Edit . Most agree that it is ambiguous, and meant to be an open interpretation. 5 Signs Total Recall Was A Dream (And 5 It Was Reality), Paul Verhoeven: 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), Arnold Schwarznegger's 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), 10 Ways Phillip K. Dick Influenced Sci-Fi Movies And TV, 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Total Recall, 20 Most Powerful Horror Movie Villains, Ranked, Halloweentown: Ranking The 10 Most Powerful Characters From The Films, Creepy Crawlies: 10 Best Bug Movies, Ranked, 10 Things You Never Knew About Jim Carrey, Harry Potter Wandlore: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Phoenix Feather Cores, Batman: Robin's 8 Best Costumes In Live Action, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hostel, 10 Of The Cruelest Lines From Disney Villains, Ranked, 10 Horror Films From The 80s You’ve Never Seen, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hereditary, 10 Actors With Only One Oscar Nomination (That Should Definitely Have More), Wonder Woman: 10 Actors Who Were Considered To Be Princess Diana, Harry Potter: 10 Worst Things Sirius Black Has Done, Hocus Pocus: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Dani (& 5 Times We Hated Her). However, the book is pretty drastically different from the film in many ways, so that's nearly irrelevant. It is so outlandish and frankly impossible that it only makes any sense if it was randomly dreamed up as we go along - unprepared and tumbling down the rabbit hole. After I carefully weighed both sides of the debate and re-watched the movie multiple times, my conclusion was this–Total Recall was neither embolism or reality. Are the events of the film the "real" story or are they just the fake memory that the main character paid for? That's the name that the Rekall company gives to the memory option that allows Douglas Quaid to believe he was a secret agent. The movie END with him and his dream girl falling off a mountain on Mars, about to suffocate to death. Edit, Yes, very significant. ( Log Out / Edit, Having successfully blown up the Fall during which Cohaagen and his invading forces are killed, Quaid awakens in an ambulance with Melina at his side.
You can try to come up ways to explain why they were so similar but it doesn’t work no matter how much you believe the movie was just a schizoid embolism or actually happened. The movie opens with Doug Quaid having a dream about himself and a brunette woman, walking together on the surface of Mars. I do not. Some may mention that we see scenes which Quaid himself does not take part in, as a sure sign of it not being a dream. The fact that the same music is heard at the end of the movie when the credits are over is also indicative of the fact that the memory (the movie) is now over and it's time to wake up. NOT SURE IF IT WAS REAL OR A DREAM!?
I do not. Matthias is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, but freed by a mole inside Cohaagen's organisation.
What was that something else? The movie starts with a dream and ends with the screen fading to white, suggesting that Quaid is waking up. When Doug Quaid is getting prepped for his implant, one of the technicians makes a remark about the memory including something a little odd.
My second thought is that from a storytelling standpoint, it’s very difficult in general to have every scene include the protagonist, even if the story is technically supposed to be only seen or played out from his or her perspective. You're not really supposed to hear the comment. It's at this point that things get weird. If you believe that Total Recall was an embolism, there is no way Real Life Quaid would’ve been able to foresee this part of the Rekall program so perfectly, right down to the gory details of eyes popping out of sockets and facial features becoming contorted. When we meet Melina, Quaid's contact on Mars, it turns out that she looks exactly like the woman from his dreams. In the extended director's cut, Quaid pulls off a bandage on his forearm to reveal the absence of the peace sign symbol placed there by the Rekall worker before injecting him with the dream chemicals at the beginning of the movie.
There is no Richter character chasing Quaid in the 2012 movie, as the role of Quaid's relentless pursuer is taken over by Lori; in the 1990 movie, Lori has a much smaller role in chasing Quaid.
Some of it comes from the music. It is attributed as mere “inspiration” to the movie.
