# Total Recall (2012 film)
**Total Recall** is a 2012 American science fiction action film directed by Len Wiseman, starring [Colin Farrell](https://www.edgepedia.org/colin-farrell) as factory worker Douglas Quaid, whose visit to the memory-implant company Rekall goes wrong and leaves him a hunted man. It is a remake of the 1990 film *Total Recall*, and both are loosely based on [Philip K. Dick](https://www.edgepedia.org/philip-k-dick)'s 1966 short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale".[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) • [2](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Len Wiseman; screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback, with story credit to Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Jon Povill, and Gary Goldman[2](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/) |
| Lead cast | Colin Farrell (Douglas Quaid), Kate Beckinsale (Lori), Jessica Biel (Melina), Bryan Cranston (Cohaagen), Bill Nighy (Matthias), Bokeem Woodbine (Harry)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) |
| Release | August 3, 2012 (wide, United States), Sony Pictures; video release December 18, 2012[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) |
| Budget and gross | $125,000,000 production budget; $58,877,969 domestic; $198,467,168 worldwide per Box Office Mojo[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) • [4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1386703/) |
| Critical scores | 30% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (233 reviews); Metascore 43 on Metacritic (41 reviews)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) • [2](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/) |
| Rating and runtime | PG-13; 117 to 118 minutes depending on the version measured[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/total-recall-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0znzyymdi) |
| Setting change | No scenes are set on Mars; the story is earthbound, set in the United Federation of Britain and the Colony (Australia)[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-2012) • [7](https://www.ictv.org.uk/2012/09/19/total-recall-2012/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Douglas Quaid is a factory worker with a wife, Lori ([Kate Beckinsale](https://www.edgepedia.org/kate-beckinsale)), who visits Rekall, a company that implants fabricated memories of a life the client would like to have led. He chooses memories of life as a superspy, but the procedure goes wrong, and Quaid finds himself on the run from police controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen ([Bryan Cranston](https://www.edgepedia.org/bryan-cranston)), the leader of the free world. He teams up with a rebel fighter, Melina ([Jessica Biel](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessica-biel)), to find the head of the underground resistance, Matthias (Bill Nighy), and stop Cohaagen, while the line between fantasy and reality blurs.[8](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/totalrecall)
The remake keeps the Rekall premise and the Quaid identity from the 1990 film but changes the setting. [Chemical warfare](https://www.edgepedia.org/chemical-warfare) has left habitable land in only two places: Britain, where the establishment lives as the United Federation of Britain, and Australia, where poor workers live in the Colony. The two regions are linked by a commuter metro called "the Fall" that passes through the Earth's core, and Quaid is one of its commuters.[7](https://www.ictv.org.uk/2012/09/19/total-recall-2012/) Roger Ebert, the longtime [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic, identified the two biggest differences from the original as the absence of Mars and the casting of Farrell in place of [Arnold Schwarzenegger](https://www.edgepedia.org/arnold-schwarzenegger).[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-2012)
## Production and release
The film was produced by [Neal H. Moritz](https://www.edgepedia.org/neal-h-moritz) and Toby Jaffe for Original Film and distributed by [Sony Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures), with [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) among the production companies.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) • [9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/) Wiseman, previously known for the *Underworld* series, said in January 2012 that his cut was nearly finished and described the challenge of keeping the story's two parallel strands, the reality story and the fantasy element, alive together.[10](https://www.nme.com/news/film/total-recall-director-talks-remake-572210) Filming included locations at the University of Toronto in Canada, and the film's production countries were the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/)
The film opened in 3,601 North American theaters on August 3, 2012, earning $25,577,758 on its first weekend, 43.4 percent of its eventual domestic gross. Weekly drops were steep, including a 69 percent decline in the second weekend, and the domestic run ended at $58,877,969.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) International earnings were much larger: [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) records $139,589,199 from 57 markets, 70.3 percent of the worldwide total, with China the largest single market at $17,980,550.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1386703/) The Numbers reports a higher worldwide figure of $211,856,088, and the two trackers differ on the international total.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) Against the $125,000,000 production budget, the theatrical run returned about 1.7 times its cost worldwide before marketing and distribution costs.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) Sony's president of worldwide distribution, Rory Bruer, said the opening came in close to the studio's high-$20 million estimate.[11](https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/83/15/02850/08-06-2012.pdf)
