Transcript

Lori (Total Recall)

Doug, honey, you wouldn't hurt me, would you, sweetheart? Sweetheart, be reasonable. After all, we're married.

Quaid (Total Recall)

Consider that a divorce.

Melina (Total Recall)

That was your wife? What a bitch.

Steve

It's Two Dads, One Movie. It's the podcast where two middle-aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about the movies of the 80s and 90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Follow and Nic Briana. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Two Dads, One Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Today we are continuing our march through Janu Arnie with Total Recall, the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, and Rachel Ticotin. And I'm not positive if I'm pronouncing that actress's name correctly, but that's how I'm gonna say it today.

Nic

Looks pretty correct.

Steve

Yeah, not far off. Before we jump in and get started, I just wanna remind everybody, hey, do you wanna get ahold of us? Do you wanna talk to the two dads? Do you wanna involve yourselves more deeply with us? Back off, it's okay, we're both married, you can't get that close. There's that. But you can go to twodads1movie.com, that's the number two and the number one. There you can explore all of our episodes. There's a way to travel through the movies we've covered and connect, oh, this one connects to that one with that actor or that composer, whatever. You can explore all this stuff, check out a bunch of stats, see how we stack up against Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, for example, and other cool stuff. So check out twodads1movie.com yeah, it's a.

Nic

Super fun site, everyone, and I'm kind of generally anti-website, and I really, really like this one. It's easy to get around in this, Lots of fun little trivia bits on there. I like it a lot.

Steve

Yeah, you can sign up for an account in order to leave comments and do some of that stuff, and there'll be more features, like being able to mark your favorite episodes and stuff like that coming soon. But you also don't have to. If you just want to check it out and poke around, you are welcome to do so. So check that out. Okay, total recall. So this is the second movie we've talked about, directed by Paul Verhoeven, isn't it?

Nic

Yeah, that's right. We saw him in Starship Troopers earlier, which was a great episode worth checking out. Yeah, he's always making some interesting stuff for us.

Steve

Absolutely. One of, I think we've talked about it before, one of both of us, our favorite directors of the era, just kind of like really had a lot of interesting things to say. So Nic was your pick for our January Arnie month. So talk to me a little bit just in general about your history with Total Recall and why you picked it for us.

Nic

Yeah, so this was early 90s Arnie. At the peak of his powers. This is definitely one I enjoyed on cable after the fact. I wouldn't have seen this in the theater, but I probably saw it in the mid 90s. I think this was a Cable to Scrambler classic.

Steve

There you go.

Nic

And we had mentioned before, a friend that both of us knew in high school, his family had a Cable to Scrambler. So we would get to watch pay-per-views, but he would also have these awesome VHS tapes of these kind of movies, and we'd just watch them over and over. Perfect. So this one, I mean, it's fun to do an Arnie impression from it. There's lots of goofy stuff. There's lots of actual cool stuff. This really just has a lot for you. And the concept of it is very neat.

Steve

Absolutely, yeah. I think it is a truly original concept. As are, we'll get into where the story came from, but this is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story. And when you tackle a Philip K. Dick story for the screen, you are certainly provided with a very interesting premise and a very interesting setting. And so I think Verhoeven and the screenwriters really took that and ran with it, and I think, did some interesting stuff. I think I'm probably in the same boat as you when it comes to Total Recall, originally seeing it, yeah, probably in high school sometime, possibly a rental or, yeah, on cable or something. We had HBO, so good chance that I just watched it one late evening when I was supposed to be, quote, in bed asleep, not downstairs watching HBO. But, yeah, I just have always loved this movie for a long time. There are so many pieces of it that have become sort of cultural, kind of like before memes existed, there were things from this movie, right? Totally. That were basically proto memes.

Nic

It is. And people would recognize elements of this film even if they've never seen it.

Steve

Yes, all three of them. Cool, all right, let's jump into the facts on Total Recall. All right, Total Recall was released on June 1st, 1990 with an R rating and a running time of 113 minutes. Directed by, as we mentioned before, Paul Verhoeven, written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman from the short story by Philip K. Dick. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Teichotin and Sharon Stone. On the scores tip, Rotten Tomatoes 81%, nice solid fresh score from Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 from IMDb. So this is a well regarded, very respectable, yeah, well regarded movie in general. Siskel and Ebert however, split decision from those two. Roger Ebert our homie with the big thumbs up. Gene Siskel the putts with a big thumbs down. Don't understand it. Still don't understand it Gene. All right, some awards. It was nominated for two Oscars in 1991. So two regular competitive Oscars. It was nominated for Best Sound, and it was nominated for Best Sound Effects Editing. It didn't win either of those. One of the reasons it didn't win that or any other Oscars that year is this movie was up against another Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Okay. Terminator 2.

Nic

Yikes. So-- Tough competition.

Steve

Yeah. So this film, however, did win a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects, which is not the same as, like, the Best Visual Effects Oscar, but it's like a way for the Academy to-- Hey, we also wanna make sure we point out that there are particular reasons were saying this movie was great in this category as well. And specifically for this, it was the combination of computer generated graphics, which were brand new at the time. Yeah. Makeup effects, puppets, all kinds of different stuff that all blended together at different places in the movie. And that's why the Academy decided to, you know, basically recognize it with that Special Achievement Award.

Nic

Is that something they do often? Do you know if that, like, it's at their discretion every year if they decide, like, okay, we really want to make sure this thing gets something even.

Steve

Though I think so. I think a lot of times they're not on the televised Oscars thing. It's like they always talk about the technical award. Or whatever, come a different time. And sometimes during the telecast, they will run down a few of the winners from that real quickly. So I think it's that kind of thing. I don't know if it's an every year deal, or if it's like, hey, when we see something we want to call out that doesn't get nominated for one of the main awards, we'll do it. I think it's kind of the idea. Or it's more specifically for like, oh, it's not just that it's for special effects or visual effects, it's for this specific effect it did, or like it.

Nic

Was revolutionary in some way.

Steve

Exactly. It raised the art form somehow. And so for this, it mentioned specifically the combination of practical physical and computer effects.

Nic

Very cool.

Steve

It did, however, win two 1991 Saturn Awards, which we actually see the Saturn Awards show up fairly often. It's like the Academy of science fiction and horror or whatever. It's its own thing, but it's specifically around sci-fi and horror movies. So this won best science fiction film and best costumes at the '91 Saturn Awards. On a budget of $65 million, which, yeah, it looks like it on screen. They squeezed every penny out of that they could. It earned 261 million at the box office for four times its budget. Making it an undeniable smash hit.

Nic

Absolutely.

Steve

Those are the facts on Total Recall.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

All right, man. You wanna kick us off?

Nic

Yeah, let's kick us off. And this is one that kind of kicks us off in a weird. And I did wanna point out at the beginning, it says the producers are Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. I always pronounced it a certain way, but I think it's like Vajna or something like that. But they're all over these action films of the '80s. Their fingerprints are all over the lesser ones. You know, this is one of their marquee projects.

Steve

If it wasn't Ridley Scott or James Cameron or that kind of thing, it was these guys, right?

Nic

Yeah, yeah. So we start off basically with two people that are outside on what appears to be Mars.

Steve

And they're- Red Planet.

Nic

Red Planet. They're in their space suits and they have these kind of glass face protecting helmets and everything. And they look like they're just kind of going for a hike just to walk it around out there, right?

Steve

Checking out the sites. It's like when you go to the Grand Canyon, what else are you gonna do? You just look at it.

Nic

Just have a peek and just stand there on definitely solid ground that's never gonna crumble from beneath your feet. Oh, no. So one of them slips and falls down, and we see that this is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And immediately he falls face shield first onto a rock that breaks it. So the air's, he's like, Ah, wow, great Arnie noises. From the beginning, and this is some of the best culturally permeating stuff from the film, is the effect of the eyeballs popping out as he's outside on Mars and he's freaking out, his face is changing. Really good effect. And then, you know, kind of quickly, he wakes up from this as it gets very intense, and it had been a dream, and, you know, he's laying there in bed with his wife, Sharon Stone.

Steve

Right. Lori is her name, and Doug Quaid is Arnold Schwarzenegger's character. And yeah, I think this is, you know, so much of our love of Arnold Schwarzenegger in latter years comes from people doing impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah. And the whole, like, Arnie in distress, I feel like there's more of that in this movie than maybe any others.

Nic

Oh, yeah.

Steve

So the whole, like, kind of sounds that he makes. It's like all over this.

Nic

It's so distinct. Yeah, it's really wonderful. Yeah. And of course, Laurie is jealous because he's dreaming about being on Mars, and she's like, Was that woman there?

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Because he apparently has this recurring dream.

Steve

And it's a brunette, specifically Sharon Stone being a blonde. Like, there's a comment about it was a brunette, and she knows it's not her. I also just want to say, Probably goes without saying, Sharon Stone looks amazing in this movie. This is peak Sharon Stone time. She's gorgeous. The way that she, as an actress, the way that she interacts with him is so good as you get to know more about these characters and what their relationship actually is, because she's not only being a good actress herself, she's playing a good actress. Right? In a lot of ways where it's like the character has to be acting, and it's like that's not the easiest thing to do, and she does a fantastic job.

Nic

No, and she, you know, in a lot of ways, like, blows everybody off the screen in this movie. She is the most, probably the most skilled actor that we're seeing a lot of.

Steve

Of actors. Yeah, it's pretty much her. And Marshall Bell is great in other things. We'll get to him later, but he doesn't really have much to do in this movie.

Nic

So it's sort of like-- Is that co-helming?