Edit . Most agree that it is ambiguous, and meant to be an open interpretation. 5 Signs Total Recall Was A Dream (And 5 It Was Reality), Paul Verhoeven: 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), Arnold Schwarznegger's 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), 10 Ways Phillip K. Dick Influenced Sci-Fi Movies And TV, 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Total Recall, 20 Most Powerful Horror Movie Villains, Ranked, Halloweentown: Ranking The 10 Most Powerful Characters From The Films, Creepy Crawlies: 10 Best Bug Movies, Ranked, 10 Things You Never Knew About Jim Carrey, Harry Potter Wandlore: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Phoenix Feather Cores, Batman: Robin's 8 Best Costumes In Live Action, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hostel, 10 Of The Cruelest Lines From Disney Villains, Ranked, 10 Horror Films From The 80s You’ve Never Seen, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hereditary, 10 Actors With Only One Oscar Nomination (That Should Definitely Have More), Wonder Woman: 10 Actors Who Were Considered To Be Princess Diana, Harry Potter: 10 Worst Things Sirius Black Has Done, Hocus Pocus: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Dani (& 5 Times We Hated Her). However, the book is pretty drastically different from the film in many ways, so that's nearly irrelevant. It is so outlandish and frankly impossible that it only makes any sense if it was randomly dreamed up as we go along - unprepared and tumbling down the rabbit hole. After I carefully weighed both sides of the debate and re-watched the movie multiple times, my conclusion was this–Total Recall was neither embolism or reality. Are the events of the film the "real" story or are they just the fake memory that the main character paid for? That's the name that the Rekall company gives to the memory option that allows Douglas Quaid to believe he was a secret agent. The movie END with him and his dream girl falling off a mountain on Mars, about to suffocate to death. Edit, Yes, very significant. ( Log Out / Edit, Having successfully blown up the Fall during which Cohaagen and his invading forces are killed, Quaid awakens in an ambulance with Melina at his side.
You can try to come up ways to explain why they were so similar but it doesn’t work no matter how much you believe the movie was just a schizoid embolism or actually happened. The movie opens with Doug Quaid having a dream about himself and a brunette woman, walking together on the surface of Mars. I do not. Some may mention that we see scenes which Quaid himself does not take part in, as a sure sign of it not being a dream. The fact that the same music is heard at the end of the movie when the credits are over is also indicative of the fact that the memory (the movie) is now over and it's time to wake up. NOT SURE IF IT WAS REAL OR A DREAM!?
I do not. Matthias is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, but freed by a mole inside Cohaagen's organisation.
What was that something else? The movie starts with a dream and ends with the screen fading to white, suggesting that Quaid is waking up. When Doug Quaid is getting prepped for his implant, one of the technicians makes a remark about the memory including something a little odd.
My second thought is that from a storytelling standpoint, it’s very difficult in general to have every scene include the protagonist, even if the story is technically supposed to be only seen or played out from his or her perspective. You're not really supposed to hear the comment. It's at this point that things get weird. If you believe that Total Recall was an embolism, there is no way Real Life Quaid would’ve been able to foresee this part of the Rekall program so perfectly, right down to the gory details of eyes popping out of sockets and facial features becoming contorted. When we meet Melina, Quaid's contact on Mars, it turns out that she looks exactly like the woman from his dreams. In the extended director's cut, Quaid pulls off a bandage on his forearm to reveal the absence of the peace sign symbol placed there by the Rekall worker before injecting him with the dream chemicals at the beginning of the movie.
There is no Richter character chasing Quaid in the 2012 movie, as the role of Quaid's relentless pursuer is taken over by Lori; in the 1990 movie, Lori has a much smaller role in chasing Quaid.
Some of it comes from the music. It is attributed as mere “inspiration” to the movie.
