Jen 0:00

Paul Verhoven took a 20-page existential crisis about the fragility of memory and turned it into a two-hour gore fest where Arnold Schwarzenegger punches his way through a Martian revolution. It's exactly like Philip K. Dick's original version. Provided you believe Dick's version included a three-breasted mutant and an IV drip-fueled fever dream in Mexico City.

Joe 0:41

But I guess in the um I'm I'm curious as to why they why they picked a we picked a year in the in the movie. I always feel like in sci-fi movies and things like that, like why do they have to s say what year it is? Does it it doesn't really matter? We know it's the future.

Jen 0:57

Because I feel like when you're making it, you're like, oh my God, 2084. It's like a hundred years in the future, you know? And you don't think like when you get there, it's gonna be really disappointing to know that you're in the Yeah.

Joe 1:11

I always thought it was maybe a bit of uh I don't know, ego by the the writers because they're like, oh, when this this year actually happens, people are gonna be like, they're gonna compare it to the movie.

Tom 1:22

Like uh Yeah, I don't know. I always assume stuff like that is like again, just like you gotta tell them what year it is, kid. Old Hollywood producer stuff.

Jen 1:32

That was a cigar in my mouth.

Tom 1:34

If they don't know when, they'll be asking questions you don't want them to answer.

Joe 1:41

That's how many tears.

Tom 1:42

I uh I have seen this movie many times. We've all seen it. I haven't seen it in a while.

Jen 1:49

I was saying before we uh we started recording that I wish I hadn't seen it. Because I feel like it would have been more fun. Yeah, to go back to the show.

Joe 1:59

Jen's like, if I had one wish, it would be to experience this movie.

Jen 2:05

One wish, I don't know. If I just wish, yeah.

Joe 2:09

Oh, you saw it in the theater. Well, I would have been 10 years old when this came out, so I wouldn't have been able to see that in the theater. But uh I do remember seeing this movie many times. Uh I hadn't seen it in a while. So it was yeah, it was like uh seeing an old friend who um yeah, I I I I'm I watch this movie.

Tom 2:34

I own this movie, like you guys are pretty much streaming it. I just have it. Like I just I watch it not all the time, but like I've watched it in the last year prior to the to this.

Joe 2:44

Oh wow.

Tom 2:44

Yeah, yeah.

Joe 2:45

Okay. You own what on DVD or a Blu-ray of this?

Tom 2:48

Yeah, yeah. Blu-ray.

Joe 2:50

I might have owned this when I had DVDs back in the day. Yeah, this is Shelf to Screen, the podcast where we discuss sci-fi and fantasy literary adaptations to the big andor small screen. I'm Joe Perry.

Jen 3:02

I'm Jen Isgrow. And I'm Tom Kakosa.

Joe 3:08

And on this episode, we are going to be tackling Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Verhoeven, and their 1990 adaptation of a short story by Philip K. Dick, a 22-page short story. We can remember it for you wholesale. Uh, the movie is total recall. I think this is uh inarguably a classic, uh great movie. We just skip to the end and give our five-star ratings.

Tom 3:42

11 stars. Yes.

Joe 3:45

Oh man. I hadn't seen this movie, as I was saying, in a while. It was it was fun watching it again, forgetting a few things and not and then just like noticing things that, like, oh wow, you know, I don't remember that happening, or like, I don't remember my reaction to that happening type scenarios. Um, so Tom, you've you've explained you've seen this movie many times, first time you saw this movie, or or I think we all sorry, let's let's take a step back. I think we've all seen the movie before we read the short story, is that right?

Tom 4:18

That is correct.

Joe 4:19

Okay. Tom, your first uh encounter with this.

Tom 4:23

Oh god, early 90s. I probably I probably watched it way too young, like as soon as it came out on on video cassette. Um my family were all big Schwarzenegger fans, and uh just anything that he made at that time we would we would get and watch. So um yeah. Uh well, 11, 12, something like that. What about you, Jan?

Jen 4:43

I've seen it one other time. I think I don't know if just Dan and I just watched it one night because he's a big Schwarzenegger fan.

Tom 4:52

Um I've definitely watched it with your husband, yes.

Jen 4:54

Yeah, like I don't know if we all watched it one night or we never did like a Schwarzenegger New Year's, right?

Tom 5:01

No, we never did a Schwarzenegger New Year's. We did a Schwarzenegger, I think we did a Schwarzenegger thing at like his parents' house like many years ago.

Jen 5:09

Okay, it wasn't that long ago.

unknown 5:11

Okay.

Jen 5:12

Um I don't know, it's probably in the last action. Okay.

Tom 5:19

Oh, that's right. Yeah. Um Big Mustake, piece of cake.

Jen 5:22

But yeah. Um Yeah, so I've probably only I've only seen it one other time, but it it has my favorite Arnold line of all time in it. I don't know if you want me to save it for later or No, go ahead. See you at the party, Richter.

Joe 5:36

That's a great line. It is a classic Arnold line, I think, one of his top three or four. I don't know. What would what would the what would the tier of Arnold quotes be? I mean, I'll be back would probably be number one, right? Would this be number two?

Jen 5:51

I don't but hasta la vista baby.

Joe 5:54

Oh, that's right. Asta la vista baby, yeah.

Tom 5:56

You ugly motherfucker from Predator, I think, or get to the chopper from Predator. Oh, get to the chopper would be more. Yeah.

Joe 6:02

Like I think see you at the party, Richter, though, might be a roar just above Get to the Chopper.

Tom 6:09

Uh the reason I like see you at the Party Richter is that it is unless you've seen the movie, it's meaningless.

Joe 6:16

Yes. It's not like some of the other one-liners that he has in this movie or other movies. Right.

Jen 6:21

Um it's so much joy in the delivery. And he was like, save, he's like, if I see this guy again, this is what I'm gonna do.

Tom 6:27

When I kill this motherfucker.

Jen 6:30

Waiting to use it. Oh, that's why I love it so much.

Joe 6:35

Uh yeah. And then like, I guess it's it's not a tuma. Yeah. Would that be a big one? With your daddy and what does he do? Oh man.

Jen 6:44

Can I think if there's one from Jingle All the Way or if that's just like something like that? Is that the toy as a bomb? Is that the collateral damage? Toy is a bomb.

Tom 6:55

Yeah.

Jen 6:56

What's the kid's oh my god, we say this all the time, and I can't think of the kid's name. What is his son's name in the movie? Which movie Jingle's bothering me. Jingle All the Way. We watch it like every year at least once.

Joe 7:08

That's what Phil Phil Hartman's uh neighbor. Isn't his neighbor trying to sleep with little Schwarzenegger's wife?

Tom 7:15

Yeah.

Joe 7:15

And it's like him where it's like a children's family movie.

Jen 7:20

It's not really a family movie. Jamie. Jamie! That's his name.

Joe 7:25

What was the rocket, the guy's name? Roborocket or something. What was the guy's the toy?

Jen 7:29

Oh, uh Robo Man.

Joe 7:31

Turbo Man. Turbo. Turbo Man, thank you.

Jen 7:33

Red Rocket Man? Is that what you were gonna say?

Tom 7:35

Not that. Yeah.

Jen 7:36

No, um and Sinbad is in it.

Tom 7:38

Yeah, Sinbad's like a Sinbad's like antagonist.

Jen 7:41

Yeah. Like The Big Show, I think, is in it too.

