For those who are old enough to remember 25 years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of Hollywood's biggest action heroes. With movies like Commando, Predator, and The Running Man already under his belt, the former Mr Universe took on the more challenging roles of Quaid and Hauser in 1990's Total Recall. By challenging, I mean that there was slightly more acting and slightly less action than Arnie's previous movies.
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| "...what if this is a dream?" |
When Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) visits Rekall Inc. to have a virtual Martian vacation implanted in his mind, the truth about his hidden past starts to become apparent, and the life he thought he knew unravels before him. Even his wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), wants to kill the new Quaid.
Quaid's only friend is Carl Hauser, who just happens to be the previous owner of Doug Quaid's body. Hauser left Quaid a metal briefcase and a trail of breadcrumbs which leads him to Mars, and Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox) and this is where things start to get really messed up. Hauser was Cohaagen's right hand man and the two of them cooked up a scheme to unmask and assassinate the Martian Rebel Leader, Kuato.
The main plot line is interspersed with fun subplots featuring citizens of Mars and a weird love/hate triangle between Quaid, Lori, his pretend wife, and Richter (Michael Ironside), the guy who is trying to catch/kill Quaid, and Lori's actual husband. Director Paul Verhoeven added his usual humor to this vague adaptation of Philip K. Dick's short story, 'We can remember it for you wholesale'.
The movie definitely makes you wonder with every plot shift, and it has plenty of action and Arnie one-liners. Oh and don't forget Milena, whose only purpose for being in the movie is to play Quaid's love interest and give him a reason to fight on the side of the rebels. Oh and you get to see a mutant martian with 3 breasts.
Very few people in the known universe would not be aware of Arnold Schwarzenegger from some point in is illustrious existence. He went from Austrian nobody, to bodybuilder, to movie star, to major movie star, to movie megastar, to Governor or California, to adulterer, to old movie star across the span of 50 years. If you are still not sure who he is then let me help. "Ah'll be back", "Get to de choppuhr", "Hasta La Vista, baby".
Rachel Ticotin played Milena, so that Arnie had a reason to be back. She was drafted from a TV background for this role, and pretty much went back to TV when she was done. The only major movie you may have seen her in since Total Recall is Con Air as Sally Bishop, the only female guard on the prison plane. She played prosecutor Wanda Bisbing in Tarantino's Natural Born Killers, but her scenes were deleted. Thankfully her scenes as Lt Arleen Gonzalez in Law and Order were not deleted otherwise you may still not know who she is.
Sharon Stone was hovering in the underground of acting stardom when she played Quaid's pretend wife in Total Recall. Although this role did not in itself launch her into super stardom, it did pave the way to her role in Basic Instinct. Most men know about Basic Instinct, but can neither recall what Sharon Stone's character was called, nor the finer points of the movie's plot.
Ronny Cox first hit the big screen as the guitar dueling Drew in Deliverance., after which he had an illustrious TV career up until he played Lt. Bogomil in a couple of Beverly Hills Cop movies. The role of bad guy Cohaagen came hot on the heels of the role of bad guy Dick Jones in Robocop. When Ronny is not acting he is playing jazz, folk and western music on his guitar for his next CD.
Michael Ironside plays Richter in Total Recall, the hapless bungling henchman whose wife was sent on a mission to play Quaid's wife and make sure his mind swap held. Torn between capturing and killing Quaid, he ends up doing neither. Even with a macho name like Ironside, he never really made it out of the ranks of supporting actor, but has a few hundred supporting movie credits to his name.
There were many other actors and actresses in this movie, some of which may have been worthy of a mention, but readers tend to get bored beyond five actor profiles. In fact I would guess that less than 10 percent of people who landed on this page, for whatever reason, are still reading this. (Send us a sign if you did make it this far).
22 years after this classic was released, we saw a re-imagining of Total Recall featuring Colin Farrell as Quaid/Hauser. If you don't want to wait 2 decades for us to tell you about it in a "Where are they now?" post then check it out for yourself. It's different enough to be exciting even if you have seen the original.
There were many other actors and actresses in this movie, some of which may have been worthy of a mention, but readers tend to get bored beyond five actor profiles. In fact I would guess that less than 10 percent of people who landed on this page, for whatever reason, are still reading this. (Send us a sign if you did make it this far).
22 years after this classic was released, we saw a re-imagining of Total Recall featuring Colin Farrell as Quaid/Hauser. If you don't want to wait 2 decades for us to tell you about it in a "Where are they now?" post then check it out for yourself. It's different enough to be exciting even if you have seen the original.
Why not revisit the original and you too can "Get the Girl, Kill the Baddies and Save the Entire Planet!"
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