to produce. They shelved work on the story and instead developed O'Bannon's idea about a space creature terrorizing the crew of a spaceship. That became Alien (1979).
- #020
The concept of Quaid as a passionate construction worker was suggested by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. In earlier drafts of the script, Quaid (originally named Quail) was described as an average-looking accountant type. Because of this detail, original producer Dino De Laurentiis was determined that Schwarzenegger, who badly wanted the part, would not get it. However, after De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt and Schwarzenegger persuaded Mario Kassar to buy the script rights, later drafts turned Quaid's character into one better suited to Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger said he felt this helped the story, creating a much stronger contrast by making a normally powerful character vulnerable through having his mind stolen.
- #021
Writer Dan O'Bannon fell out with director Paul Verhoeven when Verhoeven had the screenplay rewritten by Gary Goldman and replaced the satirical humor with extreme violence and comedic one-liners. Dark humor was much more prevalent in the original screenplay, but when Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the team, Verhoeven and O'Bannon's co-writer Ronald Shusett realized the need to adapt the screenplay to Schwarzenegger's abilities.
- #022
When Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon began working on the screenplay for this film in the 1970s, they realized that it would be too expensive and difficult given the special effects and budget standards of the time. They shelved the story and turned to O'Bannon's idea of an alien monster terrorizing the crew of a spaceship. That idea became 1979's Alien.
- #023
Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally considered for the lead role in RoboCop (1987), but the producers abandoned the idea because of costume problems. After seeing the film, Schwarzenegger loved it and said he wanted to work with director Paul Verhoeven in the future. Verhoeven agreed, but he was in talks for Black Rain (1989); when that film was delayed, Schwarzenegger arranged to appear in Total Recall for Carolco and convinced producer Mario Kassar to hire Verhoeven as director. Verhoeven said that only Schwarzenegger's enthusiasm for the project convinced him to leave Black Rain and make Total Recall.
- #024
The idea that Quaid is a muscular construction worker came from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. In the first drafts of the screenplay, Quaid (originally named Quail) was an ordinary-looking accountant. For this reason, the film's first producer, Dino De Laurentiis, was determined that Schwarzenegger, who very much wanted to play Quaid, would not get the role. After De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt and Schwarzenegger convinced Mario Kassar to buy the screenplay rights, the character of Quaid was adapted to suit Schwarzenegger in later drafts. Schwarzenegger thought this change added a strong contrast to the story, showing a powerful character whose mind had been stolen as vulnerable.
- #025
While the film was in pre-production in Australia under director Bruce Beresford, Patrick Swayze had been signed for the role of Quaid. However, early in pre-production, Dino De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt. When Arnold Schwarzenegger heard about this, he convinced Carolco to buy the screenplay for him.
- #026
Arnold Schwarzenegger thought the film's original trailer was bad and did not reflect the film's scope and strangeness. TriStar Pictures did not know what to do with the film. Schwarzenegger conveyed the situation to producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters; he had them watch the film first, then the trailer. They admitted it did not do the film justice and had a new trailer and a new promotional campaign prepared.
- #027
About three weeks before the film's planned release date, public awareness was only 43%; Schwarzenegger described this as 'a complete disaster.' He convinced producer Mario Kassar and the rest of Carolco to put more money into advertising. In the end, the film opened with 99% awareness and became a major box-office success.
- #028
The short story on which the film is based, Philip K. Dick's 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,' was first optioned in 1974; the film was released 16 years later. This 23-page story ends with an abrupt ending and forms the basis for only the first act of the film: Doug goes to Rekall to buy a memory of a trip to Mars, but the technicians realize he has suppressed memories of being a secret agent on Mars. Government agents track him with a telepathic transmitter, and from this point the short story diverges from the film: Doug's memory returns and he remembers that he is a trained assassin; he easily overcomes the agents but eventually makes a deal with the government. He agrees to surrender in exchange for having his memories altered again; he wants to live out one of his childhood fantasies: meeting highly advanced aliens and persuading them not to invade Earth. When the government tries to implant these memories, it discovers that they already exist in Doug's brain as another suppressed memory and actually happened. The Mars journey, the mutant rebellion, the Mars reactor and the possibility that all the events are a dream are entirely specific to the film.
- #029
Writer Dan O'Bannon fell out with director Paul Verhoeven when Verhoeven had the screenplay rewritten by Gary Goldman and replaced its satirical humor with extreme violence and comic one-liners. Dark humor was much more dominant in the original screenplay, but when Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the project, Verhoeven and O'Bannon's co-writer Ronald Shusett understood the need to adapt the screenplay to Schwarzenegger's abilities.
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While the film was still under Dino De Laurentiis's production, David Cronenberg was set to direct; Cronenberg had even turned down the offer of The Fly (1986) for this film. Robert Bierman was brought in to replace Cronenberg on The Fly, but Bierman left the project due to his daughter's death. Around the same time, Cronenberg withdrew from the project when Total Recall was put on hold and became available to direct The Fly.
- #032
Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Total Recall screenwriters at one point planned a sequel with director Jonathan Frakes. It was to be based on another Philip K. Dick story, 'Minority Report,' with the mutants on Mars as 'Precogs' who predict crime, and Doug Quaid was to take the place of John Anderton, the arresting officer who prevents crimes. The project never came to fruition because of producer Carolco's bankruptcy, and the story was eventually made as a standalone film titled Minority Report (2002).
- #033
In both the screenplay adaptation written by Piers Anthony and the earliest drafts, the main character's name was Douglas Quail. The name also appears as Quail in Philip K. Dick's original story. The film was shot during President George H.W. Bush's term, when Dan Quayle was vice president, and this is thought to be the reason for the name change.
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When Paul Verhoeven agreed to read the screenplay, producer Mario Kassar did not just mail him the latest version; he sent all 45 different drafts written up to that point to his house in a van. In some drafts, Quaid was a meek accountant instead of a construction worker. The first half of most scripts was similar: Quaid visits Rekall and begins to experience altered memories, but the endings differed greatly. In one, Quaid even turned out to be an alien in human form; this twist may have been inspired by another Philip K. Dick story, later filmed as Impostor (2001). Verhoeven eventually realized that, since Arnold Schwarzenegger had already been cast as Quaid, they should build the film around his abilities and make it lighter, funnier and more over the top; he therefore brought in Gary Goldman for additional work on the script. According to Verhoeven, although many changes were made in every script, the last draft and the final film closely resembled Ronald Shusett's first draft.
- #036
Dan O'Bannon was not at all happy with the ending that was filmed: the Mars machine creating a breathable atmosphere in 30 seconds. O'Bannon felt this had no thematic connection to the memory implant concept in Philip K. Dick's original story. In an interview with Cinefantastique magazine (April 1991), he explained his own concept: "There shouldn't have been a three-fingered Martian handprint on the machine; it would have been a print that only fit Quaid's hand. Quaid, the world's best secret agent, went to Mars and entered this compound. The machine killed him and created a synthetic copy. He is that synthetic copy. He can't be killed because he can sense danger in advance; he is also all-powerful, and because he can't be killed, Earth wants to destroy him but can't. That's why they go to all that trouble to erase his brain and make him think he's a nobody; it's the only way to control him. The audience doesn't question it when film heroes don't die in adventures; I thought it was clever to find a reason for that. At the end of the film, Quaid puts his hand on the device and everything comes back, he remembers who he really is. The full recollection of his identity is that he is a creation of a Mars machine. In fact, he is the resurrection of the Martian race in a synthetic body. He turns and says to the other characters, 'It's going to be fun playing God.'" O'Bannon's co-writer Ronald Shusett, for some reason, did not like this idea and preferred the 'Mars gets an atmosphere' ending; whereupon O'Bannon left the production.
- #037
According to Ronald Shusett, during the period when Dino De Laurentiis took on producing the film, De Laurentiis found the idea of Mars gaining an atmosphere 'very hard to visualize' and planned to shoot the ending completely differently from the original script. Shusett did not like this at all, and the two argued about it a great deal; Shusett even threatened to cancel the project, saying that if he couldn't make the film the way he wanted, he would prefer it not be made at all. When De Laurentiis mentioned the idea of changing the ending to director Richard Rush, Rush told him he was 'talking nonsense' and convinced him not to cut or change the ending, and De Laurentiis realized his mistake. De Laurentiis went to Shusett, apologized and said, "Ron, you're so stubborn that I could kiss you on the mouth! You saved me!" De Laurentiis never got to make the film, because his production company went bankrupt shortly afterwards and the project was sold to Mario Kassar's Carolco Pictures.
- #038
Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to reunite in 1993 for a film called 'Crusade' for Carolco; the film was expected to be released around 1995. The project advanced considerably in pre-production, with its screenplay written, costumes and props prepared, and shooting locations arranged. However, it fell apart due to the growing budget and the mini-studio's ongoing financial problems. When Carolco ultimately could not finance both Crusade and Cutthroat Island (1995) at the same time, it chose the latter, which it believed would be cheaper; Verhoeven, in turn, made Showgirls (1995) to help the struggling studio. Unfortunately, Cutthroat Island went vastly over budget and became a huge box-office disaster; combined with the commercial failure of Showgirls, Carolco went bankrupt. Under Schwarzenegger's 'pay or play' deal, he acquired the rights to Crusade. Although the passage of time and the poor box office of other Crusade-themed films reduced the chances of the project being revived, Verhoeven stated for many years that he was still interested.
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Before Paul Verhoeven took over as director, David Cronenberg had been set to direct and had even written several script drafts. Cronenberg stated that he wanted William Hurt in the lead role and that he did not like the producers' decision to reshape the lead role around an action star like Schwarzenegger.
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Richard Rush was the first person hired by Dino De Laurentiis to direct the project, but he left when they could not agree on the script. Bruce Beresford was brought in temporarily to replace Rush, and during this period Lewis Teague's name was also mentioned for the directing job. When De Laurentiis went bankrupt, everything was thrown into disarray, and the film continued to be developed at Carolco, which was famous at the time for rescuing projects from development hell and completing them.
