S03E13 — Total Recall
SPOILER ALERT: This episode and transcript below contains major spoilers for Total Recall
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Featuring hosts Timothy Haynes, Donna Haynes, Rebekah Edwards, and T. Josiah Haynes.
Baby listeners, this week we’re heading to Mars… or are we? We’re diving into Total Recall, where memory is optional, reality is questionable, and Arnold Schwarzenegger solves existential crises with explosives. The original Philip K. Dick story is sharp, compact, and deeply unsettling, playing with identity in a way that leaves you slightly dizzy. The movie takes that same concept and says, “What if we add mutants, political uprising, and the most aggressively 90s action energy imaginable?”
We talk about what makes the short story so clever, why the movie is wildly entertaining even when it abandons subtlety, and whether the spectacle enhances the idea or completely bulldozes it. Is it all a dream? Is it implanted memory? Does it even matter once someone says, “Get to the chopper” energy in space? Baby listeners, this one is chaotic in the best way.
Final Verdicts
If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, we recommend waiting to read our verdicts. (But you’re probably grown, so do what you want!)
Philip K. Dick’s story is a tight, cerebral identity puzzle built on paranoia and layered realities. The film explodes that premise into high-octane action, mutants, Mars rebellion, and one-liners that hit harder than the philosophy.
Donna: The 1990 film was better.
– Book Score: 5/10
– 1990 Film Score: 9.5/10
– 2012 Film Score: 4/10
Rebekah: The 1990 film was better.
– Book Score: 9/10
– 1990 Film Score: 8/10
– 2012 Film Score: 2/10
Josiah: The 1990 film was better.
– Book Score: 8.5/10
– 1990 Film Score: 9.5/10
– 2012 Film Score: 3/10
Tim: The 1990 film was better.
– Book Score: 7.5/10
– 1990 Film Score: 8/10
– 2012 Film Score: 5/10
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Full Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Josiah: Get to the chopper. I’ll be back.
[00:00:04] Donna: What?
[00:00:04] Donna: It’s not at
[00:00:07] Josiah: what, what is best in life? To cross your enemies.
[00:00:13] Donna: Yes.
[00:00:13] Josiah: See them Driven before you And to Here’s a ation of the women.
[00:00:20] Donna: Yes.
[00:00:21] Donna: Oh, my
[00:00:23] Tim: baby.
[00:00:24] Donna: What is,
[00:00:25] Donna: come with me If you want to live.
[00:00:27] Donna: What are you all doing?
[00:00:29] Donna: The Arnold quotes. You know, from Total Recall
[00:00:32] Tim: Famous.
[00:00:32] Donna: This is one of my favorite, actually, adventure movies. He’s, he doesn’t say any of those things in this movie. He says, okay, smarty hands, what does
[00:00:42] Rebekah: he say?
[00:00:43] Donna: He says stuff like, consider that a divorce baby. That was a really, really bad accent.[00:01:00]
[00:01:07] Rebekah: All right, baby listeners, today we’re talking about Total Recall. You guessed it. The Arnold Schwartzenegger film from 1990, the Collin Farrell film from 2012. Did you know that both of those were roughly loosely based on a short story by Philip k Dick? The name of the short story, we can remember it for you Wholesale.
[00:01:30] Rebekah: If that doesn’t sound like the same as total recall, it’s because it’s sort of not a whole lot like the movies, but that’s okay. We’re gonna talk about it. I’m very excited. It’ll be good. This is one of mom’s favorite films. Probably the Colin Ferrell one, if I had to guess it’s her favorite. So, oh Jesus.
[00:01:48] Rebekah: So spoiler alert, we will be spoiling all of the things I just mentioned, content warnings. There, uh, is a lot of swearing and some very bizarre [00:02:00] sorts of se actual content in both of these films. And I think a little bit of swearing in the short story. So this is not one for the kiddos to listen to necessarily, but
[00:02:10] Josiah: yeah, and I will be taking my top off.
[00:02:12] Rebekah: Well, are there three breasts under it? Because
[00:02:16] Josiah: Rebecca,
[00:02:17] Rebekah: that’s what spoilers.
[00:02:19] Josiah: Let’s hope not.
[00:02:20] Rebekah: I already gave the spoiler alert. Okay,
[00:02:23] Josiah: good, good, good.
[00:02:24] Rebekah: Um, so before we get started, started, our fun fact of the day is if you could live a double life completely separate from who you are right now. What would that life be?
[00:02:35] Josiah: Well, I’m Josiah, you know me brother, son of this, uh, space conquest. Uh, I’ve never
[00:02:43] Rebekah: seen you before in my life.
[00:02:44] Josiah: Yeah, no. I have a video of you saying that I’m your best friend and you need to give me a million dollars. Actually, I think that I would throw caution to the wind and move to New York City and make it as a [00:03:00] successful playwright and director and actor and songwriter all at once.
[00:03:06] Rebekah: And so what is stopping you from living that life? Because it’s not like a life of crime or anything.
[00:03:10] Josiah: What’s risky? I, I won’t make it.
[00:03:13] Rebekah: That’s so depressing.
[00:03:14] Josiah: No. Isn’t a double life where you can do things, uh, without the risk of your single life. You leave depressing reality. To wash away on the shores of your old self?
[00:03:31] Donna: Well, I mean, I don’t have a depressing life. I, I love my life, but if I could have a double life apart from being the wife and mom of this great secret agent, you know, society or whatever, think I would love to do the kind of stuff that Nick Cage does in National Treasure. Like, I would love to go and discover things.
[00:03:55] Donna: Now, of course, that means there would have to be hidden compartments and [00:04:00] gadgets and whatnot. They
[00:04:01] Rebekah: exist somewhere.
[00:04:03] Donna: Yeah. But I would love to be able to like, extrapolate facts and other secrets out there. And, you know, I, that’s always, that’s always fascinating to me. It’s always been fascinating. So
[00:04:18] Tim: my double life would be.
[00:04:21] Tim: I’d like to live in the world of the Lord of the Rings kind of thing and you know, live in that kind of world.
[00:04:28] Rebekah: Um, okay, well if I could live a double life, I was like waffling bet between two different options. In one option. I would love to just live in Orlando and be an influencer that travels around to the theme parks all the time and just records that and posts about it.
[00:04:46] Rebekah: And that’d be my whole life. I think that could be really fun. And I think my other one would be like going to like live somewhere on the ocean and just like learning to surf and just being [00:05:00] just somebody who lives on the beach and that’s it. You know, like I don’t do anything with my life. I just am like a lazy surfer who makes just enough money to pay my rent, you know?
[00:05:09] Rebekah: Alright, well getting back to, uh, someone else’s double life. You know the character of Douglas Qua. Oh, I’m gonna say Quailed. ’cause that makes more sense right this moment. We’ll get there. Yeah, that’s it. We’ll get there. Um, but instead of giving you a summary of the plot of Total Recall, we’re just gonna tell you what each of the different stories is about because we thought that would just be easier than trying to tell you what they have in common ’cause they go differently.
[00:05:37] Rebekah: So it’s
[00:05:37] Tim: practically three different stories.
[00:05:39] Rebekah: It kind of is. So what is the short story about the original one
[00:05:43] Tim: in this version? Douglas Quail, an average guy who lived a seemingly tedious life as a clerk, wants to escape his present situation, including his nagging wife, who doesn’t seem to ever be satisfied with anything he ever does.[00:06:00]
[00:06:00] Tim: Um, so he’s gonna go and get a memory implant at a place called Recall Incorporated. He chooses a secret agent on Mars as his new persona, and they begin the procedure. But to the surprise of everyone, including Doug, it’s revealed that his memory had already been tampered with and that he actually was a secret agent.
[00:06:23] Tim: In a final twist, we discover the actual fake memory was his dull life put there to end his past as a dangerous government assassin to avoid being put to death. Doug suggests they implant another false memory about his existence being the reason that a race of alien invaders hasn’t attacked Earth during this memory implant.
[00:06:46] Tim: It seems that the childhood dream of saving the earth may have itself in reality as well. Whoa,
[00:06:54] Rebekah: all that in less than an hour of audiobook time. Yes.
[00:06:58] Tim: Am I awake? Am I [00:07:00] asleep? Is this my life? Is that, am I living somebody else’s life? Can I have a different life? All the
[00:07:05] Donna: things.
[00:07:06] Josiah: I think it’s so funny there.
[00:07:07] Josiah: There are a few things that tell me it’s from the golden age, one of them being that there was a inter plan, the interplanetary police that kind of makes you think of Interpol. Which kinda makes you think of the United Nations. I think a common theme in the golden age of sci-fi fantasy, well sci-fi, was that the United Nations would be a much bigger deal than it is in reality.
[00:07:35] Josiah: It’s like the future of the human race is everyone being on the same page.
[00:07:41] Tim: We’ll all come together
[00:07:43] Josiah: and definitely individual nations will give away their power in the interest of earth being ruled by one governing body. Yeah, you really thought that would happen.
[00:07:55] Donna: I found it fascinating that there were people back as far as in the [00:08:00] seventies, that wanted to make a film from this short story and it went through several iterations and this didn’t work and this production company got rights and then this, that something fell apart.