Steve

No, no, no. That's, that, oh, he is actually really good. That's Ronnie Cox. No, I was thinking Marshall Bell is Kaito, George and Kaito is Marshall Bell. Oh, okay. He's great in other things, but in this, he was, yeah. There's actually a lot of Starship Troopers connections. We'll get to those as well. As we see them. But yeah, there's that. And yes, Ronnie Cox, who was in Robocop, the head of that corporation, in that movie is now the head of like Mars mining in this movie. And of course there's also Lieutenant Bogumil in the Beverly Hills cop movies as well. So Ronnie Cox is great as well in this. But back to like the kind of moment in the movie where we're at, Doug has woken up, basically convinces Laurie, oh, it's no big deal, you know, I'm the only one that you love, that I love is you, you know, whatever, gives her some cheesy ass lines and they make out and make love or whatever. And we don't get to see it all.

Nic

But, hey, you know, her nips are out. There is a nip very early. So you get an eyeball pop and a nip pop within the first, like, 3 minutes of this film.

Steve

Very related to each other.

Nic

Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny. So so he turns on the TV. They have this kind of like wall window view. Right. And it's the whole wall. So she clicks it and we see that it's just a projection or whatever. And there's like this news story, you know, kind of scary action news about all the turmoil going on on Mars and terrorists are demanding their freedom and all this stuff. And then Quaid is just like, Let's move to Mars.

Steve

It's like.

Nic

This reminds me of everyone who's like, Aw, like, Hey, let's move to this shitty place. You get a cheap house.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nic

Yeah, but then you're there.

Steve

Yeah, did you see that there's that horrible serial killing that happened down in the Bayou in Louisiana? Yeah, but a big house down there is like 200 grand. We could go and we could live in a big house down there. Yeah, there's that. And then I love too that this news report that he's watching, Verhoeven, obviously, like, he does it in Robocop as well, but it's like a signature for him, 'cause all throughout Starship Troopers, right, is all of the, like, fed news or whatever, the fed net stuff. And it's the same thing. The amount of horrifically graphic violence just being live streamed on the newscast is like mind boggling. Yeah. When you don't stop and realize, like it is only one or two steps past the reality of news, especially in the 80s and 90s, they showed us stuff that they wouldn't now. They were much more permissive.

Nic

Well, now it's on YouTube.

Steve

Well, there's that.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Unfortunately. Yeah.

Nic

You still have access to it, but it's not on like Dennis Richmond isn't presenting it to you.

Steve

Exactly. It's not news at 10 or whatever showing us these horrible things. So we get a very graphic, in fact, the cops or whatever they are, they're sort of security forces that are quelling the terrorist outrage or outbreak are also, you know, telling the camera, you know, shut down, get the fuck out of here, you know, whatever kind of thing. But yeah, apparently Doug's response to this is, that looks like a good place to live, like whatever.

Nic

He doesn't seem to give, like, does he like the adventure? Does he think there's opportunity?

Steve

Like, he doesn't explain it at all. He's clearly obsessed. And she even said when he wakes up and he says, you know, I was dreaming, it was a dream, it was on Mars again. He goes, yeah. And it's like, you're obsessed. This is becoming an obsession. Yeah, he is clearly.

Nic

There's a comment, I think, on the news about, you know, the main thing that's happening on Mars is they're mining this substance called terbinium, which is, you know, the war effort depends on it. And they're not really talking about where the war effort exists. I think there's supposed to be just kind of a blanket war effort. Like there is now, just like there's always one.

Steve

There are subtle references to like the northern sector and the southern sector. I get the sense that it's sort of a, the countries or former countries of the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere of the earth are at war with each other in some way is what it sounds like, and that this turbinium product is essential to whatever kind of weapons manufacturing that they're doing. Maybe it's like copper, he just needs a ton of it for his stuff, right? So there's that. But yeah, she basically tells him, no, we shouldn't move to Mars. That would be a bad idea.

Nic

And they also, on the news, I think they mentioned that Kwato and the terrorists are basically the group that's trying to trying to thwart this effort. They're like the rebel group on Mars.

Steve

And we're setting up a very classic, you know, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter sort of setup. And that's quite deliberate, obviously. It's kind of Verhoeven shtick in a lot of ways is that kind of commentary. And then we set that up. We then follow Doug as he leaves to go to work. I want to pause real quick to say, I think I had the jacket he's wearing. It's like a green, almost kind of bomber style with the brown corduroy or leather collar. I think this is leather. Mine might have been corduroy, but it looked very similar to that sort of olive green. With the brown collar was just standard, like 80s-90s jacket. I think it had almost the same one. Mine would have been much smaller, however, because I was like, you know, 12 or something.

Nic

Yeah. Hard to find a 12-year-old the size of a Pete Schwarzenegger.

Steve

No, thank God. That would be weird. So he gets on the subway train.

Nic

Oh, he goes through that x-ray machine. That's our first glimpse of that, which is really cool. And this is, again, something that stood out forever to everybody who watched this, you walk through the security screen and it's a full x-ray. So they're just watching your skeleton walk through there. Very cool and not dissimilar to what we have now, although I think those guards were trained in some sort of way and we don't do that anymore.

Steve

There's no training.

Nic

Just cool to see how this world exists. And then when he's on the subway, there's screens everywhere. So that's another thing that's basically how it is now, that was this kind of imagined dystopian future then.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

So we made it.

Steve

Yeah, right. We got there, everybody. Yay. So he's on the subway train and there's just TV screens showing ads and one of them is for a company called Recall, which is R-E-K-A-L-L, not spelled like the title of the movie, but basically advertising the ability to go on vacation with a brain implant, essentially. They will put memories in your head so that you will have the memory of having gone on some fantastic two-week two week long vacation without actually doing it and for significantly less cost and whatever else, which I have like no, like there's a lot of movies where we even dystopian sort of future movies where there's like pretty cool tech where you're like, well, I could live in that horrible dystopia if I had that cool tech. This is not one of those. I have never had any interest in like, that sounds like cool. I wish I could do that. That sounds like the worst. There's no way you don't wake up with like cognitive dissonance and like, and like your brain is just fighting with this with the reality of knowing you went to the recall place and then constantly questioning, well, which memories did they put and which ones were real? It would be constantly a problem.

Nic

But wouldn't they, do you think they would even erase your memory of going to the recall place? Your new memory would be, I went to the airport and went on this trip. That's the thing that bugs me out, is that even in a world where you didn't go to recall, you're surrounded by people who are convinced by all this shit that you know for a fact is not real. So it's just like this, this schizophrenic, crazy ass environment. And they didn't dig into that aspect of it too much. But the, the implications of this are very interesting. And, like, it opens your mind to this, like, whole new idea of a world. It's really cool.

Steve

I need to go back. I need to find that Philip K. Dick short story that, that influenced this because I have a feeling he talked, he probably wrote way more about that as a concept and, and the ramifications of it other, rather than this overarching story about Mars. Like, I get the sense because It's when you base off a short story. I mean, like Blade Runner was based off a short story that really was just about androids and replicants. They call them replicants or whatever. Not so much the whole story of Decker and everything.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know what I'm saying? So it's probably a similar thing where the I bet you dick dove way further into the ramifications of this fake memory and what that does to you kind of thing. But I digress.

Nic

But everyone in his life is against it. So, I mean, this is something that, you know, Harry's, he's At his job, which is a strong guy job, which is just jackhammering stuff all day.

Steve

Construction, I guess.

Nic

Great. I mean, perfect job for Arnie to have in a film. He should be that in everything.

Steve

And his buddy, Joey Tribbiani's dad, is there to say, Harry. That's a terrible idea when he's like, Hoo do the recall? Yeah, yeah, a guy went there, got lobotomized. Like, don't do it, you know, kind of thing.

Nic

Yeah, and they're really, you know, against him. And then the next scene is basically him showing up at the recall's office.

Steve

And he already had an appointment. Like, he's asked me about it, but they were expecting him. Like, this isn't, you know.

Nic

Honestly, this is how I operate. I'm like, hey, do you think it's a good idea if I get a new car and the keys are jingling in my pocket already? I love that when he goes in here real quick. So at the time I'm watching this movie with my wife and. And she's painting her fingernails, which she hates doing because it's just, you know, whatever. So she always puts it off. So she's doing it. And then this scene comes on where he walks in the recall office and the receptionist there. Oh, yeah. Some kind of, like, magical fingernail palette where she dips this stylist into it and touches her nails. And they change color. My wife just looks up and she goes, Son of a bitch!

Steve

See, that is tech that we should have, right? I guess it would be like implants on your nails. It would almost be like little LED screens.

Nic

Like little screens.

Steve

Exactly. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, so initially he talks to, I think it's Bob, is the name of the guy that he-- the sales guy. Sales guy at Recall. He sits down with him, he chats, and he's like, Hey, where are you thinking you want to go? How about this? How about that? Whatever. He goes, I want to go to Mars. And immediately the guy's like, Nah, come on, Mark. Whatever. So he's already trying to steer him away. So we've had his wife say, you're obsessed with Mars. It would be a terrible idea to move there. He's had his buddy at work, Harry, tell him, no, no, don't fuck with your brain, pal. It's not worth it. The whole deal. And now even the salesman is not to Mars. And here's the issue I have with some of that is that we are being-- we will get into this obviously as we go on through the episode, but we are in a position where we are at the mercy of-- of Verhoeven and the screenwriters about what is real and what isn't. And that's obviously a major question of the whole movie. But if you try to find hints in the early parts of the movie, I find it incongruous that Bob at Recall gives a shit where he wants to go. Do you know what I mean? Unless it's just cheap.

Nic

Yeah, that was the only thing I was thinking is the trip to Mars is the equivalent of the two-day Carnival Cruise that just stays in the ocean and doesn't even go anywhere. I got you. Those ultra budget things. But, yeah, your point is totally taken because it's like, why would he give it?

