Total Recall released June 1, 1990
Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, and Rachel Ticotin. It is based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”. Directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill, and Gary Goldman, it won a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects. The soundtrack composed by Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film Music Award.
The plot concerns an apparently unsophisticated construction worker, Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), who turns out to be a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth, and his attempts to restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence of commercial powers.
Trivia:
As many as seven directors were considered for and even hired to direct the movie, including Richard Rush, Bruce Beresford and David Cronenberg. Cronenberg had even written a few drafts of the script before Paul Verhoeven took over the Total Recall (1990) project.
Over 40 drafts of the script were written, some of which depicted Quaid as a mild-mannered accountant (instead of a construction worker). According to Paul Verhoeven, although there were many changes made to each of the scripts, the final draft of the script was very similar to the first draft.
Johnnycab whistles the Norwegian national anthem.
Robert Picardo was voice of and facial model for the “Johnnycab” robot.
When Quaid is dressed up as the fat lady, the passport he hands the guard is the actual passport of Priscilla Allen (who played the fat lady).
The subway scenes were filmed in the Mexico City subway system, specifically, the Insurgentes station of the Line 1: Constituyentes-Pantitlan.
Some of the large ads seen after Quaid gets off the subway were real signs featured above the Insurgentes subway station in Mexico City, most noticeable the Fuji Film and Coca Cola signs, the Coca Cola sign still stands today
The original cut of the movie was given an X-rating by the MPAA for excessive violence. Some violence was trimmed and different camera angles were used in some of the more over the top scenes and the movie was then re-rated R.
On the graph that Quaid is shown at Rekall, it appears that traveling by space shuttle has been getting more and more dangerous as time goes on!
The short story on which it was based was first optioned in 1974, 16 years before the film finally was released.
Patrick Swayze was signed to play Quaid when the movie began preproduction in Australia with Bruce Beresford as the director. However, early in preproduction, Dino De Laurentiis’ company went bankrupt. After Arnold Schwarzenegger heard about this, he persuaded Carolco to buy the script for him.
The concept of Quaid being a physically-buffed construction worker was suggested by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. In the earlier drafts of the script, Quaid (originally named Quail) was originally described as an average-looking accountant-type person. Because of this detail, when the movie was originally going to be produced by Dino De Laurentiis, he was adamant about not letting Schwarzenegger audition for the role of Quaid. It was only after Schwarzenegger convinced Mario Kassar to buy the script rights from De Laurentiis (whose production company went bankrupt) that the later drafts were re-written to change Quaid’s character into one more suitable for Schwarzenegger to play. Schwarzenegger said that he felt this helped the story even more, giving a much stronger contrast to it by turning a character who is otherwise powerful physically into a character that becomes vulnerable after having his mind stolen.
Quaid’s metal briefcase contains a worker’s ID for the Pyramid Mines on Mars.
All of the crew fell ill due to food poisoning during production, with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Shusett. Schwarzenegger escaped because he always had his food catered from the US. This was because three years earlier, he had fallen ill due to drinking tap water in Mexico during production of Predator (1987). As for Shusett, he took extreme health precautions, such as only brushing his teeth with boiled or bottled water and insisting on getting a weekly vitamin B12 shot. Shusett was even mocked by the crew until they all got sick themselves.
The miniatures used for shots showing Martian geography were based on Martian photographs.
One of the early versions of digital rendering of real-life objects was used in the scene where Quaid removes the fat lady mask.
One of the heavily re-edited scenes to get an R-rating was the escalator shootout where Quaid uses a human body to shield himself from bullets.
Body count: 77
Kurtwood Smith was offered the role of Richter, but he turned it down because he felt the role was too similar to his character in RoboCop (1987).
Christopher Reeve was offered, but turned down, the role of Douglas Quaid.
Both the adaptation of the screenplay (written by Piers Anthony) and early drafts of the script had the main character’s name as Douglas Quail. The original Philip K. Dick story has the name Quail as well. The film was being made during the Bush administration, with Dan Quayle as Vice President and it is presumed that this was the reason for the change.
During Quaid’s Rekall orientation, a monitor momentarily shows an illustration of a green Martian from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian novels.
Richard Rush was initially hired by Dino De Laurentiis to direct the project, but he left when they couldn’t agree on the script. Rush was replaced by Bruce Beresford. Lewis Teague was also under consideration to direct around this time.
The escalator chase scene was filmed in Mexico City’s “Chabacano” Subway Station (Intersection for Lines 2, 9 and 8, though 8 wasn’t operating at the time). The only changes made are direction signs in English, and the station names replaced.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally going to play the title role in RoboCop (1987) but problems with the costume caused producers to drop the idea. After Schwarzenegger saw Robocop, he expressed that he loved the movie and wanted to work with director Paul Verhoeven. When he and Verhoeven heard about Total Recall, they decided to work on that.
