Total Recall (remake)

[QualityChimp]

This is a great article about how Quaid really is just having paranoid delusions and none of the spy elements are really happening. He's in a coma back in the Rekall offices!

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/total-recall/22170/lobotomising-schwarzenegger-paul-verhoeven%E2%80%99s-total-recall

[rmoxon]

If it was all a dream then the film would tell you it was.

Total Recall has good twists and stuff but the plotting is actually really simple and it's clear that it's not all a dream at all. In fact there are no real hints in the film that it is all a dream. That article is really stretching things. I've never understood why some people are desperate for it all to be a dream. It's just weird.

Also, if it was all a dream then you have basically just watched a film where nothing happened and there was no point. Which basically makes it the worst film ever. Do people really want it to be the worst film ever?

[Stoppy2000]

There are enough hints in it to point towards it being a dream. I choose to prefer to believe that it all actually happens just because I like happy endings.

[bash]

I go for dream, not the stuck in dream and he's in coma at Rekall but just that he's literallty getting the package he bought. Its too stupid to believe he's this normal construction worker living on Earth but dreams of Mars, then buys a package which includes going to Mars, being a bad ass secret agent and the ending up with the girl of his dreams? I like to think Arnie will wake up after he's kissed her.

Its not a film about nothing happening if we're along for the ride with him. A film where nothing happens just wouldnt get made and if it did would make no money.

[Neon Ignition]

As it's so OTT in places I always felt that it was just Arnie getting the VR sequence he'd paid to get too.

[parkinho]

Also, if it was all a dream then you have basically just watched a film where nothing happened and there was no point. Which basically makes it the worst film ever. Do people really want it to be the worst film ever?

Brilliant logic there!

Total Recall is ambiguous enough that the viewer can see Quaid's journey as being either real, delusion or the implant he paid for, one of the reasons it is such a good film.

[QualityChimp]

If it was all a dream then the film would tell you it was.

Does it have to be clear cut? I love a solid ending too, but sometimes leaving the audience hanging is fun!

->Open Spoiler<-

Inception
Blade Runner
Prince of Darkness
The Thing
The Italian Job

Also, if it was all a dream then you have basically just watched a film where nothing happened and there was no point. Which basically makes it the worst film ever. Do people really want it to be the worst film ever?

There are several films/tv shows where it was all a dream or nothing was as it seems and were far from being "the worst film ever".

->Open Spoiler<-

The Sixth Sense
Lost
Vanilla Sky/Open Your Eyes
Wizard of Oz
American Psycho
The Descent
1408
The Shining (but let's not go there, eh?)

Heck, even

->Open Spoiler<-

Mario 2, Zelda: Link's Awakening and Mickey's Magical Quest

were dreams! Nobody says they're the worst games ever!

I actually like the idea that you can inspect films closer and get a deeper meaning from them, or just take them at face value.

Also, if it was all a dream then you have basically just watched a film where nothing happened and there was no point. Which basically makes it the worst film ever. Do people really want it to be the worst film ever?

Brian agrees with you, though... (3:40)

[Super Monkey Balls]

ending up with the girl of his dreams?

Literally the girl on the Recall monitor.

[Neon Ignition]

Most dream based films do my head in purely because they're more structured than dreams actually are. There's the odd exception but I think a standard dream is the least likely Total Recall explaination.

[djjimbob]

On the new Blu-Ray release, there is a documentary where Verhoeven states explicitly that the

->Open Spoiler<-

white light at the end of the movie is Arnie's brain collapsing back in the Rekall office

[bash]

On the new Blu-Ray release, there is a documentary where Verhoeven states explicitly that the

->Open Spoiler<-

white light at the end of the movie is Arnie's brain collapsing back in the Rekall office

Ha, so I was right!

[rmoxon]

Brilliant logic there!

Total Recall is ambiguous enough that the viewer can see Quaid's journey as being either real, delusion or the implant he paid for, one of the reasons it is such a good film.

No that's not one of the reasons it's such a good film.

If it was all a dream from the point that Arnie goes to get his fantasy then that means the entire movie hasn't really happened.

That means there's no character development, no one has learnt anything, no character has grown, nothing has actually taken place for around 90 minutes of the movie and the entire thing is meaningless. The main character will simply go back to his life and plod on in a content fashion as he originally had been.

I think it's very telling that Verhoven has only recently started talking like the film might be a dream when in the past he has nev said anything of the sort about the film. Some Internet geeks with too much time on hands have tried to make the movie somthing more than it is. Ironically though, by saying its all a dream they are actually making it into less of a movie, not more of one.

[Stoppy2000]

No that's not one of the reasons it's such a good film.

If it was all a dream from the point that Arnie goes to get his fantasy then that means the entire movie hasn't really happened.

That means there's no character development, no one has learnt anything, no character has grown, nothing has actually taken place for around 90 minutes of the movie and the entire thing is meaningless. The main character will simply go back to his life and plod on in a content fashion as he originally had been.

I think it's very telling that Verhoven has only recently started talking like the film might be a dream when in the past he has nev said anything of the sort about the film. Some Internet geeks with too much time on hands have tried to make the movie somthing more than it is. Ironically though, by saying its all a dream they are actually making it into less of a movie, not more of one.

This post is either poor trolling or utter stupidity. I am struggling to decide.

[rmoxon]

Think Im stupid all you like.

But in general films that have no character development are considered bad, If Total Recall is all a dream then it has no character development, and in fact nothing actually happened in the film at all. So why shouldn't it be considered bad?

I'm not the one not using my brain here.

Maybe you find films where nothing actually happens in them satisfying, but I personally don't.

I love Total Recall, but that's because I choose to believe the story was actually happening (and the film never says that it isn't which means that it's open ended at the very least) If it turned out to be all in someone's head I'd hate the film.

[Stoppy2000]

Think Im stupid all you like.

But in general films that have no character development are considered bad, If Total Recall is all a dream then it has no character development, and in fact nothing actually happened in the film at all. So why shouldn't it be considered bad?

I'm not the one not using my brain here.

Maybe you find films where nothing actually happens in them satisfying, but I personally don't.

I love Total Recall, but that's because I choose to believe the story was actually happening (and the film never says that it isn't which means that it's open ended at the very least) If it turned out to be all in someone's head I'd hate the film.

But character development and storyline can occur in a dream. You do realise total recall is not a documentary right? Essentially none of it really happened..