Total Recall (1990)

Today's film is Total Recall.  I remember watching this on TV quite a few times as a child, but never really grasped what was going on.  Turns out it is a lot more mindbending than I had anticipated.

Governator Schwarzenegger plays Doug Quaid, a construction worker that decides to go on a virtual vacation.  Something goes wrong and he finds out that he is a secret agent that is supposed to go to Mars and that he has a vital secret.  Is what is happening an elaborate dream and is his body still at the Recall vacation place?  Or is he key to saving Mars?

Super Towel Man here to save Mars

Doug's original name before he got his memory changed is Hauser.  Hauser was a bad guy working for Cohaagen, the main man on Mars, but switched sides when he discovered his secret.  Was Hauser's memory erased so he would forget the secret?  Or did Hauser really do it to himself so he could fool the psychics and infiltrate the rebel gang?  Doug declares that he is not Hauser anymore, but was he ever Hauser?  Or did losing his memory change his demeanor?  There have been victims of brain damage that have changed personality.  It makes me wonder that if damage to your brain can change your personality or consciousness, which I have seen firsthand, does that negate the existence of the soul?  We were taught in school that souls were our consciousness, but if something as simple as a knock on the head (or a memory cap like in this film) can change that, was it ever there to begin with?

That's what the film made me think.  Besides the mindbending parts, there is the usual action that accompanies Schwarzenegger films.  I enjoyed the fight scenes, and even the women are great fighters.  The makeup was also great.  Many of the characters were mutants and they had to look believable.  Yes, I did not forget the lady with three boobs.  This film is so much fun.  I will give it an 8/10.

No damsels in distress in this film!