Steve

Yeah. But I guess, I guess the, the idea of him just trying to get a higher commission or sell a bigger thing would make some sense because he doesn't, he doesn't factor in later in the same way Lori and Harry do later is kind of my point. So. But we will get to that. Yeah.

Nic

So, so he basically, he offers them, you know. Yeah, you can go on a regular vacation, but what's the same thing about every vacation you've ever been on?

Steve

It's you.

Nic

So what we can offer is this thing called an ego trip where you can select an alternate identity. And again, dude, this is frying your brain even further. This is stabbing yourself in the head and then pushing a button and whatever stabbed you opens and becomes an immersion blender and just starts scrambling your entire brain, dude.

Steve

I can't imagine, yeah, again, talking about cognitive dissonance and knowing this or not knowing this. Are you supposed to come back from this vacation where you were, he mentions a secret agent as a possibility, but he mentions other possibilities as well, like a rock star and different things, right? You're, you're, you know, you're not actually secret agent. So what does your psyche do about the memories that you have of having been a secret agent?

Nic

Right. It's just, does the memory includes, like, a resolution to wrap up whatever your identity was for that length of time?

Steve

And what could that possibly be? Yeah. Like, I'm gonna also get the memory of retiring from the Secret Service or whatever the hell it is. Like, it's very strange. It's that the ego trip part, to me, seems the most psychotically insane. It is piece of all of it. Yeah, it is.

Nic

It's definitely a fun idea. And so, you know, he basically, his selling point is, you know, you get the girl, you kill the bad guys. I have this scenario. It's great. You get the girl, you kill the bad guys, and you save the entire planet.

Steve

Right? Yeah.

Nic

And then the, the assistant at the lab or whatever, who's set to program the machine says, oh, that's a new one. Blue Sky on Mars.

Steve

Oh, okay.

Nic

Before they put it in. Catch that.

Steve

Okay.

Nic

Which I think informs, like, a lot of the A lot of the thing. Yeah. So now he's hooked into the machine and we kind of get this cool scene of his head in this really neat looking ultimate. It's like Magneto's dentist chair or something like that.

Steve

It's a psychotic MRI machine.

Nic

Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. And he's freaking out and he's doing his noises.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

And we're getting some nice Arnie noises here.

Steve

Yeah, but things go wrong quickly.

Nic

They go wrong.

Steve

And I'll just stop for a second. I didn't catch the Blue Sky on Mars comment from her, and now I feel like I'm more confident in the ending. So we'll get back to that. But going I'm to come back to that because that's interesting.

Nic

Yeah, yeah.

Steve

All right. So we cut away initially. Bob is talking to another potential client, trying to sell them while his little video phone with no sound on, the two scientists who are working with Doug are screaming into it, trying to get the- Great effect.

Nic

I really think that's super cool.

Steve

Absolutely. And so they say he's having, quote, a schizoid embolism, which boy, does that sound bad. Like, I don't think that's a real thing, but that's bad.

Nic

But that was focus grouped. I mean, that is a nice sounding phrase.

Steve

Yes, exactly.

Nic

So they shoot him with this, like, sedative super soaker, like 58 times.

Steve

Well, so they do it initially when he starts the process.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And it affects him. Like, it really does affect him, the one thing. And I counted, and it was eight shots in the leg. So eight times whatever tranquilizer they gave him initially, they give him eight more of it. Which is why he then passes out to the point that they're able to sort of shove him into a cab because what they say is he keeps talking about that they're coming to get him and like whatever. Covers the whole thing. And Bob is even like, what are you talking about? That's just a secret agent programming or whatever for the memory. And she goes, I haven't loaded it yet. And that's an interesting thing because I think here's the first moment where Verhoeven is making it clear that we should not feel confident about what's real and what isn't. That to me is the first line that is really like, okay, so which is it? And I always want to say, oh, that's a good indication that it is all in his head that it's not-- or excuse me, that he's really there. He's really going, It's not part of the recall thing, except that everything from the moment he takes, that he completes the whatever design your own girlfriend segment kind of thing, we have to assume after that it could just be the implanted memories. We don't have any reason to think that it couldn't be for any reason.

Nic

There's no clear divide. Between when it's supposed to start. Yeah, it's really great. So the doctors are freaking out. And this is, again, I mean, this is a Verhoven thing. I think this is intentional of just showing, like, the ridiculousness of these characters. But one of the doctors is like, he's actually been to Mars. And then the guy's response is, use your head, you dumb bitch. Why? It's like, why so aggro, dude?

Steve

Ouch, man.

Nic

Yeah, so they threw him in the Johnny Cab. The Johnny Cab. Once again, predicting the future. But I love the level of detail that they put to give him, like, silent film style facial expressions. Like, when he's making these kind of, like, sarcastic eye rolls and stuff. I love that there's a robot engineer who's like, you got to figure out how to make his eyes roll if you say something annoying.

Steve

It's like in this version of the future, Johnny Cab just hired a bunch of former Disney Imagineers and were like, make these, like, the ottery animatronics and, like, you know, the American Adventure or whatever. And it's like, oh, okay. So just like really big and over the top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need to make sure that the fake driver that definitely doesn't need to be there for any reason is very emotive. We need a very emotive fake driver. It'll make people feel more at home. It's definitely not Uncanny Valley at all. No.

Nic

You could have saved a fortune just having the inflatable autopilot from airplane.

Steve

Oh, yeah.

Nic

Be the driver there. Much cheaper.

Steve

Very hard to blow out, though. Yeah, so he is heading home. Well, he, So he wakes up in the Johnny Cab, and I think he asks just to go home, right? Yeah. But before he can get up to his apartment, he is stopped by Harry from work, and Harry pulls a gun on him and is like, you, blabbed about Mars. You're in trouble now. But he, oh my God, Doug just absolutely destroys these people.

Nic

So brutally, so quickly.

Steve

And this is something, I mean, I just literally wrote the note I wrote as Snapping Necks. But there's part of, so I wanted, like, real quick, I was going to take a little pause here. 25 minutes in the episode, I don't care. I'm going to pause for a second and say, we've talked about Verhoeven before. We've talked about Verhoeven as a satirist, and I still believe that in general, all of Verhoeven's work has satirical elements. I don't believe this is as clear-cut a satire as Starship Troopers or Robocop are. I feel like those are both, like, much more clearly intending to satirize particular pieces of, you know, political or social life. This is more commentary, in my opinion. There's satirical commentary, but one of the pieces of satirical commentary that the movie makes, in my opinion, is the casting of Schwarzenegger in this role. The fact that he is completely unconvincing as a regular guy. And yet Hollywood has tried all his career to show us ways in which, no, no, no, he's just a regular guy. And then surprise, he's burly and can fight. It's like, yeah, we could see the 28-inch biceps. We know who he is. Yeah, we get it. So I think the I think that this fight and his reactions, his sort of like, oh my God, I'm Jason Bourne, I didn't realize, sort of reactions are part of Verhoeven's commentary about the way Hollywood treats violence and the way Hollywood casts people. And I think it's an interesting- yeah, interesting.

Nic

I think that's a good point. And then, you know, these other guys that he was killing seemed just kind of like regular Joe type guys. These weren't like, you know, trained assassin type.

Steve

No, and like Harry's overweight. And like, you know, it's just like, yeah.

Nic

Yeah, really cool scene. So Quaid comes back to their apartment, And back at the apartment, Laurie is doing this holographic tennis instructor thing, which is really cool.

Steve

Very cool.

Nic

And he comes in freaking out, shutting off all the lights and everything. He's like, Get down, get down.

Steve

He's like, Look, I have to tell.

Nic

You, they tried to kill me, but I killed them. And I don't know why I love so much the way he says this. He's like, In Harry from work, he was the boss.

Steve

He was the boss. So she doesn't believe him. She's basically just like, oh, you're being paranoid. And he goes, Is this paranoid? Whatever. And he shows the blood on his hands. And he does go wash up, but when he comes back, she's talking to him, I think. Or maybe he doesn't wash up, but at one point he's talking to her and she's trying to distract him because she looks over his shoulder and they have a ring cam or whatever at the front door. And it's clear that Michael Ironside and his buddies are showing up. And this is our first experience with his character named Richter. But they are coming, and it's clear she recognizes who they are. She is trying to get it so that Doug does not notice that people are at the door, essentially. Right. And so, you know, when he realizes it, he gives the clever girl kind of thing, which is like, we're gonna have to.

Nic

We're gonna make a clever girl.

Steve

That's gotta be tagged too on the website, because that's gonna come up a few times.

Nic

But, yeah. And this is, I mean, this is an excellent scene here.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

And Lori starts beating the out of him. As we were talking about earlier, Sharon Stone so hot in this movie and also. So, what would I ever get a recall of? If I could get an accurate, vivid memory of Sharon Stone from that era beating the shit out of me, dude, I would watch that baby back every night.

Steve

See, I'd be more interested in the first scene she was in, but, you know, this is good too.

Nic

It doesn't last as long. Uh, so, like, what the fuck is happening?

Steve

Right, right.

Nic

And he ends up in this shootout with these guys, and he's fighting everyone off. Great scene of them, like, chasing each other. Are they, this, the escalator thing? Right, so, not quite yet.

Steve

Right, so she tries shooting at him. He comes out or whatever, and he's, like, shooting at him, and he has to, he, like, gets the gun away from her in the fight and everything, whatever. And then he's able to, like, basically get away. And he's running to the subway, basically. And so this is where Michael Eisenstein and his buddies, Richter and his crew are, like, following him. And this is where we get that cool thing again with the X-Ray where there's, like, he's going through and he triggers the things. He's got a gun on him, so that gets triggered. And then Richter and his boys are coming from one side with more guns, but then the security people are coming from the other side to stop him from continuing. And he has to jump through the x-ray screen or whatever, which is amazing. And I think I might be getting it backwards, but yeah, there's a point where he... Or no, no, that's when then they get the escalator from there. And this is when... And I don't know how to feel about this part, but Doug using a random passerby as a human shield is an interesting choice for this character.

