Total Recall

          Total Recall was directed by Paul Verhoeven and was inspired by the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. Wholesale is existential tale of a clerk with a Mars fetish who goes to Rekal Incorporated to have memories of a fake trip to Mars implanted in his brain. Like much of Dick's work, Wholesale is mostly about questioning reality. It's also less than forty pages long and written by one of the greatest science fiction writers in human history. Total Recall is a two hour action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This has to be a disaster right? I mean, I love a good action movie as much as the next guy, but come on! Well, it's actually pretty good all things considered. It's not really a great film and it has all the goofiness you would expect from an Arnold movie, but underneath the guns, explosions, and cheesy one-liners, the heart of this film is very Dickian. Like Wholesale, Total Recall begins with an ordinary guy (an ordinary guy who happens to be Arnold Schwarzenegger) named Douglas Quaid who really, really wants to go to Mars and goes to Rekal since he can't afford a real trip. As you would expect it doesn't all go according to plan. It turns out that Quaid was a secret agent who had already been to Mars, but had his memories wiped. Rekal erases his memory of their company, but it's too little too late. His former employers learn that he's regaining his memories and begin hunting him down. Also, explosive decompression...

FYI: Mars isn't a vacuum.

 

          But here's the interesting part. As soon as Quaid goes under in Rekal, everything after could have been implanted in his mind. In other words, it is about questioning reality, just like Wholesale! The film is intentionally ambiguous as to whether Quiad really went to Mars; though, if we're being honest, believing any of this actually happened is as ridiculous as thinking Deckard is a replicant.

“Yes, he’s a replicant. He was always a replicant.” -Ridley Scott

          Yeah, well, what does he know? Anyway, Total Recall may not look like much at first glace, but it's more than just another Schwarzenegger shoot 'em up and it's sufficiently mind-screwy to be a Philip K. Dick adaptation.