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Total Recall poster

Total Recall

year 1990decade 90sdirector Paul Verhoevengenre Science fictiongenre Action

113 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Arnold Schwarzenegger Douglas Quaid / Hauser
Ronny Cox Vilos Cohaagen
Marshall Bell George / Kuato (voice)
Roy Brocksmith Dr. Edgemar
Rosemary Dunsmore Dr. Renata Lull
Ray Baker Bob McClane
Lycia Naff Mary
Robert Picardo Johnnycab (voice)
Priscilla Allen Fat lady

Total Recall | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Jason Concepcion format 30th anniversary
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Verhoeven signing in autumn 1988; 500 crew, 45 sets and eight Mexico City sound stages; Rambo III as the costliest film; Stone's Playboy shoot; the VHS-cover setting date; the four-breasted mutant draft

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:43Read transcript
  • The research segment was flagged early as the place to cover how the script kept falling through.
  • The hosts say Verhoeven signed in autumn 1988, and 500 people built 45 sets on eight sound stages in Mexico City over six months.
  • Correction: the most expensive film before this was Rambo 3, not Rambo 2.
  • Sharon Stone posed nude for Playboy to coincide with the release, which the hosts recall was a common move then.
  • The VHS cover gives the film's year, which the hosts say Verhoeven confirmed, though it is not stated in the movie.
  • A favorite find: the three-breasted mutant Mary was originally meant to have four breasts, but producers thought it looked like a cow, leading to jokes about studio notes in Verhoeven's office.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:45Read transcript
  • Early on, Ironside is said to go harder than anyone for this award, with seven or eight dialed-up moments.
  • Every Ironside scene gets it, dialed up to anywhere from 13 to 17.
  • His few scenes reveal a man driven crazy by jealousy that his wife is undercover sleeping with Quaid, shown when he tells a helper to get away from her.

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:01Read transcript
  • Roger Ebert is said to be coming off a loss on the Tommy Boy episode, where he gave that film one out of four stars and put it on his most-hated list.
  • For Total Recall, Ebert gave three and a half stars, called a good comeback.
  • Ebert is quoted as calling it one of the most complex and visually interesting science fiction movies in a long time, showing Schwarzenegger's talent through more confusion and vulnerability; the host fully agrees.

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Rekall doctor's visit with Lori on Mars