Nic

I will say he did kind of use every part of the human shield. He only used one human shield. And he used that guy for so long. So long.

Steve

That's true.

Nic

But, yeah, I mean, that's not one thing. I love an escalator chase. That's always worked so well for me. And in the shootout, and this is a, this is a really great one. But, yeah, the human shield. I had a note.

Steve

Yeah. And then as they get to the top of the escalator and Richter continues to fall, because now, now Quaid has killed several of, of his guys. But Richter and Helm, his, his right-hand man who we saw in Toy Soldiers, he is, is continuing after Quaid. There's one little very verhovian moment as they get to the top of the escalator. There's all these dead bodies everywhere because all passers by have been shot, all of the like, you know, Richter's guys have been shot. I think he, Richter, instead of stepping over a body, steps on one of his dead henchmen and the sound it makes is so gross and squelchy. And when I saw that, I went, oh, that's so verhoven.

Nic

And Richter and the other guy, the guy from Toy Soldiers, they're getting into the car to go after him, basically. And they make a comment about like, you know, oh, your wife. Because Richter and Lori are in the real relationship, basically.

Steve

Right. Right.

Nic

In fight scenario. And Laurie was pretending to be Quaid's wife, and he's like, oh, yeah, I'm sure your wife hated every second. Like, basically making a joke, like, oh, I'm sure she hated that guy.

Steve

Yeah, right. Yeah. He's so ugly and out of shape.

Nic

And Richter gives us the title here.

Steve

He does. It's like, because he's like, does he remember? Because we get Cohagen, right, on the little video phone. So that's Ronnie Cox's character is up on Mars, and he's obviously working with Richter. He goes, what happened? Does he remember anything? He's like, no, not yet. But it could be a matter of, it's only a matter of time. In another hour, he could have total recall. So we get the title drop.

Nic

So good.

Steve

Not quite welcome to the total recall, but, like. But, yeah, we get the title drop there. And then they are going, so they have him bugged. They're able to follow him. Helm has this little handheld scanner, right, that is following him. And so he gets to a hotel, right? Yep. And he goes into the hotel, and then he gets a phone call. On the hotel thing. Is that right? Yeah.

Nic

So he gets a call, and it's like a video call or whatever.

Steve

That's right. Because they all are in this. Yeah.

Nic

And it's, if you want to live, don't hang up.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

And it's this kind of, you know, leather jacket looking guy.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Who's like, look, you know, this is what you need to do. You don't have a lot of time. I got this suitcase. I was told to deliver this to you. You know, it's like, who were you? Oh, I used to know you.

Steve

Well, yeah. Like, who told you to give it to me? You did. Yeah, exactly.

Nic

Then it's kind of funny that he immediately bombs down from the hotel room to the pay phone. Where there's the briefcase, and this old lady is just, like, scooping it up, like, don't mind if I do. And she's fighting him over it, and he Yanks it away, and she's. Oh, in the meantime, sorry. One of the things the guy told him to do, right, because there's a tracking Vice inside of his head, is wrap a wet towel around your head. So he kind of has, like, a wet towel, like, turban around his head, and he comes out, he steals the suitcase from the lady, and she. We get a classic old. Fuck you, asshole. And he turns around and does a very funny bow to her.

Steve

Yeah, it is very like, is it meant to be like Middle Eastern looking?

Nic

I was wondering if it was supposed to be.

Steve

Right. Not the best joke, but yeah.

Nic

Not the best joke. It worked enough though. And then one of my favorite tropes, and I'm really glad we get this. What do you say when you get into a cab? The number one thing you could say.

Steve

You know, I'm not gonna, I think I'm just gonna get in and yell, Drive! Yeah, just drive!

Nic

Just drive!

Steve

Right, go! Oh, goddamn Johnny Cab.

Nic

So good. And he ends up having to actually rip the Johnny Cab driver guy out to get to work, which is very funny.

Steve

So then he's got this little joystick and he's like just going in circles for a lot of it. Yeah. As Richter and Helm are both running after him. Seems like everybody in this movie has either machine guns or automatic pistols. Everything everyone is firing is very rapid fire. Yeah, yeah. And so he's doing, you know, whatever. And then so he ends up getting away. And going to this sort of like abandoned, almost like a construction site or a quarry or something, I don't know what the hell it is.

Nic

Just a shoot out friendly location.

Steve

Yeah, right, exactly. It's a lot of cement and a lot of open space, not a lot of people. He gets there and he stops the Johnny Cab and as he gets out and the Johnny Cab like asks him for the fare, like says how much, how many credits the fare is and he was like, you know, sue me or something like that. The Johnny Cab starts driving after him, like it's gonna run him down, hits a cement wall and explodes like a nuclear weapon. It is the biggest, why is it a bomb? How is that powered?

Nic

Yeah. Is it turbinium? Really funny though. Yeah.

Steve

21 to kick a leg.

Nic

Revenge on him.

Steve

They were just programmed. All cabs, this is what Waymos are gonna do. They are programmed to run you down if you stiff them on the floor. Yeah, that's literally how they're programmed.

Nic

So the trick is get two facing each other, don't pay either of them, and have them crash head on. This is cool. When he gets up there, he finds a spot and he opens up the suitcase and there's There's like cash, there's different IDs, there's weapons, there's like some kind of mystery looking gun type thing, which we're not sure about. And then there's like a watch that can make a hologram projection.

Steve

That's the coolest. That's the coolest. That projection watch thing is so neat.

Nic

Really great. And then, you know, the part of the briefcase is like a video screen and it is him talking to him.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

And he's saying, My name is Hauser.

Steve

Hauser, yes.

Nic

And, you know, this is what's going on.

Steve

Tell me what you're not. You are me, that whole thing. But yeah, basically it's like you've got a bug in your head. You got to use this thing. It's self-guiding, it says, but you basically have to shove this as far up your nose as you can and then press the button or hold the trigger.

Nic

He says, when you hear the crunch, you're there, which is so effective.

Steve

Yeah, so bad.

Nic

Yeah, so that thing creeps up his nose, pulls out, and then the tracking device, it's the size of, what would you say, a large marble or something?

Steve

Like a shooter marble, one of the big ones.

Nic

Yeah, yeah. But then when it comes out, it opens up, and then there's a much smaller actual device in there.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Couldn't you put that in the face?

Steve

Maybe it would have shorted out being with the brain or something like in the juices.

Nic

But really gnarly effect, once again, a great practical effect of him yanking it out.

Steve

One of the uses of puppets, basically, it's like a puppet head that they're pulling a thing out of. And one of the reasons for that special achievement award was the puppetry used in this and many other close-ups of heads. Yeah. Right. At the very beginning, actually, as his eyes were bugging out in the dream on Mars, that was another puppetry thing. So really cool stuff.

Nic

We'll see a couple scenes.

Steve

I am.

Nic

So, yeah, he, he gets this out. And basically, Hauser is saying, you know, get your ass to Mars.

Steve

Yeah. Get your ass to Mars. Get your ass to Mars. Get your ass to Mars. Get your ass to Mars. Get your ass to Mars.

Nic

Richter and Co. Have found him in the meantime.

Steve

Well, because once the bug comes out, it's now no longer muffled by the towel on his head. So now it's a clear signal again. So they're able to go right where he is. But he can see them coming. They're, like, several floors down, and he's able to see them, so he's able to stick the bug into a piece of chocolate. And there's a bunch of rats. We've seen a bunch of rats in this area, whatever. And of course, rats like food. So, you know, basically he's able to get away. And then as Richter and Helm and the boys follow around, Helm's still got that, that scanner, that sort of handled scanner, and just starts going there. And they shoot in there. And then the thing moves there, there. And he, like, seven or eight times. And finally it's like, stop. Like, stop saying there. You're clearly wrong, you know? Yeah. But they end up realizing that there's, yeah, like, the bug. On the floor, moving back and forth. It's. The rat is dragging it around the room.

Nic

And Richter decides, once he discovers that it's just been a rat tricking them this whole time, he caps the rat in the most blood splatters.

Steve

Oh, it's so bad. It's really gross. It doesn't make any sense. It's gonna be the biggest rat in the world. It's still not going to make that much goo.

Nic

So at this point, Quaid is getting his ass to Mars, and he's in the Customs line, but I don't know where he is. I don't. I don't understand his character. There's. Some old lady there for some reason.

Steve

Well, it's not that old. She looks like about a six foot four 45 year old or something. Yeah.

Nic

I feel like, yeah, she's credited as a weird character name. But yeah, so the customs agent is asking this person, how long will you be staying in Mars?

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Two weeks.

Steve

Two weeks.

Nic

And then there's some commotion and stuff, and he asked her another question. The answer is not... Did you bring.

Steve

Any fruits or vegetables with you?

Nic

Right.

Steve

Two weeks. It's like, and then I don't fully understand what's happening here. Is something about the costume that Quaid is in short-circuiting or malfunctioning because he doesn't have that wording recorded in that voice? Or is he trying to get out now, realizing he's been found out? It's hard to tell what's going on.

Nic

But it's like... And Richter and the crew had just kind of walked through there. So they walked right by him, and they're about to go up an elevator. And then he's kind of like, wait, this is too. Wait, why is that lady saying two weeks so much?