Tom 7:44

Yes.

Jen 7:45

No, it's a great movie.

Joe 7:46

We'll have to do uh we that should be Tom. That's our next, write it down. Our next um scientific survey is going to be Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes.

Tom 7:58

Oh, okay. All right.

Joe 7:59

Write that down.

Tom 8:00

Let's lock it in. All right.

Joe 8:03

And for those of you who don't know what a scientific survey is, just wait till the summer.

Tom 8:08

So you'll find out.

Joe 8:09

You'll find out in a few months. All right. As I mentioned, this is an adaptation. And I will I think it says in the beginning of the movie, inspired by. I think that's what it's in the credits.

Jen 8:22

Yeah, that's what it should say. I actually rewound it to make sure that that's what it said and didn't say based on yeah.

Joe 8:27

No, no, it says inspired by the the story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. Um, so a little bit of background on this story. So in 1965, Philip K. Dick, who is a fairly prominent and prolific well, prolific science fiction writer, uh, was living in a state of intense financial desperation and personal transition. Following his 1964 divorce from Andick, he had moved in with Nancy Hackett. The story we can remember it for you wholesale was written in a mere few days in September of 1965. Uh, his specific inspiration was his career-long preoccupation with the fragility of reality. Uh, the idea that memory is only thing is the only thing that anchors us to time. And if memory can be faked, identity itself is a construct. It's pretty deep stuff here, guys.

Tom 9:24

It is. I do feel like the movie plays with all of these things.

Joe 9:27

Um it it does in a not in the way that the story does, though, I feel.

Tom 9:33

Okay.

Joe 9:34

Well fair enough. Yeah, and we can get to that in a little bit. Uh Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite sci-fi writers. I like a lot of his stuff. He's written so many stories, though, and I probably haven't even read read half of his stuff, but um, I hadn't read this one before, that's for sure. But I will say this now and just get it over with that I love Dick. Okay, there you go.

Tom 9:55

Um one shot.

Joe 9:57

Yeah. Interesting note about the uh the financial desperations that Philip K. Dick was in. Apparently, uh Robert Heinlein, writer of Starship Troopers, who we talked about what we talked about last week, and another connection to this, Paul Verhoven being the other, who's directed both of these movies, uh, actually helped uh helped Philip K. Dick out financially at one point in his life. And there's this nice, yeah, there's this nice quote Philip K. Dick mentions about like how he really liked Heinlein and he was a good guy and he helped him out. And he's like, I don't, I don't it's something about like I don't believe in anything that his like he stands for in the sense of like he disagrees with his views and things like that. But he's like, but he's a really nice guy and a good guy to help me out, basically.

Jen 10:42

Right.

Joe 10:43

Yeah.

Tom 10:44

Politically, piece of shit.

Joe 10:46

But no, he didn't say that. He just kidding.

Tom 10:49

Yeah, they are there, they're not, they don't seem to have the same um view on things or reality.

Joe 10:56

Yeah, Heinlein being like a military, you know, coming out of the military, uh pro, as we learned last week, was uh infuriated by uh people who were against nuclear arms. Um K. Dick was kind of like uh I'd say a little bit of an emotionally or mentally unstable person who was addicted to amphetamines and thought he had uh otherworldly experiences. So this was another connection. This story was sold immediately to, well, almost sold immediately, to the magazine of fantasy and science fiction. Same as Starship Troopers uh for approximately a thousand dollars, and it appeared in the April 1966 issue. I wonder if people have these old magazines. I bet you somebody does, right?

Tom 11:42

Somebody does. Definitely.

Joe 11:44

Yeah. Um, it was not an immediate bestseller, but uh was widely recognized among genre fans for its tight psychological twist ending, uh, a hallmark of Dick's uh Twilight Zone style. So after uh Philip K. Dick passed, oh no, right before he passed, sorry, uh he recounted a meeting that he had with Ray Bradbury, another prominent science fiction writer, when Dick mentioned he had sold the option for total recall for a flat fee of a thousand dollars.

Tom 12:19

Bradbury's like, what are you?

Joe 12:20

Bradbury had told him he was a babe in the woods and was being robbed by Hollywood. Uh, and apparently had quite an impression on Dick because he had put him in a state of deep depression over his lack of business acumen. So a thousand dollars. Yeah, you know how much money this movie grossed?

Jen 12:37

Yeah, and like the other version, there were two.

Joe 12:41

Yeah, well, well, this the other version did, but the other version I I was actually reading about that. The other version did not mention Philip K. Dick or his story at all.

Jen 12:51

Is it the same story as this movie? No, it's actually it's it's right, it's not.

Joe 12:56

It's it's that movie is more of a remake or reimagining of this movie, not the story, not the actual like it doesn't it based it's based off of this movie, not this story.

Jen 13:07

Okay, the newer one.

Joe 13:09

I didn't see it. Um but yeah, it wasn't like hey, we're gonna redo this this uh we can remember it for you wholesale. It was no, we're gonna redo the movie.

Jen 13:19

Total recall.

Joe 13:20

Okay, which is an interesting idea. Um, I'm not sure if any other movies have done that before, where they're like the original movie was based off of like a book or something, and then there's a remake, but the remake is not a remake of the story from the book. The remake is the previous movie.

Tom 13:37

I feel like there is something else that did that, but I can't remember what. Think about it. All right.

Joe 13:41

Yeah. Please proceed. Um, so during the or or during the period following the story's publication, uh, Dick entered his most paranoid phase, culminating in the 1971 safe blowing incident, where people uh supposedly broke into his house and blew up his safe.

Tom 14:01

Um he kind of thought of that sounds Yeah, yeah.

Joe 14:06

Well, I was reading something about this where like there was never every they they never found and who did it or any evidence. So there's like, you know, I guess some people are a little bit conspiratorial and think that he he he potentially did it himself. Um, but he believed that the government was monitoring his uh fiction for leaks of real-world classified information regarding memory manipulation.

Jen 14:31

All right.

Joe 14:32

Yeah, I think he got a little bit into the story.

Jen 14:34

Okay, Philip. Sure, Philip.

Joe 14:37

I will say this is typical Philip K. Dick's like Yeah, I mean, and the and the story itself is it's very much a lot deals with like uh reality, a lot of his stories, like what is reality, and um so this is this is no different than most of his stories. But having read this for the first time, thoughts on the story before we go into the movie?

Jen 15:00

I like the story a lot, separate from the movie, because it's like just an idea that this movie takes and like goes nuts with, basically.

Tom 15:10

Yeah.

Jen 15:10

Um, but I do I really like the story. I like the way it ends. It does have like a funny ending kind of, and like it was definitely interesting to read. I liked it. Well written and all that.

Joe 15:20

Yeah, I was I at the I did not see that one coming at the end of this story at the end of the story. Um and I I was all for it. You know the story in the sense of you've seen the movie, so you kind of know what's gonna happen. You think you know what's gonna happen, and it's like the the story's like, no, no, no. We're going in a different direction than uh than this. Um Tom, you you read this for the first time too, right?

Tom 15:46

I did not read it for the first time.

Joe 15:48

Oh, you read this already? Or you did not read it at all?

Tom 15:51

Yeah.

Joe 15:53

Okay. Uh sorry. No, I didn't I didn't know. I was just you were too busy at the Mets game last night, right?

Tom 16:00

That's what it was, yeah. Uh couldn't find a time to read 20 was it, 22 pages.