In the discussion (27)
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:34Read transcript
  • The scene list opens with Quaid going to Rekall on a whim for a secret-agent vacation and choosing the woman who will accompany him (athletic, sleazy, demure).
  • The chair freak-out ('schizoid embolism', 'You blew my cover!') is combined with the Johnny Cab ride and the airport fight as one giant scene.
  • The middle act recalls The Fugitive: once he is on the run after Rekall it is escape after escape and fight after fight.
  • Asked for other thoughts, Shea says the Rekall sequence sets everything in motion, then the movie goes in the opposite direction from what you expect and it still makes perfect sense. — Shea Serrano
  • Rewatching after 10 or 15 years, the reveal that Arnold was actually the bad guy felt new again; his smirking arrogant Hauser is likened to Eddie Murphy playing several characters in The Nutty Professor.
  • Next nominee: Lori realizing Quaid knows and their fight; Sharon Stone had bounced around Hollywood for eight or nine years (Irreconcilable Differences, the Allan Quatermain movie, Action Jackson) and knew this would be her movie.
  • The hosts say she got in amazing shape and learned jiu-jitsu, so she looks like she could beat Arnold, who can only use brute strength.
  • 80s action was about being huge, unlike today's Bourne and John Wick style; Arnold breaks steel restraints, and the Lori fight, with her technical stance, is the movie's best fight, like a king cobra against a grizzly bear.
  • Arnold and Stallone made 19 action movies between them in the 80s and defined the action hero, compared with Tupac defining the gangster rapper.
  • Patrick Swayze in Road House may have advanced non-brute-force fighting a year earlier; Arnold and Sly are compared to low-post centers like Shaq, and the John Wick era to spreading the floor.
  • Sharon Stone has Sandra-Bullock-in-Speed star gravity; she is in only three scenes yet feels like she is in the whole movie.
  • Venusville nominee: the Sleaze Bar, Marsburger, the mutant hotel, and random Sharper Image, Jack in the Box and Pepsi branding.
  • Asked why Pepsi advertises in Venusville, Shea says one fast-food brand always survives through time, as Taco Bell did in Demolition Man. — Shea Serrano
  • Venusville was filmed in a refashioned Mexico City subway station; the mutant bar has everything and deserves a 20-minute freeze-frame video, a Disneyland for mutants with a brothel and drugs that the film never explains.
  • Next nominee: the bald Rekall man visiting Quaid on Mars with Lori to convince him it is all a dream; the dream question is saved for later, and the sweat drop is iconic.
  • Stone beats Arnold a second time, then fights Rachel Ticotin in what the hosts say Verhoeven's DVD commentary calls the first real two-woman fight in a feature film; it is called the Jackie Robinson of female fight scenes, with Rachel walking so Michelle Rodriguez could run.
  • The sequence ends with 'Consider that a divorce,' which brought the house down in theaters; the whole run is called a phenomenal seven minutes.
  • Kuato is nominated because it was unbelievable in 1990 and still looks real; a host first wondered what the man turning around was doing, with Silence of the Lambs fresh in mind.
  • At the Kuato reveal you stop guessing what will happen; 'A man is defined by his actions, not his memory,' and Marshall Bell is said to play George and voice Kuato.
  • A host who let his young twins watch John Wick would not let them see the Kuato scene because it is too disturbing.
  • The practical puppetry works because of the slimy texture and how light plays on it, which CGI would lose; one theory says the look was influenced by Garbage Pail Kids.
  • The hosts puzzle over what Kuato does when not needed and settle on a coma theory in which George passes out whenever Kuato emerges.
  • The final sequence is nominated: the cab driver turning on them with a tank, the hologram from the suitcase (likened to the Tupac hologram), 'See you at the party, Richter,' and Ronny Cox's bulging-eyes death.
  • Not a pick but a must-include: Arnold disguised as the woman at customs, with the head that comes off, talks back ('Get ready for a surprise') and explodes, while 20 guards point guns and nobody fires.
  • The pick is the Rekall man's visit with Sharon Stone, called a favorite seven minutes; a second voice picks the same scene because it has the line everybody remembers, 'Consider that a divorce.'
  • A third voice agrees it is where you begin to question whether he is still in the Rekall chair, ending on an iconic line.
  • The hosts say the original line was 'Consider it a divorce' and that Arnold workshopped it into 'Consider that a divorce.'

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes: a Venusville spinoff series

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:02Read transcript
  • Pitch: a ten-episode, half-hour Venusville series, Cheers meets Total Recall, following the bar, the neighborhood, the mutants and humans living under cheap domes and buying air.
  • That is called the remake that should have happened, like Cobra Kai spinning off The Karate Kid, and a Netflix Venusville premiere is greeted eagerly.
  • When the question is formally reached, it is said to have been already cracked.

What’s Aged the Best?

Opening credits; human-shield gore; plasma wall TVs and video calls; virtual-reality tennis; ESPN World Series from Tokyo; Cohaagen raising the price of air; "Give these people air"; fingernail-polish tech; the humor; Sharon Stone; the safety-deposit-box message

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:23Read transcript
  • The terrible but beloved opening credits say 'Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna present'; the hosts wonder whether those producers were real or pseudonyms.
  • In the airport escalator scene Quaid uses a bystander as a human shield who is shot many times, and Richter stomps on the bullet-ridden chest with a squishing sound; the hosts cannot recall that much splatter in earlier action movies.
  • The hosts say it first got an X rating for gore and had to be scaled back, but Verhoeven would not cut the human-shield stomp.
  • Futuristic predictions: plasma wall TVs, video calls like FaceTime, possibly Johnny Cabs as Uber or Tesla autopilot, and Lori's virtual-reality tennis, her best moment in the film.
  • An ESPN promo for game five of the World Series live from Tokyo is enjoyed even if the prediction missed.
  • Cohaagen raising the price of air is a classic subtle evil move; the hosts work out how air billing might work through dome taxes and compare it to Trump in a pandemic.
  • It leads to Arnold turning 'air' into three syllables in 'Give these people air.'
  • The fingernail-polish tech is singled out.
  • The humor carries and is funnier now; the line 'If you want to live, don't hang up' is believed to have been lifted for Terminator 2; Sharon Stone has aged best.
  • A late addition: the cryptic message in the safety deposit box, a trick that works every time.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Opening credits