Steve

You're right. We better turn around. It's very strange, but she is causing a commotion. Yeah, there's that. But end up with one of the coolest effects is, like, he kind of unscrews side of the head of this woman, pulls it open, and it. And it all separates. And there's Arnold underneath. Yeah. And it's a, again, combination of, like, computer stuff and makeup and property. It's so neat. And he's got the head. In his hands then, and I think it just says catch, right? Or something like that.

Nic

I will give advice to any henchman or security guard or anyone. If somebody just throws you a random thing and says catch, like, step aside, don't hit it. Let it hit the ground.

Steve

Let it go. Oh my God. So it's a bomb, basically. It explodes.

Nic

And the head looks up at this guy who caught it. So now it's animated again somehow. It picks up and says, Get ready for a surprise! You couldn't have programmed a couple more canned answers to security guards in there.

Steve

Yes or no. Just have yes and no. Did you bring everybody fruits and vegetables? Nope. Instead, get ready for a surprise. It's like, well, that's not a useful thing.

Nic

No, not at all. That only works for one thing.

Steve

You need Hola, Gracias. Come on, you need the basics.

Nic

So Richter and his crew are like, oh, there's Quaid. We're going after him.

Steve

Get him!

Nic

And there's this big gunfire, but they're in an airlock.

Steve

Right, so they're on Mars, and they keep talking about the domes, right? Everything is in a dome because that protects you from the lack of atmosphere and also shoves oxygen where it needs to go. So yeah, all the gunfire ends up breaking some of the dome because we later get several indications, I don't know if I wrote them down specifically, but several characters in this movie talk about how when Cohaegan had all of the domes built, they were cheap as hell. They weren't good enough to keep out the solar rays. They break easily.

Nic

There's so many mutations of the people on the planet.

Steve

And also why a single bullet is enough to just completely destroy all these. They weren't built to be like bulletproof or really sturdy. They're thin like glass. They're really like the worst possible thing you can make it out of.

Nic

He's basically, he's like a slum lord who has built this like company town for the people to work the mines and like the affiliated industry that rises around it. I totally didn't pick up on the description of, oh, like it's clicking now, but specifically because I was kind of thinking like one bullet.

Steve

Yeah. I wrote a note at one point about like, hey, why aren't these domes like a little bit sturdier or whatever? And then it was like after like the third person made some comment about Cohaegan being cheap. Cheap and the domes being crappy. I went, oh, they're just deliberately shitty.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And deliberately cheap and crappy. So that's why they have to be extra careful, right? Because even later, one of the bad guys stops Richter from shooting because it's like, hey, they're the. The Dome, it'll break, you'll kill us all kind of thing. So it's definitely something that comes up over and over again.

Nic

Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. And. And this is a cool scene. I mean, anytime there's, like, a pressurized situation that. That gets blown open, it's always cool with people getting sucked out and everything. Very intense. And they're able to-- Like lock it down, basically. Yeah, they're able to-- Steel doors. All these doors come down. And then Richter's immediately like, Open the door up! And the guy's like, I can't. And he puts a gun to his face. He's like, Open them up! And he's like, They're all connected! Which I feel like was supposed to hit harder than it actually did, but I enjoyed it.

Steve

It was good. So Richter has to go visit Coghagen and sort of explain what's going on. And Coghagen's like, I don't pay you to think. Like, don't think, just do what you're told. That's sort of standard, like the boss knows better than the henchman kind of thing. But yeah, so there's that. And then, and now we're back to Doug, and he is in an area, and kind of, he's being barked at by a couple of cab drivers. And so there's one guy who we don't really get to know very well, but then the cab driver that he ends up choosing is this guy, Benny. But initially, they're both sort of like telling him, hey, where do you go? Where do you gotta go? But he's where he needs to go right now. So he's at the Hilton, the Mars Hilton, I guess is where it is, because he was told by Hauser in the recording Go to the Hilton, use this ID, I don't remember which one, Mr. Brewbaker. Brewbaker, right? Use that ID.

Nic

Safe deposit.

Steve

And sure enough, there's a safe deposit box and a key to a suite under that name, so he's now got a room to stay in. And then in the safe deposit box, it's just a single flyer for, damn it, now I've got the name of the resort. There you go, the last resort in Venusville. And Venusville is sort of the red light district. And it says on the back, Ask for Melina.

Nic

Molina. Yep.

Steve

And so, yeah.

Nic

And. And he takes it and looks at it and then writes the name Molina again next to it and sees that that's his handwriting. So he's like, all right, I gotta go there. One thing about Cohan real quick, because I know you'll appreciate this. He just has regular fish. It shows him just eating regular ass fish.

Steve

Yes. I was gonna write down. I was. I saw that. I went, oh, another one with the fish tank. Oh, but this is just goldfish. Like, this isn't sharks or, like, piranhas or any other kind of Japanese fighting fish or whatever, so there's not. There isn't that element to it, but. But we do, the Goldfish actually play a very nice little metaphor later in the movie. But yeah, no, I noticed that, that it was just regular fish, nothing special.

Nic

Okay, so Quaid now, he goes to this place in Venusville, Lake Red District area called the Last Resort. And he's encountering different types of people. There's people who have these really deformed faces who they're just being referred to as freaks.

Steve

And I think is what they keep calling them.

Nic

Some of them, yeah, the cab driver or whatever. Whatever is pointing them out. And some of them say they have like psychic powers or whatever. They get to this place, the Last Resort. I feel like this place is kind of a cross between the Moss Eisley Cantina and the Max from Saved by the Bell. It's like right down the middle of that.

Steve

It's got an early 90s vibe, even though it's meant to be far in the future. Whatever this movie's supposed to take place in, like 2080 something, or whatever is the original idea. Yeah, this to me is where the movie if you want indications that this movie is actually a western in some ways, this is an indicator. This is the saloon, right?

Nic

Oh, totally.

Steve

Standard western saloon, brothel, whatever, just, you know, futurized. But you're right, it's got that, it's almost too clean in some ways, right? Like the Max, there's almost an element.

Nic

Of it that's too-- yeah, it's like, wait, nobody spilled ketchup there.

Steve

But yeah.

Nic

And we get, again, one of the very iconic things about this film that you know about, even if you've never seen it, seen it. We get the. You want to have some fun?

Steve

Yes.

Nic

The girl opens up her shirt, and she's got three titties.

Steve

She does have three breasts.

Nic

And.

Steve

And all three of them clearly are prosthetic. Like, it's not like they put an extra one in between the actress's real chest. It's clearly, like, one big body suit.

Nic

But, yeah, I feel like I just found out Santa wasn't real.

Steve

But, yes, the triple titties are there. He doesn't really want to chat. He asks the bartender for Molina.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Molina's like, well, yeah, the bartender's like, well, Molina's. Real careful about who she talks to. She's got her regulars, whatever, and she'll like me, you know, whatever. And so this is where we meet Marshall Bell and Dean Norris's characters. And they're both in Starship Troopers, as you mentioned. Marshall Bell plays George and Dean Norris plays Tony. And Tony is another mutant. He's got, like, almost like part of his forehead is, like, folded over one of his eyes. Like an eyepatch. It's very gashy looking, weird face and head on Tony.

Nic

I didn't place him as Dean Norris until I was, like, looking at the cast going into this because I know Dean Norris obviously. Yeah. Good for him showing up in Verhoeven films.

Steve

A.S. Schrader on Mars. Oh, yeah.

Nic

So because of this melee and stuff, I think Cohan has declared martial law in at least that sector of Mars. And maybe across the whole planet. But at least where the people who don't matter live, it's martial law.

Steve

They call it sector G or something, which I'm assuming A is where all the rich people live.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

By the time you get to G, you've gone down a few levels, you know?

Nic

Right.

Steve

It's kind of what it feels like.

Nic

And. And now we've got Quaid. He's back in his hotel room, and. And he's got. He's got a visitor.

Steve

Yes. So it's a doctor claiming to be from recall. I don't remember his name, to be honest with you, but he comes in and he's like, you know, hey, you're not really here. I'm not really here. You're still sitting at recall in, like, the little, you know, whatever you had, the schizoid. Nothing is real, but you need to listen to me or whatever. He's like, well, why should I listen to you? And he goes, well, here. And so Lori then comes in. So she door opens and it's Lori and she's like, Doug, I'm not really here. I'm at recall with you. They just put me in here so I could help you realize you need to come back, do all this stuff. And they kind of talk about if you take this pill, you'll wake back up or whatever and come out of this whole thing. And he's like, you know, he's super sus. He's like, I don't, why should I believe you like this? And he goes, well, what if this doesn't matter? I could shoot you right now. And the doctor's like, well, that doesn't matter to me. Because yes, I'm not here. But it will matter to you. Because if you kill me, you will never have another opportunity to come out. Your subconscious will never let you realize that this is just a dream that you're not really here. And you'll never get home. And you'll never get home to your wife. You'll never get home to your life and whatever. Like you'll just be in this thing forever until you're killed here or whatever. And it looks like he's gonna buy it.

Nic

Yeah, he's ready to buy it.

Steve

It's kind of like, okay, takes the pill from him.

Nic

And I like to present it to him as, take this pill as a symbol of your desire to come.

Steve

That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Sometimes I take a pill as a symbol of my desire to get an erection. That also works. But yeah, so he's ready to take it and he's kind of looking back and forth at the doctor.

Steve

Yeah, and then he sees a single bead of sweat.

Nic

And those beads of sweat are always snitching on him.

Steve

If it really didn't matter to that guy, he wouldn't be standing there sweating with a gun to his head. And so he blows him away.

Nic

Yeah, great scene. And Quaid, he ends up getting caught because they've got other guys here. And he's cuffed and everything, and they're ready to-- he seems kind of screwed, but then Molina comes in with a gun, and there's a great fight between her and Lori, where they're both wearing pants.