Joe 16:05

You could have you could have read it while you were at the game. True.

Jen 16:09

So should we tell Tom what the story is about?

Joe 16:12

I think he knows what the story is about. Yeah. Well, as we're going through the movie, we could as we're going through the movie, we could point out the differences for him. Just uh and he could ask us questions. So I recommend reading the story though, Tom, even after we do this. It was good.

Tom 16:26

All right, I will.

Joe 16:27

All right. So this book or story into a movie uh took 16 years from shelf to screen.

Jen 16:37

You said it.

Joe 16:38

Yeah, I said it. So let's see. Uh so Ronald Schusit and Dan O'Bannon. Now, these were the writers of Alien. They were the ones who uh who uh drafted this script, spent years shopping the script around that was considered too expensive to film. This was from like 1974 to 1981-ish. Um, in the early 80s, Dino De Laurentis hired David Cronenberg to direct. Man, would I love to have seen that movie, that's for sure.

Tom 17:09

Oh my gosh.

Joe 17:10

Yeah. Cronenberg wrote 12 drafts in a year, but eventually quit due to creative clashes with Dino DeLorentis because Dino wanted an Indiana Jones on Mars type movie, uh, while Cronenberg wanted a cerebral psychological thriller. Um, Cronenberg wanted William Hurt to be cast as Quail, by the way, not Quaid, in the book, his last name is Quail. DeLorentis wanted Arnold. There's an interesting thing about uh David Cronenberg's uh story. In it featured uh mutant space camels called Ganzibles, which tragically we never got to see. So just a little taste of the Cronenberg version.

Jen 17:56

So space camels.

Joe 17:58

Yeah.

Tom 18:00

Mutant space camels.

Jen 18:01

Oh, mutant space camels.

Joe 18:02

Mutant space camels, yeah. Um so following the bankruptcy of DeLorrentis' DEG studios, Schwarzenegger, who had been obsessed with the script for years, persuaded Carol Koe to buy the rights for three million dollars and handpicked Paul Verhoven to direct.

Jen 18:19

Now they wanted Schwarzenegger before Terminator, but what was he was in Conan before Terminator? What other movies was he in before that?

Tom 18:29

Conan was his first movie, I think. Hercules Hercules in New York?

Jen 18:33

Like I always thought Terminator was like his big Yeah, it was. But Conan was was that like a big movie or I don't think it was a big movie.

Joe 18:41

I think it's more of like a cult classic type movie. I don't I don't know if it was successful when it came out or very successful when it came out. Yeah.

Jen 18:49

I'm just but but he was like a a known fitness criteria. Yeah, he was hugely famous. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom 18:56

Okay. Just uh not not like nobody knew if he could act. Yeah, I think he's he's he's he's okay.

Joe 19:06

Yeah, I will I will say this he's a far cry from Douglas Quail, the uh government clerk in the butt in the story.

Jen 19:15

William Hurt would have killed that role.

Joe 19:18

Well, you want to hear some other potential uh quades?

Jen 19:21

Sure.

Joe 19:21

So before Schwarzenegger Final has a deal, we had Richard Dreyfus. Hmm? Hmm? Can you picture Richards? Richard Dreyfus?

Jen 19:31

Not in this movie.

Joe 19:32

In this movie.

Jen 19:34

No, no.

Joe 19:36

Jeff Bridges? How about Jeff Bridges?

unknown 19:38

Okay.

Tom 19:39

Jeff Bridges, I could see. Actually, I could see Jeff. He's young Jeff Bridges could do anything.

Joe 19:44

Yeah. Matthew Broderick. No. He would have been very young in this movie.

Tom 19:48

Yeah, he's like a kid.

Jen 19:50

It's not like it's more shooting than anything else. There's some fighting, but it's more shooting.

Joe 19:57

And Christopher Reeve.

Jen 19:59

I saw that and I was like, the whole trajectory of Christopher Reeve's life would have been different. If he was in the movie, would have saved him.

Joe 20:06

It might.

Jen 20:06

Oh well.

Joe 20:07

Anyway, Patrick Swayze was actually signed to play Quaid, though.

Jen 20:14

Okay.

Joe 20:15

In the aborted Australian production. So this was a previous production of the movie. I guess a previous iteration of the movie. The character Melina, who is not in the story, was cast. Uh Rachel Tacotin was cast because Verhoven wanted a tough, street smart woman who could keep up with Arnold rather than like uh, I guess a damsel. Or what do they use in the in the movie? Demure.

Jen 20:42

Um sleazy, demure.

Joe 20:45

Yeah.

Jen 20:46

Brunette athletic. Sleazy brunette athletic.

Joe 20:49

Athletic and sleazy.

Jen 20:50

Demure and sleazy.

Joe 20:52

Yes. So there you go. Uh apparently during the Mexico City shoot, the entire crew suffered from severe food poisoning. And Paul Verahoven himself was so frequently ill, he directed scenes while hooked up to an IV and on a stretcher.

Jen 21:10

Why, why, uh what were they filming in Mexico City? The sets? Like Marshall? Why?

Tom 21:18

Because, yeah, two reasons, right? So one, because um it had the space to do all the internal sets. They took like eight sound stages up to build the sets for this movie. But also, um the architecture in Mexico City, there was a lot of like what I guess it's called I'm not an architecture guy, neo-brutalist uh architecture with very odd angled concrete uh designs, which they use for things like the subway and and and like uh um like the the the scanning room where you go through the where they finally got on 'em and stuff. So they like the looks of Mexico City and to use like on location stuff. Plus you got the desert, and plus you have the ability to build sound stages up to

Joe 22:00

Yeah. But uh Bearhoven kept his clothes on for those scenes. Yeah.

Jen 22:06

He kept his clothes on even for the three-breasted woman scene?

Joe 22:09

Yes.

Jen 22:10

Okay.

Joe 22:11

Even for that scene. There was a clash though over the ending of this movie. Uh the original writer Dan O'Bannon hated the action movie finale with the alien oxygen reactor question mark.

Tom 22:23

Yeah.

Joe 22:23

I didn't even remember that being a thing from the movie.

Tom 22:26

Come on, man. You get the the the three-finger hand. Four finger hands.

Joe 22:30

I do remember that, yeah. I have a question about that four-finger thing, man. Can anyone put their fingers in there? Is that like anybody's hand, right?

Jen 22:37

Yeah, as long as you just put two fingers together.

Joe 22:41

It was just weird. That's weird. So if I like was missing a finger, it wouldn't work, maybe potentially.

Jen 22:46

Yes, it would, as long as you have four fingers.

Joe 22:48

Uh like a thumb. A velociraptor could do it then potentially, or somebody going crazy now. Yeah, I'm getting crazy.

Jen 22:55

This is the future. There's no velociraptors.

Joe 22:59

That's true. They're all extinct. Um but there are mutants. And we're on Mars. And we're on Mars. Yeah, so uh O'Bannon preferred Philip K. Dick's uh psychological ending rather than the uh, you know, the the oxygen reactor because again, I still don't understand. The reactor heats up the ice, and when you heat up ice, it releases oxygen into the air.

Tom 23:26

When you heat up the ice, it melts the ice.

Joe 23:28

Melts the ice, sorry, melts the ice.

Tom 23:29

And then breaks the water apart into oxygen and hydrogen, right? Oh, I missed that step. It changes Mars's atmosphere to a breathable atmosphere. But and we're getting you're jumping right to the end.

