Total Recall (SPOILERS)

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:15 pm

WARNING: If you have not seen this movie, this thread may contain spoilers.

Anyway, so what do you think? Was the whole movie in his head, or was it real?

Post by **AQT** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:52 pm

I love this movie (although I haven't seen it in a while)! It looked real enough to me. Too detailed to be all in the head, but after all, it is a movie.

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:07 pm

Wow. Random. Anyways, I'm pretty sure the entire thing is real, not in his head. I watched this a few months ago. Let's see if I can explain this correctly (feel free to disagree with me or ask questions):

For the sake of spoilers, click it.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Okay, so his wife & friends tell him not to go to Rekall, right? When he goes anyways, the process screws up because there are hidden memories there, and thus, the memories he had picked were never implanted. After sedating him heavily (the only way TO sedate him lol), they refund his money, erase all evidence he was there, and send his unconscious self home in a taxi. (It's worth noting the woman he chose to meet looks exactly like Melina, adding to the argument that it's all fake.) When his "co-workers" and "wife" find out he went to recall, they try to kill him. But, being outrageously buff (and the protagonist), he survives. After getting the briefcase from the stranger, he makes his way to Mars.

Skipping ahead, after he meets Melina, who doesn't believe he doesn't remember her, he's confronted by the man & his "wife", who try to convince him that he's just having a nightmare caused by an error at Rekall, and that he needs to take a pill to wake up. He threatens to kill the man, who says it won't matter, since it isn't real. Just before swallowing the pill, however, he notices the man is sweating from having a gun to his head. Because of this, he knows it's not a nightmare (if it wasn't real, the man wouldn't've been nervous at all, and thus, was bluffing), and spits out the pill. After headshotting the man, his "wife" tries to kill him, but he is saved by Melina.

Skipping some more, after the Mars police-like people (can't remember who exactly they are) cripple the rebellion, it's revealed that his former self was a member of the antagonist organization, and that he had done exactly what he was expected to. The message to himself from himself ends with "Now I want my body back" and he is restrained and prepped to go through a process to bring back his former self. However, he breaks free, rescues Melina, and continue on to the end of the movie.

That's all I can think to explain. Probably left some stuff out. Any questions?

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:26 pm

Hmm, I think it was in his head.

Here are some reasons why:

Hidden/Spoiler:

Ok, So when he first buys the package, the guy states that while on Mars he will be a secret agent, (Which he kinda was) have stayed at a luxury hotel, (Which he did) he would have killed all the bad-guys chasing him, saved Mars, and get the girl of his dreams. (All of which, he did.) Now if you notice, when implanting the memory, one of the scientists said, "Blue sky on Mars? That's new." And at the end, he gave Mars an atmosphere, thus giving it a blue sky. 

And on top of all that, the girl of his dreams, was the same as the one he picked at the start.

And with the guy and his "wife". The guy from Recall said that his mind invented new stuff as it went along, so maybe he invented that the guy was fake and shot him.

What do you think?

EDIT: Woops, sorry about the wrong form thing. I wasn't too sure where to put it...

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:49 pm

Hidden/Spoiler:

But really...

Hidden/Spoiler:

In response to that whole first paragraph, the story purposely follows those events to make the audience wonder if it was real. Now that I've made the most obvious statement in this topic, let me continue on to say that the choices he made for the Rekall "experience" were most likely influenced by his past self. This would explain the choices he makes, some of which the guys at Rekall found strange, as they (the choices) match the plan they made which would eventually lead to finding the resistance fighters' HQ through the events of the movie, as they reveal they predicted.

[quote]And on top of all that, the girl of his dreams, was the same as the one he picked at the start.[/quote]

Yepp, already pointed that out. And, continuing my last paragraph here because it's relevant, that would also explain how the "woman of his dreams" that he picked looked exactly like Melina, and why he was persistant about having the woman look like her.

[quote]And with the guy and his "wife". The guy from Recall said that his mind invented new stuff as it went along, so maybe he invented that the guy was fake and shot him.[/quote]

While there is no solid way to prove that isn't true, the best way I can think to say it right now is, why would Rekall put themselves in the middle of a memory & tell him it isn't real, thus ruining it? Also, the Rekall service added memories, not a virtual experience, meaning he'd simply wake up with extra memories. If it was all in his head, the only way we'd have the movie would be if it was told through flashbacks, which it wasn't.

