Total Recall: Movie Plot
We have a man, Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has dreams of going to Mars. We don’t know why but he simply has an urge to go. He seems to have a normal life, he is a construction worker, has a wife (Sharon Stone) and what seems to be a decent futuristic home. But he is still not content, so against the advice of his wife and co-construction worker he decides to go to ‘Rekal’ (a company which deals with the implantation of false memories).
So, while in Rekal he is persuaded further to follow his dream. Even though Quaid questions whether false implantation gives memory authenticity, he decides to have memories of a trip to Mars implanted into his brain. The implantation also comes with a scenario (or ego trip); that he was a secret agent and with the help of his dream woman saves Mars. However while in sedation he suddenly becomes frantic, shouting, “you blew my cover”(in typical Arnie style). The Rekal technicians believe he has just had what they term a ‘schizoid embolism.’ So they realise something is wrong, as he seems to clearly believe that he has been to Mars but the memory implant hasn’t been implanted. So once they have restrained him they dump him in a taxi, refund his money and send him on his way.
This is were it starts getting messy; his co-construction worker and his wife both turn on him and try to kill him. A group of men are now suddenly trying to catch him – at this point all that the audience know is that Quaid is a wanted man, for what, who knows? He obviously knows something but this we are uncertain of at this juncture.
So after lots of chasing, gun fights and explosions we find out a little more about what the hell is going on. Quaid receives a brief case from an anonymous source, finds a place to open the case and then we learn more. Quaid isn’t really Quaid he is Hausser – a secret agent from Mars who was near to ending the political tension between rebels and the ‘dictator’. But he was caught, had his memory erased and was sent to earth. So Hausser (a pre recorded message of Hausser) tells Quaid to get to Mars and put an end to the political tensions. So, after putting some retractable instrument up his nose to retrieve a bug (homing device) out of his brain and evading some more enemy gunfire, we are introduced to the colony of Mars.
So, Quaid finally reaches Mars and many more gun fights later we are introduced to Melina – Hausser’s girlfriend and also a key figure in the rebel resistance. Quaid tries to explain to her that he isn’t Hausser anymore but she stubbornly doesn’t believe him at this point and asks him to leave. Well when I say ‘ask’ I mean point a gun to his head and give him the choice of death or leave.
So he leaves and goes back to his hotel room and receives a visit from a suspicious man, claiming he is from Rekal and also claiming that Quaid is dreaming the secret agent phase of the memory implant. At this point Quaid’s ‘wife’ (the so called wife that tried to kill him) comes back to, also to try and convince him that he is dreaming. The suspicious man then advisors Quaid to take a pill, which will help him out of the so-called dream he is in. Quaid realises (with the help of a trickle of sweat) that this man is lying – he kills him, has a fight with more men that barge there way in. Nearly gets killed by his pretend wife, is saved by Melina and they escape.
After lots more gun fighting Quaid, Melina and a random cab driver go underground – while underground they meet Kuato, a mutant with psychic abilities, who helps Quaid remember the secrets about the planet that he once knew as Hausser. After this Quaid and Melina are captured and taken away for memory re-implantation, and all the pieces of the mystery finally come together. Hausser was really a bad guy, who infiltrated the rebel gang and got close with Melina to try and kill Kuato. But because Kuato had psychic abilities they were afraid Hausser would get caught, so they created Quaid. Knowing that given time his urge to get back to Mars would over power him, Hausser left Quaid clues and hints as to what he wanted him to do. And as Quaid was a new identity, Kuato would have been oblivious as to what was going on. So Quaid was essentially a pawn, used to get close to Kuato in order to kill him. Quaid gets mad at this point and as they are about to be re-implanted with new memories he breaks free, kills some technicians and escapes with Melina.
So after escaping we learn from Quaid that the planets core contains a device for making an atmosphere on Mars – meaning more freedom for Mars’ inhabitants and less of a political hold on them. So Quaid and Melina set out to free the people of Mars; they kill many enemies using a few cool gadgets and finally they succeed. They nearly kill themselves in the process but they inevitably survive. The bad guys are dead and Mars is free – Arnie did once again!
Short story – ‘We can remember it for you wholesale.’
Again we have a man, Douglas Quail, who has an irresistible urge to want to go to Mars. At this point it is unknown both to the reader and to himself why he urges to go.
He decides to go to ‘Rekal’ (company dealing with false memory implantation) and talk to them about the possibility of implanting some false memories. After a lengthy discussion about the pro’s and con’s Quail agrees to have false memories implanted. However while under sedation, before actual implantation, he starts to talk about (what seems to be) a trip to Mars he has already been on, as a secret agent. The company know right away that something has gone wrong; that they have awoken something from the depths of Quails mind. So they put him in a taxi and refund his money.
Quail wakes up in taxi to find he has half of his money back; but he quickly realises that they haven’t implanted the false memories in him, although he has some very vivid images of Mars and events relating to Mars in his head. So he goes back to Rekal to find out what is going on – he demands a full refund and he gets. But he also gets a word of advise about the memories that have been uncovered; he is told to try and forget anything relating to Mars and to get on with his life.
However thoughts of Mars just wont escape his mind and are with him till he gets home. He tells his wife what has happened and she threatens to walk out on him if he carries on pursing his thoughts – this we realise is due to her being an under cover operative assigned to keep Quail under control. So Quail is still racking his brains about Mars trying to figure out these memories that are in there; are they real, where did they come from etc until he comes across a discovery. He finds an artefact that he remembers leaving in his house from Mars, and as he finds this 2 secret service agents appear and threaten to kill him.
This is where it all gets strange – Quail was a secret agent and he was posted on Mars to carry out a mission. He completed this mission (assassination) and due to the political tension surrounding the assassination, the agency gave Quail a new identity and sent him to earth.
So they threaten to kill him but he escapes – after talking to the agency via some sort of telepathy they agree to let him live, but only on the condition that they can give him a new identity.
However there is a big twist, which would spoil it if I told you – all I can give away, is that this guy has been through what would seem like a few identities.
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