Paul Verhoevens Total Recall is an action classic.
With the film out now on Blu-ray, we look closer at its bleak subtext.
If youre watching this, things have gone wrong and youve got a wet towel wrapped around your head.
If Im not me, then who the hell am I?
And then things go awry.
Baby, you make me wish I had three hands.
People are trying to kill you left and right.
You meet this beautiful exotic woman.
This, of course, is all fairly obvious if youre paying attention.
Youre not here and neither am I.
Your dream started in the middle of the implant procedure.
Quaid, of course, distrusts the doctor and blows his brains out.
Quaid transforms the planet, kills the bad guys and gets the girl, as predicted.
But as he and Melina enjoy a lingering kiss (I cant believe it.
Total Recall, then, is even more ambiguous than its is it all a dream?
For both Quaid and us, the fantasy is more palatable than the reality.
Kiss me quick before you wake up.
VerhoevensTotal Recallis out now on Blu-ray.
