Total Recall marries some truly audacious sci-fi concepts to a traditional Arnold Schwarzenegger action epic. It’s an unholy union, to say the least: A man’s shaky grasp of his own shifting reality occupies the same movie as oily bad guys getting their arms ripped off and an endless barrage of cheeseball one-liners. (Of course, those armless bad guys and the hokey bon mots often pair up like meatloaf and ketchup.) The result is an uneven film that never quite settles on a tone. I could admire the story’s presentation of a sentient mind gone off the rails, and I could laugh at the filmmakers unabashed silliness and satirical ambitions. Unfortunately, I never managed both at the same time, rendering Total Recall into a film that only kinda sorta works.
Based on Phillip K. Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” the story takes place in the late 21st century. As always, Dick was prescient: The future has become an ugly mound of corporate sprawl. Severe high rises climb into the sky like steel weeds. Humanity is just a defeated mass of living drones, stumbling from menial jobs into cramped apartments. Because this world has probably been scraped clean by bulldozers and pocked with oil derricks, the only true escape is within the mind. Enter leisure companies like Rekall, who can implant false memories of exotic locations or erotic adventures. If humanity can’t find actual happiness, we at least imagine it.
That brings us to Douglas Quaid (Arnie, of course). He’s an everyday schmoe who puts his rippling biceps to work at a construction site. (Seriously, I think the producers added a scene with Arnold at the jackhammer, just to remind us that he does, you know, work out.) Lately, something’s been nagging at Doug. He feels compelled to travel to Mars, a barren, rust-colored rock for miners and skeezy profiteers. His wife (Sharon Stone) is baffled: Of all the places in the galaxy, why Mars??
Thankfully, the nice folks at Rekall can send Doug to Mars from the comfort of their offices. He helps them define his fantasy trip: Quaid will be a brawny James Bond figure with a sleazy brunette girlfriend (Rachel Ticotin), and will battle a bunch of hissable corporate villains. Unfortunately, the procedure goes haywire and Quaid’s grip on reality loosens. Is he really the mild-mannered construction dude or the villain-squishing bad-ass? For the balance of the story, Quaid must solve his own mystery, and possibly save the people Mars from annihilation.
That’s a fairly dense, high-concept story. A lot of movies might collapse under such a serious, existential premise. Thankfully, director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop) makes sure Total Recall never goes grim. The script (by 80s heavyweights Dan O’Bannon, Ron Shusett, and Gary Goldman) gets peppered with swirls of satirical silliness, especially when Quaid lands on Mars. Verhoeven’s version of Mars reeks like a Hellish take on the Vegas strip, replete with sex workers and con artists. Any time the story gets too meta or mind-blowing, the filmmakers supply us with a good chance to laugh at it all.
Recall delivers many other positives, as well. By 1990, blockbuster cinema was at a crossroads. The ubiquitous CGI of the next decade was not yet in full bloom, which makes Recall one of the last flicks to lean on traditional effects. Many of the film’s sweeping shots involve miniatures and matte paintings. Key scenes of atmospheric decompression rely on old-school makeup shenanigans. For fans of practical effects (like me), this film offers a chance to savor their craftsmanship and ingenuity. A few years later, much of a film like Recall would emerge from desktop computers.
Total Recall also showcases some surprisingly agile performances. As Quaid, the Governator truly gets to expand his acting range. Taken with Kindergarten Cop (released the same year), we learn that Arnie has some truly underrated comedy chops. Even better, he does a great job with the many personalties that come with being a man of muddled memory. I also enjoyed Ronny Cox as the smarmy, scenery-chomping villain, and Sharon Stone as the ass-beating fake wife. It definitely feels like the actors enjoy the material.
All that adds up to an exciting, goofy, thought-provoking film. With that said, Total Recall also ain’t perfect. The violence feels gratuitous, even to the point of distraction. Upon release, Recall faced withering criticism as one of the most gory mainstream films of all time. I tend to believe it. Also, the script’s humor works as both blessing and curse: I’m only going to give a movie this silly so many stars. So, mark Recall as a really good flick that falls about one notch below greatness.
113m. R. PlutoTV.