- #047
- #048
This film was the last to receive a Special Achievement Academy Award instead of a competitive Oscar for visual effects. Back to the Future Part III (1990), Dick Tracy (1990) and Ghost (1990) advanced to the second stage of voting in the category, but only Total Recall received the required minimum of eight votes and was the only film recognized for visual effects that year. Starting the following year, the competitive Best Visual Effects category became permanent.
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- #052
During shooting, crew members came down with food poisoning from Mexican food, while Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Shusett escaped it. After getting sick from street food during the filming of Predator (1987), Schwarzenegger had avoided Mexican cuisine entirely and had his meals brought in from the US and prepared by his own chef. Shusett, meanwhile, took extreme health precautions such as brushing his teeth only with boiled or bottled water and getting weekly B12 injections; the crew mocked him, but in the end everyone else got sick.
- #053
In his commentary on the film, director Paul Verhoeven says the famous line 'Get your ass to Mars' was actually thought up later to bridge the transition from Earth to Mars. Because budget constraints prevented him from shooting Quaid boarding the Mars shuttle as a separate scene, he settled for the idea of having the laptop device loop that part of Hauser's message during the transition.
- #054
Paul Verhoeven recounts that he came down with food poisoning as soon as shooting began in Mexico and was rarely fully healthy throughout the production. Because insurance did not cover the first three days of hospital costs and every reported day would cut 150,000 dollars from the budget, he kept an ambulance on set at all times; medics would give him IV drips and medication between takes. Unable to stand, he directed from a stretcher on top of a minivan and said he would keep shooting unless a doctor told him it was fatal.
- #055
Verhoeven joined the project in the fall of 1988. Shooting began in Mexico City thanks to the metro's futuristic architecture (its angular concrete structures in the 'new brutalism' style) and Estudios Churubusco, which was suited to massive interior production. A crew of 500 built 45 sets covering eight sound stages over six months; Total Recall (1990) was at the time the second most expensive film in history after Rambo III (1988).
- #056
The scene in which the air is cut off in the Mars colony was first shot with violent gasping fits, but it unintentionally came across as comical. Cinematographer Jost Vacano, recalling that he had shot a similar scene in Das Boot (1981) as a silent struggle for survival, suggested the actors lie still in silence; this gave the scene a far more dramatic tone.
- #057
For the fight scene between Lori and Melina, Verhoeven asked second unit director Vic Armstrong to choreograph it not as a 'catfight' but as a fight between two 'warriors.' In the DVD commentary, he notes that this was probably the first scene in a feature film in which two women fight normally.
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CGI supervisor Tim McGovern had received assurances from the company Dreamscape that the X-ray sequences could be entirely computer animated. A very early version of 'motion capture' was to be used at the time. When Schwarzenegger showed up in white clothing when he was supposed to wear black, he joked, 'take that up with the costume department.' When the software proved unable to handle complex movements, they switched to the rotoscope technique; by chance, Schwarzenegger's white clothing made this hand-animation work easier.
- #060
Schwarzenegger injured his hand several times during shooting. In the scene where he breaks the train window, the explosive did not go off on time, so he actually punched the glass and cut himself badly. During the fight in the hotel room he broke the finger of his right hand and it was put in a cast; in most of the following scenes his injured hand was kept out of frame.
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The three-breasted sex worker Mary was originally planned to have four breasts, but the producers thought it looked like a cow's udder. The effect was achieved with a special prosthetic plate extending from actress Lycia Naff's neck to her stomach; all three breasts were fake, and applying it took two makeup artists eight hours. Naff says she accepted the role 'as a joke' because she would not be showing her own breasts, but that as the shooting day approached she genuinely became nervous as if she were really going to undress. She nearly cried on set; Verhoeven tried to reassure her and promised her a better role in his next film, but that never happened. The character became so popular that she returned in the 2012 version with a different actress.
- #063
Verhoeven and special makeup effects supervisor Rob Bottin had clashed constantly before and during RoboCop (1987), at times nearly coming to blows. After a major argument over one scene, Bottin swore he would never work with him again, but when he saw at the film's premiere how good that scene was, the two made peace instantly. Bottin gladly agreed to work on this film and was given complete freedom in the Martian creature designs.
- #064
One of the scenes heavily re-edited to secure an R rating was the escalator shootout in which Quaid uses a man as a shield. Verhoeven told Empire in 2014, 'That escalator scene... when we shot it, it was much worse than what you see now. The censors don't understand that when you shorten it, it actually becomes more violent. When you shorten it, the excess and the comic-book quality disappear, and it becomes more realistic.'
- #065
The design of the alien reactor that melts the ice and gives Mars an atmosphere at the end of the film was inspired by a nuclear reactor. Verhoeven wanted 'to be inside a nuclear reactor' with the poles descending into the water, but aimed for a far more grandiose scale with skyscraper-sized poles. While looking at early 20th-century skyscraper photographs with William Sandell, they threw the book on the floor; the upside-down photographs made them realize that inverted skyscrapers had the right look for the alien reactor.
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As is often done in films set in the future, contemporary design objects were used here to depict the future environments: the small cups with black plastic rings that Quaid uses while preparing his breakfast smoothie were Danish-made Bodum Bistro coffee mugs, and the desk lamp at Rekall was the Italian Artemide Tolomeo model.
- #070
Verhoeven based Edgemar's appearance and behavior on the professor in Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966). He wanted someone 'pure, strange and a little odd' for the role. He also borrowed some of Hitchcock's shot compositions and low camera placements for the scene between Edgemar and Quaid.
- #071
When Quaid arrives on Mars he uses a disguise as a woman (Priscilla Allen, credited as 'Fat lady'). In the original script, a device placed on his head while he watches Hauser's video was to spray steam and open up to reveal the mask. Because Rob Bottin found this derivative of the Mission: Impossible series, he designed an entirely mechanical disguise. It was difficult to find a female actor large enough to convincingly contain Schwarzenegger's bulk; after wrestlers and bodybuilders were considered, Allen was found. When the mask mechanisms initially would not fit inside the head, they were moved outside and the mask reached a weight of 70 pounds (32 kg); it could only be shot from head level. In test shots, Bottin used a hydraulic hose to show the fat lady's head lifting off her body and Schwarzenegger emerging from inside. For the final effect, the mask sections were filled with modeling clay and an operator controlled each section with a push-pull system.
- #072
At the film's first screening, CGI supervisor Tim McGovern noticed that he and his team had been forgotten in the credits for the computer effects, particularly the X-ray detector scenes. This was corrected in later home video releases with a special thanks added. However, when the original theatrical print was used for the 30th anniversary 4K version in 2021, McGovern once again could not see himself or his team in the credits.
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To portray the effects of decompression in the Martian atmosphere, Rob Bottin took latex molds of the faces of Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin and Ronny Cox while having them make exaggerated expressions. The masks produced from these molds were fitted with small air pockets that further distorted the facial features when inflated. Four heads were made: one each for Schwarzenegger and Ticotin, and two for Cox. Schwarzenegger's and Ticotin's heads were fully articulated; the swelling tongue, forehead, cheeks and eyes were controlled by hand-operated cables. Instead of air bellows, large bellows in the form of full-body heads and torsos stretched over a mechanical skeleton were built. In one of Cox's heads, rigid veins were placed in the mold to imitate veins beneath the skin. The other head had a tongue and eyes that popped fully out. The air bellows were inflated by people blowing into them for more natural movement than mechanical bellows. Bottin had thought the effect would only be seen briefly, and was surprised by how often it was used in the film. Cox's character's hairstyle came about because he had to have his hair pushed back while the mold was taken; after two days of shooting, he convinced Verhoeven to reshoot the scenes with the new hairstyle.
- #075
In the climactic elevator fight between Quaid and Richter, Richter's severed arms were difficult for Rob Bottin's team. When the producers refused a fake elevator, the shoot was planned with a portable elevator. Thinking it would be dangerous for Michael Ironside, Bottin welded a cage with handles next to the elevator, in which Ironside could stand instead of hanging over the edge. Urethane hands and fake arms with metal skeletons and ball joints were attached to sockets fitted on Ironside's shoulders. These were controlled by a quick-release valve triggered by an electrical switch in the elevator; when activated, the elbow joints separated. The arms were strong enough to withstand Schwarzenegger's pulling, and the timing was delicate enough to allow Ironside to drop low enough not to be injured. The wall that cuts the arms was later replaced with styrofoam in case it hit Ironside. In Richter's fall, separate shoulder pad mechanisms sent the artificial limbs flying.
- #076
One of the final shots showing the colonists emerging onto the Martian surface combined front and rear projection elements, matte paintings and other elements: about 17 elements in total, which took 28 hours because of the color separation for each. Most of the Martian inhabitants appeared as silhouettes and were extras from Dream Quest employees. In the film's final scene, the sunbeams streaming through the clouds were added by the animation department; 'wheat grain' lamps were used with a filter at 100-second exposures.
- #077
When Quaid removes the tracking device from his skull, Rob Bottin believed the trick could only be achieved with a mechanical head. His team took a mold of Schwarzenegger's head and began building the mechanical head using measurements and reference photographs. But after watching the set footage, he realized the tracking device looked like a 'silver bullet' that would fit in the nose and did not require a detailed effect head. He therefore had Quaid remove something larger than his nose and commissioned a spherical object containing the small silver tracking device. The head could breathe and sway, with a sophisticated jaw and neck mechanism and a tongue that could move and change shape. The scene was shot in an old glass factory in Saugus. As the spherical tracking device was passed through the puppet's nasal passage, a high-powered laser device several meters away was aimed at it to illuminate it. The sphere opened to reveal the smaller silver tracking device inside, and this was combined with the footage of Schwarzenegger.
