# Total Recall (1990 film)
**Total Recall** is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by [Paul Verhoeven](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-verhoeven), starring [Arnold Schwarzenegger](https://www.edgepedia.org/arnold-schwarzenegger) as a construction worker who discovers that his memories of an ordinary life on Earth may be implanted and that his real identity lies on a colonized Mars. It is loosely based on [Philip K. Dick](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-k-dick)'s 1966 short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" and was one of the most expensive films made up to that time.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-michael-ironside) • [2](https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/We%20Can%20Remember%20It%20For%20You%20Wholesale.htm)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | June 1, 1990 (wide, domestic), distributed by Sony Pictures; R rating; 113 minutes[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) |
| Director and producers | Paul Verhoeven; produced by Buzz Feitshans and Ronald Shusett[4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall) |
| Source | Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (first published April 1966)[2](https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/We%20Can%20Remember%20It%20For%20You%20Wholesale.htm) |
| Principal cast | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox[4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall) |
| Budget and gross | $65,000,000 production budget; $261,399,684 worldwide box office, about 4.0 times the budget[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) |
| Opening | $25,533,700 on 2,060 screens, 1990's biggest opening to date[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) • [5](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67086) |
| Awards | Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects at the 1991 Academy Awards; nominations for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound[4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall) |
| Critical standing | 80% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 81 reviews[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
The film is set in 2084. Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars, where human colonies live under the harsh rule of the tyrant Cohaagen ([Ronny Cox](https://www.edgepedia.org/ronny-cox)). He visits Rekall, a company that implants memories of vacations into customers' minds, and pays to experience a fantasy in which he is a secret agent on Mars. The procedure goes wrong and unlocks memories that had been erased from his mind: he learns he has truly been to Mars, that his wife Lori ([Sharon Stone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sharon-stone)) is a spy monitoring his new identity, and that he is being hunted by Cohaagen's enforcer Richter ([Michael Ironside](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-ironside)).[7](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/total-recall) • [4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall)
On Mars, Quaid joins the mutant rebels of the red-light district of Venusville, guided by the mutant leader Kuato ([Marshall Bell](https://www.edgepedia.org/marshall-bell)), and the story turns on the question of whether his adventure is real or a Rekall hallucination gone wrong.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/01/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-at-his-best) The film keeps this ambiguity open to the end, a fugue-state structure in which everything on screen could conceivably be reality or implanted memory.[9](https://mubi.com/en/films/total-recall/critics-reviews)
## From short story to screenplay
Philip K. Dick's story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" was first published in *The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction* in April 1966.[2](https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/We%20Can%20Remember%20It%20For%20You%20Wholesale.htm) In the story, Douglas Quail, an unfulfilled bureaucrat who cannot afford a trip to Mars, purchases a memory of a secret-agent life there, only to learn that the fantasy matches a buried reality.[10](https://philipdick.com/pkd-and-me/Total-Recall)
Screenwriter Ronald Shusett optioned the rights in 1974, paying Dick $1,000, and brought in [Dan O'Bannon](https://www.edgepedia.org/dan-obannon) to adapt it. The two found the futuristic tale too expensive to film and shifted to a smaller project that became *Alien* (1979); its success won them a development deal at Disney, where *Total Recall* was nearly made for a $20 million budget.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/658098/total-recall-1990) A May 1981 announcement had Walt Disney Productions planning to produce the script for a 1982 start.[5](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67086)
The property then moved to [Dino De Laurentiis](https://www.edgepedia.org/dino-de-laurentiis), who in 1984 attached [David Cronenberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-cronenberg) as director. Cronenberg stayed for about a year, wrote more than a dozen drafts, scouted locations in Tunis, and wanted [William Hurt](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-hurt) (the producers preferred Richard Dreyfuss) in a cerebral, less action-oriented version.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/658098/total-recall-1990) In December 1987 the project was stopped a second time, just before production, for lack of funding for its $20 million budget.[12](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/67086-TOTAL-RECALL?cp=1&cxt=Filmography3&pos=2&sid=b72127de-2894-4762-be1b-37e2554feec1&sr=0.11109516) Schwarzenegger then persuaded Carolco Pictures, run by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, to buy the rights and existing screenplay drafts from the ailing De Laurentiis Entertainment Group.[13](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/total-recall/) With Verhoeven, producer Shusett, and screenwriter Gary Goldman aboard, the tale was recast as an action film in which the protagonist became a brawny construction worker, while Cronenberg's subplot of Martian mutants was retained.[11](https://www.tcm.com/articles/658098/total-recall-1990)
