Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

I love director Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven is the most obscene director working in the US today. His films are the most gratuitous works in mainstream Hollywood. Paul Verhoeven, director of such dirty masterpieces as Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and Robo Cop, to name a few, is not for all tastes. His films are twisted and perverse. Just the way I like them. No one seems to make films like this anymore, no one but good ol' Paul that is.

Today class we will discuss Verhoeven's 1990 film, Total Recall. I will go scene by scene, on how and why this film rules, and why it is classic Verhoeven. The film begins with the old Carolco logo, and that's when the music starts. Not typical music mind you, but Verhoeven music. Music that screams bad mofo.

Total Recall is based on the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. I haven't read the story, but I wonder if it is anything like the film.

In most Verhoeven films, there seems to be some underlying messages. Those are: Humanity is scum. You can trust no one. Women, no matter how petite they might look, are without question, the most deadly creatures walking the planet. Women especially can not be trusted. Most women, in Verhoeven films, are harlots. This is a fact. Most men, be it the good guys, or the bad guys, are psychotic, or have really bad mean streaks in them. Innocence does not exist in the world of Verhoeven. There are no ladies in the world of Verhoeven. If you die in the world of Verhoeven, you die in the most appalling ways possible. People don't make love in Verhoeven films, they f_ck. These are just a few of things that make the world of Verhoeven.

Back to Recall. The film opens on the planet mars. The ugly red planet. Ugly is after all, home sweet home for Verhoeven. We see a couple climb to the top of the hill, out for a lovely walk I suppose. It turns out the couple is Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Melina (Rachel Ticotin). After their invigorating climb to the top, the two smile, and hold hands. Lovely. Suddenly, Quad loses his step, falls down the cliff, breaks his mask, and his eye balls and tongue pop out. No time for love in the world of Verhoeven. Luckily it was just a dream, for now anyway.

Quaid wakes up next to the sexy Lori (Sharon Stone). Verhoeven would later exploit Stone in the film Basic Instinct, like he does all women, but that's for another review. The two have a cute squabble in bed, which makes the audience believe the two actually love each other. Don't be fooled, love is rarely found in the world of Verhoeven.

We learn that some kind of war is brewing on Mars. Quaid watches the graphic news on his television set, which happens to be one panel on the kitchen wall. After watching all the graphic violence that is happening on Mars, and learning what a terrible place it is, Quaid bluntly says, "Let's do it. Let's move to Mars." Heros in Verhoeven films are always attracted to violence, not disgusted by it. Of course Quaid wants to go to the heart of all evil.

Ronny Cox plays Vilos Cohaagen. He's a big time corporate guy on Mars, and of course he's the main bad guy. He was after all the bad guy in Verhoeven's Robo Cop. Quaid watches him give a disturbing speech about violence and mutants, while his 'wife' Lorie tries to make love with him. She's on top of him, kissing him, and he can't keep his eyes off of old Cox. In Verhoeven films, sex is good, but watching bad guys conspire is even better.

We never do see what the outside of Quaid's apartment looks like, but he must live inside a shopping mall. A shopping mall that is filled with escalators and neat X-Ray machines that make sure you are not packing artillery. Verhoeven seems to be obsessed with what the inside of the human body looks like. A neat shot is when Quaid walks through the machine, we get to see all his bones. There is also a dog walking through. Verhoeven would later go back to the insides of humans and animals, in his cheap but highly satisfying Hollow Man.

When Quaid is on the subway, we learn of Recall Inc. Where you can buy memories of ideal vacations. He watches the television: "Have you always wanted to climb the mountains of Mars? But now you're over the hill?" The memory of a life time. Is it just me, but doesn't that idea suck? Why would anyone want to have just a memory of a vacation? Oh well, it sure interests Quaid, and he's sold from watching the commercial. Sucker. For a memory of a lifetime, recall, recall, recall. As that song plays, a small butterfly flys around in the background. Ok, anything that corny and that cute in a Verhoeven film, has got to be EVIL!

Quaid's job consists of digging into the ground with a big drill. I guess that's the reason why he's so buff, but still manages to be your ordinary typical guy next door, right? He asks his buddy if he has ever heard of Recall Inc. His friend tells him about it, and how someone got lobotomized while visiting Recall, and then he throws Quaid the most evil look in the world. Remember, there is no such things as best friends in the world of Verhoeven. If you have a best friend, he is either going to try and kill you, or he himself is going to die a tragic uncalled for death.

