Total Recall(1990): dream or not?

I thought it was real when I saw it as a kid, and it wasn't until I grew up and someone suggested it was a dream that I went back and watched it again. I realized that all these years I wasn't even appreciating one is the best aspects of the movie, which is the mindfuck ending.

But yes, now I believe it was all a dream. He got everything he paid for.
 
The only part that's kinda fucked up about it being a dream is that the recall company made him hate his wife and best friend, and actually kill them.

Now he has to wake up and go home and reconcile that in his mind.
 
BisexualMMA said:
The evidence in the movie points to dream but it's left open enough to be real that you walk away feeling good about saving Mars instead of depressed that this guy will spend the rest of his life in a hospital bed with a feeding tube.
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I take it as that's the experience he paid for and at the end he's waking up, hence the fade white.

The "are you dreaming or not" is something to make his experience more authentic since in the middle of it he might think "Hey, isn't this literally exactly what I paid for?" And snap out of it.
 

"Be aware that if everything that happens in the movie from now on is going to be a dream, if there is no reality to anything ... realize that the dream really starts at the moment that he falls asleep. So the next scene, which seems to be a f***-up of the machine, is part of the dream," says Verhoeven. "So this is the last moment of his reality. Goes into the unconsciousness, and basically from now on...boom! The dream starts. ... That's the trick of the company, that they make a dream that's so convincing that it seamlessly goes from the first reality into the second one."

Read More: https://www.looper.com/90552/ending-total-recall-explained/?utm_campaign=clip


https://www.looper.com/90552/ending...t the end of the,dream that started the movie.
 
lostdog000 said:

"Be aware that if everything that happens in the movie from now on is going to be a dream, if there is no reality to anything ... realize that the dream really starts at the moment that he falls asleep. So the next scene, which seems to be a f***-up of the machine, is part of the dream," says Verhoeven. "So this is the last moment of his reality. Goes into the unconsciousness, and basically from now on...boom! The dream starts. ... That's the trick of the company, that they make a dream that's so convincing that it seamlessly goes from the first reality into the second one."

Read More: https://www.looper.com/90552/ending-total-recall-explained/?utm_campaign=clip


https://www.looper.com/90552/ending-total-recall-explained/#:~:text=At the end of the,dream that started the movie.
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end of thread
 
Fedorgasm said:
The only part that's kinda fucked up about it being a dream is that the recall company made him hate his wife and best friend, and actually kill them.

Now he has to wake up and go home and reconcile that in his mind.
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dude, you just blew my mind. I never thought through that Arnold would have memories of murdering his wife & then go home after work to hang out with her like any other day
 
My guess if Verhoeven didnt really have a firm idea whether it was or not, he just enjoyed playing with the idea.
 
good question.

Not seen TR in ages, im going to bed now so i'll put it on and tell you tomorrow ;)
 
Mike said:
Didn't the guy sweating while explaining it was a dream, lend weight to the idea it wasn't a dream? It's been awhile.
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Yeah that is the big part that adds some doubt and kinda tests the viewer as to which side they are on.

The question is what would happen if he did take the pill. Which brings up the question how much choice do you have under recall. Like are you involuntarily experiencing the memory as intended or is there some sense of free will involved?
 
Why would Rekall implant a fake memory in which he is undergoing a problem and needs to end his mars adventure early but then has you kill your wife instead of ending the fake mars adventure?
 
revoltub said:
Yeah that is the big part that adds some doubt and kinda tests the viewer as to which side they are on.

The question is what would happen if he did take the pill. Which brings up the question how much choice do you have under recall. Like are you involuntarily experiencing the memory as intended or is there some sense of free will involved?
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Again though I don't think the film is REALLY concerned with that, its a fun plot element it uses a few times but ultimately its concerned about taking down a brutal colonialist dicator.

I think actually the most significant use of the "memory alteration" plot is the reveal that Hauser was a badguy and the threat Quade is going to be replaced by him, the idea that even your personality/soul is in the hands of the capitalist overlords and that Quade is rebelling against even his own past.

Personally I suspect Verhoeven didn't really have a firm idea over whether the film was a dream or not, he just enjoyed throwing out hints that it might be, maybe poking fun at the idea such problems could be resolved by simple heroism.
 
Mike said:
Didn't the guy sweating while explaining it was a dream, lend weight to the idea it wasn't a dream? It's been awhile.
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Well, yeah, his sweat seemed to give him away. But maybe he was just a figment of Quaid's dream as well; maybe all that intrigue and subterfuge was just part of the sophisticated dream from the people at Recall.

I definitely lean towards it not being a dream, but I'm going to have to watch it again to decide. Great movie and AMAZING soundtrack.
 
Armbars said:
good question.

Not seen TR in ages, im going to bed now so i'll put it on and tell you tomorrow ;)
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He wakes up from a dream at the start, dreaming of Mars.

It's not a dream
 
Armbars said:
He wakes up from a dream at the start, dreaming of Mars.

It's not a dream
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Good point. But it's still could go either way. Either he's remembering stuff that really happened, or he's remembering a previous recall experience.
 
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