Joe 23:42

I know that's the very end.

Tom 23:44

I don't think it's really like a big like I don't know how you like as an adult, like when I was a kid, back and forth, none of this is really happening.

Jen 23:52

Yeah, it's not.

Tom 23:53

It's all fake. That's why it doesn't make sense. That's why anybody can put their hands like none of it's real. Well, they don't I I think I thought they had a lead shade on it. Like, Arnold was addressed.

Jen 24:06

I heard well uh from Dan. It's a Jacob. In an interview, it's been said that it is like they've confirmed that it's not real. Somebody confirms Arnold always.

Tom 24:17

Yeah, Arnold's always said like he never thought that like he's the way he played, like his take on the movie is that none of it's real.

Jen 24:24

But like he wakes up and has to go back and live with his wife after he shot her in the head.

Tom 24:30

No, I don't think he wakes up.

Jen 24:32

I think he's Oh, you think he think that guy was telling him the truth in the in the middle of the movie?

Tom 24:37

I think yes.

Jen 24:38

The doctor that he is like lobotomized now?

Joe 24:40

Yes. Oh my god, I want to talk about that scene. I know we're just jumping right into it though.

Jen 24:44

But he so he just like never stays there, or he just like or that's the end of his memory and he never wakes up.

Tom 24:51

No, I think he just stays. That's a I think his I think he thinks this is real. It's not real.

Jen 24:55

Oh, I thought like the like the end of the movie was him like coming out of it. No, like the light changing or something.

Joe 25:02

No, it doesn't.

Jen 25:03

No?

Joe 25:04

No, I don't think there's any I don't think it ends.

Tom 25:06

I don't think it's a black swan kind of ending. Yeah, it just ends.

Joe 25:09

Yeah.

Jen 25:10

But I thought that was like him, I don't know. It could be a bathroom.

Joe 25:14

It was very re it's very reminiscent of the uh the air space ball scene.

Tom 25:20

Oh yes, yes.

Joe 25:21

Yes. Um I love Yeah, so that's a yeah, that's a great question. I for some reason I thought they addressed that in the movie, but they didn't. So I guess it's supposed to be, yeah, what you know, is it really happening or not? You say Arnold says no. Well, that's what he believes. I don't know.

Tom 25:36

Yeah, but like uh it's not it's not his that's what he believes. That's not his decision to make. I think very much of the performance what what you believe that matters, right?

Joe 25:44

It's like does the top is the top still spinning uh on Mars?

Tom 25:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kinda, kinda, yeah.

Joe 25:51

Um so I will say this, right? The this movie, the first 15 minutes or so are fairly close to the book, and then you know, it goes off the rails, uh for sure. But that's why I'm happy it said in the beginning that this was inspired by the story. So, you know, they're acknowledging right away that this isn't, you know, this isn't it. Is the very first scene of this movie, well, not the very it well, in the very first scene of this movie, right away I I got the Arnold and I was so happy, it made me so happy. Is it the actor studio where he's where he asked a question, like a sound that makes you right? Is that one of the questions he asked at the end? Oh, yeah, yeah. That would be and I'm sorry. It's just so absurd that that's actually a sound he makes. Uh that I just love it. And it's so unique. Nobody else makes that sound. No, I've never heard anybody make any kind of sound similar unless they're trying to imitate Arnold. So right away we got that in the first scene. We get a lot more in this movie, too.

Tom 27:02

Yeah, but that's not the only gurgle screaming. There's a lot of screens.

Joe 27:06

Yeah, there's a lot of gurgle screaming in this movie uh by Arnold. Um right off the bat, I'm just gonna call out a difference from the story and the character of his wife. They changed her name. I'm not really sure why.

Jen 27:22

I don't remember here.

Joe 27:23

Her name is Kirsten in the story, but they changed it to Lori. And I don't know, like, I don't understand the reason why they did that.

Tom 27:30

Like, why would we see maybe Arnold found it too hard to say Kirsten?

Joe 27:35

Kirsten. Kirsten. Yeah, that's a great theory, Tom. That is now my headcanon.

Jen 27:44

Kirsten's not like a good name for that character either. I don't know why Lori is, but it just I don't know.

Joe 27:50

It does fit Lori, yeah. I mean the character's different in the Yeah, she is. She's much nicer to him in this in the movie, I'll say that.

Jen 27:59

Or at least scenes. Yeah.

Joe 28:04

Well, I'll spoiler alert, she's not a secret operative trying to kill him. Yeah. In the story.

Jen 28:09

Instead, she's just like, because he just like is obsessed, he's like a little we sniff like a big loser who's obsessed with Mars.

Tom 28:18

Yeah.

Jen 28:19

And she's like, if you talk about Mars one more time, we're done. Mars. She's like, I'm fucking out of here.

Joe 28:26

Imagine, imagine, imagine Tom, like your wife said, if you don't stop talking about the Mets, I'm gonna leave you. And then she leaves you because you talked about the Mets again.

Tom 28:36

Uh it serves me right, I guess.

Joe 28:39

She warned him. But I guess my question is in the in this story, is she I don't want to say is she in on it, but does she know? In the book, in the story? Yeah, in the story. Does she it do they never address if she knows about his his background, his secret background?

Jen 28:58

We don't really know like what because it's not the same background as in this movie.

Joe 29:03

Well, it's just like the first part of it is, right? Like that he's a secret agent.

Jen 29:07

He was like a government, a secret government agent.

Joe 29:09

Yes, he did go to Mars. He was a government assassin. And in this, in the movie, like there's they keep mentioning the agency and and Kohagan, they don't establish who, like, what is Kohagan's like position? Except that's in charge of Mars. He runs the what's I don't even verbium mines. What's the mines that oh the trivia? I don't even know, I don't even know what it's called.

Jen 29:37

He runs the yeah, he's like the in charge of Mars. In charge of the air on Mars. He put he gives out the air. And if you're not nice to him or you're or you annoy him, he's taking away your air. Oh, that's right. Mars is like this big, by the way. And he could shut down sections and cut off your air.

Joe 29:56

There's yeah, there's a scene in here. I can I have a note here where there's two of them, and it's like, oh, he's like Kohagen raised the price of air, right? Isn't that like a whole lot? Two people, two people are having that conversation, and I'm like, What?

Jen 30:11

Where does he get his air from?

Joe 30:13

Just like, in case you know, you're not sure if this Kohagen guy is good or not, we're just gonna throw this line right up front.

Jen 30:21

You raise the price of air.

Joe 30:26

Um yeah. In the story, you don't really know, like, there's no mention about whether his wife like knows about his background and of being a secret uh assassin.

Jen 30:37

Well, in the movie it seems like he's only been whatever, the story's real in the s in the s in the movie. Uh for like six months he's been like Doug Quaid.

Tom 30:48

Right. Yes.

Jen 30:49

But in in in the book, I don't know if they establish like how long he's been agent.

Joe 30:56

I think it's around I think in this in the movie, I feel like nine weeks or or like two months is the number is a number that I remember being mentioned.

Jen 31:05

And I don't know if that's in the movie or the uh or the story, but No, because if it's that short, then his wife has to know in the story.

Joe 31:13

Oh yeah, you're right.

Jen 31:14

Otherwise, they i if it was like 15 years ago, I don't remember like how long they've been married. I wasn't really paying attention to that.