After his 'friend' tells him how dangerous Recall Inc. is, Quaid of course goes there immediately, with a big retarded grin on his face. We then see something all women wished they had: robotic finger nail polish. I can't believe someone hasn't made this yet! As Quaid walks into the office, and checks in, the woman who was putting on the finger nail polish checks out his butt. Remember, women in the world of Verhoeven can only have two things on their mind: #1 Who am I going to kill next? Or #2 Who am I going to screw next?

Quaid meets with a guy, who ironically enough is wearing a stereotypical used car salesman outfit. Quaid is interested in the 'two week package'. This means, he will have realistic memories, just like he was really there, of a two week vacation to Mars. "Your brain will not know the difference. That's guaranteed, or your money back. I still think it's a bad idea. Memories don't include the little things that make your vacations special. A certain smell, things like that. Of course, who knows if Mars smells, so what do I know. Quaid is of course sold on the deal, and he gets the 'secret agent' treatment. Where, his brain believes he is a secret agent, he has to fight bad guys, and he ends up getting the girl. I thought this was suppose to be a vacation? That sounds too hard. Moving on..

So Quaid gets hooked up to this weird looking machine. The people who are strapping him in, are quite the characters. There is your classic geek, who has to swear, because he thinks it makes him sound tough. And there is a older woman with red hair and glasses. She seems like a normal woman, but remember, there is no such thing as a normal woman in a Verhoeven film. She gives him the shot, in the neck of all places, and you can see the glee in her eyes. She then asks Quaid his sexual orientation, when he says heterosexual, her eye brows go up and she gives a snicker, as if to say, "you naughty boy, come to mama." Don't be surprised when I tell you her next question is, "how do you like your women?" It's delivered the same way a waiter would ask, how do you take your steak? But let's be honest, in the eyes of Verhoeven, women are just pieces of meat anyway. Quaid also requests his woman be sleazy. Verhoeven wouldn't have it any other way.

In the following scene, we see perhaps Arnold's most hilarious performance of all time, save Batman And Robin. He had a memory cap, so when they started to implant the memory, he goes berserk. The scene is nothing short of hysterical, with Arnold screaming and yelling in his Austrian accent, "they'll kill you all!" No doubt the voice of Verhoeven. To add even more humor to the scene, Verhoeven let's the red head show her true colors, by slapping the geek across the face. Priceless.

Verhoeven shows his true feelings for the working man in the following scene. Quaid wakes up, and he is inside a 'Johnny-Cab.' A taxi that has a robot for a driver, it whistles, and makes small talk, "hell of a day, isn't it?" Not to mention it looks identical to Don Knotts.

When Quaid gets out of the car, Harry, his best friend approaches him. Remember, in the world of Verhoeven, there are no friends. His friend tries to kill him, yeah right. The scene is beyond violent. Quaid breaks necks with his feet, with his arms, and shoots people with their own guns.

He runs home thinking he will be safe, with his sex-pot of a wife, Lori. Verhoeven doesn't play it that way. Verhoeven obviously doesn't believe in the sanctity of marriage. In his mind, when a couple marries, it's either kill or be killed. When Quaid walks out of the bathroom, she begins shooting at him, missing of course. In this dramatic scene, where Quaid realizes his lovely wife of eight years, is in fact a murdering bit_ch, he gets attacked not once, but twice in the testicles. A man can only take so much, and it takes only six seconds before Quaid goes ballistic on the woman he loves. Quaid puts a gun to her face, and demands she talks. With this, he learns that everything in his life, his marriage to her, everything, has been implanted. "Sorry Quaid, your whole life is just a dream." Remember, in the world of Verhoeven, women are good for only two things, killing and screwing. So since she failed in killing him, she of course offers her body to him. It's of course a clever ploy to buy time, she's just waiting for her psychotic boy friend Richter (Michael Ironside) to save her and kill Quaid. Quaid doesn't buy it, and he smashes her in the face.

Unfortunately for Quaid, he has a bug on him. The bad guys know exactly where he is, at all times. Not only does Quaid have the bad guys to worry about, but he runs through the X-Ray machine with his gun on him. Now he has to worry about pesky cops. As Quaid is running up the escalator, he has to make a critical choice, to either be shot, or to use an innocent civilian as a human shield. He chooses the later. The poor man is blown to pieces, and Quaid escapes without a scratch, he also manages to kill several of the bad guys. When Quaid finally gets out of harms way, he giggles to himself, as if to say, "that was fun!"

