The 1990 film Total Recall is an incredible action/sci-fi movie based on the Phillip K. Dick story of the same name; the same author whose work led to Blade Runner and Man In the High Castle. The cinematic adaptation of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, Total Recall is one of the best adaptations of Dick’s work. Despite its pulpy tone, violence, and humor, it maintains the same brilliance and inspires similar analysis to Dick’s stories.

The biggest question is whether or not the film was a dream implant, or reality, as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, Douglas Quaid, grapples with the question. Director Paul Verhoeven intentionally kept the ending open-ended and gave evidence to both interpretations, comparing it to Schrödinger’s cat in his commentary. Here are 5 pieces of evidence for and against the film’s events being a dream.

10 DREAM: It Was A Memory Implant

The entire point of the film’s instigating incident was for Quaid to escape his (somehow?) mundane life, married to his lovely wife (Sharon Stone) in a futuristic society. When he comes across the advertisement for “Rekall,” a company that provides memory implants (for a price), he can’t resist.

He had been dreaming about Mars and wanting to escape, but his wife wouldn’t allow it, seeing as it was expensive and dangerous, considering the armed struggles on Mars. It’s only natural to assume that the moment Quaid sat in that chair, everything that followed was the dream he paid to experience.

9 REALITY: We See Things Quaid Couldn’t See

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? Shouldn’t the film have entirely been his perspective?

While one could argue that this is just a filmmaking technique so as to keep things coherent and interesting, the villains do apparently get frustrated that their idea to use Quaid as a sleeper agent is backfiring, even though there’s no need to pretend to be annoyed, seeing as Quaid isn’t around, which means they’re genuine when they tell Quaid he belongs to their side.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

8 DREAM: Melina Is Quaid’s Dream Girl

Before Quaid gets down in his chair, he is asked what he would want his fantasy girl to look like; he describes Melina to a tee, and her likeness appears on a Rekall monitor, suggesting she was formed specifically according to his requests.

See also  The Witcher's Best Episode Proved The Show's Biggest Problem

It’d be a pretty insane coincidence if his dream girl just happened to be a real person suited to his exact preferences regarding personality and look.

7 REALITY: Harry’s Double Take

When Quaid floats the idea to visit Rekall to one of his coworkers at a construction site, Harry, he is quickly rebuffed. Harry tells him that it could end in a lobotomy for him, and warns him not to go. Quaid seemingly agrees, but a suspicious Harry gives him the evil eye.

When it’s later revealed that Harry was keeping an eye on Quaid and is working for the baddies, he tells Quaid he warned him not to go to Rekall. On top of that, Lori (Quaid’s wife), who also turned out to be in cahoots with the baddies, was giving Quaid concerning/suspicious looks before his trip to Rekall.

6 DREAM: The Doctor Perfectly Predicts Quaid’s Journey

In the film’s most precarious moment, Dr. Edgemar appears (the man in the Rekall commercial), claiming he is from Rekall, and asks for Quaid to stop his shenanigans, as he is trapped in a “schizoid embolism” and is having a mental breakdown from the implants gone wrong. Lori also stops trying to kill Quaid and acts civil towards him, begging him to come home.

Dr. Edgemar lays out the entire third act of the movie step by step, and as the film’s events come to pass, it’s probably the strongest piece of evidence that Edgemar was telling the truth.

5 REALITY: The Doctor Sweats

Then again, sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. While Dr. Edgemar did layout the entire third act of the film, it’s not crazy to assume he just happened to be right or made an educated guess while trying to manipulate Quaid.

See also  Facebook's Heart-Hugging Care Reaction Is Getting The Meme Treatment

His offer for a red pill to return to reality (this movie came out 9 years before The Matrix) is pretty tempting…but it would also be an easy way to poison a confused Quaid, who’s winning the fight. The doctor also sweats, which begs the question of why a man who couldn’t die would possibly be nervous in a simulated dream, prompting Quaid to shoot him.

4 DREAM: The Blue Sky On Mars

Before Quaid gets his memory implants at Rekall, a technician takes a gander at a nearby computer and notes “That’s a new one…blue sky on Mars!” Along with that, another Rekall member had previously laid out the gist of what would happen in the “secret agent” implant to Quaid (like Dr. Edgemar did).

At the end of the movie, when the laid out story had been completed, Quaid kisses Melina on Mars, which has a blue sky thanks to his actions…and the screen notably fades to white instead of black, perhaps further suggesting he is waking up.

3 REALITY: The Doctors Hadn’t Implanted Quaid

While Quaid is in the chair screaming about his blown cover, a Rekall technician (again, who Quaid would not be able to see) tells another technician that they hadn’t put in the implants yet.

It could be that the Mars dreams Quaid was previously having were memories of his life before he was sent in as a sleeper agent, and that his starting stages in the implant chair had him realize his situation. It’s the one moment in the film where Quaid seems determined and adamant about something, rather than confusing, screaming “You blew my cover!”

2 DREAM: The Rekall Theme

The Rekall theme is a piece of the soundtrack that plays at points when the Rekall company appears; this is not to be confused with the Rekall jingle.

This is a non-diegetic score that plays when Quaid first visits Rekall, and appears a few more times in the film; when Dr. Edgemar appears, and later, at the end of the film’s credits. It’s very likely the film’s events were a dream and that the music was a cue that it was time for Quaid to wake up.

See also  The Office: 10 Things You Never Noticed In Michael's Office

1 REALITY: Minority Report Sequel/Book Ending

This entry is a massive cheat, and can only be taken with a grain of salt, to an extent. For starts, the book Total Recall was based on suggests that many of the events to happen were real (though some were indeed implants). However, the book is pretty drastically different from the film in many ways, so that’s nearly irrelevant.

The other is that Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, also based on a Phillip K. Dick story, was intended to be a sequel to Total Recall in its early development stages, pitched in 1992. It would have featured Quaid in the role Tom Cruise carries, with the Total Recall Martians having psychic abilities that allowed them to see glimpses of the future. This would have meant that Total Recall‘s events were real if the sequel carried over in what supposed to be a dream. That being said, it’s possible it was still the same dream stretched out, or that Quaid was dumb enough to go for round 2 with Rekall. But regardless, it wouldn’t matter, because the original intent of the first film was to be open-ended, just as Luke and Leia were not originally intended as siblings in the first two Star Wars films.

Next10 Best Performances In Roger Moore’s James Bond Movies

About The Author


Rafael Sarmiento
(90 Articles Published)

I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and am Spanish/Venezuelan-American. I graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in History, and in Film. I write for both ScreenRant and CBR, along with other projects on Medium, so feel free to stalk me. I love to read discussion, even when it’s totally awful, so leave comments all over my articles, folks.

More From Rafael Sarmiento