‘Total Recall' at 35: What One of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Best Movies Says About Its Star

‘Total Recall’ at 35: What One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Best Movies Says About Its Star (and Colonizing Mars) | Decider

Cohagen, give them the air!

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TL;DR

Total Recall turns 35 this year and – despite everyone thinking the Terminator or Predator were Schwarzenegger’s biggest ’80s hits – it was actually the goofy Twins that ruled the box office. But TR was Arnie’s first true sci-fi blockbuster and cemented his action-hero status. While James Cameron unlocked his “All-American” muscleman side in Terminator, Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven tapped into something deeper: injecting vulnerability, satire and grotesque fun into Schwarzenegger’s brawn, blurring whether Quaid is a regular Joe or a secret-agent killing machine.

Verhoeven’s film rides shiny sci-fi spectacle and self-aware parody side by side, from neon-soaked noir bits to bizarre body-horror gags (hello, nose-stretching gizmo!). Quaid’s identity crisis – “You are what you do, not what you remember” – doubles as a cheeky riff on action-hero ethos. And his vision of Mars feels half-realistic colony, half-dystopian nightmare, making the movie’s 2084 Red Planet more convincing than any billionaire pipe dream.