Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction
action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox and Michael Ironside. The film
is loosely based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale. It tells the story of a construction worker who is having
troubling dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman there. It was written
by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Jon Povill, and Gary Goldman, and won a
Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. The original
score composed by Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film Music Award.
The film was one of the most expensive films made at the time of its
release, although estimates of its production budget vary and it is not
certain whether it ever actually held the record.
Plot
In 2084, construction
worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is having troubling dreams
about Mars and a mysterious woman there. His wife Lori (Sharon Stone)
dismisses the dreams and discourages him from thinking about Mars, where
the governor, Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), is fighting rebels while
searching for a rumored alien artifact located in the mines. At Rekall, a
company that provides memory implants of vacations, Quaid opts for a
memory trip to Mars as a Secret Agent fantasy. However, during the
procedure, before the memory is implanted, something goes wrong, and
Quaid starts revealing previously suppressed memories of actually being a
Secret Agent. The company sedates him, wipes his memory of the visit,
and sends him home. On the way home, Quaid is attacked by his friend
Harry (Robert Costanzo) and some construction co-workers; he is forced
to kill them, using elite fighting skills. He is then attacked in his
apartment by Lori, who states that she was never his wife; their
marriage was just a false memory implant, and Cohaagen sent her as an
agent to monitor Quaid. He is then attacked and pursued by armed thugs
led by Richter (Michael Ironside), Lori's real husband and Cohaagen's
operative.
After evading his attackers, Quaid is given a suitcase containing money,
gadgets, fake IDs, a disguise, and a video recording. The video is of
Quaid himself, who identifies himself as "Hauser" and explains that he
used to work for Cohaagen but learned about the artifact and underwent
the memory wipe to protect himself. "Hauser" instructs Quaid to remove a
tracking device located inside his skull before ordering him to go to
Mars and check into the Hilton Hotel with a fake ID. Quaid makes his way
to Mars and follows clues to Venusville, the colony's red-light
district, primarily populated by people mutated as a result of poor
radiation shielding. He meets Benny (Mel Johnson, Jr.), a taxi driver,
and Melina (Rachel Ticotin), the woman from his dreams; but she spurns
him, believing that Quaid is still working for Cohaagen.
Quaid later encounters Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) and Lori, who claim
Quaid has suffered a "schizoid embolism" and is trapped in a fantasy
based on the implanted memories. Edgemar warns that Quaid is headed for
lunacy (his description loosely predicting later events) and a lobotomy
if he does not return to reality, then offers Quaid a pill that would
waken him from the dream. Quaid puts the pill in his mouth, but after
seeing Edgemar sweating in fear, he kills Edgemar and spits out the
pill. Lori alerts Richter's forces, who burst into the room and capture
Quaid, but Melina rescues him, with Quaid killing Lori in the process.
The two race back to the Venusville bar and escape into the tunnels with
Benny. Unable to locate Quaid, Cohaagen shuts down the ventilation to
Venusville, slowly asphyxiating its citizens. Quaid, Melina, and Benny
are taken to a resistance base; and Quaid is introduced to Kuato
(Marshall Bell), a parasitic twin conjoined to his brother's stomach.
Kuato reads Quaid's mind and tells him that the alien artifact is a
turbinium reactor that will create a breathable atmosphere for Mars when
activated, eliminating Cohaagen's abusive monopoly on breathable air.
Cohaagen's forces burst in and kill most of the resistance, including
Kuato, who instructs Quaid to start the reactor. Benny reveals that he
is also working for Cohaagen, and that he alerted Cohaagen's forces.
Quaid and Melina are taken to Cohaagen, who explains that the Quaid
persona was a ploy by Hauser to infiltrate the mutants and lead Cohaagen
to Kuato, thereby wiping out the resistance. Cohaagen orders Hauser's
memory to be re-implanted in Quaid and Melina programmed as Hauser's
obedient wife, but Quaid and Melina escape into the mines where the
reactor is located. They work their way to the control room of the
reactor, and Benny attacks them in an excavation machine. Quaid kills
Benny, then confronts Richter and his men, killing them too.
Quaid reaches the reactor control room, where Cohaagen is waiting with a
bomb. During the ensuing struggle, Cohaagen triggers the bomb, but
Quaid throws it away, blowing out one of the walls of the control room
and causing an explosive decompression. While reaching for the reactor
controls, Quaid knocks out Cohaagen, and he is sucked out onto the
Martian surface, killing him. Quaid manages to activate the reactor
before he and Melina are also pulled out. The reactor releases air into
the Martian atmosphere, saving Quaid, Melina and the rest of Mars'
population. As humans walk onto the surface of the planet in its new
atmosphere, Quaid momentarily pauses to wonder whether he is dreaming or
not, before turning to kiss Melina.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Recall_(1990_film)