Golden Oldie Revisited - Total Recall

[Sheridan Passell]

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Ironside, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox
Released: 1990

This is one of those films that prove that the old Austrian Oak, Arnie, is deeply into philosophy, (read ‘The Philosopher at the End of the Universe’ if you don’t believe me).

In this film Arnie is a simple working class husband, never noticing his difference to everyone else. But then again, isn’t that every Arnie movie? No one ever says;

“You sell insurance, so why are you six feet wide?”
or
“We are in the middle ages, so where did you get those steroids from?”
or
“Are you sure you’re from Detroit? Because your accent says different.”

But anyway, in this movie there is a reason he doesn’t notice that he’s different; he used to be a spy for the Martian government, but his memory was replaced with a new one.

Soon it’s a race against time to get to Mars to figure out what’s happening. Mars seems to be filled with mutants due to the effect that mining has had. They’re easy to spot as most of them have play dough on their foreheads like in Star Trek. The only useful or positive mutation is a woman with three breasts (this alone makes the movie worthwhile).

It turns out that this is all concerning the freedom of Mars, and strangely, an ancient Martian pyramid that was built before humans arrived. And if anyone saw this as a kid and re-watches it, Kuato still creeps you out.

9/10