Edit . Most agree that it is ambiguous, and meant to be an open interpretation. 5 Signs Total Recall Was A Dream (And 5 It Was Reality), Paul Verhoeven: 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), Arnold Schwarznegger's 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), 10 Ways Phillip K. Dick Influenced Sci-Fi Movies And TV, 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Total Recall, 20 Most Powerful Horror Movie Villains, Ranked, Halloweentown: Ranking The 10 Most Powerful Characters From The Films, Creepy Crawlies: 10 Best Bug Movies, Ranked, 10 Things You Never Knew About Jim Carrey, Harry Potter Wandlore: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Phoenix Feather Cores, Batman: Robin's 8 Best Costumes In Live Action, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hostel, 10 Of The Cruelest Lines From Disney Villains, Ranked, 10 Horror Films From The 80s You’ve Never Seen, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hereditary, 10 Actors With Only One Oscar Nomination (That Should Definitely Have More), Wonder Woman: 10 Actors Who Were Considered To Be Princess Diana, Harry Potter: 10 Worst Things Sirius Black Has Done, Hocus Pocus: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Dani (& 5 Times We Hated Her). However, the book is pretty drastically different from the film in many ways, so that's nearly irrelevant. It is so outlandish and frankly impossible that it only makes any sense if it was randomly dreamed up as we go along - unprepared and tumbling down the rabbit hole. After I carefully weighed both sides of the debate and re-watched the movie multiple times, my conclusion was this–Total Recall was neither embolism or reality. Are the events of the film the "real" story or are they just the fake memory that the main character paid for? That's the name that the Rekall company gives to the memory option that allows Douglas Quaid to believe he was a secret agent. The movie END with him and his dream girl falling off a mountain on Mars, about to suffocate to death. Edit, Yes, very significant. ( Log Out / Edit, Having successfully blown up the Fall during which Cohaagen and his invading forces are killed, Quaid awakens in an ambulance with Melina at his side.
You can try to come up ways to explain why they were so similar but it doesn’t work no matter how much you believe the movie was just a schizoid embolism or actually happened. The movie opens with Doug Quaid having a dream about himself and a brunette woman, walking together on the surface of Mars. I do not. Some may mention that we see scenes which Quaid himself does not take part in, as a sure sign of it not being a dream. The fact that the same music is heard at the end of the movie when the credits are over is also indicative of the fact that the memory (the movie) is now over and it's time to wake up. NOT SURE IF IT WAS REAL OR A DREAM!?
I do not. Matthias is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, but freed by a mole inside Cohaagen's organisation.
What was that something else? The movie starts with a dream and ends with the screen fading to white, suggesting that Quaid is waking up. When Doug Quaid is getting prepped for his implant, one of the technicians makes a remark about the memory including something a little odd.
My second thought is that from a storytelling standpoint, it’s very difficult in general to have every scene include the protagonist, even if the story is technically supposed to be only seen or played out from his or her perspective. You're not really supposed to hear the comment. It's at this point that things get weird. If you believe that Total Recall was an embolism, there is no way Real Life Quaid would’ve been able to foresee this part of the Rekall program so perfectly, right down to the gory details of eyes popping out of sockets and facial features becoming contorted. When we meet Melina, Quaid's contact on Mars, it turns out that she looks exactly like the woman from his dreams. In the extended director's cut, Quaid pulls off a bandage on his forearm to reveal the absence of the peace sign symbol placed there by the Rekall worker before injecting him with the dream chemicals at the beginning of the movie.
There is no Richter character chasing Quaid in the 2012 movie, as the role of Quaid's relentless pursuer is taken over by Lori; in the 1990 movie, Lori has a much smaller role in chasing Quaid.
Some of it comes from the music. It is attributed as mere “inspiration” to the movie.
It is the Doctor from the TV commercials that visited him at Hilton, on Mars.
If you believe that Total Recall was real, this means that Quaid would’ve had enough knowledge to imagine precisely exactly what happens to someone when they are, in fact, exposed to Mars’ atmosphere. It was a dream.
provision of air and protection). If the film was a dream, why would there be so many scenes showing the villains' point of view, or other characters who Quaid wasn't in contact with? The film is loosely based on the 1966 Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". Films, Deconstructed is a blog dedicated to looking at films in a new way. One would need to be fooled into thinking he is not himself, for this ego trip to work genuinely. I believe it’s all a coma dream but a loop type dream where he is dreaming of actual events that happened at the start of the film and then blended the embolism event into something real. Now that we have the basics laid out, let's look at each of the key moments and try to figure out the answer to this question. So far so good.