[00:08:13] Donna: Finally, they come to the 1990 film again. This film had. A number of plots and screenplays written that were a little odd. The final screenplay of the 1990 film that we know, and at least I love, uh, picks up where the short story ends and continues on with. Uh, Douglas Qua, they changed his name to Qua, was actually a government assassin and a secret agent after all.
[00:08:46] Donna: So that was true. He ends up on Mars. He fights the evil Co Hagen, uh, alongside his love interest in Molina, and they free Martian citizens from oppression and [00:09:00] unleash this ancient alien made device. That allows the people to leave their oxygen domes that they were living in and explore the planet’s surface.
[00:09:11] Josiah: So the first act of the film is, is Beat for Beat, very similar to the beats of the short story. Um, you know, there’s plenty to talk about with the 1990 film, but let’s touch on the 2012 film starring Colin Farrell.
[00:09:32] Rebekah: I’m
[00:09:32] Josiah: proud of the most
[00:09:32] Rebekah: you for not using air quotes the first time you
[00:09:34] Josiah: saw that. Well, yes. I didn’t want to copy past Josiah, uh, from Planet of the Apes episode, but, um, that’s good
[00:09:42] Rebekah: because it’s probably trademarked.
[00:09:44] Josiah: Yeah. Now, do you all know Colin Farrell?
[00:09:49] Rebekah: I don’t know him personally.
[00:09:50] Josiah: I struggle to think of a more overrated actor than Colin Farrell. I mean, even Jake Gyllenhaal, I think has his merits now. I really liked Colin.
[00:09:59] Donna: What
[00:09:59] Josiah: [00:10:00] is happening right
[00:10:01] Donna: now? Are we in a new year or a alternate universe? What is somebody’s worse than Jake?
[00:10:09] Josiah: Look, Colin Farrell. I liked him in the Banshees of, in Sharon, he had his natural Irish accent, which I think helped and it was a comedic role where he was kind of a dumb guy. But, um, the 2012 film with Colin Farrell, this, uh, follows Doug. In a Blade Runner esque world, uh, Doug’s discovering his real abilities to fight against co Hagen and, uh, with Molina.
[00:10:42] Josiah: However, in this film, it differs from the 1990 film, even though it’s a, basically a remake. There’s a lot of invented world building that’s not in the 1990 film or the original short story. There are two factions that are left in the, uh, [00:11:00] chemically war torn globe. You’ve got the United Federation of Britain, and you’ve got The Colony, which is Australia.
[00:11:10] Josiah: And shout out to Australia for starting out. Uh, its British relationship as a colony and apparently ending its, uh, relationship with Britain as a colony again. Just like the Once and Future King Arthur. This is the Once and Future Colony.
[00:11:29] Rebekah: Just out of curiosity, do they explain what happened to the rest of the world and why it’s gone?
[00:11:36] Josiah: Oh, well, in the very first line of the movie, it says that chemical warfare destroyed Africa. You know, obviously going to be, uh, the main grounds for a chemical war, uh, this century. I’m sure all of Africa will be the first to go and not the last bastion of civilization. [00:12:00] So, of course we have the two factions.
[00:12:03] Josiah: Uh, they’re on the other, they’re on opposite sides of the world. So what do you do when you have all of your poor plebeians in Australia, but all of the businesses and companies and factories where they need to work are in the United Federation of Britain.
[00:12:23] Rebekah: I have an idea.
[00:12:24] Josiah: Yeah. What’s your idea?
[00:12:25] Rebekah: Build cheap government housing.
[00:12:28] Josiah: Oh. In, in the United Federation of Britain. Oh, no, no, no. They somehow invented a transport device that bores through the center of the earth.
[00:12:40] Donna: Yeah. They
[00:12:41] Josiah: call it makes
[00:12:41] Donna: some sense. I mean, it’s sense.
[00:12:43] Josiah: Yeah. I’m sure that that was easy and cheap and scientifically possible. I was disgusted by the, uh, how they expected me to suspend my disbelief.
[00:12:57] Josiah: This, this transport device is called the Fall. [00:13:00] Colin Ferrell and his coworker friend, they always sit on the sa in the same seats. On the fall every morning it takes ’em 17 minutes. I want to look up the speed that they would have to go in order to make that trip in 17 minutes.
[00:13:17] Donna: I’m pretty sure it would peel their skin off.
[00:13:19] Josiah: I’m pretty sure it would peel their skin off is exactly right. Josh
[00:13:22] Rebekah: looked at the screen and he was like, Rebecca, they’re like, not even, their bodies aren’t even pushing up against the straps they’re in
[00:13:29] Josiah: and they go through the center of the earth and they’re like, oh, it’s a gravity switch
[00:13:34] Tim: through the molten core.
[00:13:36] Josiah: If you put the screenwriter in the same room with me, I might punch ’em in the face for that. First of all, it’s molten, uh, lava hot. It’s a mini sun. It’s not as hot as the sun, but it might as well be the, the sun and the center of the earth will do the same thing to you heat wise.
[00:13:55] Tim: Maybe it bypasses the core.
[00:13:58] Josiah: I, I think it does slightly [00:14:00] bypass the core. They had one visual that had it bypassing the core, but you’re still, you’re, you’re, uh, a few miles away from the surface of the sun. Uh, that’s gonna do the same thing as if you fall into the sun. Uh, fortunately that has very little to do with the plot. Oh wait, it’s the entire climax of the film and the foundation of its symbolism in the 2012 movie.
[00:14:22] Josiah: There is no trip to Mars, which, uh, there, there isn’t offensively passing mention of, oh, I, I want to go to Mars someday. Okay. Here’s the problem with that Are, is it a remake of the 1990 film or is it a more faithful adaptation to the original short story? I think that most of the film makers would’ve said it’s a, a remake of the 1990 film.
[00:14:50] Josiah: Some of the actors I did, I don’t think believed that, but
[00:14:53] Rebekah: I would say it was probably trying to be more of an adaptation at that point.
[00:14:57] Josiah: Why was Molina in it if it’s trying to be an adaptation
[00:14:59] Donna: [00:15:00] Molina, that wasn’t a part of the short story.
[00:15:03] Josiah: Yeah,
[00:15:03] Donna: not at all.
[00:15:04] Josiah: She is in the 90, she’s introduced in the 90 film, and she is in the 2012 film, Lori, he in the 2012 film, he also has a wife who ends up being a, a secret agent who hasn’t been his wife except for like the past six weeks, since his memory memories supposedly got changed.
[00:15:23] Josiah: Um, I like in the 1990 film how they are opposites of one another in, in a lot of different ways, but including visually a blonde and brunette. Uh, sort of thing in the 2012 film. I could not tell you the difference between Jessica Beal and Kate Beck and Sale.
[00:15:40] Rebekah: They looked like the same person.
[00:15:42] Josiah: Oh, the confusing thing.
[00:15:43] Josiah: Kate Beckinsale, the wife has an accent whenever she drops the ruse, but I think she has an American accent when she’s still pretending to be his wife. I wasn’t paying close attention. I was full, I was folding socks and it was a lot more interesting than, than what was [00:16:00] happening on screen.
[00:16:01] Rebekah: I also folded clothes and then kept pulling my phone out.
[00:16:06] Rebekah: I kept pulling my phone out and checking Twitter and Instagram
[00:16:09] Josiah: stuff. It was one of the most boring things. Uh, it was visually, it should have been exciting. They were fighting atop the fall, the transport device. I assume they were in the United Federation of Britain side of things. Um, yeah, Colin Farrell, I believe somehow explodes the fall and that.
[00:16:31] Josiah: Freeze the colony from all oppression
[00:16:36] Rebekah: and also jobs. And all jobs. Right. Uhhuh is that
[00:16:40] Josiah: and connection to, I’m sure they have family and also Colin Ferrell, I believe is in the United Federation of Britain. So like anyone who’s in Britain Yeah. For work isn’t going back home to their families. There was a newscast after this happened of this lady on A CNN [00:17:00] analog, she said, and now the fall, which has been a symbol of oppression is destroyed.
[00:17:10] Josiah: And I’m like, that’s a newscast. Just to compare, this is supposed to be a parallel to Arnold Schwarzenegger magically terraforming Mars to be breathable. It is irreversible and it solves the actual problem that Co Hagen had control over people’s air supplies.
[00:17:32] Donna: Yeah, exactly. And also, is there any guarantee that you’re not going to send the explosion into the core and.
[00:17:43] Donna: It’s earth, freaking Earth.
[00:17:45] Tim: It’s the middle of our planet.
[00:17:48] Rebekah: This was irrelevant to the whole thing.
[00:17:50] Tim: It’s probably an important part.
[00:17:53] Donna: So just a few little, little plot holes. There were just that. Just some little pics.
[00:17:59] Rebekah: Just [00:18:00]
[00:18:00] Tim: little. You could fly a 7 47 through
[00:18:03] Donna: Yes, yes.
[00:18:03] Rebekah: Plot
[00:18:03] Josiah: holes you could bore through the center of the earth.
[00:18:09] Donna: Oh,
[00:18:09] Rebekah: that’s great. Um, the only other thing I wanted to point out plot wise that I thought was kind of interesting, see, I, this is part of why I’m like, does it lend itself to being an adaptation, the 2012 film in the 2012 film and the short story, they mention that having memories connecting with a recall experience will mess up the new memory they’re trying to implant.