- #078
Designed as a parody of McDonald's, the Johnny Cab service is a chain of cheap, futuristic taxis driven by generically polite and cheerful automatons. Rob Bottin and Paul Verhoeven came up with the name, inspired by Jonny Cat cat litter. The automaton was designed to resemble a 1950s American gas station attendant. Bottin reused Robert Picardo's face mold from Explorers (1985) for the driver and suggested Picardo for the voice. At the audition, when Picardo suggested the character make a joke about Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent, Verhoeven said, 'We don't do that kind of thing with Arnold.' Verhoeven wanted the drivers to look flawed, as if damaged over time by passengers. Three models were built: a sophisticated model with a neck, mostly computer-controlled and moving like a ventriloquist's dummy, for dialogue scenes; a less complex one that Schwarzenegger's character tears out of the taxi; and a third that spins out of control with spark and flash effects when it explodes. All the Johnny Cab scenes were shot on the set in Mexico. The models were controlled by cables and computer mechanisms, while the taxi was designed by Cobb.
- #079
Quaid's shuttle arriving at the Mars spaceport was one of the first miniature effects shot. The vehicle was 3.5 feet square, with interactive lighting and quartz engines; the exhaust trail was animated with rippled glass. For the landing, blue-screen workers, trains and lights were added in the foreground to increase the sense of scale. Funke planned the subsequent train journey as one of the film's most detailed sequences; he based it on the scene in In the Heat of the Night (1967) where Sidney Poitier's close-up on the train turns into an aerial view. From inside the train set, the Mars landscape in the window combined four layers, each moving at a different speed to create the correct pace and depth. Reverse forced perspective was used, going from the smallest objects to the largest, so that the mountain miniature set and the foreground rocks were closest to the window. A motion-control track around the camera moved signs and poles, creating a blur that gave a sense of speed. The exterior of the train was produced as a miniature on the Mars sets. Verhoeven wanted the camera to linger on the train before pulling away, and the animation camera did not start until it pulled back; the apparent single shot combined footage filmed months apart. The train begins on a 1/126-scale set, then the scene transitions to a 1/12-scale colony set; the change is hidden with a foreground matte effect. A 60-foot motion-control track helped manage the transition between elements. As the camera pulls away, Schwarzenegger and the other actors are inside the train; two small projectors made for The Abyss (1989) projected Schwarzenegger and the other passengers from inside the train. Funke knew the individual techniques would work for the overall effect, but he was hesitant to combine them.
- #080
The reactor activation involved three miniatures: 1/96, 1/24 (1/32) and 1/8 scale. The first wide shot, in which the columns begin to move downward, reused sections of the 'mind probe' set. The rods were about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Making the descending rods was difficult; they needed to look red-hot, but at 1/24 scale they were only 3 inches in diameter and there was no practical way to light them from inside. They were wrapped in retroreflective coating and painted with a corrosion texture. Bigelow shot the scenes and, through a beam splitter, applied orange-red gel light by front projection. The projected brightness was gradually increased to make the rods appear to heat up progressively. A mechanism inside the rods made them descend. Because the retroreflective material did not spill light onto the rest of the miniature, conventional lights were simultaneously aimed at the ice surface to evoke reflected light. The rig was supervised by Dana Yuricich. The 1/8-scale set contained the largest rods, 12 inches in diameter, used for the close-up of the ice being pierced and steam escaping. Made of plexiglass and filled with lights to make them bright, the rods were textured with paint to look red-hot; this shot was designed by Tom Valentine. About ten puppeteers beneath the set broke the resin and wax ice as the rods penetrated. As the ice cracked and released gas, dozens of crew members triggered effects, fire extinguishers, nitrogen steam and steam beneath the set. The nitrogen looked good but was difficult to control. The effect was fast and was shot with high-speed cameras to make it appear slower. Several takes were made, and the crew learned from mistakes. There were thirty reactor rod sockets, each about 2 feet square and 9 feet long, console-supported and supported by large vertical shears. 55-gallon water drums were used as counterweights. When the rods struck the ice, thousand-watt lights blazed upward through color gels. This shot was also supervised by Tom Valentine.
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The Mars mountain explosion was filmed at the 35-foot-tall Agriculture Hall No. 5 (a former zeppelin hangar) at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, the only local venue large enough to position the lighting far enough from the set for the required angles and shadows. The mountain was 14 feet tall and 46 feet in diameter; it was built in nine sections to make it easier to transport. Only the side facing the camera was detailed, while the back was left open for applying effects from inside (including steam and chemical smoke). Behind the model was a chimney designed to channel liquid nitrogen and steam into a large column. Air mortars were used to blow apart the paper-thin plaster mountain peak; mountain-shaking arms were also used. The top of the mountain was cast in lightweight plaster, while the lower part was textured with small shapes and separated with thin plaster so that it would break apart when the air mortar hit. Setting up the effect took about a week, and filming took another week. Special effects artists Richard Stutsman and Randy Cabral laid copper tubing to direct jets of steam and nitrogen at the upper third of the mountain. Erik Stohl built the mechanical components that made parts of the mountain rise or crumble. The air mortars were filled with gravel, which provided more directional control than a basic explosive; Funke also believed that gravel bursts gave a more 'instinctive' feel. AB smoke was also used: a two-liquid solution that remains inert until mixed, at which point it rapidly produces a large volume of smoke. One of the liquids was applied to the parts to be blown up, and the other to other areas of the mountain, so that when the explosions occurred the liquids would mix and create smoke. Working with the mixture was difficult and dangerous to inhale, so the Stetson crew made extra protective suits out of black polyethylene; face masks and protective clothing were required because of the toxic chemical smoke. The scene was shot in two takes at different frame rates. The long shots were filmed at 48 frames per second because the steam only scaled correctly toward the model at that rate; the explosion close-up was shot at 120 fps. The explosion scene's cinematographer, Bob Primes, used four perfs for the close-up (since it did not require optical manipulation) and eight perfs for the long shot because it needed to show an atmosphere forming at the peak. For the atmosphere, Gary Platek held a high-powered laser to create a sheet of light and passed nitrogen vapor through it. As the atmosphere thickened, a cloud tank was used until it transitioned to a matte painting. To support the full mountain shots, additional material was shot at Dream Quest on larger-scale partial miniatures, such as background plates of Quaid and Melina writhing on the slopes. To simulate the earthquake in the Hilton sets as the mountain explodes, they looked at things like shaking the lights when a real earthquake began. The crew was evacuated (the buildings were not reinforced), and they ultimately decided to create the effect with an optical printer. Most of the glass-breaking shots were filmed with miniatures. Blue curtains were used behind the windows, or black curtains if no one was moving in front of the shot; black allowed more freedom in lighting the set. Model window grids were built and mounted face-down above the camera so they would fall when the glass broke. Some of the shots were combined with scenes in which extras reacted and moved out of the way, and were enhanced with rotoscoped mattes that combined the breaking glass with live action.
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In Rob Bottin's original Kuato design, Kuato was small and emerged from George's head. Bottin disliked the result and turned the creature into an intelligent baby because it conflicted with his 'monstrous' concept design philosophy. Kuato was built into a full-body prosthesis worn by Marshall Bell that ran from under his chin to below his waist; it had a parachute harness to help support the weight of the cables for the fifteen puppeteers needed to operate Kuato's arms and head. On the first day of shooting with the prosthesis, Bell spent up to nine hours in makeup; although the time decreased with repetition, he found it exhausting. Unable to urinate inside the rig, Bell asked for a hidden hole to be made in the foam. Although some of the Kuato scenes were filmed during principal photography (including his emergence and holding Schwarzenegger's hands), the rest (including the dialogue scenes) were filmed in post-production with an animatronic Bell. Paul Verhoeven was hesitant to use an animatronic since they could use the real Bell, but Bottin believed that removing anything real from the scene would make the overall effect more convincing. After watching test footage, Verhoeven trusted Bottin because he could not tell it apart from the real Bell. However, he wanted a shot in which George walks toward Quaid while Kuato is talking; Bottin's team built a cart that could move the body up and down to imitate walking as it rolled forward. The mechanical Bell had an articulated head with jaw mechanisms and rotating eyes, and the head could move at various angles. A series of bellows simulated breathing, and Kuato had a separate set for his independent breathing. The arms of both puppets were moved by a mechanism operated by a puppeteer. Kuato's eyebrows were computer-controlled, and his eyes were operated by a wireless remote control. However, the George and Kuato puppets required fifteen to twenty operators. To make Kuato speak, servo motors in his mouth were connected to a computer that roughly calculated the appropriate shapes for each vowel and consonant. The limited computer system meant that individual pieces of dialogue could not be combined; each segment had to be recorded and performed simultaneously. Although alternative voice actors were considered, Verhoeven and Bottin believed Kuato should have a vocal timbre and pitch similar to Bell's, and chose him for the voice.
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Sharon Stone gave such a performance as Lori in this film that director Paul Verhoeven cast her in the lead role of Basic Instinct (1992), thanks to her ability to shift instantly from a timid and sweet demeanor to a diabolical personality. Verhoeven said Stone is exactly like that in real life as well.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger noticed that Michael Ironside was constantly on the phone between takes. When he brought it up, Ironside said he was calling his sister, who was battling cancer. Schwarzenegger immediately took Ironside to his trailer and held a three-way conversation with his sister for an hour, explaining which exercises she should do and how she should eat. Neither Ironside nor his sister ever forgot this kindness.
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In an interview, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that on the day the love scene with Sharon Stone was shot, his wife Maria Shriver called. Shriver asked how things were going with Stone and whether they were shooting the scene nude. Schwarzenegger deflected by saying that stunt doubles were handling the scene.