Edit . Most agree that it is ambiguous, and meant to be an open interpretation. 5 Signs Total Recall Was A Dream (And 5 It Was Reality), Paul Verhoeven: 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), Arnold Schwarznegger's 10 Best Movies (According to IMDb), 10 Ways Phillip K. Dick Influenced Sci-Fi Movies And TV, 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In Total Recall, 20 Most Powerful Horror Movie Villains, Ranked, Halloweentown: Ranking The 10 Most Powerful Characters From The Films, Creepy Crawlies: 10 Best Bug Movies, Ranked, 10 Things You Never Knew About Jim Carrey, Harry Potter Wandlore: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Phoenix Feather Cores, Batman: Robin's 8 Best Costumes In Live Action, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hostel, 10 Of The Cruelest Lines From Disney Villains, Ranked, 10 Horror Films From The 80s You’ve Never Seen, 10 Horror Movies To Watch If You Love Hereditary, 10 Actors With Only One Oscar Nomination (That Should Definitely Have More), Wonder Woman: 10 Actors Who Were Considered To Be Princess Diana, Harry Potter: 10 Worst Things Sirius Black Has Done, Hocus Pocus: 5 Times We Felt Bad For Dani (& 5 Times We Hated Her). However, the book is pretty drastically different from the film in many ways, so that's nearly irrelevant. It is so outlandish and frankly impossible that it only makes any sense if it was randomly dreamed up as we go along - unprepared and tumbling down the rabbit hole. After I carefully weighed both sides of the debate and re-watched the movie multiple times, my conclusion was this–Total Recall was neither embolism or reality. Are the events of the film the "real" story or are they just the fake memory that the main character paid for? That's the name that the Rekall company gives to the memory option that allows Douglas Quaid to believe he was a secret agent. The movie END with him and his dream girl falling off a mountain on Mars, about to suffocate to death. Edit, Yes, very significant. ( Log Out / Edit, Having successfully blown up the Fall during which Cohaagen and his invading forces are killed, Quaid awakens in an ambulance with Melina at his side.
You can try to come up ways to explain why they were so similar but it doesn’t work no matter how much you believe the movie was just a schizoid embolism or actually happened. The movie opens with Doug Quaid having a dream about himself and a brunette woman, walking together on the surface of Mars. I do not. Some may mention that we see scenes which Quaid himself does not take part in, as a sure sign of it not being a dream. The fact that the same music is heard at the end of the movie when the credits are over is also indicative of the fact that the memory (the movie) is now over and it's time to wake up. NOT SURE IF IT WAS REAL OR A DREAM!?
I do not. Matthias is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, but freed by a mole inside Cohaagen's organisation.
What was that something else? The movie starts with a dream and ends with the screen fading to white, suggesting that Quaid is waking up. When Doug Quaid is getting prepped for his implant, one of the technicians makes a remark about the memory including something a little odd.
My second thought is that from a storytelling standpoint, it’s very difficult in general to have every scene include the protagonist, even if the story is technically supposed to be only seen or played out from his or her perspective. You're not really supposed to hear the comment. It's at this point that things get weird. If you believe that Total Recall was an embolism, there is no way Real Life Quaid would’ve been able to foresee this part of the Rekall program so perfectly, right down to the gory details of eyes popping out of sockets and facial features becoming contorted. When we meet Melina, Quaid's contact on Mars, it turns out that she looks exactly like the woman from his dreams. In the extended director's cut, Quaid pulls off a bandage on his forearm to reveal the absence of the peace sign symbol placed there by the Rekall worker before injecting him with the dream chemicals at the beginning of the movie.
There is no Richter character chasing Quaid in the 2012 movie, as the role of Quaid's relentless pursuer is taken over by Lori; in the 1990 movie, Lori has a much smaller role in chasing Quaid.
Some of it comes from the music. It is attributed as mere “inspiration” to the movie.