## Production and release
Verhoeven had come to the project off *RoboCop* (1987), and the film was shot with largely practical special effects; Michael Ironside recalled sets crowded with three to four hundred extras, some in full prosthetic makeup.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-michael-ironside) The crew included cinematographer Jost Vacano, composer [Jerry Goldsmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerry-goldsmith), and editor Frank J. Urioste.[4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall)
The film was originally scheduled to open on June 15, 1990, but post-production was hurried to move the release to June 1 to get ahead of mid-June competition from *Days of Thunder*, *Dick Tracy*, *Die Hard 2*, and *RoboCop 2*. It opened to $25.5 million, which a July 1990 *Hollywood Reporter* article called 1990's biggest opening to date.[5](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67086) The Numbers records a final domestic gross of $119,394,839, an international gross of $142,004,845, and a worldwide total of $261,399,684 against the $65 million production budget, with an inflation-adjusted domestic figure of $319,975,248.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) A home video release followed on November 1, 1990, from Carolco Home Video.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) In June 1993 Carolco signed Shusett and Gary Goldman to write a sequel tentatively titled *Total Recall 2*.[12](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/67086-TOTAL-RECALL?cp=1&cxt=Filmography3&pos=2&sid=b72127de-2894-4762-be1b-37e2554feec1&sr=0.11109516)
## Reception and legacy
Critics were divided at release but the film's standing has held. Roger Ebert, the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic and 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) winner for criticism, praised Schwarzenegger's performance as a confused innocent betrayed by the structure of reality, calling it one of the most complex and visually interesting science fiction movies in a long time.[14](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-1990) Rotten Tomatoes records an 80% Tomatometer, with a critics consensus describing "a fast-paced rush of violence, gore, and humor that never slacks" under Verhoeven's frenetic direction.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall) The film won a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects in 1991, with additional nominations for sound.[4](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall)
Commentators have read the film as the middle part of an unofficial Verhoeven trilogy about authoritarian governance, between *RoboCop* (1987) and *Starship Troopers* (1997), noting its premise of a totalitarian government that has colonized Mars so it can charge ordinary people to breathe.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/01/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-at-his-best) Its themes of memory, identity, illusion, and reality are frequently cited as central to its lasting appeal.[15](https://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-MasterList-141103-byauthor.pdf)
The film was remade in 2012 under director Len Wiseman with [Colin Farrell](https://www.edgepedia.org/colin-farrell) and Kate Beckinsale, and a novelization by Piers Anthony appeared around the original's release.[10](https://philipdick.com/pkd-and-me/Total-Recall) • [16](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/total_recall) Rialto Pictures gave the film a limited theatrical re-release on August 10, 2012, and a 4K restoration followed for the 30th anniversary in 2020.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-michael-ironside)
## References
1. [I can remember it for you wholesale: The making of Total Recall, 30 years on, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-michael-ironside)
2. [We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, Philip K. Dick bibliography](https://philipdick.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/short_stories/We%20Can%20Remember%20It%20For%20You%20Wholesale.htm)
3. [Total Recall (1990), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%281990%29)
4. [Total Recall, Rialto Pictures catalogue](https://www.rialtopictures.com/catalogue/total-recall)
5. [Total Recall (1990), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/67086)
6. [Total Recall, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall)
7. [Total Recall, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/total-recall)
8. [Total Recall at 30: a thrilling reminder of Paul Verhoeven at his best, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/01/total-recall-paul-verhoeven-at-his-best)
9. [Total Recall critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/total-recall/critics-reviews)
10. [Total Recall (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale), Philip K. Dick site](https://philipdick.com/pkd-and-me/Total-Recall)
11. [Total Recall (1990), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/658098/total-recall-1990)
12. [Total Recall, AFI Catalog filmography page](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/67086-TOTAL-RECALL?cp=1&cxt=Filmography3&pos=2&sid=b72127de-2894-4762-be1b-37e2554feec1&sr=0.11109516)
13. [Total Recall (1990) review, Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/total-recall/)
14. [Total Recall movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-1990)
15. [SF Master List by author, Eric Schwitzgebel](https://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzPapers/SF-MasterList-141103-byauthor.pdf)
16. [Total Recall, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/total_recall)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films of the 1980s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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