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The Benny character was initially planned to have a mechanical limb, but Mel Johnson Jr. suggested giving the character three arms. A half-body cast was made that wrapped Johnson's body from waist to neck, and puppeteers controlled the three-elbowed limb. The limb was designed with separated bones and gaps to visually prove that a human arm could not be inside it. In the character's death scene, Johnson wore a body suit covered with blood bags. The scene was shot both bloody and bloodless, and the producers found the level of violence too much and chose the bloodless version.
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Roy Brocksmith, who plays Dr. Edgemar, is also the voice in the Rekall commercial Quaid watches. Within the film's general ambiguity, who he really is remains unclear: he could be a genuine Rekall doctor or executive who appears in their commercials; he could be a commercial actor with no other connection to Rekall, hired simply to play a Rekall doctor for Quaid; or he could be someone who is not real at all, merely a coincidence deliberately inserted into the Rekall experience.
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When Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon began working on the script for this film in the 1970s, they realized that, given the era's special effects and budget standards, the film would be far too expensive and difficult. They shelved the story and turned to O'Bannon's idea of an alien monster terrorizing the crew of a spaceship. That idea became 1979's Alien.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger had originally been considered for the lead in RoboCop (1987), but the producers abandoned the idea because of problems with the costume. After seeing the film, Schwarzenegger loved it and said he wanted to work with director Paul Verhoeven in the future. Verhoeven agreed, but he was in talks for Black Rain (1989); when that film was delayed, Schwarzenegger arranged to appear in Total Recall for Carolco and convinced producer Mario Kassar to hire Verhoeven as director. Verhoeven said that only Schwarzenegger's enthusiasm for the project persuaded him to leave Black Rain and make Total Recall.
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The idea of Quaid being a muscular construction worker came from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. In the script's early drafts, Quaid (originally named Quail) was an ordinary-looking accountant. For this reason, the film's first producer, Dino De Laurentiis, was determined that Schwarzenegger, who badly wanted to play Quaid, would not get the part. After De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt and Schwarzenegger convinced Mario Kassar to buy the script rights, the character of Quaid was reshaped to suit Schwarzenegger in subsequent drafts. Schwarzenegger felt that this change added a strong contrast to the story, showing a powerful character whose mind has been stolen as vulnerable.
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While the film was in pre-production in Australia with Bruce Beresford set to direct, Patrick Swayze had been signed for the role of Quaid. However, early in pre-production, Dino De Laurentiis's company went bankrupt. When Arnold Schwarzenegger heard about this, he convinced Carolco to buy the script for him.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger thought the film's original trailer was bad and did not reflect the film's scope and strangeness. TriStar Pictures did not know what to do with the film. Schwarzenegger raised the matter with producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters; he had them watch the film first, then the trailer. They admitted it did not do the film justice and had a new trailer and a new promotional campaign prepared.
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About three weeks before the film's planned release date, public awareness stood at only 43%; Schwarzenegger called this 'a complete disaster.' He convinced producer Mario Kassar and the rest of Carolco to put more money into advertising. In the end, the film opened with 99% awareness and became a major box office success.
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The short story the film is based on, Philip K. Dick's 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,' was first optioned in 1974; the film was released 16 years later. This 23-page story ends abruptly and forms the basis for only the film's first act: Doug goes to Rekall to buy a memory of a trip to Mars, but the technicians discover that he has suppressed memories of being a secret agent on Mars. Government agents track him with a telepathic transmitter, and from that point the short story diverges from the film: Doug's memory returns and he remembers that he is a trained assassin; he easily overcomes the agents but ultimately makes a deal with the government. He agrees to surrender in exchange for having his memories altered again; he wants to live out one of his childhood fantasies: meeting highly advanced aliens and persuading them not to invade Earth. When the government tries to implant these memories, it discovers that they already exist in Doug's brain as another suppressed memory and that they actually happened. The Mars journey, the mutant rebellion, the Mars reactor and the possibility that all the events are a dream are entirely specific to the film.
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Writer Dan O'Bannon fell out with director Paul Verhoeven after Verhoeven had the script rewritten by Gary Goldman, replacing its satirical humor with extreme violence and comic one-liners. Dark humor was far more dominant in the original script, but when Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the project, Verhoeven and O'Bannon's co-writer Ronald Shusett understood the need to adapt the script to Schwarzenegger's abilities.
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When the film was still under Dino De Laurentiis's production, David Cronenberg was set to direct; Cronenberg had even turned down the offer of The Fly (1986) for this film. Robert Bierman was brought in to replace Cronenberg on The Fly, but Bierman left the project after his daughter's death. Around the same time, when Total Recall was put on hold, Cronenberg withdrew from the project and became free to direct The Fly.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger and the writers of Total Recall at one point planned a sequel with director Jonathan Frakes. It would have been based on another Philip K. Dick story, 'The Minority Report', with the mutants on Mars becoming 'Precogs' who foresee crime, and Doug Quaid taking the place of John Anderton, the arresting officer who prevents crimes. The project never came to fruition because of producer Carolco's bankruptcy, and the story was eventually filmed as a standalone film titled Minority Report (2002).
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In both the screenplay adaptation written by Piers Anthony and the early drafts, the main character's name was Douglas Quail. The name also appears as Quail in the original Philip K. Dick story. The film was shot during President George H.W. Bush's term, when Dan Quayle was vice president, and this is thought to be the reason for the name change.
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When Paul Verhoeven agreed to read the screenplay, producer Mario Kassar did not just mail him the final version; he sent all 45 different drafts written up to that point to his house in a van. In some drafts, Quaid was a meek accountant instead of a construction worker. The first half of most scripts was similar: Quaid visits Rekall and begins to experience altered memories, but the endings differed greatly. In one, Quaid even turned out to be an alien in human form; this twist may have been inspired by another Philip K. Dick story, later filmed as Impostor (2001). Verhoeven eventually realized that since Arnold Schwarzenegger had already been cast as Quaid, they should build the film around his abilities and make it lighter, funnier and more over the top; he therefore brought in Gary Goldman for additional work on the script. According to Verhoeven, although many changes were made in every script, the final draft and the finished film were very similar to Ronald Shusett's first draft.
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Dan O'Bannon was not at all happy with the ending that was filmed: the Mars machine creating a breathable atmosphere in 30 seconds. O'Bannon felt it had no thematic connection to the memory implant concept in Philip K. Dick's original story. In an interview with Cinefantastique magazine (April 1991), he explained his own concept: "There shouldn't have been a three-fingered Martian handprint on the machine; it would have been a print that only fit Quaid's hand. Quaid, the world's best secret agent, went to Mars and entered this compound. The machine killed him and created a synthetic copy of him. He is that synthetic copy. He cannot be killed because he can sense danger in advance; he is also all-powerful, and because he cannot be killed, Earth wants to destroy him but cannot. That is why they go to all that trouble to erase his brain and make him think he is no one; it is the only way to control him. The audience doesn't question it when film heroes don't die in adventures; I thought it was clever to find a reason for it. At the end of the film, Quaid puts his hand on the device and everything comes back, he remembers who he really is. The full recollection of his identity is that he is a creation of a Mars machine. In fact, he is the resurrection of the Martian race in a synthetic body. He turns and says to the other characters, 'It's going to be fun playing God.'" O'Bannon's co-writer Ronald Shusett disliked this idea for some reason and preferred the 'Mars gets an atmosphere' ending; whereupon O'Bannon left the production.
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According to Ronald Shusett, during the period when Dino De Laurentiis took on producing the film, De Laurentiis found the idea of Mars gaining an atmosphere 'very hard to visualize' and planned to shoot the ending completely differently from the original script. Shusett did not like this at all and the two argued about it a great deal; Shusett even threatened to cancel the project, saying he would rather it never be made if he could not make the film the way he wanted. When De Laurentiis mentioned the idea of changing the ending to director Richard Rush, Rush told him he was 'talking nonsense' and convinced him not to cut or change the ending, and De Laurentiis realized his mistake. De Laurentiis went to Shusett, apologized and said, "Ron, you're so stubborn that I'm kissing you on the mouth! You saved me!" De Laurentiis never got to make the film, because his production company went bankrupt shortly afterwards and the project was sold to Mario Kassar's Carolco Pictures.
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Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to reunite in 1993 for a film called 'Crusade' for Carolco; it was expected to be released around 1995. The project advanced considerably in pre-production, with the script written, costumes and props prepared, and shooting locations arranged. However, it fell apart because of the growing budget and the mini-studio's ongoing financial problems. When Carolco ultimately could not finance both Crusade and Cutthroat Island (1995) at the same time, it chose the latter, which it believed would be cheaper; Verhoeven, meanwhile, made Showgirls (1995) to help the struggling studio. Unfortunately, Cutthroat Island went vastly over budget and was a huge box-office disaster; combined with the commercial failure of Showgirls, this bankrupted Carolco. Under Schwarzenegger's 'pay or play' deal, he acquired the rights to Crusade. Although the passage of time and the poor box office of other Crusades-themed films reduced the chances of the project being revived, Verhoeven stated for many years that he was still interested.
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Before Paul Verhoeven took over as director, David Cronenberg had been set for the job and had even written several drafts of the script. Cronenberg said he wanted William Hurt in the lead role and that he disliked the producers' decision to reshape the part around an action star like Schwarzenegger.
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Richard Rush was the first person hired by Dino De Laurentiis to direct the project, but he left when they could not agree on the script. Bruce Beresford was brought in temporarily in Rush's place, and during this period Lewis Teague's name was also mentioned for the directing job. Everything was thrown into disarray when De Laurentiis went bankrupt, and the film continued to be developed at Carolco, which at the time was known for rescuing projects from development hell and completing them.
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This film was the last to receive a Special Achievement Academy Award instead of a competitive Oscar for visual effects. Back to the Future Part III (1990), Dick Tracy (1990) and Ghost (1990) advanced to the second stage of voting in the category, but only Total Recall received the required minimum of eight votes and was the only film recognized that year for visual effects. Starting the following year, the competitive Best Visual Effects category became permanent.