I'm enjoying this. Total Recall is a great movie for this kinda discussion. lol

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:15 pm

Hmm, all of these are good points.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Another thing I thought:

When they implanted the memory in his head, all was fine. But later it showed the Recall manager trying to sell a memory to someone else, and then it came back to him in the chair struggling. Well I think that everything went fine, and the struggling thing and the scientist saying "But we haven't implanted the memory yet!" was all in his head. 

And also, when implanting the memory, he requested alien 'stuff', which was, in his dream.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Oh and,

[quote]While there is no solid way to prove that isn't true, the best way I can think to say it right now is, why would Rekall put themselves in the middle of a memory & tell him it isn't real, thus ruining it? Also, the Rekall service added memories, not a virtual experience, meaning he'd simply wake up with extra memories.

[/quote]

Well, the guy said that he would not wake up, so I think ruining the memory would be smarter than keeping the poor guy in a coma for the rest of his life.

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:04 pm

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote]Another thing I thought:

When they implanted the memory in his head, all was fine. But later it showed the Recall manager trying to sell a memory to someone else, and then it came back to him in the chair struggling. Well I think that everything went fine, and the struggling thing and the scientist saying "But we haven't implanted the memory yet!" was all in his head. 

And also, when implanting the memory, he requested alien 'stuff', which was, in his dream.[/quote]

Well, it would've taken time to prep him for the 'procedure' (whatever you wanna call it). So it took time to get to the stage of it that caused him to freak out. His 'friends & wife' (the agents assigned to watch him) warned him not to go because they knew it'd screw up & possibly bring back his memories (even though, by doing this, he set the entire plan into motion. Reverse psychology?).

As for him requesting the 'alien stuff', that goes with what I said about his choices being subconciously influenced by his past self.

[quote]Oh and,

[quote]While there is no solid way to prove that isn't true, the best way I can think to say it right now is, why would Rekall put themselves in the middle of a memory & tell him it isn't real, thus ruining it? Also, the Rekall service added memories, not a virtual experience, meaning he'd simply wake up with extra memories.

[/quote]

Well, the guy said that he would not wake up, so I think ruining the memory would be smarter than keeping the poor guy in a coma for the rest of his life.[/quote]

Yeahhh that last part was honestly just a guess on my behalf. Although I can't think of any reasons he'd need to do something like take a pill in order to come out of it, if it wasn't real. Besides, the man telling him he couldn't wake up was part his attempt to convince him it was a dream, with no more truth in it than anything else.

Nihillo · Post by **Nihillo** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:15 pm

Why don't you guys change the name of this thread to "SPOILERS: Total Recall" and stop using the hide tags?

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:51 pm

I donno. He used hide tags, I used hide tags. If we keep quoting each other, it's gonna get really confusing. XD

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:22 am

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote="Raptor522"]

Yeahhh that last part was honestly just a guess on my behalf. Although I can't think of any reasons he'd need to do something like take a pill in order to come out of it, if it wasn't real. Besides, the man telling him he couldn't wake up was part his attempt to convince him it was a dream, with no more truth in it than anything else.[/quote]

Well If you remember, the guy said that he had to have the 'want to' to wake up. And by taking the pill, he would make is mind think that he wants to wake up. (Or something along those lines.)

But yeah, I think putting everything in spoilers can get confusing.
Ok, I'll change to topic name, and we can speak without hiding everything in spoiler drop-downs.

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:13 pm

No hide tags? I can do that. So anyways.

General_Nate wrote:Well If you remember, the guy said that he had to have the 'want to' to wake up. And by taking the pill, he would make is mind think that he wants to wake up. (Or something along those lines.)

No, I didn't remember that. lol I'll watch it again sometime in these next few days so I can refresh my memory. Though it's just as likely that he needed to take the pill to wake up as it was it was a trick, regardless.

If the guy could be shot in the head and wake up fine, then it doesn't make sense why Quaid would have to do something like take a pill. If the guy could have the 'want to' wake up without doing anything, like taking a pill himself, then that would prove that the pill is useless. Even if the pill did do what they said it did, then the smart thing would've been to take pills themselves and be pulled out of the memory in front of him.