Joe 31:21

I don't know if they go into that. Like uh that's kind of things I like about short stories, is they don't go into like those details which are really not necessary for the story. Um it's just like gets right into the Yeah. But yeah, there's no addressing that in the story of whether she knew about it. Um because she does discourage him from Mar like the Mars, like talking about Mars, and you know, just like in the movie, but for in the movie she does it because she there's like a clear purpose that that Sharon Stone Well in the beginning she doesn't is there a purpose though? She's there to watch him. But not really What do you mean, not really?

Jen 32:03

So if this whole thing is fake, then she's not that's his real wife.

Joe 32:08

That might not be his real wife, then. Oh no, it would be Oh, I see what you're saying.

Jen 32:12

At the beginning, like she's just his wife.

Joe 32:15

So now I I never thought about this separating.

Jen 32:18

Yeah, it's from when he first goes under, the rest is fake. Even though we're seeing other people that aren't in his point of view, it's like whatever. You kind of have to like imagine that, you know, it's a movie. You have to see other people's points of view. So if it's all in his mind, then she was his real wife in the beginning.

Joe 32:37

Aaron Powell So here's a here here's, I feel like, in in the corner of that it wasn't all fake. Because I feel like the character, Sharon Stone's character, is acting as if all of the stuff that happened, like supposedly happened, you know, his background as Hauser, she's acting as if all that's real before we even learned of it and before he even goes to recall. Like she's I don't know. Are you like they even I think close up on her face like once or twice when they talk about Mars? And it's just so when he's watching, by the way, Paul Verhoven, another good uh example. He likes to use like news broadcasts as for exposition. Um we get that it works really well. I like that. He gets out some of the exposition about what's going on. He's setting the story that doesn't happen in the book.

Jen 33:24

Even like the recall commercial, he sees it like on the train and Yes, yes. Um but yeah, I don't know. I mean also like if the doctor coming in is real, but the wife isn't, even though it's like he brings the wife in, or the wife is real until the minute he shoots the doctor, and then she becomes part of the of the fake story again.

Joe 33:47

Oh, you're talking about when Dr. uh Edgemar, what's his name, or something like that? The doctor comes into the dream or how wild is that that's just a really wild scene, and it almost seems out of place in the movie, but like he cut that's Roy Brocksmith. He just comes in and just starts spitting fire, man. He was he was like, Your whole world will come crashing down, and you'll Yeah.

Jen 34:10

But he's you'll he'll be lobotomized and then he's sweating, so he shoots him one bead of sweat.

Joe 34:17

Uh that that scene is awesome, and I forgot about it, and it just seems so out of place in the movie, but I'm all in for it. And I mean, think about this though. How stupid would you have to be to actually do that, knowing that it's not right? Okay, you're saying this is fake. I'm saying let's pretend it's real because that's what everybody thinks it's real.

Jen 34:40

Okay, it's real.

Joe 34:41

All right. If he came in there to try to trick Quaid by pretending that they were still in recall.

Jen 34:50

Yes. Yes.

Joe 34:51

That's the dumbest thing in the world. Because he knows he's not a good thing. Yeah, for the doctor, because he knows he knows he's not getting out of there alive.

Jen 34:59

Well, maybe he didn't maybe he wasn't his decision to maybe somebody made him go in there. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Joe 35:04

Maybe that's why he was so t intense.

Jen 35:06

Yeah. If it's fake. I don't think he was like, I'm gonna be involved in this. Like, I'm gonna go to Mars. And it's just weird. Like, why would that doctor go be on Mars? Why would his wife be on Mars?

Joe 35:18

Why? Okay. Okay. Edge well, we know why his wife's on Mars.

Jen 35:22

Well, yeah, she could just go there, I guess. But but why would the doctor go to Mars to just like talk to that? Unless yeah, unless he's not a big thing.

Joe 35:30

Because he was Cohagen. He's working for Cohagen. He was sent there to or yeah, he was working for Cohes.

Jen 35:35

But if the doctor's working for Cohagan, why would they do the recall when Cohagen didn't want them to do the recall?

Joe 35:41

Wait, the recall was after the fact.

Jen 35:44

No, but if he's Oh, he's working for Cohagen afterwards, not when they're doing not when Doug goes to recall the first time? Or like he wasn't always working for Kohagan?

Joe 35:55

Well, he's not he's not in recall.

Jen 35:58

That doctor's not part of recall?

Joe 36:00

No.

Jen 36:01

Yes, he is. He's like, I'm with you in the room.

Tom 36:05

He says he's not there in the beginning?

Joe 36:08

No, everyone who's there in the beginning gets It's McLean, the the woman doctor, Lowell, who they changed to a woman. Uh, and then the young woman.

Jen 36:17

That woman has no shirt on in the story. I feel like that's important too.

Joe 36:20

No, no, that's the receptionist. The receptionist. Is that true?

Jen 36:24

Just for some reason, is it wearing a shirt every time he goes to the wheel?

Joe 36:27

But she but she has different she's different colors, yeah. Different color painted breasts. Like one time she they but they they cleverly swap that out for fingernails. Did you know? Yes, yeah. I was like, they deliberately put that in there to be like, she can change colors of her fingernails. When he goes to recall Tom, the receptionist is topless, but her like she's her breasts are painted one color. Like once the first time he goes, they're blue, and like the next time he goes, they're like yellow or something like that. I had to read that twice. I was like, wow, early 2000s, Heidi Klue. Yeah. Like, wait, what? Why why is she topless?

Jen 37:04

Why?

unknown 37:06

I don't know.

Jen 37:06

You really want to go back to the company if the receptionist is topless, I guess.

Joe 37:10

I guess, but it he didn't seem to be. Yeah.

Jen 37:14

No, he was on a mission.

Joe 37:15

He did. He wanted his recall. So wait a second. We're gonna be talking about this whole thing. So if so, if everything that happens in the movie, you know, obviously from when he goes to recall after, is not real in the movies, you know, in the movie, then is the doctor really from recall or is he part of the recall?

Jen 37:36

I thought he was really from recall. He's like, shoot me, I don't care, I'm not gonna die. But I don't understand why if he shoots the doctor, then that makes him not be able to come out of it. Because if he shoots the doctor, the doctor should just wake up.

Joe 37:49

Uh because he's not, because it's not fake. The doctor's really there to trick him. Kohagan sends him there to fuck with him to try to convince him to give up. And then he sees, he realizes, oh shit, this guy's gonna kill me. I need to try to talk my way out of getting shot. And then he gets shot at it.

Jen 38:07

Then that means it's real. If that doctor's re okay, but then I don't believe that it's real. I think it's not real.

Joe 38:13

But that's what I'm saying then. If it's not real, then who is that doctor? Is it is it somebody from actual recall and he's telling the truth, or is it just part of the recall hallucination story?

Jen 38:26

Well, if you're saying he never wakes up, then I think that he's real because he said if well, if you think if you think at the end that he never wakes up from this, then that means that was real. And the doctor said, if you shoot me, for some reason, you will be basically lobotomized in your real body and you'll never wake up from this. And then he shoots him, and then never wakes up.

Tom 38:48

I I never thought we're here, Joe. I don't think just to be clear, I don't think it's like um lobotomized in the way, like, hey, if you shoot me, we're gonna go in there and lobotomize you. More like, I am your last chance to get out of this dream. And if you don't take this chance, you're never gonna get out of the dream. You're gonna be lost in this world forever. That's what I think he's trying to say. Okay, right.