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In his DVD commentary, director Paul Verhoeven emphasizes that in the scene where Dr. Edgemar visits Quaid, the film summarizes almost the entire third act. Edgemar tells Quaid that if he shoots him, 'the walls of reality will come crashing down,' and indeed the walls of the apartment collapse right after he is shot. He also says Quaid will discover that he only thinks he is the savior of the resistance but is in fact Cohaagen's closest friend, and that he will see an 'alien civilization'; all of this comes to pass exactly as described. Verhoeven notes that for viewers who believe the film is a dream, Edgemar's prophecy that Quaid will be lobotomized is fulfilled by the fade to white at the end of the film.
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Throughout the film, attentive viewers can catch clues that give away the ending in three different scenes. While promoting the Secret Agent Ego Trip, Bob McClane tells Quaid, 'you'll get the girl, kill the bad guys and save the entire planet.' As Dr. Lull hands Ernie a computer chip, she mentions a new vacation package, saying 'Blue Skies on Mars.' And in the Hilton suite, Dr. Edgemar, under threat from Quaid's gun, recounts almost word for word what will happen over the rest of the film.
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Although it is never stated in the film, the VHS cover says the story takes place in 2084 AD. Paul Verhoeven confirmed this date and said he set Total Recall much further in the future to avoid the mistake made by Blade Runner (which, despite being set in 2019, he felt depicted too distant a future).
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Paul Verhoeven wanted the film to be entirely ambiguous and for viewers to be unable to tell even at the end whether everything was a dream. Verhoeven also acknowledges that he himself believes the ending is a dream, but that having Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role leads most viewers to prefer the reality ending over the dream. Even so, the ambiguity is maintained until the very last moment: after defeating Cohaagen and saving Mars, Quaid asks Melina whether everything was a dream.
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According to Paul Verhoeven, whether the film as a whole is taken as dream or reality, the first twenty minutes (from the beginning up to the moment Quaid has the Rekall vacation implanted) are entirely real. This section clearly establishes Quaid's ordinary life and his desire to go to Mars.
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Although the name of the city where Quaid lives and works is never spoken, the phone number in the Rekall advertisement he sees on the subway (915-555-6386-21) provides a clue. The 915 area code suggests the story takes place in West Texas, probably El Paso. This is also confirmed by the fact that one of the fake IDs Quaid takes out of the briefcase at the old cement factory reads 'El Paso, TX.'
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Although the exact location of Mars City on the planet is never stated, the fact that the habitable structures are built along the edges of a giant canyon suggests that it stretches along Valles Marineris near the Martian equator. Over 4,000 kilometres long, this giant canyon is many times larger than any canyon on Earth. The idea of building the structures into the canyon walls came from research production designer William Sandell did at universities; scientists proposed burying structures inside half-rock to protect against solar radiation.
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Quaid's metal briefcase is full of rather interesting items: a worker ID issued to 'Steve Leonetti' for the Pyramid Mines on Mars, a driver's licence in the name of 'James D. Brubaker', various ID cards, a wad of magenta Mars dollars, a strange medical device used to remove the bug from his head, a portable wrist-mounted hologram generator, a laptop-like video communication device, various clothes (possibly a Martian tourist woman disguise) and a piece of paper with 'HOFFMAN' written on it. The purpose of this paper is never explained; perhaps it is Quaid's ticket to Mars.
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Benny the taxi driver, while fondling the three-breasted prostitute, says he wishes he had three hands. In fact he does have three hands: a normal hand, a mutant hand he shows to win Quaid's trust, and a robotic prosthetic hand he wears to hide his mutant hand. This ironic detail emphasises Benny's hypocrisy.
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At the start of the film, while Doug and Lori watch television, an advert is broadcast for game 4 of a fictitious World Series played between the Tokyo Samurai and the Toronto Blue Jays. The real Blue Jays had never reached the World Series when the film was released, but just two years later they would win two consecutive championships.
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According to Bob McClane and the screen, Quaid's Mars holiday package includes: a private cabin on the Mars shuttle, a two-week stay in a luxury suite at the Mars Hilton, three meals a day at a five-star restaurant, romantic encounters, and a personal tour guide to Olympus Mons, Pyramid Mountain, the Great Canals and Venusville. With the Secret Agent Ego Trip add-on, Quaid's holiday comes to a total of 1,199 credits (the standard holiday is 899, and the Ego Trip add-on is 300 credits).
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Arnold Schwarzenegger later appeared in The 6th Day (2000), another film set in the future in which he played two roles. In that film too, he wakes up inside a taxi without knowing how he got there and pays for the journey with his fingerprint. These similarities create an interesting link between the two films.
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There are several references to the fate of Benny the taxi driver. Benny is nearly killed twice by giant drilling machines. When he is revealed to be a traitor, he tries to kill Quaid with a drilling machine, but Quaid kills him by stabbing him with a portable drill. This completes Benny's ironic relationship with drilling machines.
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Richter, played by Michael Ironside, has both of his arms torn off in the film. In Starship Troopers (1997), another Paul Verhoeven film, Ironside's character Lieutenant Rasczak is already missing his left arm from the elbow down (though he wears a robotic arm) and has both of his legs torn off by a tanker bug. This seems to be an interesting recurring motif Verhoeven created when working with Ironside.
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When Quaid arrives at the building where Rekall is located, he uses a kind of guide screen to find them. The person he has come to see is named McClane. This carries a close parallel to the scene in Die Hard (1988) in which Bruce Willis's John McClane searches for his wife's name on Nakatomi Plaza's computerised directory.
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Behind the Scenes (53)
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Paul Verhoeven said he came down with food poisoning as soon as shooting began in Mexico and was rarely fully well during production. However, he learned that the production company's insurance would not cover the first three days he was hospitalized and that every day he was ill would take $150,000 off the film's budget. Toward the end of shooting he was so sick that an ambulance was always kept near the set, and medics gave him fluids and medication between takes so he could keep directing despite his illness. Because he could not stand, he directed from a stretcher on top of a minivan and informed the crew that they would keep shooting unless a doctor actually told them he was dead.
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The scene in which the air is cut off in the Mars colony was initially shot with the Martians desperately needing oxygen. However, this unintentionally gave the scene a comic feel. It was cinematographer Jost Vacano who suggested that the actors lie still while struggling to survive, giving the scene a far more dramatic tone. He remembered how effective this had been when he shot a similar scene the same way in Das Boot (1981).
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Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered several hand injuries during filming. While shooting the scene in which Quaid breaks the train window, a small explosive in the glass was supposed to shatter it before Schwarzenegger hit it, but the charge failed to detonate and Schwarzenegger struck the glass for real, cutting himself badly. While filming the fight scene in the Hilton suite (right after Quaid shoots Dr. Edgemar), Schwarzenegger broke a finger on his right hand and had to have it put in a cast. As a result, in most of the scenes shot afterward he kept the injured hand out of frame.
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During the shoot, crew members suffered food poisoning from Mexican food, while Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Shusett escaped it. After getting sick from street food during the filming of Predator (1987), Schwarzenegger had avoided Mexican cuisine entirely and had his meals brought in from the US and prepared by his own chef. Shusett, meanwhile, took extreme health precautions such as brushing his teeth only with boiled or bottled water and getting weekly B12 injections; the crew mocked him, but in the end everyone else got sick.
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In his commentary on the film, director Paul Verhoeven says the famous "Get your ass to Mars" line was actually thought up later to bridge the transition from Earth to Mars. Because budget constraints prevented him from shooting Quaid boarding the Mars shuttle as a separate scene, he settled for the idea of the laptop device looping that part of Hauser's message during the transition.
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Paul Verhoeven recounts that he came down with food poisoning as soon as filming began in Mexico and was rarely fully healthy throughout the production. Because insurance did not cover the first three days of hospital costs and each reported day would cut $150,000 from the budget, he kept an ambulance on set at all times; medics would give him IV drips and medication between takes. Unable to stand, he directed from a stretcher on top of a minivan and said he would keep shooting unless a doctor told him it was fatal.
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Verhoeven joined the project in the fall of 1988. Filming began in Mexico City thanks to the metro's futuristic architecture (its angular concrete structures in the 'new brutalism' style) and Estudios Churubusco, which was suited to massive interior production. A crew of 500 built 45 sets covering eight sound stages over six months; Total Recall (1990) was, at the time, the second most expensive film in history after Rambo III (1988).
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The scene in which the Mars colony's air is cut off was first shot with violent gasping fits, but it unintentionally came across as comical. Cinematographer Jost Vacano, recalling that he had shot a similar scene in Das Boot (1981) as a silent struggle for survival, suggested the actors lie still in silence; this gave the scene a far more dramatic tone.
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For the fight scene between Lori and Melina, Verhoeven asked second-unit director Vic Armstrong to choreograph it not as a 'catfight' but as a fight between two 'warriors.' In the DVD commentary, he notes that this was probably the first scene in a feature film in which two women fight normally.
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CGI director Tim McGovern had received assurances from the company Dreamscape that the X-ray sequences could be entirely computer-animated. A very early version of 'motion capture' was to be used at the time. When Schwarzenegger showed up in white clothing instead of the black he was supposed to wear, he joked, "take that up with the costume department." When the software proved unable to handle complex movements, they switched to the rotoscoping technique; by chance, Schwarzenegger's white clothing made this hand-animation work easier.
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Schwarzenegger injured his hand several times during filming. In the scene where he breaks the train window, the explosive did not go off on time, so he actually punched the glass and cut himself badly. During the fight in the hotel room, he broke his right index finger and it was put in a cast; in most of the following scenes, his injured hand was kept out of frame.
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The three-breasted sex worker Mary was originally planned to have four breasts, but the producers thought it looked like a cow's udder. The effect was achieved with a special prosthetic plate extending from actress Lycia Naff's neck to her navel; all three breasts were fake, and applying it took two makeup artists eight hours. Naff says she accepted the role 'as a joke' because she would not be showing her own breasts, but as the shooting day approached she became genuinely nervous, as if she were really going to undress. She nearly cried on set; Verhoeven tried to reassure her and promised her a better role in his next film, but that never happened. The character became so popular that she returned in the 2012 version, played by a different actress.
