It is the year 2048. Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker, who discovers that everything he thought was real is, in fact, a false memory implanted in his brain, and that even his wife (Sharon Stone) is complicit in the conspiracy aimed at taking over his life. To remember his real past and true identity, he goes to Mars, which has been populated by humans. There, he learns that the secret of his life is linked to past events on Mars, where a group of rebels is fighting the regime led by Governor Cohaagen.
The masterful Paul Verhoeven, one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger, sexy Sharon Stone, and an SF thriller taking place on Mars, all wrapped up in a high-budget B-thriller? It is a wet dream of every fan of genre films that has met all the expectations! A dystopian adventure SF film with a crazy storyline, action on steroids, grotesque caricatures, brutal violence, elements of dark humor, and old-school special effects, is based on the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”, which nowadays enjoys a special status among all SF fans thanks to the “outlaw” Paul Verhoeven, who has used his films like nobody else before or after him to give Hollywood his talented middle finger. Total Recall on the big screen is an experience in itself!
Paul Verhoeven started his journey towards filmmaking by graduating with a double major, in mathematics and physics, and then entering the Royal Dutch Navy as a conscript, where he made military documentaries. His first feature was Any Special Way (1971); however, it was his second feature film, The Sensualist (1973) that won the Dutch audiences over with its raw sexuality and suspenseful plot. It was not until his two feature films Soldier of Orange (1977) and The Fourth Man (1983) achieved international success that Verhoeven moved to the United States, where he first directed Flesh+Blood (1985), and then also his biggest box office hits, RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990).
