One of the classic science fiction movie thrillers of all times is the Arnold Schwarzanegger classic Total Recall. What makes the movie so intellectually stimulating is that we are never really sure what has happened. Here's what i mean:
The movie begins many years in the future. A tired and demoralized construction worker sees an ad for "vacation memories." For a small fee, a company will implant memories of an exciting vacation. He agrees and picks an adventure vacation from the list offerred.
Plot Option #1: As soon as they implant the memory, he is involved in an action packed plot where he ends up saving the planet. Yet, the whole movie is just his fake memory. After the movie ends, he is still the tired construction worker.
Plot Option #2: As soon as they implant the memory, something goes wrong and he realizes that he is not a tired construction worker, but a courageous leader of freedom fighrers that had had his memory wiped out. He proceeds to go through an action packed plot where he ends up saving the planet.
They key thing is either plot could be true. We don't know and will never know. That's why this is a film that should be watched a few times. There are a few clues scattered throughout the movie that hint which plot is the true plot. Yet not enough that there is an accepted throey of just what takes place. As Bill Murray said in the movie "Tootsie": "I don't want people to come and see my play and tell me how great it was. I want people to come see my play and say, 'Hey, what was that about?'"
1 comment:
Total recall was an awsome movie light years ahead of it's time!
The scene from the subway station in which passengers are Xrayed as they walk through is brilliant.
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