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Verhoeven and special makeup effects supervisor Rob Bottin had clashed constantly before and during RoboCop (1987), at one point nearly coming to blows. After a major argument over one scene, Bottin swore he would never work with him again, but when he saw at the film's premiere how good that scene was, the two immediately made peace. Bottin gladly accepted working on this film and was given complete freedom in the Martian creature designs.
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One of the scenes heavily re-edited to secure an R rating was the escalator shootout in which Quaid uses a person as a shield. Verhoeven told Empire in 2014, "That escalator scene... when we shot it, it was much worse than what you see now. The censors don't understand that when you shorten it, it actually becomes more violent. When you shorten it, the excess and the comic-book quality are lost, and it becomes more realistic."
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The design of the alien reactor that melts the ice and gives Mars an atmosphere at the end of the film was inspired by a nuclear reactor. Verhoeven wanted "to be inside a nuclear reactor" with the poles descending into the water, but aimed for a far more grandiose scale with skyscraper-sized poles. While looking at early 20th-century skyscraper photographs with William Sandell, they threw the book on the floor; the upside-down photographs made them realize that inverted skyscrapers had the right look for the alien reactor.
- #171
Editor Frank J. Urioste says in the documentary Imagining 'Total Recall' (2001) that most of the Mars exterior shots nearly failed to make it into the final cut. Because of the threat of going over budget, the producers wanted to cancel these special-effects shots, for which miniatures that would be used only once were built. When Urioste conveyed his concern to Schwarzenegger, he persuaded the producers, arguing that without the exterior shots the film would consist only of interiors and would not convey an otherworldly feel.
- #172
- #173
Production designer William Sandell describes the brutal conditions in Mexico City: in addition to food poisoning, the air quality of the smoke-covered metropolis was equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. The air became so bad that associate producer Elliot Schick was taken to hospital by medical evacuation helicopter.
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- #179
As is often done in films set in the future, contemporary design objects were used here to depict the future environments: the small cups with black plastic rings that Quaid uses while preparing his breakfast smoothie were Danish-made Bodum Bistro coffee mugs, and the desk lamp at Rekall was the Tolomeo model by the Italian company Artemide.
- #180
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- #184
Verhoeven based Edgemar's appearance and behavior on the professor in Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966). He wanted someone "pure, strange and a little odd" for the role. He also borrowed some of Hitchcock's shot compositions and low camera placements for the scene between Edgemar and Quaid.
- #185
- #186
When Quaid arrives on Mars he uses a woman's disguise (Priscilla Allen, credited as 'Fat lady'). In the original script, a device placed on his head while he watches Hauser's video was to spray steam and open up to reveal the mask. Because Rob Bottin found this derivative of the Mission: Impossible series, he designed an entirely mechanical disguise. It was difficult to find a female actor large enough to convincingly contain Schwarzenegger's bulk; after wrestlers and bodybuilders were considered, Allen was found. When the mask mechanisms initially would not fit inside the head, they were moved outside and the mask reached a weight of 70 pounds (32 kg); it could only be shot from head level. In test shots, Bottin used a hydraulic hose to show the fat lady's head lifting off her body and Schwarzenegger emerging from inside. For the final effect, the mask sections were filled with modeling clay and an operator controlled each section with a push-pull system.
- #187
At the film's first screening, CGI supervisor Tim McGovern noticed that he and his team had been forgotten in the credits for the computer effects, particularly the X-ray detector scenes. This was corrected in later home video releases with a special thanks added. But when the original theatrical print was used for the 30th anniversary 4K version in 2021, McGovern once again could not find himself or his team in the credits.
- #188
- #189
To portray the effects of decompression in the Martian atmosphere, Rob Bottin took latex molds of the faces of Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin and Ronny Cox while having them make exaggerated expressions. The masks produced from these molds were fitted with small air pockets that further distorted the facial features when inflated. Four heads were made: one each for Schwarzenegger and Ticotin, and two for Cox. Schwarzenegger's and Ticotin's heads were fully articulated; the inflating tongue, forehead, cheeks and eyes were controlled by hand-operated cables. Instead of air bellows, large bellows in the form of full-size heads and bodies stretched over a mechanical skeleton were built. In one of Cox's heads, rigid veins were placed in the mold to imitate the veins under the skin. The other head had a tongue and eyes that popped fully out. The air bellows were inflated by people blowing into them for more natural movement than the mechanical bellows. Bottin had thought the effect would only be seen briefly, and was surprised by how often it was used in the film. Cox's character's hairstyle came about because he had to have his hair pushed back while the mold was taken; after two days of shooting, he convinced Verhoeven to reshoot the scenes with the new hairstyle.
- #190
Rob Bottin found designing the mutants 'fun' because he could use any idea he wanted, but he tried to preserve a degree of realism so as not to make it clear whether the film's events were a dream or reality. An entire mutant civilization, each with a different physical deformity, was planned, but the idea did not fit the budget.
- #191
In the climactic elevator fight between Quaid and Richter, Richter's torn-off arms were difficult for Rob Bottin's team. When the producers did not want a fake elevator, the shoot was planned with a portable elevator. Thinking it would be dangerous for Michael Ironside, Bottin welded a caged railing onto the side of the elevator, where Ironside could stand inside instead of hanging over the edge. Urethane hands and fake arms with metal skeletons and ball joints were attached to sockets fitted on Ironside's shoulders. These were controlled by a quick-release valve triggered by an electrical switch in the elevator; when activated, the elbow joints separated. The arms were strong enough to withstand Schwarzenegger's pulling, and the timing was delicate enough to allow Ironside to drop low enough not to be injured. The wall that cuts the arms was later replaced with styrofoam in case it hit Ironside. In Richter's fall, separate shoulder pad mechanisms sent the artificial limbs flying.
- #192
One of the final shots showing the colonists emerging onto the Martian surface combined front and rear projection elements, matte paintings and other elements: about 17 elements in total, which took 28 hours because of the color separation of each. Most of the Martian inhabitants appeared as silhouettes and were extras from Dream Quest employees. In the film's final scene, the sunbeams filtering through the clouds were added by the animation department; 'wheat grain' lamps were used with a filter in 100-second exposures.
- #193
When Quaid removes the tracking device from his skull, Rob Bottin believed the trick could only be achieved with a mechanical head. His team took a mold of Schwarzenegger's head and began building the mechanical head using measurements and reference photographs. But after watching the set footage, he realized the tracking device looked like a 'silver bullet' that would fit in the nose and did not require a detailed effect head. He therefore had Quaid remove something larger than his nose and commissioned a spherical object containing the small silver tracking device. The head could breathe and sway, with a sophisticated jaw and neck mechanism and a tongue that could move and change shape. The scene was shot in an old glass factory in Saugus. As the spherical tracking device was passed through the puppet's nasal passage, a high-powered laser device several meters away was aimed at it to illuminate it. The sphere opened to reveal the smaller silver tracking device inside, and this was combined with the Schwarzenegger footage.
- #194
Designed as a parody of McDonald's, the Johnny Cab service is a chain of cheap, futuristic taxis driven by generically polite and cheerful automatons. Rob Bottin and Paul Verhoeven came up with the name inspired by Jonny Cat cat litter. The automaton was designed to resemble a 1950s American gas station attendant. Bottin reused Robert Picardo's face mold from Explorers (1985) for the driver and suggested Picardo for the voice. At the audition, when Picardo suggested the character make a joke about Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent, Verhoeven said, 'We don't do that kind of thing with Arnold.' Verhoeven wanted the drivers to look flawed, as if damaged over time by passengers. Three models were made: a sophisticated one with a neck, mostly computer-controlled and moving like a ventriloquist's dummy, for dialogue scenes; a less complex one that Schwarzenegger's character rips out of the taxi; and a third that spun out of control with spark and flash effects when it exploded. All the Johnny Cab scenes were shot on the set in Mexico. The models were controlled by cables and computer mechanisms, while the taxi was designed by Cobb.
- #195
While the drilling machine was in motion, vermiculite rocks and Fuller's earth were thrown onto it by the crew, but the complex gear system was fragile and heavier rocks occasionally jammed the drill bits. In the scene where the mole breaks through the wall between Schwarzenegger and Ticotin, the wall was built around the drill, so that when it retracted it collapsed and created the opening the heroes would use. A heavy piece fell on Ticotin's head; she was dazed but uninjured, and the shot was used in the film.
- #196
Quaid's shuttle arriving at the Mars spaceport was one of the first miniature effects shot. The vehicle was 3.5 feet square, with interactive lighting and quartz engines; the exhaust trail was animated with rippled glass. For the landing, blue-screen workers, trains and lights were added in the foreground to increase the sense of scale. Funke planned the subsequent train journey as one of the film's most detailed sequences; he based it on the scene in In the Heat of the Night (1967) where Sidney Poitier's close-up on the train turns into an aerial view. From inside the train set, the Mars landscape in the window combined four layers, each moving at a different speed to create the correct pace and depth. Reverse forced perspective was used, going from the smallest objects to the largest, so that the mountain miniature set and the foreground rocks were closest to the window. The motion-control track around the camera moved signs and poles, creating a blur that gave a sense of speed. The exterior of the train was produced as a miniature on the Mars sets. Verhoeven wanted the camera to linger on the train before pulling away, and the animation camera did not start until it pulled back; the apparent single shot combined footage filmed months apart. The train begins on a 1/126-scale set, then the scene transitions to a 1/12-scale colony set; the change is hidden with a foreground matte effect. A 60-foot motion-control track helped manage the transition between elements. As the camera pulls away, Schwarzenegger and the other actors are inside the train; two small projectors made for The Abyss (1989) projected Schwarzenegger and the other passengers from inside the train. Funke knew the individual techniques would work for the overall effect, but he was hesitant to combine them.
