10 reasons we still love Total Recall 20 years later

SciFi Wire ^ | 06/01/10

[KevinDavis]

The year was 1990. The first President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were ending the Cold War, while South Africa was ending apartheid. It was the year of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This," and in the theaters, Home Alone was the top-grossing film of the year.

[KevinDavis]

Good movie.. Wasn't there some controversy about this film??

[KevinDavis]

A big thanks goes to Visualops for the Banner!!

[Xenalyte]

Not that I recall, and I was 22 then, so I probably would have.

[Perdogg]

I remember a woman with the three boobs freaked me out. Sharon Stone was still hot then.

[max americana]

Unless you were offended by the hooker with 3 tits..

[Red in Blue PA]

Does anyone still watch this movie? Who is “we”?????

I didn’t like it when it came out.

[Clemenza]

It was the year of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This," and in the theaters, Home Alone was the top-grossing film of the year.

The George HW Bush era was a cultural low point in the United States, after some great music and films produced in the Reagan-era.

[GOPJ]

Total Recall is still one of the best mindfraks ever.

Mindfraks? Please add me to your ping list - I'm so out of touch with SF now - I've never heard the term mindfraks...

[nolongerademocrat]

You’ll love this but it is not fiction.

Mind Upload, Body- Independent Life, Consciousness Backup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5OHnmF_nx8

Quantum Informatics on a Chip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvApKB6fHQ8

[EGPWS]

I remember that movie in great detail!

I still think it wasn't produced however.

[Xenalyte]

Just to go on record here ... I HATE THE NON-WORD “FRAK.”

Be a man and say the real cuss word, or say “freak” with all its letters.

[GSP.FAN]

Another great PKD short story butchered by Hollywood..

[EGPWS]

Unless you were offended by the hooker with 3 tits..

The movie director milked that scene to the extreme IMO.

[Caipirabob]

Wasn't there some controversy about this film??

Most people killed in a single movie or something like that.

[Flag_This]

"I didn’t like it when it came out."

It didn't do much for me either. I don't care much for paul verhoeven's flicks.

[Rebelbase]

On the other hand that gawd awful 80’s music was replaced by rock resurrected in the alternative genre of the 90’s.

[andyk]

Great movie. Interesting bits from wiki:

A script was written for a sequel, which after modification became Minority Report.

The movie was novelized by Piers Anthony, which I also did not know.

[mtnmar]

This is one movie I will always remember. We saw it between second and third phase of boot-camp on Paris Island. Can still remember the drill instructors stopping the movie half way through just to mess with us. Those were the days.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

How could you disagree that scenes like this aren’t a classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rziE39JWfs

[Incorrigible]

What about the guy you lobotomized? Did he get a refund?

[Pavegunner72]

“Cohagen, give dee the pee-po da aiyuh!”

[KevinDavis]

LOL...

[Tanniker Smith]

This one line:

failing to regain his mojo with Starship Troopers (which, while awesome, hardly scored at the box office)

... makes the whole article suspect.

[sabe@q.com]

loved Minority Report

[Clemenza]

The good stuff didn’t come along until 92, when the Bush era was coming to a close. 89-92 were the WORST years for music, TV, and movies in my life.

[dfwgator]

I can think of three reasons

[KevinDavis]

You mean those hair bands?? The true cause of global warming???

[ScoochDude]

You nailed it right on the nip. You’d have to be a boob not to have seen that he milked it.

[who knows what evil?]

...not unusual to see girls like that near Seabrook, New Hampshire. Not as good looking, of course...

[Tanniker Smith]

I didn't see it in theaters, I think I rented it or saw it on TV, possibly after seeing "Basic Instinct".

The special effects were great for the time.
I have the novel in a box in the basement. I never got around to reading it. I should dig that out.

I remember people complaining about the science of it being stupid and that the only way it worked is if the entire movie were actually a delusion brought on my an embulism and he actually was going to be lobotomized.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.  

[Snickering Hound]

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

When Schwarzenegger was really Schwarzenegger and not the RINO global warming loving crap he is now.

[Grizzled Bear]

...not unusual to see girls like that near Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Not quite; the Seabrook girls have one on the front and two on the back. The guys love to slow dance with their Seabrook girls.

[skimask]

Blue skies on Mars.

Yes it still is one of Arnold's best movies.

[RockinRight]

Alternative was the whiny, annoying, suicidal little bastard to the fun-loving party dude that was the 80s.

[RockinRight]

Alternative rock was, and is, crap.

Give me crunching guitars over whining and flannel shirts any day.

[who knows what evil?]

I don’t want to get close enough to dance with them... :-)

[boop]

I give credit to Arnold for supporting Nixon over McGovern. Yes Nixon was a social liberal, but he hated commies. Nixon was the original RINO, thinking he could get “credit” by giving liberals things they wanted. Like OSHA, EPA, affirmative action, etc.

[GSP.FAN]

Total Recall is based on a short story by Philip.K.Dick called
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”..
Minority Report is also based on a short story written by PKD..

[sabe@q.com]

loved the ramones

[colinhester]

“Starship Troopers (which, while awesome, hardly scored at the box office)... makes the whole article suspect.”

Pretty much says it all.....C

[Richard Kimball]

Good movie.. Wasn't there some controversy about this film??

Yeah, there was. Arnold capped his wife in the forehead. A lot of feminist groups threw a fit about that. There were also some complaints about the grossness of the movie. The scenes when he pulled the bulb out of his nose and when the faces and eyeballs started popping out in the Martian atmosphere cause the most complaints, IIRC. The guy was wrong about that movie being Arnold's swan song. The next year he did Terminator 2.

[SuziQ]

“Consider that a divorce!”

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

I love that movie!

[Jack Hydrazine]

I heard they are going to remake Total Recall.

[Richard Kimball]

Are they going to remake the movie or go back to the original short story, “We Can Remember it For You Wholesale?”

[Jack Hydrazine]

Don’t know.

http://www.cinematical.com/2009/06/03/and-here-comes-the-total-recall-remake/

[Yardstick]

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years.

[Rebelbase]

It was horrible!