[00:18:29] Rebekah: So you can’t have a memory that’s similar to what you’re asking for, or it won’t work. It’ll break you something in the 1990 film, the issue is that. A person who’s had a similar experience will suffer a schizoid embolism, potentially destroying their mind and leading to a lobotomy. So they do make that more intense.
[00:18:51] Rebekah: I
[00:18:51] Donna: think in both films, the recall employees weren’t in on Quas real [00:19:00] life, like who he had been. I think him going there because I couldn’t, I had to think about that and, and watch carefully to make sure that, that that was right. Um, they were not a part of the conspiracy, but Doug was being tracked so people would know to go there.
[00:19:19] Donna: You know, they, they would know where he was or whatever.
[00:19:21] Rebekah: Was there anything we liked that was like, I like the main conceit of the story itself, like the idea of implanted memories and I kind of like the futuristic thing where we’ve colonized Mars and like that’s part of it.
[00:19:34] Tim: The thought that you could implant memories and things like that were, was.
[00:19:38] Tim: Was very good. I thought that was, that was consistent basically through all of the works that that was possible. But I think in the 1990 film, there is a difference between what recall does to implant memories and what was done to Quail, Quaid, whatever, by the government [00:20:00] organization that actually put a memory block on his, on his mind and gave him a new personality.
[00:20:06] Rebekah: Right?
[00:20:06] Tim: Because it sounded like you could go to recall for a vacation this year and a couple years from now you could do that again. It was a different kind of thing.
[00:20:15] Donna: And this whole concept is very common throughout a lot of science fiction. Notably things like, well, minority Report where they deal with future crime and, but also, you know, like Inception and other famous things.
[00:20:32] Donna: I mean, 1984 deals with. Thought manipulation. And
[00:20:36] Rebekah: in the Matrix movies, don’t they also do like a, they can upload skills and memories of like how to do things? Yes, yes.
[00:20:43] Donna: Yes. So
[00:20:43] Rebekah: that’s also another got similar
[00:20:45] Tim: concept.
[00:20:45] Donna: Yeah. So I mean, it, it runs throughout and it, so we know it can be handled well, but it just seems like what they did with 2012, I don’t know if they were on a search to make it
[00:20:58] Rebekah: different than [00:21:00] 1990.
[00:21:00] Donna: Their search to me wasn’t successful. I, it just, uh, I think you, Josiah used the term like gray. The scenery was gray and dull and things like that, which I guess the intention is to make you realize how dark the oppression was. But I don’t know, as
[00:21:19] Tim: it’s 22 years later physically for, for us, for them to make a film.
[00:21:25] Tim: I don’t know that. It would’ve been a bad idea to remake the first one and just, you know, Hey, we’ve got new technologies. We can, we can do a better job of the CG
[00:21:37] Rebekah: than the weird animatronics creepy
[00:21:39] Tim: stuff. Yeah. We could some of those things and, and just really remake it,
[00:21:43] Josiah: which has so much character, by the way.
[00:21:45] Josiah: Yeah. Yes, it does. I think that maybe 2012, we were still at a point around, you know, just a couple years after Avatar came out where we were thinking, oh yeah, we love CGI, animatronics and [00:22:00] practical effects are stupid. But like also it’s, it was 10 years after the prequel trilogy of Star Wars when I feel like surely we had started to figure out that practical Effects had a more timeless quality than ugly CGI.
[00:22:17] Josiah: But I think that film production agencies were still on this bend and I, I hope. That they’ve gotten off of it. Uh, maybe this was part of the journey towards realizing it’s not gonna make money of Yeah. If we take away the practical sets and practical effects and practical costumes, then the audiences will be more impressed by a computer that can do anything doing this.
[00:22:45] Rebekah: I do wanna say in terms of the 1990 movie, I’m not big into eighties movies in general. I don’t love, like, we’ve now watched this, we did the original Running Man film, and then I’ve also watched like Predator an [00:23:00] Alien versus Predator and Predator Two. And I recently, I think I start, I watched like the first Alien movie a couple years ago.
[00:23:06] Rebekah: I don’t love eighties movies. I feel, I feel like the. I know this is random, but like, as a photographer, the lack of like, um, Boca, where things behind you are blurry. I don’t like that film style. Like it bothers me ’cause it feels very, like, it doesn’t feel like, um, intimate. I don’t know what it is about it.
[00:23:26] Rebekah: I don’t feel like I connect with it as much. However, Josh and I were talking and he’s like, man, he’s like more, I would say a fan of eighties films. And he made the point to say, he’s like, man, these people were like, I mean it’s in 1990, but he said these people were innovating so much stuff and figuring out like technology wise how to make this work.
[00:23:45] Rebekah: And he said, I know it’s kind of gross. Like the one like mutant that lives in the guy’s stomach. I literally was eating. I had to look away ’cause it’s so nasty. And the way that like Arnold’s, uh, face like blows up. They use these like animatronic things and the one where he [00:24:00] pulls the, the thing thing out of his, of the nose, his brain.
[00:24:02] Donna: Yeah.
[00:24:03] Rebekah: Yeah. And so in in general though, I think that the 1990 film did have a pretty strong set and like vibe for what it was going for. I knew when he was on Mars, like it was clear he was on Mars and the people there were very distinct and like I thought that that was really well done, which I think is another reason that I had, I watched the 2012 film first, but honestly just watching 1990, I was like, man, it just makes me wonder more why the 90 was like you said, so gray.
[00:24:34] Rebekah: It was just so, it was a nothing. That’s what I meant. Sorry.
[00:24:37] Donna: Also, the 1990 film kind of was on a, at a, on a bridge technically, because they had before that it was so very common to use miniatures in your filming, and not that people don’t still use miniatures, but it was a huge part of. [00:25:00] Making bigger scenes and things look a certain way and they still use some of that, but they also started moving more into CGI.
[00:25:09] Donna: And so I read a little bit about that, how they, they were, they kind of bridged a gap there of, of moving into, from one type of technology to another. And so I wonder if that’s why some of those, uh, over the top things, I wonder if that’s why they were included because they were experimenting, they were finding their way.
[00:25:35] Donna: And um, and there were several tech companies in it, including Industrial Light and Magic. So they, they utilized a lot of the technology of the day. Um, and it definitely, there is an feel to it where there’s some of the things that are kind of campy, but they were also trying very hard for it not to just be.
[00:25:58] Donna: A silly b [00:26:00] movie, they did not wanna go there. And I could see where with just a little bit of tweaking, it could have been full on MST three K fodder, you know? So, uh, I, I will say about a, a little bit more about the, the short story and the films in Bo in all three iterations, he, he wants to remember the marsh trip, like there’s dreams.
[00:26:26] Donna: And did he, it seems so real to him, like he, he really struggled with this. But then when in the, where they diverge is in 1990, the film takes place on the Martian surface and in general, only Douglass’s home and recall. And then a couple of areas of the city are featured in the short story. Um, so both 1990 and 2012 films like then they just.
[00:26:55] Donna: Diverge completely in their setting. So whoever the brain children were of [00:27:00] each one, I mean, I think we all agree that, that we’d liked the 1990 concept better.
[00:27:05] Tim: There’s no way that they could have made the movie directly from the short story. There’s not enough there. It would be a great project for a film producing class.
[00:27:19] Tim: You have to produce a 30 minute film, blah, blah, blah. It, it could have, it could have done that. They could have done that because in a 52 minute read, you know, you could have come up with 30 minutes of film. That wasn’t enough material, I don’t think, for, for the other post to them for, for really thinking through that.
[00:27:39] Josiah: I loved the world building in the 1990 version. Um, I loved that cars drive wherever people are also walking.
[00:27:53] Rebekah: It is so interesting.
[00:27:55] Tim: But they’re robot cars.
[00:27:57] Josiah: Yeah. So it, it, it makes me, you [00:28:00] know, whenever I see flying cars, I see 2012 remake world building and I think, no, none of that would ever happen. We’re not gonna have flying cars that it’s just not gonna work.
[00:28:13] Josiah: We, we have seen that flying cars is not gonna happen. There’s not gonna be a fall through the center of the earth. These things can’t. But then I, in the 1990 version, I think, oh yeah, I could totally see self-driving cars sharing, uh, sidewalk space with people. And that just becoming a thing. I can, I can kind of see that starting in, in urban areas and then slowly spreading across the country and to other plant and, uh.
[00:28:45] Josiah: The world building of they’re just being a rebel attack. They’re being explosions When he arrives on Mars and is getting in the taxi with Benny or whatever it was, that’s just like, yeah, that’s just the violence that happens here. It’s like, oh, this is a different place than Mars. [00:29:00] This is, uh, clearly, uh, a place where scary stuff is happening.
[00:29:04] Josiah: It heightens the odds and, uh, the world building of there was, I loved that woman who has dwarfism and a machine gun up on the bar counter.
[00:29:18] Donna: Yeah.
[00:29:18] Josiah: I was laughing out loud. I’m like, tinker
[00:29:20] Rebekah: Bell,
[00:29:20] Josiah: that’s name Iker.
[00:29:22] Tim: Yep.
