SPOILER ALERT: Plot details will be revealed!
Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi actioner is Number 12 in my Film Notes series.
For those not familiar with this series of posts, it involves me watching a film every day for 30 days.
The following rules apply:
- It must be a film I have already seen.
- I must make notes whilst I’m watching it.
- Pauses are allowed but the viewing must all be one session.
- It can’t be a cinema release.
The point is to capture my instant thoughts about a movie and my overall film diet for 30 days, as well as curate interesting links to the film in question.
Here are my notes on Total Recall (1990) which I watched on DVD on Monday 2nd April. Give these people air!
- Wonderful trailing opening titles that suggest SUPERMAN (1978)
- Pounding title music by Jerry Goldsmith that recalls another Schwarzenegger film – Basil Pouledoris’s main theme to CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982)
- Love the intensity of the opening Mars scene – Verhoeven really knows how to sell visceral violence (e.g. You really feel those eyes are popping out of his head)
- Slightly disappointed that he chose to go for the ‘it’s only a dream’ edit in which Arnie sits bolt upright. Has anyone ever woken up from a dream like this?!
- Note that Sharon Stone is actually pissed off and jealous at the dream – a sign of things to come
- Verhoeven got his Hollywood breakthrough with ROBOCOP (1987), which blended 80s action movie with surprisingly sharp political satire
- TOTAL RECALL (1990) continues the trend with its social commentary blended within the framework of a sci-fi thriller.
- Films like THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998), THE MATRIX (1999) and INCEPTION (2010) played around with similar concepts
- Nice touches: fingernail polish, x-ray machines and video walls
- The x-ray machines are now standard in US airports!
- Production design is great – clever blend of sets and Mexican subway system.
- Love the recall salesman / travel agent – he’s actually selling me on this holiday
- Arnie’s line “don’t bullshit me” seems ADR’d
- The scene where Arnie explains what kind of woman he really
- Like the pacing in this film – no dicking around. 15 minutes in and we’re off.
- Sharon Stone is at her glamorous best in this film – you can see why Verhoevan cast her in BASIC INSTINCT (1992)
- The videophones are basically Apple FaceTime (they even have a portrait screen)
- Fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed by Vic Armstrong – we really feel every punch and crunch.
- Michael Ironside is a genuinely great villain. Charming, ruthless and we get the vibe he doesn’t mess around.
- Subway shoot out is brutal fun. Think they had to make cuts for the theatrical release.
- Notice how this is really a continuation of the previous chase (which hadn’t really ended).
- The tracking device predicts the current debates about the surveillance society
- Love the dryness of Arnie’s lines.
- Verhoeven has been deftly handling action and narrative now for about 20 mins
- Sound design and Rob Bottin’s make up work are A-grade in the bug removal scene
- Good miniatures for the spaceships on Mars. Although this was made on the cusp of the ILM revolution ushered in by TERMINATOR 2 (1991) and JURASSIC PARK (1993) it still stands up for the most part.
- Kuato is freedom fighter who in this film we are expected to sympathise with but I wonder how the remake will play around with this idea in a post-9/11 world.
- Rob Bottin’s make up is excellent in the airport scene.
- Note the use of a vertical set to simulate zero gravity (a trick Vic Armstrong
- Cohaagen is to Mars what NCP was to Detroit in ROBOCOP (1987).
- Sets are believable because Mars is an indoor world anyway.
- Cab driver: “I’ve got five kids to feed!”
- Apparently during filming the crew all thought Rachel Ticotin was going to be the big star, not Sharon Stone
- The hotel room scene was almost certainly a big influence on INCEPTION (2010).
- Don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a sci-fi starring Arnie – this is very good genre writing
- Lot of product placement in this film (Sony, Fuji Film and Miller Lite)
- Great female fight, expertly arranged by Vic Armstrong who really wanted to stage a memorable scrap
- The pacing is brilliant during Quaid and Milena’s escape – back when action was cleanly edited and featured smooth camera work
- Rob Bottin’s make up work is outstanding – especially the cab drivers arm and Kuato
- The villains have a devilish wit which gives the film a pleasing light touch.
- Obligatory ‘explanation scene’ is actually an interesting exercise in making the audience uncertain
- Even by modern torture porn standards, the brainwash scene is brutally violent.
- Quaid’s line “Give these people air!” was referenced in Judd Apatow’s KNOCKED UP (2007).
- Even the goldfish die.
- Quaid: “Screw you!!!”
- Slightly dated rear projection work with the reactor
- The pace in the second half of this film is absolutely tremendous
- Sound design also excellent. You can really hear guns and punches.
- The fight on the lift is another corker – notice the foley on
- I’ve always loved Ronny Cox’s line about being “home in time for cornflakes”
- Climax also features great use of vertical sets
- Satisfyingly visceral gore of Cohaagen’s eyes popping out. More brilliant work from Rob Bottin.
- I think the VFX crew used the old milk in tank trick to simulate to clouds on the mountain. Also used in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and POLTERGEIST (1982).
- Nicely ambiguous ending which allows different interpretations (Verhoevan’s is considerably darker than Arnie’s)
- Cameras by ARRI