Jen 39:09

But your body at home is done. You're never waking up. It's just never waking up. You're still in the right, okay.

Tom 39:16

Right? Like it's like an inception.

Jen 39:18

Right. Yeah. Like take this pill or it's over.

Tom 39:22

Right.

Joe 39:23

So basically, you're saying he goes to recall. There's a and is there any malfunction at recall? There's a malfunction with recall.

Jen 39:32

Um and he had an embolism or something, a schizoid embolism. Is that a real thing?

Joe 39:37

I don't know.

Jen 39:38

I'm gonna give you a big thing.

Tom 39:39

They give you that little hint at the beginning, like sometimes things can happen that are not good. Schizoid.

Joe 39:43

Well, his friend tells him, his coworker, sorry, his coworker tells him, he's like, oh, don't go there. A friend of mine got uh lobotomized, right?

Jen 39:52

It's a fictional medical term used to describe a mental breakdown or cognitive blockage where a memory implant procedure fails. So it's not real.

Joe 40:00

It's just referencing total recall. That's literally what it is. No, I know.

Jen 40:03

That's what it's saying. It's not a real medical thing. It's from total recall. That's what it is.

Joe 40:07

Um his friend tells him not to go to recall. Right because somebody he knows got lobotomized. And the next scene is him going to recall. Going to recall. Not listening to his friend. Right.

Jen 40:21

They lay the groundwork for you. They tell you exactly what's happening. Yeah. You just choose to not believe it, like he does. Right.

Tom 40:27

He he picks a fantasy woman. It's it's Rachel Takotin. That's who and like.

Joe 40:34

Well, that was my I have a question about that.

Tom 40:35

That was one of my questions was like he's like on these vague descriptions that he's giving them.

Jen 40:42

Yeah, they could build exactly the person.

Tom 40:46

Right?

Joe 40:46

No, that's I have a question about that. I said, back at recall, they were bringing up what type of woman he wants, and it's Melina. How is that actually her? Well, because they that's a question I have they can they're that good. Because that's that's how I thought that was just 1990 movie making.

Tom 41:04

No, I think I think again, I think like that's okay, this is what you want. Like, this is this is our pre-programmed recall actor that fits this description. We're gonna plug her into this story, right?

Joe 41:15

Like, but he was having dreams about her in the very beginning before he even goes to recall. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. So how do you explain that?

Jen 41:22

I think that his description of her was so vivid that they were able to replicate her.

Joe 41:28

Extracted it from his memory.

Jen 41:29

Yeah, maybe it's slightly different, you know, than what we saw, but basically the same. By the way, what I mean it's inside his head where she was like we see her on the on the on the picture in the office. That's the only thing. If we hadn't seen that, it could have just been like it's in his head where the dream was, so he just used her, but I don't know.

Joe 41:52

Yeah, so that's that was my that was kind of my question was like, how did they have the woman that he and I think it's just the movie. I don't think there's an answer. I think like this is the movie, like we're not gonna put a different person in there to be that woman and then have it somebody else, like we're just gonna use the same person.

Tom 42:08

Yeah.

Joe 42:09

Um when he does go to recall though, and they you know they start the procedure and there's the issue, uh McLean just yeah, what does he call her? Like a stupid bitch or something, like the other doctor. I was like, whoa! I was like, that's he's coming in hot. And then I I don't I don't know. I was what I felt like the character who's supposed to be the hero of the story, he's just he just kills innocent people like right off the bat. He just murders a bunch of innocent people. I'm not talking about the guys who were trying to kill him, I'm talking about like the doctors and then they tried to put him back in the machine. Yeah.

Tom 42:53

Shouldn't have done that. When he rips out the hand, like the the the arm breaks, and there's just a spike in there.

Jen 42:59

Oh, and stabs. Well, that's later. Those are the bad guys, right? Does he do that in the middle of the street? That is the later, that is later, right? That's when he's breaking out from but um also another point in the in the column of it being not real is that every single person is shooting at him and not one bullet hits him anywhere. So I'm like, why why are they so bad at shooting? And I'm like, oh, maybe because this is like a dream and he can't die.

Joe 43:26

Or it's Arnold Schwarzenegger in an action movie.

Jen 43:28

Right, right. But I mean, like, I'm like, not like other people are just getting riddled with bullets, like like just he's using people as like a meat shield.

Tom 43:37

That's the best, that's the best one.

Joe 43:39

That's that is one of the innocent people. He literally just grabs a random innocent citizen on the escalator and uses him as a human shield.

Tom 43:49

Yeah.

Joe 43:51

Yeah.

Jen 43:52

I mean, he's dead already, so you might as well use him. I don't know.

Joe 43:56

I don't I was I was watching that and I'm like, oh man, it's And he's supposed to be the good guy. He just grabs that random person. And then Verhoeven's, of course, gotta not only do that, though, because when they drop him, then they step on him as they're going up the escalator, his corpse. Yes. Quaid is not a good dude. He's no quail. I'm gonna tell you that right now. And the inner Hauser, I guess.

Jen 44:26

Hauser.

Joe 44:27

Hauser, yeah, that's not in the book. There's no Hauser.

Jen 44:30

I really like um I don't know who his name is, but the guy with the glasses that's with um.

Joe 44:36

Oh yeah, his name is Helm, by the way, if you've never caught that, because I don't think they ever say it.

Jen 44:40

I'm not sure, but I love him.

Tom 44:42

I think he's one of Biff's henchmen in uh Better the Future as well. Oh really? I think he is. 3D, I think.

Joe 44:49

I think he's in he's in um that movie, I think Toy Soldiers.

unknown 44:55

Okay.

Joe 44:55

Sean Aston and uh Will Wheaton.

unknown 44:59

Okay.

Joe 44:59

Keith Coogan. Um where they're in like a boarding school and Colombian terrorists? I don't know. Some terrorists come and take the school hostage and then they hit they like fight off the terrorists. It's a great movie. Like you do. Oh my god, it's so good. I used to watch that movie all the time when I was a kid. But he's he's just very distinguished, like he's got a very distinguished look. Like he's very easy to pick out anywhere he is with that like shock of white hair and those big glasses.

Jen 45:29

Yeah.

Joe 45:30

Um, I forgot where we were when we were talking about this movie.

Tom 45:36

We've not been anywhere, we've been everywhere in this film. So Michael Ironside's in this movie.

Joe 45:43

It's Michael Ironside's in this movie. Um, a lot of repeat people from from uh Starship Troopers. Verhoven has his car, you know, his guys that he likes. Um what's his face in this? Uh who's the guy who plays uh Quad, well Quado?

Tom 46:01

Not Quado, but not actually Quado, the guy the guy with Quado in his belly.

Joe 46:05

Yeah, he's also in uh Starship Troopers.

Jen 46:08

Is like is it what is a Quado like a like how did that happen? Do we even is it even worth discussing? Like is it two separate people?

Tom 46:18

Yeah.

Jen 46:19

But they merged? I don't know. Are the mutants like humans that live on Mars and got mutated? Yeah. They're not Martians.

Tom 46:29

No, they're humans that are mutated because of the conditions on Mars. Okay.

Jen 46:34

So he just was born with Quato.