Steve

Pant suits, right?

Nic

Which is a. I like a nice pantsuit brawl, you know?

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So, yeah, really good, satisfying fight. Great to see her come through. And then, you know, she's finally put in the position where Lori's like, come on, Doug, we're married.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nic

Blows her away. Consider the divorce.

Steve

Consider that the divorce. Also, I'll say, Richter, before all that happens, he is on the video call with Lori after they've sort of, like, you. The fight has started and before Molina comes to rescue Quaid. And he, Richter, on the video screen, does the Sean Archer face off face wipe on the little video screen. And I was like, Ooh, I caught you. I got you. Look at that. So I guess now we have to have a face wipe tag and tag just these two.

Nic

Yeah, well, there might be another face wipe. Really good. And Benny the cab driver is waiting for them now. So we get kind of a cool chase through the tunnels. Like during this whole thing, they're these big, like super scary looking, like boring machines that are just tunnel drilling. Like it's all these drills in all these different directions. So that's a hazard that they're avoiding. And those can also be weaponized against the people as well. So that's a good kind of like monster in this film.

Steve

Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of made me think when I saw it, it made me think of a little bit of they live and the whole like bulldozer coming to like the shantytown or whatever. Right. And it's like it felt very much like that because they really are are much more prevalent in the lower income sort of areas. Yes. Right. They're not near the airport or the spaceport, and they're not near where Cohaegan is. Right. And it seems like a lot of these little areas of this sort of town or whatever you want to call it are just dug out of the ground, like out of the mountain or whatever it might be. They mentioned several times a pyramid mine that is not far from where they are, and it's this enormous mountain or whatever. But yeah, so there are those things. So Quaid has to go escape. He finds Benny. Benny takes him to the last resort. So it's Molina. Molina and Quaid and Benny all going to the last resort and being pursued by Richter's or by Kohagen's men. They get into the last resort and Tony immediately recognizes, you know, Molina's like, Tony, you know, he goes, they don't hesitate. There is a secret little passageway. I love that move. So good. They let all three of them through, shut the passageway, and immediately, like, a table and chairs gets put in front of it. So it's just another table and chairs or whatever. And there's this whole sequence where Richter is now, like, where'd they go? Yeah. Where' they go? And the three tittied prostitute is the first one to be like, I don't know what you're talking about. He just shoots her right in the head. No hesitation. And he turns to this little person, dwarf prostitute, and is like, maybe you remember.

Nic

Oh, my God. And. And he's, you know, as they decide, like, all right, we have everything we need. He just says, kill them all to the, you know, the. His guys. So they're just taking out everyone.

Steve

But the folks at the Last Resort are holding their own. They've got their own weapons. They're shooting a bunch of people. There's a lot of carnage on both sides. And then Cohaegan calls Richter from the, or Richter calls in from the car, whatever Cohaegan says, pull out.

Nic

Oh, that's right.

Steve

Pull out. Yeah. He's like, but we know where they are. We've got them. No, pull out. Don't think, just do what I told you. That whole thing, right? So they leave the sector and all of the big fans that pump air into the area turn off. And this is Cohaegan's plan basically is like, if you don't, if Quaid doesn't turn himself in, whatever, we're just gonna let everybody in this sector die. It's probably hundreds and hundreds of people, but they're all, they're the scraps from Demolition Man, right? They're the part of society that the rich do not care about.

Nic

Right. And they're not even necessarily the mine workers. No, they're like, these are just the.

Steve

Bartenders and institutes and all kinds of stuff that they don't care.

Nic

So they're in the depths of the tunnels now, and they're being taken somewhere, and Ben Benny, they encountered, you know, talking to the mutant, the resistance guys, and they're kind of like Benny, like, why should we trust this guy?

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

And he pulls like a fake hand off and unfolds this really cool looking, like, almost tentacle prong, alien looking hand. And he's a mutant. I'm one of you.

Steve

Yeah, right. He's a good one. Like, we're with him.

Nic

Really good.

Steve

Yeah. And then so then George, the Marshall Bell character, were brought to him and he talks about how, you know, Queto is gonna wanna see you. Or whatever, but he keeps-- this is what I found interesting. In this reality, right? Molina knows Quaid as Hauser. Hauser is the previous version of Schwarzenegger's character, Quaid, that the Quaid character believes-- he believes he's Quaid because Cohaagen wiped his mind to sort of eliminate Hauser, right? So George and Molina and all these and Tony, they should all know him as Hauser. Molina calls him Hauser over and over again. Yeah. Quaid every time he talks to him. I don't know if that was a mistake or if that's.

Nic

Or does he know what he knows himself as best or. Yeah, that's weird.

Steve

Because it's like they don't, they have not talked at all. George and Quaid. And George immediately refers to his Quaid, even though Melina probably would have introduced him as Hauser.

Nic

Right, right.

Steve

So it's just weird. I found it odd that George calls him Quaid and not Hauser. I don't know. Again, I don't know if that was just sort of like a, the script supervisor took a piss break or whatever and just didn't notice while that was happening or what, but, like, something, something is off there for me.

Nic

We have too many names. Going on. I will also say, if you're making up names, you got Quaid, Cohaegan, and Quato. It's kind of like they're going to blend together a little bit.

Steve

Yeah, for sure.

Nic

So Quato appears.

Steve

Yes. George goes to talk to Quaid alone, and Quato arrives.

Nic

Basically, he unbuttons his shirt. Quato is emerging from his belly.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Has a really funny voice.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I will say, I love when I catch random lines from movies that are sampled in music.

Steve

Oh, okay.

Nic

Yeah. Yeah. And there's the first thing that Cuatto says. He's like, A man is defined by his action, not his memory.

Steve

Right.

Nic

Open your mind. His line where he says, A man is defined by his. It's in the Royce da 5'9 song, My Friend, which is about his dick. But that's definitely there. It says, A man is defined by his. And then it goes, boy, you're going.

Steve

You'Re going, you're going.

Nic

So I want to shout that out. I want to shout out Royce da 5'9. 5'9 for that too.

Steve

Deep cut.

Nic

Yeah, you know, that's good. I'm full of deep cuts.

Steve

But he, Cuanto has to say, Open your mind. He says it like, Open your mind. And he says like 10 times. He repeats himself like 10 friggin times.

Nic

And Cuanto does, I mean, 1990s, great for the 90s. Looks a little goofy, but it's okay.

Steve

It's one of the effects.

Nic

It doesn't show them too much.

Steve

It's one of the effects that like had to be the way it is to make this character how they designed it, right? I mean, they did kind of as best they could, but it is one of the effects that doesn't hold up quite as well as some of the others. Really is very rubber puppet kind of idea. I do like the effect, though, that Marshall Bell plays when quato is active is that George is in, like, a trance.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

It's almost like there's not enough blood in this body to, like, power both of them at once.

Nic

Right.

Steve

So when quato is active, George is basically a zombie. He's like, he's practically in a coma. Yeah.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

He's just there to be the life support system for quato, you know? And then. And then when it goes back, he. George kind of comes to. It's an interesting thing. And, you know, the way that Marshall Bell plays it is great.

Nic

Maybe that's the deep allegory for Royce the Five Nines penis as well. There's so much blood I just pass out.

Steve

Not enough to run both heads.

Nic

Yeah, so he kind of gives him a view, like a vision into like this, the pyramid mine. Well, the idea is this quato reactor thing.

Steve

Yeah, it's quato reading quaid's or Hauser's memory. It's supposed to be one of the locked memories inside quaid's mind that has been quote, erased. But Quato's powers are, no, I'll help you access that. And then he can see it at the same time. So now Quato sees it because Hauser was there with Cohaegan when they were talking, so he saw it. So now Quato knows that that exists. And Quato, because he's a psychic and a genius basically, knows what it's for. And that's the sort of important piece, because at that moment, through the walls come those, you were talking about those drilling tank things, whatever they are. Those mobile drills combusting through the walls, Bad guys running out, shooting everybody up, the whole resistance getting destroyed. George gets shot, or yeah, George initially gets shot, but Quato is still alive until Richter comes and puts one through in his head. And this is like not good, right?

Nic

And Benny flips on them.

Steve

Benny flips, that's right. Benny is working for Cohagen and turns on him and is part of the reason why they were able to find their way to this base or whatever. But Molina and Quade escape or start running at least and are trying to get down some scaffolding or whatever at one point. And this is where Richter is about to shoot at them. Right. Cuz he's still pissed at Lori instead. Molina killed Lori. Actually, Quaid killed Lori. But regardless, they killed Lori and he's pissed. So he goes to shum and Helm has to stop him. He's like, dude, if you. You're going to kill us all if that glass breaks. Cuz they're right kind of on the outside almost of the. One of the domes.

Nic

Yeah. And it looks, I mean, there's so many people inside that area. That's not a small window to close off.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

That's.

Steve

That's. That's right. That's not something that's going to. Be, yeah, those around the spaceport, there were those metal sheets that went down. There's no way. It's a huge sort of exterior dome. They get captured and Cohagen tells Richter, you got to bring them back. You can't kill them. Like, I need them. And so, yeah, so they get knocked out and then wake up in Cohagen's or something. But, yeah, we get Cohagen talking to Quaid and tells him, Thanks so much. Yep. Hauser planned this with me. But, you know, we needed you to do this because there's no way that the resistance would have trusted Hauser. Yep. You know, with his actual memory. So thanks so much for doing this. You are the reason quo and the resistance are dead. And Molina's like, I believed you, like, whatever. And, quaid, still like, dude, I don't know what this guy's talking about. This is still not reality as far as I'm able to tell.

