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Total Recall (runtime 1:53:31) - Patreon Version (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-07 17:00:12
Imported:
2026-06
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Hi everyone!
We've got a great Sci-fi movie this week! Also, please excuse our very off lighting... some of our lights died, so we had to shift things around last minute and it wasn't until way after we realized how red it all looks. It is very fitting with the movie though haha... so let's just pretend we meant to do it. Yeah, we tried to make it look like we were ALSO on Mars!

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Total Recall - Patreon Version

Comments

Thomas Yanez

Yay! Two down in Paul Verhoeven's "Satire through Ultra Violence" (unofficial) trilogy. Just need to squeeze in "Robocop" (1987) to be complete.

Hans Engelen

Ronny Cox is in Robocop too :) Probably not very well known but Ronny is a pretty damn good singer too. Just look on YT.

StrayConfusion

Philip K Dick wrote a ton of novellas that later went on to be adapted into scifi classic films. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep became Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle are some of the more recognizable names. The Starship Troopers connection is through the director, Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven adapted Starship Troopers film from a Robert Heinlein novel of the same name.

Thomas Yanez

Bet y'all didn't recognize Dean Norris (Hank Shrader on "Breaking Bad") playing Tony the mutant rebel in the bar.

Funk McPuke

Another interesting detail in the "Dream/Not A Dream" debate is that earlier in the movie, when the techs were preparing to implant Quaid with his Recall vacation to Mars, one of the techs looks at the package they're about to implant and says, "Blue sky on Mars? That's new." So, in addition to all the other details Quaid chose for his Recall trip, that's a point in the "Dream" column. On the other hand, there were a lot of scenes and conversations between characters which Quaid wasn't present for (e.g. Richter with his henchmen, Cohaagen and Richter in Cohaagen's office, Melina and Quato, the Recall doctor with his other client, etc). If these were implanted memories or freeform delusions, why would there be scenes that Quaid wasn't present for? Surely everything would be from his perspective, not laid out like scenes in a book or movie. That's kind of the genius of the movie, though. There are clues that point in both directions -- on purpose -- bc Verhoeven intended the movie to be completely ambiguous and have no definitive answer. The only answer to "Dream/Not A Dream" is whatever you want it to be. Personally, I like "Not A Dream" bc it's more fun. ALSO: I saw this movie when it came out in theaters, and I haven't been able to say "two weeks" like a normal person ever since. Makes putting in notice at a job *really* awkward.

Sam
>>160608431

The "Blue sky on mars? That's new." has always sealed the deal for me that it's a dream—regardless of what anyone, including the writers or film makers, say. I personally prefer the "it's a dream" hypothesis, because it's less fun and more depressing.

N.T. Stars

This movie kicks ass. Better with cat purring, too 😺

Ian A

This was so fun. It is a lot cheesier than I remember, but just as violent as I Recall, totally. 😆 Thanks!

Ian A
>>160604418

Holy crap. I kept recognizing the voice..It's Hank! Thanks for telling me.

Wade Wallenstein

Now here is a classic Arnold film with his signature one liners! Some trivia: It took 15 puppeteers to control Kuato, whose name is from the Spanish word "cuate" ("twin"). In Imagining 'Total Recall' (2001), director Paul Verhoeven said that special makeup effects designer Rob Bottin had made the Kuato puppet look so real that he was approached by two people on the street asking if he (Marshall Bell) was a "real freak" or possibly a semi-born Siamese twin. Arnold Schwarzenegger noticed that Michael Ironside (Richter) was constantly on the phone between takes. When he broached the subject with Ironside, he was told that he was phoning his sister and that she was currently suffering from cancer. Arnold immediately brought Michael to his trailer and they had an hour-long, three-way conversation with Ironside's sister about what exercises she should do and what kinds of foods she should be eating. Ironside has never forgotten Schwarzenegger's kindness and neither has his sister. For more hilarious one-liners I suggest The Running Man. For more Michael Ironside I suggest Highlander 2: The Quickening.

Robert Durant
>>160608431

The part that gets me though is where Cohagen is explaining to Quaid/Hauser how his plan worked especially how Benny was in on all of it. There is no way that Cohagen would have known that Quaid would have picted Benny for his ride to Venusville over the other cab driver. Cohagen's plan at that point practically relied being lucky that Quaid picked the guy that turned out to be a bad guy and not the other guy.

Funk McPuke
>>160608431

Kind of. Cohaagen's guys knew Quaid was going to "get [his] ass to Mars" when they saw the glitching message (and Cohaagen knew anyway, since he was in on creating the message with Hauser), so all they needed to do was set their guy up in a cab, tell him to stake out the port, and hustle Quaid into his cab as soon as he saw him. They even make a point to show Benny aggressively pulling Quaid to his cab right out from under the other cabbie's nose. Until the reveal, we're meant to assume Benny is just a hustlin' cabbie on his grind, but it's pretty clear (once you know that Benny is a baddie) that he was staking out the port and waiting for Quaid the second he walked out, then grabbed him when he saw him, thereby minimizing the need for the luck you mentioned. After that, Benny shows up wherever Quaid is, implying that he's following him and waiting for opportunities to get him into the cab so he can stay close. And, ofc, once Quaid has already seen him once or twice -- and believes he's just a harmlessly eccentric cab driver -- it makes sense that Quaid would gravitate to him whenever he needed a ride rather than pick some other rando.

Funk McPuke
>>160608431

Tbh, the "blue sky on Mars" has always tipped me more toward thinking it was all a dream/schizoid embolism too -- and I don't mind a dark ending, let me tell ya -- but, whenever I watch the movie, I just take it as not being a dream bc otherwise it's a LONG way to go just to end with "It was just a dream and none of this mattered." Basically, I watch the movie suspecting that it's all Quaid's brain blowing a gasket, but push that aside and enjoy the adventure as if it's not so that there are actual stakes for the 2+ hour runtime. If you've ever seen Suckerpunch ** SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T** I have sort of the opposite reaction to that one. I didn't mind the dark "it's a dream/lobotomy" stuff there as much bc I thought it fit the overall darker vibe. On the other hand, I also thought that movie was dull af bc it felt less like an actual movie and more like a series of video game-ish music videos that each went on a little too long. Have you seen Jacob's Ladder? **SPOILERS** That's one where I actually LOVE the similar reveal at the end. The second Danny Aiello gave his speech that makes it clear what's actually been happening the whole movie, I wanted to get up and run around the room punching things (in a good way). But, yeah, for some reason, with Total Recall, I just want it to be a big, dumb, fun action movie that I only sort of suspect is all the main character dying (or whatever) while taking it at face value. And, like I said, I like that Verhoeven sprinkled enough arguments for each interpretation in to keep it from being a slam dunk either way ("blue sky on Mars" notwithstanding).