- #197
The reactor activation involved three miniatures: 1/96, 1/24 (1/32) and 1/8 scale. The first wide shot, in which the columns begin to move downward, reused sections of the 'mind probe' set. The rods were about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Making the descending rods was difficult; they needed to look red-hot, but at 1/24 scale they were only 3 inches in diameter and there was no practical way to light them from inside. They were wrapped in retroreflective coating and painted with a corrosion texture. Bigelow shot the scenes and, through a beam splitter, applied orange-red gel light by front projection. The projected brightness was gradually increased so the rods appeared to heat up progressively. A mechanism inside the rods made them descend. Because the retroreflective material did not spill light onto the rest of the miniature, conventional lights were simultaneously aimed at the ice surface to evoke reflected light. The rig was supervised by Dana Yuricich. The 1/8-scale set contained the largest rods, 12 inches in diameter, used for the close-up of the ice being pierced and steam escaping. Made of plexiglass and filled with lights to make them bright, the rods were textured with paint to look red-hot; this shot was designed by Tom Valentine. About ten puppeteers beneath the set broke the resin and wax ice as the rods penetrated. As the ice cracked and released gas, dozens of crew members triggered effects, fire extinguishers, nitrogen steam and steam beneath the set. The nitrogen looked good but was difficult to control. The effect was fast and was shot with high-speed cameras to make it appear slower. Several takes were made, and the crew learned from mistakes. There were thirty reactor rod sockets, each about 2 feet square and 9 feet long, console-supported and held up by large vertical shears. 55-gallon water drums were used as counterweights. When the rods struck the ice, thousand-watt lights blazed upward through color gels. This shot was also supervised by Tom Valentine.
- #198
The Mars mountain explosion was filmed at the 35-foot-tall Agriculture Hall No. 5 (a former zeppelin hangar) at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, the only local venue large enough to position the lighting far enough from the set for the required angles and shadows. The mountain was 14 feet tall and 46 feet in diameter; it was built in nine sections to make it easier to transport. Only the side facing the camera was detailed, while the back was left open to apply effects from inside (including steam and chemical smoke). Behind the model was a chimney designed to channel liquid nitrogen and steam into a large column. Air mortars were used to blow apart the paper-thin plaster mountain peak; mountain-shaking arms were also used. The top of the mountain was cast in lightweight plaster, while the lower part was textured with small shapes and separated with thin plaster so that it would break apart when the air mortar hit. Setting up the effect took about a week, and filming took another week. Special effects artists Richard Stutsman and Randy Cabral laid copper pipes to direct jets of steam and nitrogen at the upper third of the mountain. Erik Stohl built the mechanical parts that made some sections of the mountain rise or crumble. The air mortars were filled with gravel, which provided more directional control than a basic explosive; Funke also believed that gravel bursts gave a more 'instinctive' feel. AB smoke was also used: a two-liquid solution that remains inert until mixed, at which point it rapidly produces a large volume of smoke. One of the liquids was applied to the sections to be blown up and the other to other areas of the mountain, so that when the explosions occurred the liquids would mix and create smoke. Working with the mixture was difficult and dangerous to inhale, so the Stetson crew made extra protective suits out of black polyethylene; face masks and protective clothing were required because of the toxic chemical smoke. The scene was shot in two takes at different frame rates. The long shots were filmed at 48 frames per second because the steam only scaled correctly toward the model at that rate; the explosion close-up was shot at 120 fps. The explosion scene's cinematographer, Bob Primes, used four perfs for the close-up (since it did not require optical manipulation) and eight perfs for the long shot because it needed to show an atmosphere forming at the peak. For the atmosphere, Gary Platek held a high-powered laser to create a sheet of light and passed nitrogen vapor through it. As the atmosphere thickened, a cloud tank was used until it transitioned to a matte painting. To support the full mountain shots, additional material was filmed at Dream Quest using larger-scale partial miniatures, such as background plates of Quaid and Melina writhing on the slopes. To simulate the earthquake in the Hilton sets as the mountain exploded, they looked at things like shaking the lights when a real earthquake began. The crew was evacuated (the buildings were not reinforced), and they ultimately decided to create the effect with an optical printer. Most of the glass-breaking shots were filmed with miniatures. Blue curtains were used behind the windows, or black curtains if no one was moving in front of the shot; black allowed more freedom in lighting the set. Model window grids were built and mounted face-down above the camera so they would fall when the glass broke. Some of the shots were combined with scenes in which extras reacted and moved out of the way, and were enhanced with rotoscoped mattes that combined the breaking glass with live action.
- #199
In Rob Bottin's original Kuato design, Kuato was small and emerged from George's head. Bottin disliked the result and turned the creature into an intelligent baby because it conflicted with his 'monstrous' concept design philosophy. Kuato was built into a full-body prosthesis worn by Marshall Bell that ran from under his chin to below his waist; it had a parachute harness to help support the weight of the cables for the fifteen puppeteers needed to operate Kuato's arms and head. On the first day of shooting with the prosthesis, Bell spent up to nine hours in makeup; although the time decreased with repetition, he found it exhausting. Unable to urinate inside the rig, Bell asked for a hidden hole to be made in the foam. Although some of the Kuato scenes were filmed during principal photography (including his emergence and holding Schwarzenegger's hands), the rest (including the dialogue scenes) were filmed in post-production with an animatronic Bell. Paul Verhoeven was hesitant about using an animatronic since they could use the real Bell, but Bottin believed that removing anything real from the scene would make the overall effect more convincing. After watching test footage, Verhoeven trusted Bottin because he could not tell it apart from the real Bell. However, he wanted a shot in which George walks toward Quaid while Kuato is speaking; Bottin's team built a cart that could move the body up and down to imitate walking as it rolled forward. The mechanical Bell had an articulated head with jaw mechanisms and rotating eyes, and the head could move at various angles. A series of bellows simulated breathing, and Kuato had a separate set for his independent breathing. The arms of both puppets were moved by a mechanism operated by a puppeteer. Kuato's eyebrows were computer-controlled, and his eyes were operated by a wireless remote control. However, the George and Kuato puppets required fifteen to twenty operators. To make Kuato speak, servo motors in his mouth were connected to a computer that roughly calculated the appropriate shapes for each vowel and consonant. The limited computer system meant that individual pieces of dialogue could not be combined; each segment had to be recorded and performed simultaneously. Although alternative voice actors were considered, Verhoeven and Bottin believed Kuato should have a vocal timbre and pitch similar to Bell's, and chose him for the voice.
Characters & Cast (55)
- #200
Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially considered for the lead in RoboCop (1987), but problems with the costume led the producers to abandon the idea. After seeing RoboCop, Schwarzenegger said he liked the film and wanted to work with director Paul Verhoeven in the future. The feeling was mutual, but Verhoeven was already in talks to direct Black Rain (1989). While the film's pre-production was delayed, Schwarzenegger arranged to appear in Total Recall for Carolco and pushed producer Mario Kassar to hire Verhoeven as director. Verhoeven said it was only Schwarzenegger's enthusiasm for the project that convinced him to drop Black Rain and make Total Recall instead.
- #201
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Mary, the three-breasted sex worker, was originally supposed to have four breasts, but the producers thought it looked too much like a cow's udders. The effect was achieved with a detailed prosthetic plate glued to actress Lycia Naff's chest from her neck to her navel. All three breasts are fake, and applying them took two makeup artists up to eight hours in a private room while Naff slept. She said she took the role "for a goof" because she would not expose her own breasts, but she became even more nervous as the shoot date approached because she felt she was really exposing herself. She says her smile on screen was only surface-level and that she nearly burst into tears during filming: "I was a little scared and started to regret taking the role, but Paul [Verhoeven] did everything he could to make me feel comfortable. He promised me a better role in his next film, but it never happened!" In the end, she found the whole thing so humiliating that she refused to promote the film, even turning down a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). However, the character became so popular that they brought her back (with a new actress) for Total Recall (2012).
- #203
Director Paul Verhoeven wanted to make the film completely ambiguous so that even at the end the audience would not know whether everything was a dream. Verhoeven said he believed the ending was a dream, but also said that casting Arnold Schwarzenegger indicated it was not a dream, because most audiences going to see a Schwarzenegger film would prefer a 'real' ending to a 'dream' one. In any case, the ambiguity carried through to the end: after defeating Coohagen and saving Mars, Quaid asks Melina whether what happened was a dream.
- #204
Sharon Stone gave such a performance as Lori in this film that director Paul Verhoeven cast her in the lead role of Basic Instinct (1992), thanks to her ability to shift instantly from a timid, sweet demeanor to a diabolical personality. Verhoeven said Stone was exactly like that in real life as well.
- #205
Arnold Schwarzenegger noticed that Michael Ironside was constantly on the phone between takes. When he asked about it, Ironside said he was calling his sister, who was battling cancer. Schwarzenegger immediately took Ironside to his trailer and spent an hour on a three-way call with his sister, explaining which exercises she should do and how she should eat. Neither Ironside nor his sister ever forgot that kindness.
- #206
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- #211
In an interview, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that on the day the love scene with Sharon Stone was shot, his wife Maria Shriver called. Shriver asked how things were between him and Stone and whether they were shooting the scene nude. Schwarzenegger deflected by saying that stunt doubles had handled the scene.
- #212
In his DVD commentary, Paul Verhoeven said that in the love scene after Quaid wakes from the nightmare, he wanted Sharon Stone to show more skin, but Stone refused. Verhoeven had to shoot the scene as it was, but he added that he "got his revenge" during the filming of Basic Instinct (1992).