Nic

Yeah. And it's. It's really, you know, this is the big flip here, and he's. Now he's blamed for everything. He. Nobody trusts him or. Anything. And at the meantime, the oxygen is running out in the planet. So we're kind of- well, especially in.

Steve

That sector G, wherever Last Resort is.

Nic

Yeah, in that area. And we're shown like all these poor people just like really slumped over. Like it's really rough.

Steve

It's bad.

Nic

So I think what they're doing is they're putting Quaid back into kind of the recall type machine to restore him back to normal or whatever their plan is.

Steve

They're basically gonna put back Hauser's memories and personality and whatever else to make him Hauser again. And then also they're going to put Melina in the other one and basically turn her into his obedient sort of supplicant or whatever, like somebody who just will do whatever he wants kind of thing. Yeah.

Nic

And so he's restrained in this machine. Or before, I think maybe right as he's about to be restrained, Richter says, Is he going to remember this? Nope. And the doctor says no. And he punches him in the face.

Steve

See you at the party. But sure enough, Quaid is able to pull the entire part of the chair apart. He's a strong guy. I'll give it to him.

Nic

It's like an 18-inch screw that's holding this thing in, and he pulls it out, and then he jams the bolt into the neck of one of the doctors.

Steve

It's so brutal. I mean-- It's one of the more brutal kills in the movie, I think.

Nic

I think it is.

Steve

It's rough. Real bad, but awesome. And again, so positively Verhoeven. But yeah, he's able to get out and-- and get and kill all these like scientists or whatever in that room and help Melina out of hers. Now she's been in the thing longer. So I don't know if like we're supposed if there's much to think about, but I always, when I was thinking, I thought to myself, oh, I wonder if she's further along whatever sort of change they were trying to enact in her.

Nic

Oh yeah.

Steve

He would have been because she was in the machine longer. I don't know, like maybe not, maybe it doesn't matter, but that's something I.

Nic

Thought of when I was watching it. No, that's important. Yeah, if she was more like groggy or lost some memory, Yeah. So, oh, and at this point in the scramble, they kick the fish bowl over. So we have the fish suffocating, like flipping around on the ground, and then it cuts to the people running out of air.

Steve

Yep, very, very, very, a little, maybe hamfisted of an allegory or metaphor, but again, Verhoeven, not really known for subtlety. It's not really his thing, is subtlety. So this was very on the nose for them. That way. But, yeah, so they, they do Escape. And so then cohagen green lights Quaid. He, he tells Richter, like, go ahead and kill him. Like, I, I wanted Hauser back, but this is not care of that. Yeah. Like, we got to end this. So, so kill him. But before quato died, real quickly, we need to go back because before quato was killed, he told Quaid, go turn on the reactor. It's how you save Mars. Yes. And the reason that the reactor was never turned on, we hear cohagen in, like, the, the flashback, and I think even one other time, is that the turbinium that they're mining is what powers the reactor. And the scientists are like, this could cause a chain reaction that would activate and therefore deplete all the turbinium on the planet. It could make the mining impossible, which is why Kogan's like, it could never happen then. But what apparently Quato is able, what either Quaid remembers from Hauser's memories or Quato put in his head, I'm not sure which, he later says, a little bit ahead, but not too far, that there is a glacier underneath the reactor, the reactors will go and heat that up. They'll push down into it and heat it up using the terbium, and that will cause the atmospheric sort of oxygen to escape from these glaciers and fill the sky basically, or whatever, right? This is the idea. So he knows, or at least believes he knows, what this will do and the effect it'll have and how it would be able to save the planet, essentially.

Nic

Yeah, that's good to know. And I mean, this is like an ultra complicated thing, and they We spend like the minimum amount of time, but that's okay because the more explanation, the more questions we have.

Steve

But we get a basic, like turn the reactor on. That's great. Glaciers melt, oxygen goes in there. All right, good enough.

Nic

Saves our problem.

Steve

Exactly, right. Everybody can breathe, we're good.

Nic

So they're going down to the reactor and they're in the tunnels. And Benny has gotten inside one of those gnarly drill machines. And he's basically coming after them. Like he's got them pinned basically up against the wall.

Steve

Hey Quaid, screw you, right? Or did he say screw you? I don't know, I just wrote down screw you.

Nic

This is what happens. So Benny's closing in on them. Quaid picks up this kind of manual jackhammer type device and he starts drilling into the fluid hoses and stuff in this machine. And he's drilling through that stuff and he finally gets through so the machine seizes up.

Steve

It's all the motor oil.

Nic

Right before they're about to get crushed by it. And then he pops in from the side.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

Miraculously guesses exactly where Benny's supposed to be.

Steve

Oh, no, no. There's an indication on the side that says, like operator only. It literally shows you where the operator is on the outside of the tank or whatever, yeah. So he just goes, it's a perfect target. He goes right there, and that's when he goes, Hey, Benny, screw you! Screw you!

Nic

And he just, oh man.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

Really nice, really nice.

Steve

And then Benny's done them a huge favor, because he's busted through the wall to the reactor. So now they're going there, and of course, this quote, Reacting, whatever, the way it's built, it's like, there's a narrow footbridge across the whole thing that is like 700 feet up above the glacier. There was this ridiculous catwalk that they have to go down. And I love this line. It's basically like, I think she, Molina asks Quaid, will this reactor save things or will this help or work or whatever she says? Because his response is, if we turn it on in time, then they casually start walking across. It's like, maybe run, maybe run. If you have time, well, you're not gonna have that much time if you're just like, traipsing across the catwalk. Go run, dude. That looks like you have like a thousand yards to go. Like it's so big.

Nic

Yeah, you gotta sprint across. I'm more afraid of heights than I am of the planet dies. Jesus. So then this reactor, when they're down in there, it's a very shootout friendly environment once again. Plenty of columns, right? Plenty of places to hide. And we remember that Quaid from earlier here has the Holograms watch. So I think. I don't think it shows us quite exactly what he's doing. No, but there's a scene where Quaid is standing there, and then he's all of a sudden surrounded by rixter's guys who are just blasting at him, and he's just standing there laughing like a billion Predators.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

Yes. Right. He's just doing. So, you know, now they're fighting against the Hologram. He's up able to take some of them. Because of that.

Steve

Right, so yeah, so that happens. They're shooting at the hologram, they're obviously not hitting anything, and then he comes around the corner and blows a bunch of them away. How did none of Cohagen's guys shoot each other? They're all pointing at each other.

Nic

They're all pointing at each other. They're all in a circle shooting.

Steve

They should all be dead. First of all, that's a terrible thing to do even if your target is actually present, because you're still astray is terrible idea. Right, where you don't want it to go. But the fact that that's a hologram and all the bullets should be going straight through to whatever the Like, is he that much taller than all of them that they were shooting at his head and therefore over each other's heads? That would be pretty dumb. But maybe that's what's going on. You gotta go for center of mass, guys. Come on.

Nic

I know. Yeah, that definitely bugged me. That definitely bugged me. So he ends up on this big elevator, fighting with Richter.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Right.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

Which we love. We love some Michael Ironside.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Love that. And this is a great, a great scene of them fighting. And ultimately, what does he throw him off the side as the elevator's hitting the, getting to the floor?

Steve

He's like pinning him down as. Yeah, like where the elevator is, it's from a big open area where it starts with no walls. It's just because it's a platform to where it's now going into, like, you know, a, a chute. It's about the size of the elevator cab. So when he's hanging off the end, he's basically. Getting his head gets kind of taken off or something. I don't know exactly what we see, but he gets crushed, right?

Nic

Isn't that like-- yeah, well, and his arms get crushed. Oh, that's right.

Steve

It's his arms.

Nic

And you know we love it on Two Dads, one movie. We got a couple of arms pulled off.

Steve

We will be tagging this movie with missing or artificial limbs.

Nic

Absolutely. And then we get Quaid holding both of the arms in his hand, and he goes, See you at the potty, Richter. And he just kind of like hucks them off the elevator.

Steve

He tosses them. Oh, my God.

Nic

So good.

Steve

So, Richter's dead. And then now we're up to where there's this trigger thing. There's this circle with this funny looking hand print in it. And it's a four-fingered-- It looked like.

Nic

Benny's hand would have fit perfectly.

Steve

Maybe, yeah. Pretty close. It also reminded me, for whatever reason, very much of the whole Fifth Element, where there was that hand print thing that would come a few years later. But yeah, so there's that. But Cohagen's there. Cohagen is basically trying to convince him, like, no, no, you don't do it. Like, you can't do this. And then there is a bomb. Now, I don't remember exactly how this works. There's, like, a grenade or a bomb that, like, blows up part of the wall.

Nic

Right. So there's a bomb that blows out part of the wall. And then we have the scene of everyone, you know, about to get sucked out once again. And the people that are holding on, it's kind of Molina, Quaid and Cohagen. Yeah. Cohagen ends up getting sucked outside as they're kind of holding on. Quaid is trying to trying to climb towards the handprint activator thing.

Steve

There's like a rope record or whatever that he's able to kind of crawl across to get towards it. And he is able to hit the thing and start that reaction. But then he and Molina both lose their grips and fly out into the still atmosphereless outdoors of Mars, rolling down this big hill, the big mountain that they're whatever, and kind of coming to rest of the where, you know, we'd saw just like Quaid at the very beginning, Cohaegan has get the whole bulge eyes kind of thing happening to him. And that starts happening to Molina and Quaid as well.

Nic

Yes. It really, once again, the effect is awesome of them like suffocating, almost dying. I like that you just fully returned to normal after that.