Also, if he needed to take the pill to wake up, it's pretty safe to say his 'wife' would've reacted to his defiance differently; like, being sad that he won't believe them, or concerned that he wouldn't snap out of it, or desperately try to change his mind, and/or something like that. Maybe frustrated, but not to where she'd try to kill him. And if it didn't matter whether or not he killed the guy, as he'd be just fine in reality (if it was fake), then he could just come back and prove it's not real that way. And if it wasn't real, he might not've even died from the shot.

Nihillo · Post by **Nihillo** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:41 pm

Kinda off-topic but I wanted to comment on this:

AQT wrote:Too detailed to be all in the head, but after all, it is a movie.

The way I see it, the world exists as it does only in our heads, I mean, sure there is some external stimuli that we interpret in order to form a conception of what is around us, there is something out there, outside of our bodies that is, but the world we saw, the world we heard, the world we touched, it's all in our heads; we do not perceive everything that is there, and not everything we perceive is really there. The human mind is powerful and unpredictable, our senses and perception of reality can be deceived by the presence -or lack of- different stimulations, the state of mind of one individual may distort his entire perception of reality, the world is still there, it's still the same, but he sees it through different eyes... in our minds, anything is possible.

To tie-in with this topic, anything that may have happened in this movie is possible, either as a real event or as an illusion in his head. The real question is: how do you know what is real and what is not? I guess that's what you guys are trying to figure out, right? What actually happened and what was a dream.

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:16 pm

Nihillo wrote:The way I see it, the world exists as it does only in our heads, I mean, sure there is some external stimuli that we interpret in order to form a conception of what is around us, there is something out there, outside of our bodies that is, but the world we saw, the world we heard, the world we touched, it's all in our heads; we do not perceive everything that is there, and not everything we perceive is really there. The human mind is powerful and unpredictable, our senses and perception of reality can be deceived by the presence -or lack of- different stimulations, the state of mind of one individual may distort his entire perception of reality, the world is still there, it's still the same, but he sees it through different eyes... in our minds, anything is possible.

Well said.

Anyway,

Raptor522 wrote:If the guy could be shot in the head and wake up fine, then it doesn't make sense why Quaid would have to do something like take a pill. If the guy could have the 'want to' wake up without doing anything, like taking a pill himself, then that would prove that the pill is useless. Even if the pill did do what they said it did, then the smart thing would've been to take pills themselves and be pulled out of the memory in front of him.

Also, if he needed to take the pill to wake up, it's pretty safe to say his 'wife' would've reacted to his defiance differently; like, being sad that he won't believe them, or concerned that he wouldn't snap out of it, or desperately try to change his mind, and/or something like that. Maybe frustrated, but not to where she'd try to kill him. And if it didn't matter whether or not he killed the guy, as he'd be just fine in reality (if it was fake), then he could just come back and prove it's not real that way. And if it wasn't real, he might not've even died from the shot.

Well, like I said before, him mind was making new stuff up as it went along.

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 4:38 pm

Even if he was in a false reality, and his mind was making stuff up, that wouldn't be relevant.

1) If the man was telling the truth, then they were actually there, in his memory. However, this would mean that he basically screwed himself into a coma by killing the guy and not taking the pill. This, however, leaves many things without any explanation (like, why did they only try once?) and some plot holes, some of which I've already pointed out.

2) The man was lying. Everything goes as I explained. But because the man broke into a nervous sweat after having the gun pointed at his head, this is what's strongly implied.

I only have about a minute to type this up, so if something doesn't make sense, sorry, I'll correct it later.

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:03 am

Nihillo wrote: ...anything that may have happened in this movie is possible, either as a real event or as an illusion in his head.

And that's why we can't come up with anything. The movie was made just so arguments like this would happen. Let's just see what other people think.

Post by **Maveritchell** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:16 am

I thought the whole thing was a movie, but I guess some people think it's real?

No seriously, it was Ah-nold doing his thing and dropping some one-liners, I never cared much to take a side in that debate. It's been a long time since I've seen it, too, so I don't honestly remember it well enough to comment.

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:26 pm

Maveritchell wrote:I thought the whole thing was a movie...

*facepalm* Of course! Mav, you're a freaking genius! It all makes sense now.

General_Nate · Post by **General_Nate** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:06 pm

And there is our conclusion! Mav, you've done it again!

Raptor522 · Post by **Raptor522** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:33 pm

Mav, I love you.

[Insert Awkward Pause Here]

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