Tom 46:36

I think Quato was born, and that like Quato is the person, the human that you see is like a puppet almost. Like that Quato's the like Quado's a mutant that grew that guy.

Jen 46:48

Oh, I thought he grew out of the guy. I would say he grew out of that guy's stomach.

Joe 46:51

Well, it was a human at one time, right? Because they're all humans and then they get mutated. So you're saying Quato was a human and then he mutated into a shroom. Maybe he So he lost the rest of the Quado starts talking.

Tom 47:03

Maybe he got fucked. That guy's mutated. Like when Quado starts talking, like that guy like turns off.

Jen 47:08

It's like Krang. Yeah.

Joe 47:10

Well, Krang's had just like a I know.

Jen 47:13

I know.

Joe 47:13

It wasn't a human.

Jen 47:14

Shredder, my body. Why, why my body? Where's my body? Where's my body? Why? I don't know. It's not even worth it's not worth going into any further. Oh no.

Joe 47:30

More Quado talk. You want to Yeah.

Jen 47:32

Why does that guy like lose consciousness?

Tom 47:35

That's why I always thought like Quado that guy was like a puppet.

Jen 47:38

Yeah.

Tom 47:39

And Quado was like the real thing. Like that's like that guy is what Quado used to like interact with.

Joe 47:45

So like Quado goes back in and he's like kind of he plugs back in and he's he's the guy.

Jen 47:49

And Quado takes control. Yeah.

Joe 47:51

Yeah.

Jen 47:51

And then Quado goes to sleep. But for some reason, this is the guy that's like in charge of the.

Joe 47:57

It's like that movie Malignant.

Jen 47:58

Oh well, he's like a psychic, right? Is that why?

Joe 48:00

Yeah, he has psychic powers. For sure. Quado's Quado's the psychic.

Jen 48:07

They blow Quado's head off. It's really upsetting.

Joe 48:09

It is. Michael Einstein's appearance in this movie. Uh there's two scenes where one is with him, and I think one's with Ronnie Cox, where there's the video monitor, like they call somebody on the video monitor, and the person's not like there waiting, which is I appreciate that because I always feel like in those in movies, like the person's just already there waiting, like they're sitting by the screen all day waiting for somebody to call. So it'll the camera goes on, and then you see him kind of sidle into the into the view on the video screen. And later on, towards the end, with Ronnie Cox, they're like they call him and he's like facing the other way and he goes, Yeah, turns around. Like turns around.

Jen 48:52

I didn't notice that.

Joe 48:56

Uh, I can imagine a lot of improvising with that. Yeah, uh very very clever and funny.

Jen 49:01

And there's like two screens for some reason in the car. Like, why?

Joe 49:07

I don't know.

Jen 49:08

It just looks cooler.

Joe 49:09

Yeah.

Jen 49:10

I don't know.

Joe 49:12

By the way, I don't ever remember this movie somebody saying clever girl.

Jen 49:17

Oh, I don't remember that either.

Tom 49:19

Yeah, this is your three-minute extra.

Joe 49:22

Oh, yeah.

Jen 49:22

Who says clever girl?

Joe 49:24

He does. He says it with uh he says it to Sharon Stone, I think.

Jen 49:29

Carl Schwarzenegger says it?

Joe 49:31

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yes, it's Schwarzenegger. I wonder if this is part of the she had the extra four minutes or whatever I had my version. I was like, oh my god. Did Jurassic Park steal it from this movie? It had to have.

Jen 49:46

No one else has ever said that.

Joe 49:48

Yeah, so Sharon Stone turns out to be uh not his real wife.

Jen 49:53

Sorry, Michael Ironside's girlfriend.

Joe 49:55

But he's Michael Ironside's wife. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Well, a girlfriend? Because what's his name calls him his old lady.

Tom 50:02

Yeah, but yeah, I don't think they're married, though. I don't think that's okay.

Joe 50:06

Alright. I there's a lot of crotch kicking in this movie. Like Arnold gets hit in the crotch a lot in this movie. I I think I would pay money to have Sharon Stone kick me in the crotch, though. Uh that was pretty hot.

Tom 50:17

Okay. She looks pretty buff uh in this film, man. I don't know.

Joe 50:20

I was very impressed with the fight, her fight scenes, because a lot of it looked like it was her.

Tom 50:25

It was. She actually got inducted uh an honorary induction into like the uh the stun stunt person, I don't know if it's the stunt person hall of fame or the stun person like uh the stunt people society in Hollywood. She's an honorary inductee for her work on this film. And and and like they were very honored was very impressed with like the work she put in pre-production to get in this physical condition.

Joe 50:47

So yeah, she was in quite great physical condition for this movie.

Tom 50:50

She wasn't eating.

Joe 50:51

Uh those kicks, those high kicks, man. Wow. Um, and that the fight with her at the end with Rachel Tacotin, that was a good fight too. Yeah, like the two of them going at it was uh uh was good.

Tom 51:05

Okay. So there's uh give me a minute, guys.

Joe 51:09

I just gotta go uh watch it again. I just gotta go watch that scene over. The scene with uh where he's got the towel over his head and he goes to pick up the briefcase.

Jen 51:18

Yeah.

Joe 51:20

The woman just goes to take a briefcase and she's like, oh, it's mine first. Then she says, Fuck you, asshole. Yeah. Like Okay. That was an interesting scene. Yeah. Um, and maybe my favorite scene in the entire movie is him pulling the the tracking device out of his nose. It's so I don't know, it brings me joy watching it.

Jen 51:42

Really, it's the sound, maybe.

Joe 51:48

Yeah. Um, but his face, the contorting face.

Tom 51:51

Um the really, I think for the time, very good uh fake Arnold head that gets the thing yanked out of it. Yeah, this movie's friggin' huge it is.

Joe 52:03

It's uh this movie's basically all practical effects. It's this is like one of the last movies, I think, before like things started becoming CGI.

Tom 52:12

Yeah, I think the the scanner animation is partially CG. That's uh that's pretty much it.

Joe 52:19

Yeah. Yeah. You know, that whole face uh quaddle, and then you know, when they're exposed to the Mars air.

Jen 52:26

Yeah, with the eyes.

Joe 52:29

They just go back though. Once the air comes, they're fine. There's no permanent damage whatsoever.

Jen 52:33

As long as they don't go all the way out to the stems, then it's too late. But if they're like kind of out a little, they can pop back in. The oxygen just like pushes them right back in. Right.

Tom 52:44

Well, that's it. Yeah, that is what happens. Yeah, that's exactly what happens.

Jen 52:47

I know. I'm scientists, huh?

Joe 52:48

You are. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of shooting guns in public in this movie, uh, and without regard for civilian life.

Jen 52:55

Yep, just firing everyone.

Joe 52:57

On both sides. Again, Quaid, I don't know if he's necessarily a good guy. But if it's all fake, then I guess we're it's okay. It's fine.

Jen 53:07

Yes.

Joe 53:08

It's fine. Nobody was killed in the making of this movie.

Jen 53:12

No one except him, basically.

Joe 53:15

The right after he pulls the skin out of his nose and he sticks it in a rat, and they're the scene is just that guy Helm going with his tracker, there, and they all just start firing. They don't even see anything, they just start firing their guns into nothing.

Tom 53:33

You trust technology, man.

Jen 53:35

Then he kills the rat for no reason. And then he's like, there!

Joe 53:40

They're just unloading all over the place. He's just yelling, there, there, there. I was like, this is so stupid. Oh my god, it was great. I loved it.