Steve

So this is, I want to talk about this. So, so my take on it is that Cohaegan did not die. I don't think we ever see him die. We just see him struggle. Willing to breathe out in the atmosphere less Outdoors. In my head Canon, Molina and Quaid are outside for not long enough to have permanent disfiguration from it. Okay, so they do sort of just as air pressure and everything normalizes around them, the bulginess and everything just kind of recedes. Okay, that's obviously because we see them. We know that happens. In my head Canon, this movie, though, Cohagen lives and is now a mutant. Oh, so he now has to live as deformed. Formed, you know, sort of thing without cool psychic powers. It's just, he's just a freak. In my head canon, that's the deal.

Nic

A mutant who can only tell the present.

Steve

Exactly right.

Nic

Yeah, so during this scene of them struggling, we've got this cool steam coming up from the glacier and the reactor, and then, you know, all these clouds in the sky, thunder and lightning. And the sky turns blue because, as we all know, on Earth, the blue sky comes from why the fuck is it blue on Mars?

Steve

So I think the idea, and I'm stretching here a bit, is that what this eruption is doing is providing Mars with an atmosphere it didn't have at all, right? It's not just that there isn't oxygen, it's that on the surface of Mars you are essentially inside the vacuum of space, essentially, right? Slightly different because of gravity, but like that's the idea and that's why it has that effect on people and they can't breathe there. So I think the idea here is that the atmosphere is being generated. So there is now not just oxygen, but an actual atmosphere for the whole planet. So air pressure and everything else is normalized. And I think that there really wasn't an easy way to define that or display that other than a blue sky.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

You know, and I think that's kind of just, yeah, I guess it would.

Nic

At least be red for a long time. And then if those rains really picked up, I guess maybe it would turn blue.

Steve

I don't know. But it is a little strange, but that's like, you know, clearly the It's like, oh, it's got an atmosphere now. You can go hiking that hill you want to hike in Mars now, you can just walking around. You don't have to wear a spacesuit anymore. Yeah.

Nic

Yeah. And that's kind of how we ended, right? We got Molina and Quaid, and they have saved the day in Mars.

Steve

Saved the planet.

Nic

He got the girl. He saved the planet. Just like the guy at Recall said.

Steve

That's right. Yeah.

Nic

And that's total Recall.

Steve

Yes, it is. And now I've got to remember I said something about, I'm going to come back to that.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Now I can't remember what the hell it was. Oh, man. But it was something at the recall stuff.

Nic

Not the Blue Sky on Mars part.

Steve

Yes, that's what it was. Sorry, that's what it was. Yes. So I want to comment on that because that's something I hadn't thought of before. Because I have always, when I've watched this movie, taken it to be that what we witnessed is his memories. That he went to recall. They are just memories. He's really married to Laurie. Whatever. And then if something went wrong, then it went wrong, whatever. Like, you know, that this is all still sort of, he essentially he's comatose and lobotomized every call. That's what I've always believed is real. However, it's definitely not clear that that's the case. It's certainly easy to argue that it's the other way around. But I think that the reason I'm now set on that being reality is the scientists talking specifically where we can feel pretty confident it is before he's taken because they haven't hit him with the first dose of the drink. They haven't put him into the machine yet. They're just loading the program. Program. And she says, Blue Sky on Mars, that's a new one. Yeah. So this is a new thing for him. This is new for them. They don't do this that often. And so, in my opinion, it is all like the real Douglas Quaid is married to the real Lori Quaid, and he is now a comatose lobotomized person. So he'll never be normal.

Nic

Jack Nicholson and one flew over the cuckoo's nest right now. He's exactly.

Steve

He's just okay. A vegetable.

Nic

Interesting.

Steve

That's, that's. My official take on how I think the reality of the movie is, is that nothing in the movie actually occurred. It is 100% this ego trip that he was put on.

Nic

Yeah. So I believe that it's also a trip, but I'm also kind of inclined to just think that after that he wakes up disappointed in recall and has to go down back to his shitty life being married to hot ass Sharon Stone.

Steve

Who he killed in this memory. Yes, that is. That's why I think he's just lobotomized. Oh, actually.

Nic

Yeah, that's interesting because if he's killing people that he knows, like if you're on a secret agent adventure and you're just killing random bad guys, whatever, you're not going to be that effective when you wake up. But if you're okay, yeah, you know, I'll go towards that. I'm sure I'm going to revisit this at some point, but I like that theory. But I think we both probably agree this is probably not the actual events that happened. Like he's not trying to tell us this is reality.

Steve

No, no, no.

Nic

It's too connected to the recall.

Steve

Right. Again, That's nothing. my take is that nothing in it really occurred. But I think there is a way to argue that, oh, no, no, no, that's all real. Not a memory at all. He does, you know, basically take everything at face value. He was Hauser. You know, co-hagen did try to, you know, do all this stuff, and it was all, you know what I'm saying? Like, you could take it as all reality. And the fact that it was like, you know, Laurie was in it and Harry was in it, and all this stuff happened at Recall was simply the fact, like, things really did go wrong. You know what I mean?

Nic

Like, it's.

Steve

So you could take it that way. And I think that, that I, I, you know, would be inclined to think that again, except.

Nic

Well, that makes it more interesting to think about, too, because if it's just like, oh, it's all a dream and he's fine, that's not as, not as.

Steve

I like the idea that he's a turnip. Yeah.

Nic

All right, well, this was, and this was my selection for Januarny, so I'll go ahead and rate it. Go for Yeah, it had been a few years since I'd seen this, but I really, like, the experience of watching it, I think, isn't quite as good as the experience of thinking about it and talking about it. Because there's elements of this movie that I would imagine in other scenarios and stuff, and that's really cool, specifically Three Titty Lady. But there's parts of the movie that drag a little bit that aren't, so it's not a perfect movie for me, But this is a great Arnie performance in the middle of his prime. Sharon Stone is great. Yeah, I think Michael Ironside, we always love to see him. We always like to check off some of our classic tags.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Yeah. And there's not a lot to dislike about this film. I think nothing's distractingly bad. So I'm going to go ahead and give this one a four out of five total recall. That's that's the official rating of Nic is the four and I definitely if you haven't seen it, why are you listening to this podcast? Put this at the beginning. See the movie and then come back and join us. But for sure, really fun. Some great Arnie and a great addition to January this year.

Steve

Completely agree with you, actually, in almost all ways. You know, big verhoven fan. I know you are as well. Again, this is not as clean a satire as some of his other movies, but it still has a lot of commentary, a lot of stuff about corporate greed over the common good. And again, one man's terrorist is another man's Freedom Fighter like that whole concept. There's so much, you know, the, the rich literally selling oxygen to the poor. Like, I mean, there's so much great commentary in it. So it's very verhovenesque and, and, and the over-the-top violence is part of that aesthetic. And again, I think I mentioned earlier, but I think the casting of Schwarzenegger in this role in particular, because this would have, in some ways, would have made way more sense with an every man like Bruce Willis or something like a Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford. Yeah. Something like that, where it's like, yeah, action hero, don't get wrong, but not looking like Arnie or Stallone or Dolph Lundgren or something like that. So the casting of Schwarzenegger in this, first of all, obviously helped get it made. This anytime you can get a guy like that associated with your picture, it's getting made. But I think it was Verhoeven making a comment about the way that American entertainment views heroism and violence and all this kind of stuff. It's very interesting to me. I'm just a big fan of that kind of crap. So I'm also a four out of five on Total Recall. Very enjoyable film. Yeah, I don't think it's perfect in any way. There's lots of it that, you know, is just kind of like a little, a little ham fisted or over the top or, you know, hitting you over the head with it a bit. Some of the effects don't quite hold up, but most of them are really great, especially the, the stuff involving puppets is generally very good. You know, we mentioned quatos, maybe not the most convincing today as it was, you know, as, as convincing today as it was then, but it's fantastic stuff. So eight out of 10 from the two dads on Total Recall. And that's where we are with that one. And we got some more January coming.

Nic

Yeah, you got a pick coming out next, Steve. What are we getting hit with next in January?

Steve

So this is great. So I'm super excited. We're going to go a couple years further into Arnold Schwarzenegger's career. Still in his prime, still putting butts in seats. He's still at the height of things for himself. I think anything from the mid 80s, at least through the mid 90s, right? That was Arnold's time. Yeah. So this one's from 1994. And as it turns out, it's a repeat for several people involved. We have seen movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger, obviously we're doing this, but also like Terminator 2. We've seen a couple movies already with Jamie Lee Curtis. She stars in this next movie as well. And then I love it, we just realized, and this was something I updated on the website recently, this will be the third movie that we do that has been written in part by James Cameron. Okay. Cameron, we all know, was a screenwriter credited on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but as it turns out, has now made claims, and it seems like nobody's disagreeing, that he was a massively important writer on Point Break, which his wife at the time, Kathryn Bigelow, was directing, and he is credited as a producer. And Cameron apparently created the ex-presidents as the gang. He created that and wrote the both of the skydive scenes. So completely important. And, you know, so this will be the third Cameron written picture that we cover. We're going to do True Lies, Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold in one of the few roles I enjoy Tom Arnold in.

Nic

It's good Arnold.

Steve

Very good. Tom Arnold. Arnold and Arnold. Tom and Schwarzenegger. But that's what we're going to watch next week. We're going to watch True Lies.

Nic

Oh, can't wait, dude. Great pick.

Steve

That's a wrap. So if you like what you hear and we hope you do, please consider heading over to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a five-star review. It really helps new folks find the show. Be sure to check out our Website at twodads1movie.com, that's the number two and the number one. There you can contact us directly, find out all kinds of info about our episodes and the films we discuss, search through transcripts of the show and much more. We'd also love it if you followed us on Instagram at twodads1movie. Once again, this has been Total Recall, another episode of Two Dads, One Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening and we'll catch you next week.

Nic

Thanks, everyone.