Total Recall appreciation post

As a youngster growing up without cable, it was a special occasion when a new movie found its way onto network TV. Over the years I compiled a decent-sized collection of heavily edited action-adventure movies. My tape of Total Recall featured in a rotation that included Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Tremors, Die Hard, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and Tango and Cash. Between 1997 and '98 my parents signed us up for cable and Internet. With those new leisure time offerings and my burgeoning interest in video games and books, my tape collection was all but forgotten.

Until this past week I hadn't seen Total Recall in over 20 years, maybe 25. My memory of the story was fuzzy, but some parts stood out as clear as if I'd been there: the buggy female disguise, the conjoined twin/psychic, the famous pill scene, and Sharon Stone in a leotard.

As I watched Total Recall with fresh eyes, I was gobsmacked. Clocking in at just under 2 hours, the pacing is perfect, leaving not a single minute for your mind to wander, but at the same time not overwhelming you with exposition. The diversity of content on offer boggles the mind, and none of it feels forced or out of place. There are enough ideas for five movies here, and they cohere marvelously. Let's run through them:

• Futuristic Earth society
• Memory implants ("Your brain will not know the difference, or your money back.")
• Agents, double agents, and triple agents
• Advanced Martian colony
• An evil dictator depriving citizens air
• Psychic mutants
• Ancient alien reactor designed to terraform the atmosphere

Add to all that Arnold Schwarzenegger doing Arnold Schwarzenegger things, Paul Verhoeven's unique take on violence, and Jerry Goldsmith composing the score, and you have arguably the best science fiction movie of all time. It's an entertainment masterpiece!

I won't get into whether the fantastical plot is the very simulation Arnold's Quaid character paid Rekall to implant in his memory. That's a fun conversation with no right or wrong answer. What's clear from the movie's opening scenes is Quaid's reason for going to Rekall is a nagging feeling that a lot of men can relate to. "I feel like I was made for something more than this," he tells his wife. "I want to do something with my life, to be somebody." Perhaps you think this line is ironic coming from someone who looks like Arnold and who's married to someone who looks like Sharon Stone. I think it just goes to show you even men who "have it all" have fantasies of being the hero.

So, much like Die Hard which came out 2 years earlier, Total Recall is a full-throated apologia for heroism in a world that devalues the untamed virtues of men. They simply don't make movies like this anymore. They will again if I have anything to say about it.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments. If you like sci-fi, check out my books Seeds of Calamity and Tendrils to the Moon. You can find extended previews for each here and here.