- #213
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- #218
During his audition, Robert Picardo suggested to Paul Verhoeven that Johnny Cab ask Quaid, "Are you from out of town?" This was a joking reference to Arnold's Austrian accent. Verhoeven angrily rejected the idea, saying, "No, no, no... You can't do that to Arnold!" Picardo had thought that since filming was in Mexico, he could get away with this small insult.
- #219
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- #225
The character Benny was initially planned to have a mechanical limb, but Mel Johnson Jr. suggested giving the character three arms. A half-body cast was made that wrapped Johnson's body from his waist to his neck, and puppeteers controlled the three-elbowed limb. The limb was designed with separated bones and gaps to visually prove that a human arm could not be inside it. In the character's death scene, Johnson wore a body suit covered in blood bags. The scene was shot both with and without blood, and the producers found the level of violence excessive and chose the bloodless version.
- #226
Roy Brocksmith, who plays Dr. Edgemar, is also the voice in the Rekall commercial Quaid watches. Within the film's overall ambiguity, who he really is remains unclear: he could be a genuine Rekall doctor or executive who appears in its commercials; he could be a commercial actor with no other connection to Rekall, hired simply to play a Rekall doctor for Quaid; or he could be someone who is not real at all, merely a coincidence deliberately inserted into the Rekall experience.
- #227
- #228
In his DVD commentary, director Paul Verhoeven emphasizes that in the scene where Dr. Edgemar visits Quaid, the film summarizes almost the entire third act. Edgemar tells Quaid that if he shoots him, "the walls of reality will come down," and indeed, immediately after he is shot, the walls of the apartment collapse. He also says that Quaid will discover that he only believes himself to be the savior of the resistance when in fact he is Cohaagen's closest friend, and that he will see an "alien civilization"; all of this comes to pass exactly as stated. Verhoeven notes that for viewers who believe the film is a dream, Edgemar's prophecy that Quaid will be lobotomized comes true with the fade to white at the end of the film.
- #229
The fade to white in the film's final scene was a detail Paul Verhoeven specifically wanted. In this way, the question of whether everything Quaid experienced was a dream and whether he was ultimately lobotomized was deliberately left open. Verhoeven believed this ambiguity enhanced the film's impact.
- #230
Throughout the film, attentive viewers can catch clues that give away the ending in three different scenes. While introducing the Secret Agent Ego Trip, Bob McClane tells Quaid, "you'll get the girl, kill the bad guys and save the entire planet." As Dr. Lull hands Ernie a computer chip, she mentions a new vacation package, saying "Blue Skies on Mars." And in the Hilton suite, Dr. Edgemar, under threat from Quaid's gun, recounts almost word for word what will happen for the rest of the film.
- #231
Although it is never stated in the film, the VHS cover says the story takes place in 2084 AD. Paul Verhoeven confirmed this date and said he set Total Recall much further in the future to avoid the mistake of Blade Runner (which, despite being set in 2019, he felt depicted too distant a future).
- #232
Paul Verhoeven wanted the film to be completely ambiguous and for the audience to be unable to tell even at the end whether everything was a dream. Verhoeven also acknowledges that he himself believes the ending is a dream, but that Arnold Schwarzenegger's starring role leads most viewers to prefer the reality ending over the dream. Even so, the ambiguity is preserved until the very last moment: after defeating Cohaagen and saving Mars, Quaid asks Melina whether everything was a dream.
- #233
According to Paul Verhoeven, whether the film as a whole is taken as a dream or reality, the first twenty minutes (from the beginning up to the moment Quaid has the Rekall vacation implanted) are entirely real. This section clearly establishes Quaid's ordinary life and his desire to go to Mars.
- #234
- #235
Although the name of the city where Quaid lives and works is never spoken, the phone number in the Rekall commercial he sees on the subway (915-555-6386-21) provides a clue. The 915 area code suggests the story takes place in West Texas, probably El Paso. This is also confirmed by the fact that one of the fake IDs Quaid takes out of the suitcase in the old cement factory reads "El Paso, TX."
- #236
- #237
Although the exact location of Mars City on the planet is never specified, the fact that the habitable structures are built along the edges of a giant canyon suggests that it stretches along the Valles Marineris canyon near the Martian equator. Over 4,000 kilometers long, this giant canyon is many times larger than any canyon on Earth. The idea of building the structures into the canyon walls came from research production designer William Sandell did at universities; scientists suggested burying structures halfway into rock to protect against solar radiation.
- #238
- #239
Quaid's metal suitcase is full of quite interesting items: a worker ID issued to "Steve Leonetti" for the Pyramid Mines on Mars, a driver's license in the name of "James D. Brubaker," various ID cards, a wad of magenta Mars dollars, a strange medical device used to remove the bug from his head, a portable hologram generator worn on the wrist, a laptop-like video communication device, various clothes (probably a Martian tourist woman disguise) and a piece of paper with "HOFFMAN" written on it. The purpose of this paper is never explained; perhaps it is Quaid's ticket to Mars.
- #240
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- #242
While stroking the three-breasted prostitute, the taxi driver Benny says he wishes he had three hands. In fact, he does have three hands: a normal hand, a mutant hand he shows to win Quaid's trust, and a robotic prosthetic hand he wears to hide his mutant hand. This ironic detail emphasizes Benny's hypocrisy.
- #243
At the start of the film, while Doug and Lori are watching television, a commercial airs for game 4 of a fictional World Series played between the imaginary Tokyo Samurai and the Toronto Blue Jays. The real Blue Jays had never reached the World Series when the film was released, but just two years later they would win back-to-back championships.
- #244
According to Bob McClane and the screen image, Quaid's Mars vacation package includes: a private cabin on the Mars shuttle, a two-week stay in a luxury suite at the Mars Hilton, three meals a day at a five-star restaurant, romantic encounters, and a personal tour guide to Olympus Mons, Pyramid Mountain, the Great Canals and Venusville. With the Secret Agent Ego Trip add-on, Quaid's vacation comes to a total of 1199 credits (the standard vacation is 899, and the Ego Trip add-on is 300 credits).
- #245
- #246
Arnold Schwarzenegger later appeared in The 6th Day (2000), another film set in the future in which he played two roles at once. In that film too, he wakes up inside a taxi without knowing how he got there and pays for the ride with his fingerprint. These similarities create an interesting link between the two films.
- #247
There are several references to the fate of the taxi driver Benny. Benny is nearly killed twice by giant drilling machines. When he is revealed to be a traitor, he tries to kill Quaid with a drilling machine, but Quaid kills him by stabbing him with a portable drill. This completes Benny's ironic relationship with drilling machines.
- #248
Richter, played by Michael Ironside, has both of his arms severed in the film. In Starship Troopers (1997), another Paul Verhoeven film, Ironside's character Lieutenant Rasczak is already missing his left arm from the elbow down (though he has a robotic arm fitted) and has both of his legs torn off by a tanker bug. It is like an interesting recurring motif that Verhoeven created when working with Ironside.
- #249
At least five actors in Total Recall also appeared in the Star Trek universe in the 1980s and 90s: Ronny Cox, Lycia Naff, Roy Brocksmith, Marc Alaimo and Robert Picardo. In addition, Jerry Goldsmith, who composed the film's score, composed five Star Trek films and wrote the opening themes for two Star Trek series.
- #250
When Quaid arrives at the building where Rekall is located, he uses a kind of guide screen to find them. The person he has come to see is named McClane. This carries a close parallel to the scene in Die Hard (1988) in which Bruce Willis's John McClane searches for his wife's name on the computerized directory of Nakatomi Plaza.
- #251
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Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #255
Although it is never mentioned in the film, the cover of the VHS release states that the story takes place in 2084 AD (the same year as Robotron: 2084 (1982)). This was also confirmed by Paul Verhoeven, who cited Blade Runner (1982) as an example of a film with a far too advanced depiction of the future for the period in which it was expected to take place (2019). He wanted to avoid this by setting Total Recall much further in the future.
Deeper Meaning (2)
- #256
At one point during production, several crew members, with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Shusett, fell ill with food poisoning from Mexican food. Schwarzenegger mostly escaped it because he always had his meals brought in from the United States and prepared by his own chef (except for one day when the chef fell ill and Schwarzenegger had to eat the local food). This practice grew out of his experience during the production of Predator (1987), when he fell ill after eating street food in Puerto Vallarta. He had avoided Mexican food entirely ever since. Shusett, for his part, took extreme health precautions, insisting on brushing his teeth only with boiled or bottled water and getting a weekly B12 vitamin shot. He was even mocked for it until the whole crew fell ill.
- #257
The short story the film is based on, 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale' by author Philip K. Dick, was first optioned in 1974, 16 years before the film's release. It was a 23-page story that formed the basis for only the first act of the film's screenplay and ended abruptly; Doug goes to Rekall to remember a trip he took to Mars, but the technicians there realize he has suppressed memories of being a secret agent on Mars. Several government agents track him through a telepathic transmitter, and this is where the short story diverges from the film: the interaction restores Doug's memory, and Doug remembers that he is a trained political assassin. He easily fights off the agents but eventually reaches a truce with the government: he will surrender voluntarily as long as they agree to alter his memories again. He wants to live out one of his childhood fantasies, in which he meets a group of highly advanced aliens and dissuades them from invading Earth; the aliens agree to leave Earth alone as long as Doug lives. When the government tries to implant these memories, they learn that they already exist in Doug's brain as another suppressed memory and therefore actually happened. The Mars journey, the mutant uprising, the Mars reactor and all the events that may be a dream are exclusive to the film.
Life & Family (1)
- #258
Arnold Schwarzenegger noticed that Michael Ironside was constantly on the phone between takes. When he asked Ironside about it, Ironside told him he was calling his sister, who had cancer. Schwarzenegger immediately brought Ironside to his trailer, and they had a three-way conversation with Ironside's sister that lasted an hour, covering what exercises she should do and what kinds of food she should eat. Neither Ironside nor his sister ever forgot Schwarzenegger's kindness.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
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- IMDb
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