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Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) ought to be a happy man, he has a steady job, a nice apartment, a loving wife, Lori (Sharon Stone) - and yet he has this recurring dream of walking the Martian surface with a lovely brunette (Rachel Ticotin), but ultimately dying there when his protective suit rips. So in his waking hours, he's obsessed with Mars, even without ever having been there, and he wants to go there, despite the political instability on the planet. But since Lori's dead-set against it, that's out of the question - until Quaid learns about the Rekall Corporation, which sells memories of vacations one hasn't even been on, meaning Quaid will feel as if he has been there, at a much lower price than the actual voyage, and without all the inconveniences that come with such a trip. Quaid books such a trip, but when he's about to be implanted the memories, something goes horribly wrong, he flees from Rekall headquarters, and suddenly gunmen, led by sinister Richter (Michael Ironside) are after him. And when he wants to hide out at home, he has to find out that Lori actually wants to kill him and seems to be in league with the gunmen. Ultimately though, when he overcomes her, she gives him part of the story behind everything: He is not Quaid at all but Hauser, a leader of the Martian rebellion - and former spy for Martian leader Cohaagen (Ronny Cox) - who has been brainwashed into being Quaid and given her as a wife (of whom all memories are fake) only six weeks ago. And the gunmen after him are Coohagen's men who want Quaid back for something locked in his memories. Quaid somehow shakes all of his pursuers, and with the help of a mystery man, he gets a few clues that lead him to Mars, and to a brothel where one of the girls, Melina (Rachel Ticotin) is his contact - and yes, Melina is the girl from his dreams. However, the first meeting with Melina doesn't go according to plan, as she fails to trust Hauser in his new persona - but later she saves his ass from Richter and company and leads him to the rebels and their leader Kuato, a mutant growing out of the belly of another man (Marshall Bell) who unlocks part of the memories buried beneath the Quaid persona, apparently he has found an alien reactor that's capable of flooding all of (outside) Mars with breathable air - something Cohaagen's dead afraid of as he owns all the Martian domes and has put heavy taxes on air as such. But as long as he owns the air, he can keep the rebellion managable and make huge profits from the mining goldmine that's Mars. But as soon as Quaid learns all of this, Cohaagen's henchmen invade and pretty much eradicate the rebellion, safe Quaid and Melina. Turns out Hauser has never really been a rebel leader, just infiltrated the rebellion, but then had his brain washed to as Quaid lead Cohaagen and company to rebel HQ and annihilate the rebels once and for all. And seems he has succeeded. But Quaid is shocked about what his alter ego has made him do, but it seems to be too late already, as he's about to be brain-unwashed to be Hauser again. Thing is, Hauser's new persona Quaid doesn't like Hauser very much and would very much like to stay himself, and maybe save Mars from Cohaagen's iron grip. But wanting and succeeding are two different things ...

Above all else, Total Recall is fun: It's loud, it's effects and action heavy, there's many a chase and shoot-out, the violence is often over-the-top in a comicbook sort of way, and so are quite some of the special effects. But that's not to say the film is just another dumb star vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger - in fact, the premise of the movie is quite intelligent and original, as are many of the plottwists, and the play with different layers of reality is actually quite fascinating. And director Paul Verhoeven really gets more out of the film on a visual level as well than to make this just another shoot-em-up, infusing the movie with many quirks and details one has come to expect from the director.

Now the question remains, has the film stood the test of time? In my honest opinion, no - but that's part of the charm of Total Recall, it's clearly a child of its time, when a man was still a man, fire was still fought with fire, shoot-outs and oneliners went hand-in-hand, action was loud and bloody, and things didn't need to be just grim to work - and I'm not saying that all of these are good things, nor that things were better back then (they weren't), I'm just saying this film is a clear trip down nostalgia lane - which goes down to the special effects that were great for their time but betray the era too readily.

And for all that, a pretty cool watch - if you like yesteryear's blockbusters.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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