Quaid get's advice from a mysterious stranger: that is to wrap a wet towel around his head. This will muffle the detection of the bug that is in his skull. The man leaves Quaid a briefcase by the steps, Quaid nearly get's in a fist fight with a fifty year old woman to get it, but he does get it in his possesion. The scene is funny, because the old woman is so crude, but this could also reflect Verhoeven's views on the elderly.

Quaid ends up stealing a 'Johnny-Cab' to get away from the bad guys. So, Verhoeven has Quaid driving a cab, wearing a towel around his head. This could be just a coincidence, or further proof that Verhoeven has a twisted sense of humor.

Quaid opens the briefcase, and finds all sorts of neat toys. Including a device that makes a hologram of himself, and a computer that has himself talking to him, "you are not you, you are me." As Quaid watches himself on the computer, he gleefully feeds the rats around him. Showing that when he isn't killing people, he lives a merry life of feeding rodents. Quaid finds a tool that he can stick up his nose, to get rid of the bug. This is how Verhoeven teaches our youth not to pick their noses. For it looks quite painful. The bad guys are quick on his tail, and before he escapes, Quaid feeds the bug to one of the near by rats. Which adds for a comical scene, showing just how smart the bad guys are. They shoot in every possible area, before realizing it's a rat that they are shooting at. After catching on, they blow the rat apart, spraying his innards all over the computer. Verhoeven never did have a soft spot in his heart for animals. Just see what he does to them in Hollow Man.

So Quaid finally get's to Mars, dressed as a fat woman no less. For some odd reason, when Quaid is the fat woman, he can only say, 'two weeks'. I've never really understood this, but it let's Quaid expose himself, and kill more people. My guess is, Quaid wanted to be exposed so he could have the opportunity to kill again. The scene, like all the scenes in the film, is quite funny. For some reason, Quaid goes nuts when he is the fat woman, he makes weird noises, and he can't keep his hands out of his mouth. I think this shows Verhoeven's views on overweight people. Is he saying: they'll put anything in their mouth? The woman comes apart, and Quaid is left standing, he throws the woman's head at a cop, which explodes and kills at least three people.

Quaid arrives at a hotel, he finds that he has left something in the safty deposit box for him. It's a paper, with a woman with bare breasts on it, on the back it says, 'for a good time, ask for Melina.' Of course Verhoeven would make the heroine in the film a prostitute.

It's here where Quaid meets Benny, the cab driver. Quaid and Benny quickly become friends, as you know, this is never a good thing in a Verhoeven film. The two will end up being good friends, and Benny will ask such strange questions as, "Have you ever fu-ked a mutant?" There's all sorts of mutant looking people walking around the city, Benny quickly takes Quaid to the brothel. It's here, where we meet Paul Verhoeven's dream woman: a hooker with three breasts.

Quaid and Melina finally meet. Their introduction is perfect. She walks up to him, and grabs his crotch, asking him, "What have you been feeding this thing?". It's here, where Arnold delivers one of his best lines of all time. He responds with the answer: blondes. It's so dirty, so shameless, so Verhoeven.

Quaid leaves and goes back to the hotel, soon he has a visitor at his suite. A man telling him he works for Recall. A man telling him, that everything that has happened so far is just a dream. It's amazing, but this little ploy is almost believable. Quaid almost falls for it. The man brings Lori into Quaid's apartment, she tells him that she is also at Recall. Quaid doesn't fall for it, because he see's a dribble of sweat on the doctor's forehead. Quaid blows the man's brains out. He is still overtaken by the bad guys, and it's up to Melina to save him.

It's here, where Verhoeven finally delivers what he's been building up to the entire film, a cat fight between the two women. Good Vs. Evil. Sexy vs. Sexier. Quaid watches the fight, almost transfixed and aroused. Finally, he does something, he blows Lori's brains out, just like he did to the doctor. "Consider that a divorce."

Quaid and Melina barely escape the evil Richter. When they get out of the building, they find Benny and he takes them to the brothel again. It's here where there is a secret passage that they use to escape. Richter ends up killing the woman with the three breasts in his fit of anger. What a shame. This act starts a huge battle. Including a part where a dwarf woman stabs a man in the stomach with a knife. Cohaagen ends up turning the air off in city, to punish them for protecting Quaid.