[00:29:23] Josiah: That’s just, that’s just so fun.
[00:29:25] Donna: And I, and I loved that they made the grittiness of the Mars Underground.
[00:29:31] Donna: I thought it was very effective that it was, there were bars and speakeasies. The 2012 film made the colony more oppressed. Where, to me, I think. What you saw in 1990 is in, in very underserved and, and depressed areas. Depravity comes out that there’s more depravity exposed and things like that. And [00:30:00] I say ex I guess exposed is a great word because in a more, uh, wealthy society, the depravity is there, but you hide it well when your life is really reduced to just literally trying to make it day to day or week to week, you’re not going to care as much of what’s seen.
[00:30:20] Donna: You’re just gonna be who you are, and you find other people that will be that with you. So to me, I thought it was more real. In the, in the 1990 film. It’s just my own, you know, take on it.
[00:30:34] Tim: The short story’s main character is Douglas Quail. Both films changed his last name to Qua. Um, the original, original screenplay used the name, but it was changed to Douglas Quaid, I think though nobody has admitted it.
[00:30:49] Tim: We were, by the time it was released, we were in the second year of President George HW Bush, I think. Mm-hmm. I didn’t use the HW [00:31:00] until his son became president. Um, but his vice president was quail and the media and Saturday Night Live had combined to just pummel him for how stupid he was. He would make his, his
[00:31:15] Rebekah: vice president was a quail
[00:31:17] Tim: Yes.
[00:31:19] Rebekah: A bird. How?
[00:31:19] Tim: Because he was just, he just wasn’t, he said some things that were. That made him sound stupid. I personally think that’s probably why they changed it, because that was so prevalent in 2012. Quad’s a factory worker, I think Josiah thinks that he’s less motivated to go to recall in 2012. Colin Ferrell wants to be a rebel leader, the 1990 film, he is a common construction worker and he grows weary of his life, not the least of which is his nagging wife.
[00:31:55] Tim: Um, so she’s always doing something else. There was a [00:32:00] lot of discussion about it. They wanted to take advantage of Arnold’s girth and make Doug tougher, so it made more sense in the film for him to be able to fight. And they did. They used that again in the 2012 film. That doesn’t come up in the. The story at all.
[00:32:19] Tim: Uh, there’s nothing there that indicates that he was large, muscular, any of that kind of stuff.
[00:32:25] Josiah: Wow. You know, they literally, so he, uh, you know, in the 2012 version, qua is not a construction worker. He is a factory worker. Another manual labor job to, to help him have some physical strength. Um, he works on this.
[00:32:39] Josiah: It’s just why, as a script writer, why, why, why, why, why, why, why he worked,
[00:32:45] Rebekah: why, why, why, why,
[00:32:45] Josiah: why, why? He works on the police robots that are the primary device of the antagonist for the entire movie. And not once does he use his knowledge of creating, of being in charge of, or [00:33:00] helping create them in the factory.
[00:33:02] Josiah: He never once uses that knowledge to defeat them in the field
[00:33:05] Tim: until the last moment he unfastens the things that cause the robot to fall apart. When? When it’s got him by the throat. That one time right at the end you were doing socks.
[00:33:20] Josiah: Yeah, I was folding socks.
[00:33:22] Donna: Compare that to Arnie. Ripping off Johnny Cab’s head.
[00:33:26] Donna: So I mean,
[00:33:29] Josiah: mm-hmm.
[00:33:29] Donna: I think Arnie’s winning this battle,
[00:33:31] Tim: enjoy our stay.
[00:33:32] Donna: Yeah, you’re fine.
[00:33:34] Josiah: You mentioned that he has a wife, I’m gonna call her Lori in the short story. Lori has a very small part, I believe, and correct me if I’m mistaken, that the wife in the short story, whenever Quail comes to her and says, Hey, I went to recall, she immediately like divorces.
[00:33:58] Josiah: She’s like, I don’t [00:34:00] want, that was so stupid. I can’t believe you did that. I want nothing to do with you.
[00:34:04] Tim: I think she’s the most naggy in the short story.
[00:34:10] Josiah: Yeah,
[00:34:11] Tim: I think that is where she’s the least likable. Yeah. And it’s a small part, but it’s,
[00:34:16] Rebekah: well, okay, wait, hold on. Hold. Now that I’m thinking back to this.
[00:34:20] Rebekah: Is she a fake wife? In the short story?
[00:34:23] Josiah: I don’t think it
[00:34:24] Rebekah: ever says that they clarify that. They don’t clarify that they, as she was so naggy, I was like, okay, she’s just like there to stop him from like going to recall or whatever. But now that I’m thinking about it, if she wasn’t even really a fake wife, why was she so mean?
[00:34:41] Tim: She’s just mean.
[00:34:43] Rebekah: It was so weird. Well,
[00:34:44] Josiah: it’s the sixties.
[00:34:45] Tim: You have a terrible job. I hate you being here. I’m so sorry that you bring home the money that keeps us in this terrible apartment.
[00:34:53] Josiah: Make quail more sympathetic maybe. But, uh, in the films, both films, Lori is a spy working [00:35:00] for Co Hagen pretending to be Quail’s wife for about the last six weeks to match up with his false memories that were supposedly implanted.
[00:35:09] Josiah: The, uh, 2012 Lori, she and Quaid love one another. Quail despises her in the short story in 1990, they have a cute flirty, like they’re mean to each other in a flirty way kind of relationship. But, uh, in the 2012 film, she seems she’s really good at acting like she truly loves him before revealing her treachery that she’s actually British.
[00:35:35] Tim: What treachery,
[00:35:36] Donna: well, remember this role for Sharon Stone wasn’t her first role, but this role was the catalyst for her being chosen to be the vixen in basic instinct.
[00:35:48] Josiah: Well, y yeah. In the 1990 film, Sharon Stone plays Lori, and she’s kind of funny and nurturing. They are kind of mean to each other in a flirty way.
[00:35:59] Josiah: Rebecca thinks [00:36:00] she’s suss and naggy and disgusting, and Rebecca hates women. In Quas,
[00:36:04] Rebekah: that sounds like me.
[00:36:06] Donna: Yep.
[00:36:08] Josiah: In Quas, invented recalled memories or, I mean, unveiled reality. She, uh, ends up being married to Richter, who is a 1990 only character who is co hagen’s, uh, Lackey.
[00:36:24] Donna: And let’s be real. In what universe As Sheldon Cooper.
[00:36:30] Donna: Ruanda. Would Sharon Stone be married to Richter? Never, ever. There’s no connection, any chemistry between them. And I’m just like, they kiss and I go, oh my God. What? Why? I, I mean, I could imagine her being with Co Hagen, but Yeah. And then what does it say about him giving her up to go live with. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his 1990 body.
[00:36:57] Donna: I mean, come on.
[00:36:58] Josiah: Yeah. That’s a part of her spy [00:37:00] job that, and he’s fine with that. Yeah. In, in both films, the, the Lori character, uh, uses sexual temptation to try to distract Doug,
[00:37:12] Donna: just look at my body, forget Mars,
[00:37:14] Josiah: and Arne sees that Richter’s coming on the screen behind her while she is telling Arne to tie her up and stuff.
[00:37:24] Josiah: And Arne says, clever girl.
[00:37:28] Donna: Yeah. Isn’t that a cute little scene where she takes those straps and goes, you can tie me up. I’m like, oh my God, Sharon, please stop. Yeah. The interesting part about the Lori character, I’ll tell on Dad this character, like he, he said, this mentioned a while ago, the 110 pound girl.
[00:37:49] Donna: Who can beat up all the guys and all the women and never dies is like, it’s the same thing with the cute Asian chick in diehard [00:38:00] livery or diehard.
[00:38:01] Tim: She never gets hurt.
[00:38:02] Donna: But then in 1990 you notice like that character, it was like, eh, I’m tired of you. And he shoots her in the head.
[00:38:09] Tim: To be fair, in the 1990 film when she fought another woman, they were kind of evenly matched back and forth and back and forth.
[00:38:18] Tim: That made sense.
[00:38:20] Rebekah: Um, Molina is not in the short story. Uh, she is in both of the films though. Molina is his love interest from his real life, or maybe not his real life, his py life. It’s some life, his spy life. So in the 1990 film, Molina’s cover was that she’s a prostitute in the underground of Mars. I wanna say.
[00:38:41] Rebekah: I don’t know that that was her cover. I think that maybe she was an actual. That’s her. I think she’s was a prostitute. That’s right. But like she and he met somehow that way and then they like fell for each other. And then basically it seems like all the people in that, like the bar, the underground place with the other prostitutes were [00:39:00] kind of like rebels in the resistance or whatever they call it.
[00:39:03] Rebekah: When Qua slash Hauser comes back to Mars and finds her, she’s like very distrusting because he apparently like abandoned her and she doesn’t really want him around at first and then kind of comes around and ends up supporting him. Um, she’s almost at the very end of that film, dragged into, um, a recall booth and they were gonna replace both of their memories again, where Hauser could go back to being his mean, horrible self.
[00:39:33] Rebekah: And then they were gonna give her memories so that she was his submissive wife is how they described it. Um, and they get away at the last second in 2012. Molina is also a character. Um. That is featured. Uh, she, Jessica Beal’s character Molina was a freedom fighter in the colony, the Australia place. And, uh, she finds and is trying to rescue Douglas.