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:33Read transcript
  • The opening credits are truly awful: three minutes of bad music, poor computer graphics and melted red vertical bars, jokingly explained as an allusion to the classism of Mars.
  • Otherwise little has aged badly; it jokingly aged worst for producer Craig's girlfriend, who could not finish it, and a second host agrees nothing needed to be done better.
  • Quaid is open-minded and friendly, joking with the Breaking Bad actor's character ('Look who's talking').
  • A hedged maybe: the Rekall staff hitting Quaid with eight sedative shots at once, which probably should have killed him.

Casting What-Ifs

Richard Dreyfuss or William Hurt as Quaid; Robert Davi or Kurtwood Smith as Richter

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:53Read transcript
  • In the mid-80s Dino De Laurentiis had Richard Dreyfuss attached as Doug Quaid, around the time of Stakeout; the hosts mock the idea with a Dreyfuss impression.
  • David Cronenberg was given the script, wanted William Hurt and envisioned it as a Spider-Man-goes-to-Mars story, before Arnold took it.
  • Robert Davi and Kurtwood Smith turned down Richter before Ironside stepped in.
  • The hosts say Verhoeven cast Stone in Basic Instinct for her ability to flip from sweetheart to diabolical, and said on the commentary that this is how she is in real life.

Recasting Couch

Bill Paxton as the Rekall salesman

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:51Read transcript
  • Bill Paxton is proposed for the Rekall salesman who talks Quaid into the vacation.
  • An objection: Paxton was too young in the Aliens era; the role needs a sleazy 40-something used-car-salesman type, and he lacked the gravitas to talk Quaid into the chair.
  • A rebuttal: Paxton's voice makes him someone who could talk you into anything.
  • David Caruso is nominated but judged too sinister; Judd Nelson is judged too weird, and Paxton is called the right move.

Apex Mountain

Marshall Bell; Mars; three-breasted women

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:10:05Read transcript
  • From the Action Hero Championship Belt piece: this was an 'A-Fucking-Pex' stretch for Arnold with Kindergarten Cop and T2 within about 14 months, but asked to choose, the others pick T2 as his Apex.
  • Terminator 2 or 1 is the movie tied to Arnold forever; Total Recall is the deep cut, and the stretch culminates in T2.
  • His pay, veto power and 15% of profits may have earned him $100 million, though this was not his most successful movie.
  • Rachel Ticotin is contested: this might be her Apex for her action work, while another host picks Man on Fire as his personal Apex and a better performance.
  • Marshall Bell (George and Kuato) is picked over Ironside because he plays two characters in one scene; both are briefly allowed, and it is called the Apex of both careers.
  • Ironside is then placed at Starship Troopers instead, since a host assigns Apex by the first role that comes to mind; the others accept.
  • For Ronny Cox, one answer is RoboCop while two voices pick this role.
  • Mars: the case is made that this, not The Martian, is Mars's Apex, since it is about an idealized Mars rather than a Matt Damon vehicle that could have been set on the moon.
  • A host leans to The Martian but concedes; the argument cites that living on Mars still seemed conceivable in 1990 and that the way characters say 'Mars' is more fun.
  • Venusville is mentioned, and three-breasted and four-breasted women are named an Apex because they have never been seen since.

Picking Nits

Neck injections; the oversized nose tracker; Arnold punching Lori without a mark; the Hauser memory-wipe plot; sending a recognizable giant to Earth; the name Quaid near Kuato

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:50Read transcript
  • Mostly riding with the premise, but neck injections, also seen in Escape from New York, magically work with no lingering pain.
  • The tracker he pulls from his nose was gigantic, the size of a ping-pong ball or AirPods case.
  • Arnold punches Sharon Stone and she has no mark; a host explains a jaw punch would not leave marks.
  • The plot says Hauser worked for Cohaagen, switched sides and underwent the memory wipe; the hosts find this confusing.
  • Asked, Jason says he thought Cohaagen wiped him and stashed him on Earth, wonders why Cohaagen does not just kill Quaid, and why Hauser would wipe his own memory. — Jason Concepcion
  • Asked to explain, Shea lays out two plot lines: Richter truly wants Quaid dead, while Cohaagen and Hauser planned to wipe him, push him back to Rekall and Mars to infiltrate the mutants and kill Kuato, then restore Hauser. — Shea Serrano
  • Further flaws: sending a 6'3", 280-pound hero back to Earth unnoticed, and the name Quaid being so close to Kuato.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Whether the three-breasted woman is attractive or datable; whether Arnold made a run at Sharon Stone; whether the movie was real or a Rekall dream