Originally to be directed by David Cronenberg, who turned down the chance to direct The Fly (1986) in order to work on this film. Cronenberg was replaced on The Fly by Robert Bierman, but Bierman later pulled out of that project due to the death of his daughter. Around the same time, Cronenberg left Total Recall when it was placed into turnaround, which left him free to return to direct The Fly.
As it is often done in futuristic movies, this one also uses contemporary design objects to depict future settings – among other things, the small cups with the black plastic ring, used by Quaid while preparing his breakfast smoothie, are Bodum Bistro coffee mugs from Denmark, and a desk lamp at Rekall is the Tolomeo from Italian manufacturer Artemide.
Although never mentioned in the film, the cover of the VHS-edition of the movie mentions that the movie takes place in the year 2084 AD.
The Spanish title for this movie is “Desafío Total”, which translated to English means “Total challenge”. This movie was also released under another Spanish title, “El Vengador del Futuro”, which translates to “Future Avenger”
It took 15 puppeteers to control Kuato, whose name is from the Spanish word: cuate (twin). In Imagining ‘Total Recall’ (2001) (V), Director Paul Verhoeven said that special makeup effects designer Rob Bottin had made the Kuato puppet look so real, that he was approached by 2 people on the street asking if he (Marshall Bell) was a “real freak” or possibly a semi-born Siamese twin.
In the featurette Imagining ‘Total Recall’ (2001) (V), production designer William Sandell tells about the brutal conditions the cast and crew experienced while shooting in Mexico. Aside from most of the cast and crew suffering from food poisoning, Sandell also talks about the poor air quality in Mexico City, comparing the breathing conditions to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. He also mentions that at one point, the air quality had gotten so bad that associate producer Elliot Schick had to be transported via MEDEVAC copter to a nearby hospital.
Jeff Bridges, Matthew Broderick and Richard Dreyfuss were each considered for the role of Quaid.
The portable locator used by Michael Champion (Helm) was built by Casio.
In the featurette Imagining ‘Total Recall’ (2001) (V), editor Frank J. Urioste said that most of the external shots of Mars almost didn’t make it into the final cut of the movie, much to his dismay. The producers felt that those shots would be too expensive and would make the movie go over-budget. Urioste then addressed his concerns about those shots with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was able to influence the producers to not cut the external shots from the final film.
When shooting the scene where Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) smashes the window of the train, Schwarzenegger badly cut his hand for real. There was a tiny explosive in the glass that was supposed to go off a fraction of a second before Schwarzenegger hit the glass, but the explosive didn’t go off and Schwarzenegger broke the glass for real, thus cutting himself.
Robert Davi turned down the part of Richter.
When Quaid is going through the items in the silver suitcase, he picks up a stack of fake ID cards. The name on the first ID is Steve Lionetti, who was a production assistant for the movie.
Approximately 3 weeks before the movie’s scheduled theatrical release, it only had 43% public awareness of the movie, which Arnold Schwarzenegger described as being “absolutely disastrous”. Arnold was able to convince Mario Kassar and the rest of Carolco to pump in more money for advertising, and as a result, the movie ended up opening with 99% public awareness.
In the DVD commentary, Paul Verhoeven said that for the love scene after Quaid wakes from his nightmare, he wanted Sharon Stone to show off more skin for the scene, but Stone had refused to do so. He settled for shooting the scene as it is shown, but mentions that he “got her back” while shooting the movie Basic Instinct (1992).
Towards the end of filming in Mexico, Paul Verhoeven got so sick from food poisoning that he would have an ambulance nearby on set at all times, and in between takes, they would administer fluids and medication, so that Verhoeven could keep directing in spite of his illness.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was so impressed by how much dedication Sharon Stone had in training for her character role, that he even referred to her as the “Female Terminator”. Stone was even inducted into the Stunt Woman Association as an honorary member.
Total Recall (1990) was one of the last major Hollywood blockbusters to make large-scale use of miniature effects as opposed to CGI, and at the same time, it was also one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters to use CGI (mainly for the scenes involving the X-Ray scanner) and have it look “photo-real”.
Though the location of the city in which Quaid lives and works is not revealed, the phone number featured in the Rekall ad he sees in the subway shows an area code of 915, which suggests the movie is set somewhere in western Texas, possibly El Paso.
David Cronenberg was set to direct and even wrote a few drafts of the script before Paul Verhoeven took over. Cronenberg stated that he wanted to cast William Hurt as the lead, and was displeased by the producers’ decision to reimagine the lead for an action star such as Schwarzenegger.
In the fight scene after he visits Rekall, the sound of breaking bones is actually celery being twisted and broken.