[00:39:58] Rebekah: She helps him narrowly escape in [00:40:00] this car chasing where the car falls hundreds of feet, but somehow they don’t die, um, in that one before they continue their mission to free the colony. Also, at the end of that car chase scene, it has to do with like magnetic. The car was like magnetically on this thing way high up in the air and not on the streets.
[00:40:19] Rebekah: They turn off the magnetics and it like falls down to the ground and they turn on the magnetics right before they’re gonna hit the ground so that it like crushes another car underneath of it for touching it. And then they like wreck and all this stuff. He reaches over and feels a pulse and shakes his head and Josh goes.
[00:40:39] Rebekah: She’s just now in the movie. Did they already kill her? And it looks like she’s dead, but then she’s not dead. Why would you check somebody’s pulse and go, are you sad she’s alive? What was that? Anyway, she’s, I, I mean, she’s not in the short form, short story, so there’s nothing to compare her to there. But she’s also, um, the [00:41:00] daughter of who, uh, the leader of the resistance.
[00:41:06] Rebekah: Oh, Matthias of Colony. Matthias. She, you find out at the end of the film that she was Matthias’s daughter, but the Molina in 1990 was not the daughter of Keo, who I don’t think and reproduce based on what I can see. Um, so anyway, I felt like b and Colin Farrell’s like chemistry was good. So I felt like they connected.
[00:41:30] Rebekah: I had a harder time believing. The connection between Schwarzenegger and the actress who played Molina in 1990. They did not seem like truly like they had chemistry to me. So that’s like probably the one thing I would point towards the, the newer film that I thought worked a little bit better. But
[00:41:47] Tim: didn’t you think that in the 2012 film, Colin Ferrell had more chemistry with the one who was pretending to be his wife?
[00:41:58] Donna: No. Molina,
[00:41:59] Tim: I thought he had [00:42:00] more chemistry with the one who pretended to be his wife. I thought they were more connected. The other ones like, that’s hilarious. Oh, you know, I don’t really know you and I’m not sure who, you know, we’ve been working together for all this time and okay, now I believe that we’ve been working together.
[00:42:12] Tim: And it’s like, yeah, I don’t believe it.
[00:42:14] Donna: Then we move on to the antagonist of the Tale Cohain. Well, of the film tales, let’s say that he is not in the short story by name, however, there is a voice in Quail’s Head that’s unnamed and surfs, kind of a similar role. To cogen, which the negotiating with Douglas and all that.
[00:42:36] Donna: So maybe that was kind of a springboard for the screenwriter to, to move on and make him this overlord or this great leader of the, of the bad people. Um, he is an oppressive government leader in both films. Um, in 1990, he was friends with the triple agent Hauser, which is a big twist [00:43:00] because part of the way they try to confuse Doug is, oh yeah, Hauser, you were actually my second in command.
[00:43:09] Donna: And then we put you into the group of underworld, the, the lower class people and inserted you in there. So really that’s not true. This is true. It kind of gives him three or four existence. That’s
[00:43:25] Tim: a double memory.
[00:43:26] Donna: Yeah. Double and triple memories, whatever then. And you know, he has a reveal video of himself.
[00:43:32] Donna: Oh yeah. Me and me and Cohain blah blah blah in 2012. Although Houser’s a triple agent, agent Co Hagen isn’t necessarily friends with him. It’s kind of the same plot point, but it’s, let’s be real. It’s a little more boring. Um, also, I vaguely recall Colin Farrell and Brian Cranston fist to fist fighting atop the fall before it explodes and [00:44:00] potentially blows up the world’s core.
[00:44:02] Donna: And we’ve already covered all that. Won’t, there cant
[00:44:04] Tim: be
[00:44:04] Donna: like
[00:44:04] Tim: 20 years difference between their ages. Yeah, but you know,
[00:44:07] Donna: the girls could beat up Colin Farrell, so why can’t Colin Farrell beat up Brian Carnton?
[00:44:11] Tim: No, it was the other way Cranston was doing. Well against him,
[00:44:15] Josiah: Cranston,
[00:44:16] Donna: that’s See 0.0, I see what you’re saying.
[00:44:17] Donna: Yeah. Brian.
[00:44:19] Josiah: Great
[00:44:19] Donna: man. I was waiting for him to pull out some drugs or something.
[00:44:22] Josiah: Cranston Edwards.
[00:44:24] Donna: Yeah. Um, that’s
[00:44:25] Rebekah: not that great of a name.
[00:44:28] Donna: Yeah. In the, the, uh, Ronnie Cox, who played Co Hagen in 20, in the 1990 film, um, he was a pretty famous character actor. He did a lot of, he did, if I remember correctly, his roles were more antagonist than protagonist, but he, he did a lot of character roles.
[00:44:46] Tim: Who was the guy that worked for Cogen
[00:44:49] Josiah: Richter in the 1990 film? Richter.
[00:44:52] Tim: Okay. Richter and the Michael Iron
[00:44:54] Donna: side.
[00:44:55] Tim: But there wasn’t that person that was, that was his former wife that kind of took that role [00:45:00] in the 2012.
[00:45:01] Rebekah: Well, and the, but he also has, that lawyer does that lawyer guy because he was a recognizable actor that made, um.
[00:45:09] Rebekah: Made Qua sign that contract that he wouldn’t share. Whatever. Doesn’t he come back that
[00:45:14] Donna: McClain or something?
[00:45:16] Rebekah: No. McLean is the guy that works at recall. Oh, in all of them? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:45:19] Donna: Sorry. Yeah.
[00:45:21] Rebekah: Yeah. We don’t even talk about McLean. Oh, that’s funny. I didn’t put it in the notes, but really? Not
[00:45:25] Josiah: really. He’s in like a single scene.
[00:45:26] Rebekah: Yeah, he’s, but he is in the short story as a pretty main character all the way
[00:45:30] Josiah: to the end.
[00:45:31] Rebekah: Um, all the way to the end. But I do think it’s interesting that like, I don’t know, I, I think it’s interesting that in 2012 they kind of weren’t sure who to make the antagonist. Like, I don’t know. I just, the whole, I know Co Hagen was antagonist, but I felt like they tried to introduce too many.
[00:45:50] Rebekah: See, again, I don’t, like, I watched it yesterday and I don’t remember things like crazy talk.
[00:45:57] Tim: I feel like, I feel like his wife became [00:46:00] the primary antagonist. The other guy was, was fluff on top. Cranston’s character, just, it was supposed to be more like the 1990 film, but it just, it missed it.
[00:46:13] Donna: And I think as we get farther into like this next section where we find out how they fared with critics and box offices and stuff, I think our, our general thought is gonna be proven out.
[00:46:25] Donna: We’ll start with the, the releases. So the book was released in April of 1966 and, uh, it came out in the magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction. Uh, it was later compiled into a book of short stories entitled The Minority Report and Other Stories by Philip k Dick. But
[00:46:44] Tim: spoiler alert for the Minority Report as well
[00:46:49] Donna: coming up.
[00:46:49] Donna: Yeah. But it did come later. Minority Report was written afterward and was kind of considered to be it at one point. People thought it [00:47:00] might be like a follow up to, uh, we can, we can. You know, get your memory whole out. Yeah. Whatever it is. I can’t remember the name.
[00:47:09] Josiah: Yeah. But, okay. Yes. Arne, they were thinking about turning that into a total recall sequel with Arne.
[00:47:16] Donna: Yeah.
[00:47:16] Josiah: But I think that they could never, I heard that they could never get a script together that Arne was happy with.
[00:47:25] Donna: Yeah.
[00:47:25] Tim: I can’t really imagine those two. Well, I guess you could make them the same general story.
[00:47:33] Donna: Well, you take the thought crime, you take it farther into from the recall the, from the work that recall did for people.
[00:47:42] Donna: I guess you could extrapolate that out somehow.
[00:47:46] Josiah: I think they were gonna have mutants as the Precogs. Mm-hmm. But no, I think you’re right. So
[00:47:51] Tim: maybe that would’ve connected them.
[00:47:52] Josiah: I think that would’ve connected them. But I think you’re right. It, it just doesn’t quite work. The reason Minority Report is cool, [00:48:00] it doesn’t really work, is it’s own sequel to Total Recall.
[00:48:03] Tim: And thankfully there’s not even a sequel to it. We didn’t have a successful movie and say, Hey, let’s do a second one.
[00:48:12] Donna: Yeah. Yeah. The movie releases, uh, the 1990 film came out in June 1st, 1990 and the 2012 film was released on August 3rd, 2012.
[00:48:24] Tim: Another summer release. Hmm.
[00:48:26] Donna: Yeah. Both of them were
[00:48:27] Tim: summer blockbusters.
[00:48:28] Donna: Summer,
[00:48:29] Tim: or at least should have been.
[00:48:30] Donna: Yeah. Hope hoped to have been. Um, book ratings. We got 4.2, one out of five on Good Reads, and 3.88 out of five on story graph. Uh, so the Rotten Tomatoes Critics Ratings 1990 film got an 81, so they considered it fresh. And the 2012, not so much, 30% kinda stinky tomato.