## Reception
The film received mixed to negative reviews. Rotten Tomatoes logged 30 percent on the Tomatometer from 233 reviews and 47 percent from more than 100,000 audience ratings, with a critics consensus stating that while the film boasts impressive action sequences, it lacks the intricate plotting, wry humor, and fleshed-out characters that made the original a science fiction classic.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 43 based on 41 critic reviews, categorized as mixed or average, with 22 percent positive, 61 percent mixed, and 17 percent negative; its user score was 5.7 from 481 ratings.[2](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/)
Reviewers repeatedly measured the film against [Paul Verhoeven](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-verhoeven)'s 1990 version. The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan wrote that "like a drug that starts with a rush and ends with a headache, 'Total Recall' is too much of a good thing," while the Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern found the action repetitive and relentless.[12](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-aug-03-la-et-mn-total-recall-movie-reviews-critics-20120803-story.html) Ebert gave the film a middling review titled "Well done, lacking Schwarzenegger's charm," judging Farrell probably the better actor but Schwarzenegger the stronger screen presence for the role.[6](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-2012) The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it 2 of 5 stars, writing that it recalls *Blade Runner* and *Inception* without being as distinctive as either.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012) Some critics were more favorable: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch scored it 88, calling the richly constructed first hour superior to any feat of science fiction speculation since *Minority Report*.[2](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/)
## Differences from the 1990 film
The remake is rated PG-13, where the 1990 film was R-rated, and a comparative study of the two films found the 2012 version depicts far less bodily harm, with the most dramatic effects limited to bloody noses or blood from a character's mouth.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29) • [13](https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/7047/nbnfioulu-201605051637.pdf?sequence=1) The British Board of Film Classification, which classified the cinema version at 118 minutes 6 seconds, noted that much of the violence is fantastical, including gunfights with robots, with little sight of blood or injury detail.[5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/total-recall-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0znzyymdi) In the 1990 film Rekall is a fully legal business, while in the 2012 version it is clandestine; the roles of the wife Lori and the enforcer Richter, played separately by [Sharon Stone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sharon-stone) and [Michael Ironside](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-ironside) in 1990, are fused into Beckinsale's single character; and the mutant characters of the original, such as Kuato, are absent apart from a cameo nod, the three-breasted woman.[14](https://as.com/meristation/cine/que-diferencias-y-similitudes-tienen-total-recall-de-arnold-schwarzenegger-y-la-de-colin-farrell-n/)
An extended cut adds 12 minutes of footage and, according to a Spanish-language comparison, clarifies Wiseman's original vision for the film; the director's cut also confirms the reality of Quaid's situation by showing that a wound he received before the Rekall implant is missing.[14](https://as.com/meristation/cine/que-diferencias-y-similitudes-tienen-total-recall-de-arnold-schwarzenegger-y-la-de-colin-farrell-n/) • [15](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/faq/) The film was released on home video by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on December 18, 2012, and estimated domestic disc sales totaled $29,372,350, split between DVD ($13,941,664) and Blu-ray ($15,430,686).[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29)
## References
1. [Total Recall (2012), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/total_recall_2012)
2. [Total Recall (2012) Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/total-recall-2012/)
3. [Total Recall (2012), Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Total-Recall-%282012%29)
4. [Total Recall (2012), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1386703/)
5. [Total Recall, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/total-recall-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0znzyymdi)
6. [Total Recall review: Well done, lacking Schwarzenegger's charm, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/total-recall-2012)
7. [Total Recall (2012), Ipswich Community TV](https://www.ictv.org.uk/2012/09/19/total-recall-2012/)
8. [Total Recall, Sony Pictures Entertainment](https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/totalrecall)
9. [Total Recall (2012), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/)
10. ['Total Recall' director talks remake, NME](https://www.nme.com/news/film/total-recall-director-talks-remake-572210)
11. [Box office report, August 6, 2012 newspaper page, University of Florida Digital Collections](https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/02/83/15/02850/08-06-2012.pdf)
12. ['Total Recall' a forgettable action flick, movie critics say, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-aug-03-la-et-mn-total-recall-movie-reviews-critics-20120803-story.html)
13. [Comparative study of violence in Total Recall (1990) and (2012), University of Oulu repository](https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/7047/nbnfioulu-201605051637.pdf?sequence=1)
14. [Diferencias y similitudes entre 'Total Recall' de Arnold Schwarzenegger y la de Colin Farrell, MeriStation](https://as.com/meristation/cine/que-diferencias-y-similitudes-tienen-total-recall-de-arnold-schwarzenegger-y-la-de-colin-farrell-n/)
15. [Total Recall (2012) FAQ, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386703/faq/)
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