Wednesday, Great Movies, 11:20pm
Total Recall (1990) is a sci-fi classic that blends Philip K. Dick’s mind-bending psychological thrills with Paul Verhoeven’s signature ultraviolence and satirical bite. Based on Dick’s short story, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, the film catapults Arnold Schwarzenegger into a futuristic dystopia where memory implants and questionable reality are the norm. Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a blue-collar worker who discovers, or rather “remembers,” that he may actually be a secret agent embroiled in a Martian rebellion. The film's premise—what if your memories could be engineered?—probes the nature of identity and reality in a way that’s oddly cerebral for a movie where Arnold also punches his way through walls and quips one-liners.
The production design by William Sandell and Rob Bottin’s legendary practical effects (yes, that’s a real puppet exploding as Schwarzenegger gasps for air on Mars!) give Total Recall a tactile, grungy charm. But the heart of the film, beneath the layers of sci-fi chaos, is the way it keeps us questioning: Is Quaid’s Martian adventure real or just an implanted fantasy gone haywire? Verhoeven plays with the ambiguity, never fully tipping his hand, which has led to decades of debates among fans. The triple-breasted mutant, taxi driver Johnny Cab, and Michael Ironside’s villainous Richter all add to the film’s distinctive mix of camp and razor-sharp satire, as Verhoeven teases corporate greed and authoritarianism amid explosions and head-splitting gunfights.
And then, of course, there’s Jerry Goldsmith’s score, which brilliantly blends orchestral majesty with eerie electronic textures. Goldsmith, known for Alien and Star Trek, crafts a sonic landscape as paranoid and disorienting as the film’s plot. The pounding militaristic rhythms mirror Quaid's physical journey, while the moody synths emphasize the dislocation of his mind. It’s a quintessential late-80s/early-90s sci-fi score, as cold and mysterious as the Martian landscape itself. In true Goldsmith fashion, he ties together the film’s existential themes with grandiose action motifs, making Total Recall a film not just to watch, but to feel rattling in your chest, much like the airless vistas of Verhoeven’s vision of Mars.
Noel Chambers