[00:48:57] Josiah: That’s too high.
[00:48:59] Donna: [00:49:00] I, I can’t disagree with that. Uh, IMDB gave the 1990 film, a 7.5 out of 10, gave the 2012, a 6.2 out of 10. Where, where did that come from? I will not understand how that happened. The audience score for 1990 was 79%, so they were right along with the critics, the 20 12, 40 7%. So the production cost for 1990 was 40, between 48 and 80 million.
[00:49:34] Donna: So the 1990 film was shot almost completely in sequence, which was not a, which was not a normal thing, and I don’t think it’s normal now even. But for whatever reason, they chose to do it. And so it took over 20 weeks to complete. So they couldn’t really give a solid estimate. The initial thought [00:50:00] was the movie would cost about 30 million to make.
[00:50:03] Donna: And by the time they went through all they went through for this choice, then it brought the estimate up to between 48 and 80 million. It was at the time one of the most expensive films that, uh, had been made. The 2012 film production cost was 125 million. Their opening weekends, 19 90, 25 0.5 million, 20 12, 25 0.5 million.
[00:50:34] Donna: I think that might say a little bit.
[00:50:37] Josiah: So we were talking about the, uh, opening weekend, I think for the 2012 film. It was number two at the box. Office number one was a month old movie. The Dark Knight Rises.
[00:50:52] Donna: Oh wow. Whoa. Oh gosh.
[00:50:55] Josiah: That’s amazing. Which was, which was popular, but like, it was divisive amongst critics [00:51:00] and fans.
[00:51:01] Josiah: But still, a month later it was beating this pile of corn.
[00:51:08] Donna: The USA Canada gross in, uh, for 1990 was 119 million, 2012 59 million.
[00:51:16] Rebekah: That’s wild.
[00:51:18] Tim: Yeah. So the 2012 basically doubled its opening weekend and the 1990 quadrupled almost.
[00:51:25] Donna: Yeah. The International gross was, uh, for 1990 was 142 million in twenty twelve, a hundred thirty nine 0.5.
[00:51:35] Donna: So it brings totals for 1990, up to 261 million in twenty twelve, a hundred ninety 8 million.
[00:51:42] Rebekah: So, okay. Adjusted for inflation. The 1990 film made 462. $0.89 million in 20 $12. It made more than double what the [00:52:00] 2012 paid. When you adjust for inflation, that’s crazy.
[00:52:02] Tim: When you don’t adjust, it’s al it already made more
[00:52:06] Rebekah: true.
[00:52:07] Donna: Yeah.
[00:52:07] Rebekah: Yeah.
[00:52:08] Donna: The ratings were a little different. The 1990 film got an R rating. The 2012 film was rated PG 13. The 1990 film was shot in the Mexico City, uh, location of a studios Buco, uh, is one of the largest and old studios in Mexico, which is why I even made a note about it ’cause I thought that was interesting.
[00:52:34] Donna: And then there were, uh, a lot of Mars exterior shots filmed at the Valley of Fire State Park in Overton, Nevada. And then the 2012 film was shot in Toronto at Pinewood Toronto Studios. Also had some scenes at the University of Toronto and several other locations around the city. So that’s what we can find out about the, uh, particulars of films.
[00:52:59] Donna: So [00:53:00] let’s discuss a little more, uh, interesting trivia. Bits. I pulled a few things out.
[00:53:07] Josiah: Um, yeah, I was thinking about, you know, what was the intention with the 2012 remake? You got the, uh, ’cause you got the 1990 film. It was an adaptation from Dick’s short story. It’s kind of a loose adaptation. It, it follows along for the first actor two, but the ending of the film was completely invented.
[00:53:28] Josiah: Um, it was licensed by Carol Coe to do so. But the 2012 remake is, it’s much more of a remake of the 1990 film. Uh, I don’t think there was a mention of Philip k Dick’s short story in the credits. For instance, seems
[00:53:47] Rebekah: that’s actually you. Really weird.
[00:53:49] Donna: Yeah.
[00:53:50] Josiah: Uh, Jessica Beal, who played Molina, the, the good girl, not the bad girl.
[00:53:56] Josiah: She stated in an interview, I don’t think she was [00:54:00] supposed to say this, but she stated in an interview that the movie was more of an adaptation of the short story, more fa, like implying pretty heavily that it was more faithful to the short story than the 1990 film, even though Beal’s character does not appear in the original short story, only in the 1990 film.
[00:54:25] Josiah: Now, Colin Farrell, he must have known that that wasn’t true. I did he co-produce it? I feel like
[00:54:34] Donna: he, he could. I don’t remember as possible.
[00:54:36] Josiah: He must have known that that wasn’t true. But he went along with it and kind of, uh, parroted Beal’s comment in a later interview. Oh my goodness. Well, uh, seven years later, 2019, there’s a GQ article with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[00:54:53] Josiah: Uh, he mocked the 2012 film saying someone tried to do a remake of [00:55:00] Puerto Rico. How stupid is that to do?
[00:55:02] Rebekah: Good accent. Good accent.
[00:55:04] Josiah: Thank you. It was good. He expressed interest in reprising the role a few years before the remake came out. But was, uh, he was turned down after Farrell was handpicked. What a, what a great casting director choice.
[00:55:21] Donna: Uh, Jessica Beal, who we just again, clarified ’cause the two Burnetts look so similar in the 2012 film. Uh, she was the good girl, Molina. She was nominated for a worse supporting actors razzy or her portrayal of Molina.
[00:55:40] Donna: Aw.
[00:55:41] Donna: I thought, I honestly, I liked her. Like if I had to say I liked any of them, I was okay with her.
[00:55:48] Donna: I liked the look of her, I liked the way they kind of set her character up. I didn’t really like any of them. But if I had to pick somebody,
[00:55:56] Josiah: when I think of Molina, I think of her shedding [00:56:00] a tear in that tense Mexican standoff scene that was stupid. And it went on for too long. And it was supposed to parallel in the 1990 movie when that random guy comes in and he sweats
[00:56:15] Donna: McClain, the recall,
[00:56:17] Josiah: the mcc that’s
[00:56:17] Donna: supposed to be the McLean character.
[00:56:19] Donna: Yeah.
[00:56:19] Josiah: And he sweats, which tells Arne that he is, uh, actually nervous about a, a gun pointed at him. And, and it’s like, oh, this is not my brain, this is reality. And uh, Jessica Beale is supposed to mirror that by crying. And I think that that’s supposed to tell Colin Farrell that she’s real.
[00:56:42] Rebekah: It was an annoying scene
[00:56:44] Donna: since so much of that was going along with the 1990 storyline.
[00:56:49] Donna: Do you think that they thought if the dude that was talking to him, supposedly in his mind from recall, if he had sweated, it would’ve made him look weak? [00:57:00] Why wouldn’t they just do that? It was so simple. It was a tense moment.
[00:57:05] Tim: There were, there were a couple of places where they made a very close proximity to the film, to the previous film, and then when a different direction on purpose.
[00:57:17] Josiah: Well, remember in the 1990 film, the solution in that scene that McLean gives Arne is to red pill, even before Matrix came out, which I think is funny to take the red pill. That’s right. And
[00:57:31] Donna: everything will just be fun
[00:57:32] Josiah: in the 2012 film. You know, the red pill is too much of a matrix reference. Maybe we think that a realistic solution that this guy, that this not McLean guy could offer Colin Ferrell is to shoot his girlfriend in the head.
[00:57:50] Josiah: You think he might do that? You know, you kind of think Arne, he, he could, he could swallow the pill and go back to reality. Uh, yeah. You really think Colin [00:58:00] Farrell is going to, like, why would that be necessary if he were in a dream? If he were in a schizoid state? Why would shooting his girlfriend in the head make him less schizophrenic?
[00:58:13] Donna: Yeah, it’s completely logical.
[00:58:15] Josiah: Yes.
[00:58:16] Rebekah: Well, uh, in the 1990s, their first version of the film, the original product was given a potential X rating from the MPAA. So they had to cut back on the violence. Apparently the death of Benny, the Martian taxi driver, um, was particularly violent.
[00:58:36] Tim: I bet that’s why they cut away and he just, he just screams or whatever, and you don’t see as much as I think you would’ve seen.
[00:58:43] Josiah: I think that there was a lot of body horror in the 1990 film that could turn, uh, turn certain audiences off. It works for me. It’s, it’s fantastical with the practical effects. It’s just so campy and silly [00:59:00] that I think it, it speaks to the themes of the movie about, is this over the top because it’s a dreams, uh, because it’s just implanted memories or not.
[00:59:10] Josiah: But I can see how the body horror can be a lot.
[00:59:13] Tim: It was one of the things that turned me off more, uh, the body horror when we first watched it, and actually the first, probably the first two, three, maybe more times that we watched Total Recall. It was a TV movie. It was, it was edited for television, which meant one, it was not all rated anymore.
[00:59:35] Tim: Uh, they dropped several things from it. So when we first saw it in its original form, um, I was, I was shocked ’cause there were lots of things in there. It’s like we’ve told people, Hey, we really like this movie. We really like this movie. And they’re like, wow, there’s some things in here that I really don’t want people to watch.