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:20:38Read transcript
  • A high-school debate with a friend: is it OK to be attracted to the three-breasted woman, and could you date her? The answer given is yes.
  • The three-breasted woman has already drawn far more air time than an expected 40 seconds; Cohaagen versus Trump is deferred to a separate podcast.
  • Did Arnold make a run at Sharon Stone? One host calls it a 100% lock, reasoning that the lack of rumors proves it.
  • Shea agrees Arnold took a swing, and she likely said no thanks, or maybe found it fun. — Shea Serrano
  • Was it real? The hosts say Verhoeven wanted it ambiguous and believed it was a dream, while Arnold's casting pushed toward reality.
  • Dream evidence: the salesman promises he will get the girl, kill the bad guys and save the planet; the chosen woman's face appears on screen; 'Blue Sky on Mars' is named; the sweat-drop doctor describes later events. This host's official answer is a dream from the moment he is at Rekall.
  • Counter: it cannot start at Rekall because the film opens with him already dreaming of Ticotin's character; the construction coworker's and Lori's suspicious looks suggest it is real, and one host says it has to be real.
  • Asked, Jason says it is a brain-damage delusion, running the memories in a loop because his brain was fried; another host calls that depressing. — Jason Concepcion
  • A closing view: they are all kind of right, because Verhoeven put everything on the table and wanted ambiguity; there is more evidence for a dream, but it could go either way.

Who Won the Movie?

Eye bulges; body horror; Arnold Schwarzenegger

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:24Read transcript
  • One pick is not Arnold, Rachel or Sharon but the eye bulges, the best in movie history, since the pain is understood even in an alien setting; the only comparison is Hostel.
  • A second voice takes that pick in a different direction: body horror, as the most mainstream version of David Cronenberg-style body horror with the mutants, Kuato and the eye bulges.
  • A third voice is torn between Arnold and Verhoeven, noting how hard the film was to make before CGI, but leans to Arnold for buying and shaping the script and for the three-movie Apex that made him one of the five biggest stars of his lifetime.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Eye bulges
Speaker not identified
Body horror
Speaker not identified
Arnold Schwarzenegger