Quaid, Melina, and Benny are in a secret cave like area, filled with the bodies of dead mutants. Quaid is suppose to meet with Kuato. Kuato is the leader of the rebels, and will be able to free Quaid's mind. It's in the cave that we discover Benny has a really disgusting arm. He's a mutant.

The introduction to Kuato is a disturbing one. It turns out, Kuato is a disturbing child like creature, that is attached to a man's stomach. A disgusting child like mutant. This shows us what Verhoeven thinks of children. The creature is kind, yet horribly disgusting. It has a runny nose, and drools. I hope to God Verhoeven never had children, or they'll know how he feels about them. There's something not quite right about seeing Arnold, holding the hands of a disgusting child, that is attached to man, and the child keeps saying, "open your mind, open your mind."

Just then the bad guy's break in. It turns out Benny was a bad guy all along (always happens in Verhoeven films), and he shoots the man who is the host of Kuato. Richter ends up blowing Kuato's brains out, revenge for Lori no doubt.

Cohaagen finally captures Quaid. It turns out, everything was set up. Howser, who is Quaid, before he became Quaid, is a bad guy! They deliberately made Howser into Quaid, so they could make him a mole. So they would be able to kill Kuato. The plot here is hard to buy, but it works. Richter wasn't in on it, so that explains why he was always trying to kill Quaid. It's a weird moment when Quaid realizes that he is actually a bad guy.

So they put Quaid and Melina in those weird chair things that were seen at Recall, and they plan to implant Howser back into Quaid, and to change Melina's personality all together. Or as Cohaagen puts it, "we're having you fixed!"

Quaid ends up busting through the chair, and putting part of it into one of the scientists necks. This is an homage to Verhoeven's Robo Cop. As he escapes, Quaid also ends up shoving a piece of metal through a man's nose, and out of his skull.

After their daring escape, Cohaagen finally gives Richter the order to kill Quaid. It turns out, there is a reactor that makes air. It was made by the aliens, and Cohaagen doesn't want anyone to find out about it. Quaid and Melina quickly head towards the reactor.

There is a neat battle between Benny and Quaid. Benny, who is in a weird tractor/drill/truck is trying to drill Quaid and Melina. 'I'm gonna drill you sucka!' Benny continues shouting at Quaid and Melina, 'I'm gonna grind you up!' Quaid ends up putting a drill into Benny's stomach, 'Screw you!'

It turns out the whole core of Mars is ice. The reactor mealts it, and it releases oxygen. Interesting. Remember that hologram thing Quaid found in a briefcase, well this is when he uses it. He puts it on, and guards don't know who is real, and who isn't. It's fun, and you can see the joy in Quaid's face as he foils them and cheerfully kills.

Finally, it's a match between Quaid and Richter. The fight happens on an elevator. Since Quaid is so much stronger, he ends up throwin Richter off the elevator, well almost. Richter holds on, and plans on taking Quaid with him. Instead, Richter ends up getting his arms chopped off and falls to his death. Ouch.

Quaid reaches the reactor, and he finds that Cohaagen has been waiting for him. 'In thirty seconds, you'll be dead. I'll blow this place up, and be home in time for corn flakes.' Who talks like that? Melina ends up shooting Cohaagen before he can kill Quaid. Quaid throws the bomb that Cohaagen was holding, and it ends up breaking an air lock, sending Cohaagen and Quaid flying outside where there is no air. This happens, but not before Quaid can put his hand on the reactor and make oxygen. Cohaagen's eyes and tongue pop out of his face, and the same almost happens to Quaid. But it doesn't, and he ends up saving the day. Of course.

If Total Recall would have been in the hands of any other director, it would have just been your typical action movie. Not so in the hands of Verhoeven. The film is unforgettable, because it's so damn weird and twisted. At the same time it is strangely perverse.

The film has an uncalled for body count of around 65 people, 1 rat, and seven gold fish. It's not your typical film, but Verhoeven has never made anything normal. It does have some cheesy parts, and the plot is ridiculous. Never the less, Verhoeven created one Scwarzenegger's best films, and one of the best science fiction films ever made.

Coming soon: looks at other Verhoeven films, including: Starship Troopers, Showgirls, Basic Instinct, and Robo Cop.











































Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age