[00:59:53] Tim: But there were 15 puppeteers that were involved in the Quato or Kato, so [01:00:00] much so that, that the director and the special effects designer Botten were approached on the street asking if he was a real freak or maybe a partially born Siamese twin. Because apparently he looked realistic enough, um, to audiences.
[01:00:17] Tim: Remember we we’re watching these things on our television, which are a lot higher resolution than even the theater was back then. Um, so we’re, we’re seeing things like when we see, um, skin tone that doesn’t look right or this is too shiny. Some of those things wouldn’t have been noticeable, uh, at the time.
[01:00:39] Tim: So I, I guess it makes sense that people would ask was it was a real person.
[01:00:44] Josiah: I liked GoTo. It was more body horror. I can see how that would turn off people, but I, I thought it was fun world building that, that what a bold choice for Verhoeven or whoever wrote the script to just say, okay, there’s mutants.
[01:00:58] Josiah: There’s mutants, and that’s the [01:01:00] underclass that Arne’s gonna save in his fantasy. Uh, there’s just a bunch of mutants,
[01:01:04] Donna: I think too, that the mutants were so, like the one guy, I mean more than half of his face, Terry,
[01:01:11] Josiah: I think
[01:01:12] Donna: Terry was, was completely, um, deformed and then his child, the child. I don’t know that it was his child or, or just someone he knew.
[01:01:22] Donna: Same thing that they did so much, uh, prosthetic there. And I agree with you. I think the concept that Hauser would care and, and well, I mean risk is life for this. I thought that made it like even more touching and stuff like that. During filming in 1990, there were a bunch of illnesses and injuries, and we come across this in a lot of, in a lot of stuff, don’t we?
[01:01:50] Donna: Um, huge problem with stomach, a virus or stomach illness and food poisoning for most of the group [01:02:00] except for Schwartzenegger. And Schuit, who was a producer, uh, Schwartzenegger had his food brought in from the states. ’cause he had a bad experience filming Predator in 1987 and remembered it and did not want to repeat it.
[01:02:17] Donna: And I think Sette had sit, did similar, uh, but was just incredibly careful with the foodie ate. And the other, another issue they had was, um, like Michael Ironside cracked his sternum. Uh, there were several like bruises, abrasions and cuts and stuff where, uh, I know Schwarzenegger in particular, I think either he broke a finger or, or nearly did in some of the stunts and stuff like that.
[01:02:45] Donna: Um, but also, and this kind of reminds me of our, uh, of our Wizard of Oz episode. The actress who portrayed the three breasted prostitute accepted the role or went out for the role as a [01:03:00] joke with her friends. Like she had no idea, or she didn’t really expect to get the role. Then when they did this, the prosthetic was from her neck all the way to her waist.
[01:03:12] Donna: So you’re not seeing her body at all. But the times that every time she had to open that shirt up and be exposed, she had to fight off tears because she was embarrassed.
[01:03:25] Rebekah: Oh gosh.
[01:03:26] Donna: I was like, okay. I mean, she kept the role, she could have declined. Right. And said, maybe I don’t wanna do it. I, I don’t know. I don’t know how that works.
[01:03:36] Tim: I get the impression that one of the most important things for an actor is to be working.
[01:03:41] Josiah: Yeah.
[01:03:42] Donna: I guess
[01:03:43] Tim: when you get, when you get to be big enough that you can really make choices, you may be able to make more choices. But that, that’s unfortunately, that’s also why a lot of young people are like, yeah, I don’t wanna compromise everything that I’m about.
[01:03:57] Tim: So, yeah, it’s not worth it.
[01:03:59] Donna: Yeah. [01:04:00] And I think too. This reminds me, I, I keep trying to tell myself these are real people that are acting and even if it’s not a good movie, you know, to come back and look at what happened behind the scenes and that they had to deal with all these things that, you know, food prep and blah, whatever.
[01:04:21] Donna: I
[01:04:22] Josiah: rem seeing Michael Iron side on the phone repeatedly between takes. Arnold Schwarzenegger discovered that he was calling his sister who was dealing with cancer. Schwarzenegger arranged a phone call with the sister and spent hours talking to her about exercise and good dietary choices. Many were touched by his kindness and concern for her.
[01:04:49] Rebekah: Well, uh, do you guys wanna do final verdicts and what you thought? Let’s give a rating to each of the three things. I’ll just go first. [01:05:00] I think the short story, it’s hard to rate a short story because like Josiah said, it’s just a conceit, like there’s so little to it, you can’t flesh out much. But I would say for what it was, I would give it like a nine outta 10.
[01:05:13] Rebekah: Like it’s, it was good. It was weird enough to be interesting. The conceit was, um, unique, especially at the time, I would say. Um, so I think in general it was great for what it is. It’s not really something I’m gonna read again. I don’t know that I would really go back to a short story unless it was for something like this where we’re reviewing the film.
[01:05:33] Rebekah: Um, the 1990 film, I would say is probably like, it’s hard ’cause my personal feelings about it are like the, the 88 thing for me, like the vibe and the way that they do the practical effects is so gross that it’s just not my personal taste. But I would say again, for what it is, probably an eight outta 10.
[01:05:53] Rebekah: Like it was pretty fantastic. They tried things, they took risks like. [01:06:00] They really made it work. And it was obviously very iconic. It was something that, it’s a movie people still watch, which I think anything that’s from the eighties and nineties, you know, we’re at a point where if people are still watching these on a regular basis, it says a lot about the value of the film.
[01:06:15] Rebekah: Um, 2012, like, I don’t know, two out of 10, I literally couldn’t stay focused on it for more than five minutes at a time. Like I just, it was, Colin Farrell was very, a, again, it reminds me of the, the guy that was reviewing the Avatar movie, but it’s like generic protagonist. Generic protagonist. Like, it just, it didn’t feel like any of the world building was thought out.
[01:06:39] Rebekah: It was so gray that it was uninteresting to look at. Um, the female actresses looked too similar. The bad guys weren’t interesting at all. I just think it was a total miss. So I would agree, like the bad Rotten Tomatoes rating was pretty. Um, on the nose. So I definitely will watch the 1990 movie again, if anything, because I know [01:07:00] mom likes to put it on occasionally, and so I’ll probably watch that again.
[01:07:04] Rebekah: I cannot ever imagine wanting to watch the 2012 version again. Um, so that is my final verdict. The movie was definitely better and the 1990 movie was better. I know I rated the short story a nine in the movie an eight, so like, take that with a grain of salt, but I would say the movie was in 1990 was better because it gave you a full story.
[01:07:24] Rebekah: Mm-hmm. Rather than just a quick like conceit that, you know, in a few dozen pages.
[01:07:29] Tim: Well, I can go next. Um, I pr I land pretty close to, to where Rebecca was. I think that the short story was, um, an interesting idea, a thought, uh, ’cause that’s about as long as it was really, uh, is a thought of what, what if, uh, and.
[01:07:53] Tim: I, I would probably give it a, a 7.5. Uh, not only is it not something I would rush back [01:08:00] to, it’s not something that, that I listened to and thought, wow, this, this is really neat. Um, I listened to it and thought, okay, okay, I, I get it. Um, so I’d probably give it a 7.5. I would give the original, uh, 90 film. Uh, I, I’d probably give it an eight.
[01:08:21] Tim: Um, it is not one of my favorite films to watch. I do watch it with my wife, um, but sometimes, sometimes it gets just, it’s a little too much for me. We watched it the same way that Josiah did. We wa we listened to the story, watch the newer film, and then watch the older one. I thought I wasn’t going to like the older film as much because I thought, well, now it’ll be even that much older.
[01:08:48] Tim: I’ll have that much more problem with it. And actually I liked it better now that they’ve done the new film. Um, so I would give the 1990 film an [01:09:00] eight, uh, the 2012 film. Oh, I’ll give it a five. And, and here’s the reason I give it a five. It had some interesting concepts in it. I thought they did an excellent job with the robots.
[01:09:15] Tim: The robot tech was extremely believable. I didn’t look at the robots and think, oh, that’s a person walking around in that, or they’re clumsy, or, oh, that’s cg. I can tell. It just doesn’t, you know, it looked right. It looked believable. The other thing that I liked about the tech was the vehicles, the, the mag vehicles riding on the top side and on the bottom side of a, of a, of a road.
[01:09:40] Tim: I thought just like Josiah, that tech is way too expensive. No city could ever adopt it, it would never be developed. However, it was a fascinating concept for me and, and I thought it was done really well. What happens if you can raise the, raise the streets off of the bottom of the city? [01:10:00] Uh, they do a lot of that same kind of thing in Blade Runner.
[01:10:02] Tim: Um, so that’s always an interesting concept, what happens down below and all that. But I would give that a five. But just because there were things, some things in it that I thought were really good concepts, but it was, it was too dark, visually dark. Um, it just was uninteresting. The palette, uh, was, was poor.
[01:10:28] Tim: Um, which is really strange ’cause I loved the Matrix. And the Matrix palette is green. Um, it is a green film, but it is on purpose. And it feels like it’s necessary to the story. In this case, it just feels like they just wouldn’t turn the lights on and nobody wanted to pay for paint that wasn’t gray or brown.