More from the conversation

A Ringer network note wishes listeners safety during crazy times and encourages helping charities, then a Total Recall trailer cold open plays.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:30Read transcript
Jason Concepcion and Shea Serrano are introduced; the episode is pitched as coming a couple of months before the film's 30th anniversary, with Total Recall called one of the best action movies ever and, at the time, the second most expensive movie made.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:24Read transcript
Asked for his favorite thing, Jason picks Arnold making wild sounds, especially when he freaks out in the Recall chair.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:11Read transcript
Asked next, Shea picks Arnold's total seriousness in ridiculous practical-effects moments, like the Terminator cutting into himself or pulling the red orb out, arguing he knows he is not the best actor.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:51Read transcript
Arnold's appeal is balancing kicking ass with self-parody, an argument from an Action Hero Championship Belt piece written for Grantland; the Terminator is seen as unintentionally funny before Commando leaned into one-liners.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:44Read transcript
Asked whether Arnold was fully in on the joke, Jason says 100% in, citing how genuinely funny he is roasting fellow competitors like Lou Ferrigno in Pumping Iron.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:16Read transcript
A counterview holds Arnold did not get it until after The Terminator, and that he succeeds by just being bigger and stronger since he has no karate scenes and is not good at fighting or acting.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:02Read transcript
Arnold's career path is traced: Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer with Wilt Chamberlain, The Terminator and 'I'll be back,' Commando, Raw Deal, The Running Man, Red Heat and Twins, leading to this long-circulating script.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:01Read transcript
The hosts say Arnold got Carolco to buy the script for $3 million, negotiated $10-11 million plus 15% of profits and veto power over producer, director, screenplay, co-stars and promotion, and chose Paul Verhoeven after loving RoboCop.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:56Read transcript
Asked whether the others saw it in theaters, two voices say they saw it on VHS; one rented it for a sleepover, watched it about 60 times in a weekend, and was told to see it by a cool uncle Brian because of the woman with three breasts.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:47Read transcript
Total Recall is framed as the last old-school effects movie before Terminator 2: Mexico City sets built for months, miniatures, rubber masks and an Arnold head puppet that looked fake but impressive.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:24Read transcript
The mutant makeup is praised, including the cab driver's moving hand and Kuato; Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) is spotted among the mutants, and the hosts wish for more than the few mutant types shown, joking about a cut double-dick mutant.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:29Read transcript
Venusville and the mutant bar are said to raise the movie seven notches.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:39Read transcript
Sharon Stone appears just before Basic Instinct, which the same director built around her after seeing her here.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:54Read transcript
Ronny Cox is judged Cohaagen rather than Bogomil, praised for over-the-top evil touches like the two-finger elevator gesture; another host thinks of him first as RoboCop's Dick Jones.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:18Read transcript
A host recalls seeing Ronny Cox perform as a singer-songwriter at an indie bar while covering nightclubs for the Houston Press.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:54Read transcript
Ronny Cox's wiki photo shows him with a guitar; he is the first call for an 80s rich white bad guy.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:34Read transcript
Michael Ironside is one of the few actors who reads as a bad guy on sight; his good-guy turns in the V miniseries and Starship Troopers are recalled, and he is paired with the Dead Poets Society dad who later joined That '70s Show as rival evil bald guys at casting calls.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:07Read transcript
Rachel Ticotin's surname is debated; she is 'Tia Rachel' in the Serrano house, called the greatest half Puerto Rican, half Russian Jewish actress, with a Man on Fire, Con Air and Total Recall run.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:24Read transcript
A joke says only the kids of Mero from Desus and Mero could someday challenge her.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:12Read transcript
A host who likes Colin Farrell as a former podcast guest was still outraged by the 2012 remake, since the original is still close to perfect; the remake stripped Verhoeven's campy subversiveness for a gritty version, like toning down Kill Bill's arm-slicing scene.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:36Read transcript
Vin Diesel is proposed as the only possible remake lead for unintentional comedy; another host loves Diesel but doubts him, and the Rock cannot quite get there either.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:25Read transcript
Arnold is funny two ways when he knows he is joking, and wonderful when really trying to act: the chair scene, gently touching the mutant girl's face in Venusville, and his hurt reaction when Lori turns on him before they chat after she slashes him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:58Read transcript
A host teases Shea's professional recording setup, looking like a Nike seminar video, against his own open-mic look.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:59Read transcript
The hosts say the film was loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,' cost $50-65 million as the second most expensive movie then, and made over $261 million worldwide; the most expensive is first given as Rambo 2 (corrected in research), until Terminator 2.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:21Read transcript
Asked for a science-fiction grade, Jason says the Mars and memory-implant setting never overpowers the Quaid story and gives it an 8 out of 10; the best science fiction makes every weird thing serve a purpose.
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:38Read transcript
Asked whether this movie has the most eye bulges, Jason starts the list with Cohaagen and Quaid; the voices add Ticotin's character, Arnold in disguise, and the airport lady.
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:09Read transcript
A host tells his youngest kid, a big fan of the Rock, that Arnold is his version of the Rock.
Approx. transcript time · 01:29:05Read transcript
Arnold from 1984 to 1994 would never have taken a supporting role in a Vin Diesel movie; it was a hero-ball era built around one star, while now the ensemble has more power, as in Fast and Furious; the Rock's career is cast in Arnold's mold.
Approx. transcript time · 01:29:59Read transcript
After the Arnold, Stallone and Van Damme heyday, Nick Cage kept action alive, the early 2000s drifted, and Liam Neeson's Taken felt like a sandwich for a starving person.
Approx. transcript time · 01:31:06Read transcript
Sign-off to Jason and Shea: 'we did it for Arnold, we did it for Mars,' ending with 'Give these people air.'
Approx. transcript time · 01:32:20Read transcript
Next up this week is Enemy of the State.
Approx. transcript time · 01:32:56Read transcript