[01:10:52] Tim: So that’s, that’s my verdict. It’s, it know, not my, not one of my favorites, but it’s, it was good for what it was, especially the [01:11:00] 90 film. It, it, the 1990 film stands out more than I expected it to.
[01:11:05] Josiah: I love the 1990 film more than I thought I would. I thought it would be a campy, silly little this or that, but it was, it’s, I need to re-watch the Terminate the first two Terminators, but it might be my favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger film after staying it this week.
[01:11:25] Josiah: The world building high
[01:11:26] Rebekah: praise
[01:11:27] Josiah: is, yeah, the world building is rich. Mm-hmm. The, the conceit, the idea of the film. The theme at the foundation of this story is an interesting one to think what, what is the present, what is the past? But our memories of it, it’s like, yeah, that’s an, that’s a hard truth. That’s a hard but true [01:12:00] truth to swallow.
[01:12:01] Josiah: That I think is a, an interesting thing to think about. I think that the 1990 film does a great job of throwing caution to the wind. It’s just like it, it’s indulgent. Like, look at all this body horror, look at all this sexuality, the language, the action, but also the fantastical story of him. Uh, becoming a hero for the Martians and mutants using alien technology to terraform Mars.
[01:12:40] Josiah: And all of it works because there’s a chance it could be all an invented reality. So you, you
[01:12:50] Tim: still never know.
[01:12:51] Josiah: You have all of this evidence for both that it’s real and that it’s in an invented memory from recall. [01:13:00] You have all of this, you have all of that. And at the end of the day, because you don’t know if you ever think there’s a plot hole or a overly convenient story beat, uh, something is like, oh, really?
[01:13:15] Josiah: Is that how we’re, are we really gonna end the movie with a Hollywood kiss? Uh, all of these very cliche things. Okay. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a cartoon of a human being. And more than any other part he’s ever played. This is where a cartoon character belongs in a reality that might not be reality. Um, so the original short story was interesting.
[01:13:47] Josiah: It was short. I would have liked, you know, it, it’s fine. It’s good. It’s great for what it is. A little short story. I bet it did really well in the magazine being like, I bet it stood [01:14:00] out. Very interesting concept. It’s, uh, it’s actual plot was freaky. The idea that if it’s similar in that we don’t know if it’s real or, um, invented memory by recall, but the reality they propose.
[01:14:18] Josiah: At first is like the secret agent thing. You assassinated someone on Mars or something like that. Then the second reality that is proposed that ends the short story is that little mice aliens are, they met quail and they said, yeah, we’re not gonna destroy humanity because he seems like a good guy. So as long as he’s alive, you, we won’t destroy humanity.
[01:14:45] Josiah: So you better make sure he doesn’t die. Wow. That’s, that’s what we’re ending with, with no explanation. Okay. The sixties were wild, man. So I would give the, uh, I think that it’s [01:15:00] things like that Dad, where it’s a short story. I understand, but there’s a lot of important stuff that’s just breezed on by which I get it, but also.
[01:15:11] Josiah: You, we could probably make another pass at it. So I’m gonna give, you know, the short story, strong eight, eight and a half. Let’s say eight and a half for what it is. The 1990 film, I think is the best of the three. Uh, going with a solid nine and a half. This is a great film. It was, it, it was so fun and indulgent.
[01:15:36] Josiah: And I personally agree with what seems to be the conclusion of the movie. Uh, and not many stories like this do. So I remember Mr. Robot had a similar ending, but it had a different conclusion as to what its themes meant. I won’t spoil Mr. [01:16:00] Robot, but for total recall, I, I felt like, is it a dream or is it reality?
[01:16:08] Josiah: Either, you know, as long as I’m here, I’m gonna live as though this is my reality. And that’s kind of what I believe is the correct answer. What I think is that if you have memories implanted into you, that’s your reality. You know, what is truth? But your experiences and your memories, the 2012 remake is pretty explicitly reality in most ways, uh, except in the director’s cut, they have that ending where they basically, the Colin Farrell and Jessica Beal seem to notice things that counter indicate reality, and then they kind of smile and laugh about it and just decide to stay in the room.
[01:16:53] Josiah: So, I mean, technically it has the same ending, the same philosophical ending, but it can’t save it. [01:17:00] Also, I thought it was a little too explicit that the, the recall drug seemed to hit Colin Farrell’s veins. The instant that everything started going to crap, I thought it was a little too explicit. Whereas in the Arnie version, it could conceivably be that the recall process hadn’t started.
[01:17:21] Tim: Yeah. The text says we haven’t put it in yet.
[01:17:24] Josiah: Yeah.
[01:17:24] Tim: Yeah.
[01:17:25] Josiah: And, and John Cho in the 2012 remake says, take that out before it takes effect. Pull that out before it takes effect. But
[01:17:32] Tim: we’ve already
[01:17:33] Josiah: watched it at that point. We’ve watched it. Exactly. So that, that was interesting back before I really understood it was a bad movie.
[01:17:39] Josiah: Um, I think I’m gonna give it a three outta 10,
[01:17:42] Donna: so I’ll wrap us up. I really appreciate us doing this. Um, it is one of my favorite action adventure films. I’ve probably watched it two or three times as many times as dad’s watched it with me. ’cause I’ll watch it by myself. [01:18:00] Uh, it’s just, I don’t even know.
[01:18:04] Donna: Can’t even tell you really why. I like it, but I do, I always have. Um, but I will say the short story for me was okay. Uh, it was kinda like an unfinished chord. I really wanted to have more resolution, and I did listen on into the next chapter of the audio book and went, wait,
[01:18:28] Rebekah: it’s a different
[01:18:29] Donna: story. The dialect changed.
[01:18:30] Tim: Well, I wasn’t sure it, it wasn’t immediately recognizable as a different story.
[01:18:36] Donna: Why did a person begin talking with a southern accent? I lost something there. Anyway. Um, so I would say I, I mean, I would say, I’ll give it a five. It was an interesting concept and I think there’s probably a lot of that genre out there of short story that gives you this thing that you can ruminate in your mind.[01:19:00]
[01:19:01] Donna: But it doesn’t flesh it out. And that’s fine. It’s a taste. Um, it’s a taste. Yes. Uh, so 2012 movie, I’m gonna give it a four because I kind of liked the little scene where Colin Farrell realized he could play piano. I thought that was kind of interesting. Um, and then to see the key was a part of the tech.
[01:19:27] Donna: And then to see that as he continued to play and you saw the inner workings of the piano. And I know that has nothing to do with anything substantive to the story being good, but it’s a little interesting. So I’ll give it a four. Uh, I’ll give the 1990 film. I mean, I’m gonna give it nine and a half outta 10.
[01:19:48] Donna: ’cause I love it. I don’t even, couldn’t even go to all the links that, that you all have with describing it. Um, uh, the, the specifics, I just like it. [01:20:00] Um, I did also note after we’d seen the 2012 and went back to the 90 as gray as the 2012 film was, the 1990 film made a huge deal about Mars being red. There was so much red in so many of the scenes, they tinted stuff.
[01:20:22] Donna: Uh, and I, I thought that was specifically interesting and maybe because of things like the matrix where you just notice that prevalent, that that prevailing thing that they want you to get, that this is supposed to kind of temper your thought about this. Um, so yeah, I mean, I, that, that would be my thing.
[01:20:43] Donna: That definitely the 90 film’s gonna get the, the top bill for me. And then I also just want to say, um, in the, in our church world, I would say, I’m gonna take a moment of personal privilege. Uh. To say this is the last episode we’ll [01:21:00] film where I haven’t been married for four decades.
[01:21:06] Donna: Whoa. That’s
[01:21:07] Rebekah: pretty
[01:21:08] Donna: cool.
[01:21:08] Donna: And this on this day, uh, 40 years ago, my husband was still my fiance and we were, uh, trying to think about and even begin to imagine what married life would be. And it was a wonderful time and I’ve had a wonderful life and still thinking and whether we would have
[01:21:31] Tim: children, how quickly.
[01:21:33] Donna: Yeah. That’s
[01:21:34] Tim: me.
[01:21:35] Donna: So
[01:21:36] Rebekah: yeah, that’s me too.
[01:21:38] Rebekah: Um, well I think that brings us to the end of an episode with such a sweet, uh, conclusion. Uh, if you enjoyed listening, please leave a five star rating or review on your preferred. Podcast listening or YouTube watching, uh, I guess on YouTube it’s a thumbs up or a thumbs down comment or something. Uh, and make sure that you’re [01:22:00] subscribed to us.
[01:22:01] Rebekah: Uh, you can also find us on Patreon if you’d like to support the show. You can subscribe for free for updates on new episodes, et cetera. We also have some cool, uh, tears for premium members that you can check out, including a Discord. Uh, and you can find us on social media. We are at book is Better Pod on all the major networks that matter and, uh, you can use that or Discord to send us feedback, request new episodes or just, you know.
[01:22:28] Rebekah: Hang out with us, the cool family with parents who’ve been married 40 years and it’s beautiful. And uh, until next time I’ll be back.
[01:22:38] Tim: And if it’s not reality, kiss me before I wake up.
[01:22:55] Josiah: Isn’t a double life where you can do things like without Ah,[01:23:00]
[01:23:07] Donna: sorry, I.