Jen 53:52

I I want to talk about when he gets to the hotel and he had he had left himself a note, and then he had to write his name or write something, write Melina underneath to make sure it was the same handwriting as his own. What I loved is it looked like our benefit, I guess.

Joe 54:09

It looked like it was the same exact pen that he used because it was exactly the same thickness and color and whatever. It was like he was an exact pen.

Jen 54:18

It was an it was a hotel pen.

Joe 54:21

Well, I guess if it was only what a couple of months ago.

Jen 54:23

Yeah.

Joe 54:24

It's they would probably have the same pen or at least the same make and model pen.

Jen 54:29

Oh pen. Yes, a perfect match. Like you don't know your own handwriting.

Joe 54:35

Yeah, I guess that's a good question.

Tom 54:37

He's dying everything right now.

Joe 54:39

Do they write a lot in this in in this world? What what I did appreciate in the in the story is there's two things. One, that there's a typewriter in it, and then which isn't really too weird, but he asked to borrow the phone in the car, the robot taxi's phone in the story. And I was like, Oh, I guess Philip K. Dick didn't predict cell phones.

Tom 54:59

I mean, car phones are crazy enough, man.

Joe 55:01

Yeah, car phones will be for cell phones, so he wasn't looking too far into the future from that perspective, but they were still using typewriters.

Tom 55:09

Well, yeah.

Joe 55:12

Uh, those are two nice touches. I was like, uh, they don't always get it right. So this is like inception because if you're saying he's this is all part of recall, so he in recall, he has a fantasy where he went to where well no, he didn't go to recall in the fantasy. In the fantasy, he um gets brain wiped by the agency and is another person.

Tom 55:39

Yes.

Joe 55:40

That is very inception-like.

Jen 55:42

Wanted to be a secret agent on on Mars. That's that's what he is.

Joe 55:47

Yeah.

Jen 55:48

Like that's what the doctor tells him. Like, you're ex this is exactly what you told us. You want to just like think about it for a second.

Joe 55:54

Yeah. So I know I'm I'm jumping. I'm jumping to the to the end or close to the end, because there's the whole scene when uh Kohagan plays the video of Quaid, of Quaid um Buddy Buddy with him.

Jen 56:13

Yeah.

Joe 56:13

And Arnold's there's that scene, and Arnold's almost like he can just be like, Well, I'm not gonna be Hauser, as if he has control over it. Or like, I don't know. It's very weird. This is another, this is the part where I'm like, it's like Philip K. Dick's mind, memory, fuck thing. Because that's what that's what the scene is. It's him just being like, Well, I don't want to be Hauser, but you are Hauser. So how does he stay Quaid? I don't know, man. Um, I don't know. But I just don't know how to ask that question.

Jen 56:44

If he yeah, I don't know what they're gonna do to his brain that he like escapes from, but they were gonna bring Hauser back.

Joe 56:50

I don't know.

Jen 56:51

And they were gonna give him Melina. I don't know why they wouldn't just kill Melina, but I guess they figure he wants her. I don't know.

Joe 56:57

Well, I guess that's a that's a theme that carries from the story is like this whole thing is that like more so in the story, you think, is that it's just a deep desire will kind of no matter what, always bring that back up. Like as much as they try to like cover it up with their memory modification, like this is such a deep, deep uh desire or passion or something of his that no matter what, it's gonna keep coming back up. So let's keep Melina because he's in love with her, um, and that'll stabilize the reality more, maybe, or make it make him believe it more or want to believe it more. So, yeah, that that kind of makes sense. But yeah, I don't know how he just can decide like I'm not gonna be houser anymore. Like, I I don't I don't know what was going on there. I don't it was interesting.

Jen 57:46

I feel like that's like I've seen something like that in other movies too. Like, that's not who I am. You know, that was me before. This is me now. And like, you know, like an amnesia or people uh or whatever.

Tom 58:01

I'm pretty sure like I I haven't seen the show, but I'm pretty sure that's basically what severance is about.

Jen 58:06

Uh no. No. Like it's happening like that. Not in the beginning, but maybe like now.

Joe 58:16

Yeah, like well it's not a memory thing. That's what I was I was commit, I was connecting the wrong part, Tom. I was thinking of memory messing up, but no, yeah, you're right. Like, there's two different people basically. They become two different people because they yeah, they don't exist at the same time. Yeah, yeah.

Tom 58:29

Or and like even though they watch videos of themselves telling them things, they're like, that's not who I am, that's who you are. Yes, kind of a vibe. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Joe 58:39

So yeah, this is I guess this is another precursor to Severance.

Jen 58:43

I mean Severance's been gonna come back soon. I love that show.

Joe 58:45

Yeah. Um the woman who plays uh his disguise when he first goes to Mars. I think she deserved an Oscar for that performance. That was amazing.

Jen 59:00

Where did he get the mask from?

Joe 59:03

I I don't, it doesn't matter.

Jen 59:04

And why could he only say one thing while he oh, that's why it's sort of freaking out. Okay.

Tom 59:12

Um the fake ID is that actress's real name. Like if you look at like with a passport info, if you if you found out like it's her real name.

Joe 59:24

Yeah. Awesome. I love that scene. Uh it's almost unnecessary. I feel like Paul Verhoven just wanted to put this in here because it was such a wildly weird and you know, the the effects were just so bizarre.

Jen 59:39

Well, he couldn't just get through customs.

Joe 59:42

I don't even know if they had to show a scene of him going through customs. He could have just showed up at the hotel. I wouldn't have been questioning whether how did he get through customs?

Jen 59:49

How did he get through Marshall's customs?

Joe 59:51

How did he get through the TSA?

Tom 59:54

I remember, I was still remember as a kid when the movie was um coming out, like seeing that scene with the head like re like coming off as a reform, like going, this movie looks fucking awesome.

Joe 1:00:07

Yeah, that was in the trailer, definitely. I remember that. Uh right after that scene, I have a note. I forgot about how awesome this movie is.

Jen 1:00:18

The people getting sucked out into Mars.

Joe 1:00:21

Yeah. Question: why would anyone want to visit Mars? That's my first question. It looks like a terrible place. Doesn't matter. Why would anyone go to why would anyone want to visit? The whole movie's predicated on him really wanting to go see Mars. This is like, why?

Jen 1:00:38

Everywhere you are on Mars is like a window away from being sucked down into the atmosphere. Like everywhere it's just like one room at a time, like built on each other.

Joe 1:00:49

Your best, your best case scenario is you're you become a mutant. That's the best case scenario. And even in the very beginning, when they're watching the newscast about the turmoil and rebels on Mars, and he's like, I want to go to Mars.

unknown 1:01:03

Like, right.

Jen 1:01:04

How did all those people end up there? Why are they living there?

Joe 1:01:07

I think they're just like transplants.

Tom 1:01:10

Yeah.

Joe 1:01:10

They're they're I mean, Mars was colonized, they moved there.

Jen 1:01:14

Yeah. Okay.

Tom 1:01:15

There I mean there's mining, there's there's industry, and there's people who support that. There's people who are like, I imagine some of those people, like the mutants, used to be miners and can't mine anymore because the mutations have screwed them up too much.

Joe 1:01:28

Uh uh, what the hell is the name of the student?

Tom 1:01:30

Or their parents mineral. I I always I got the impression that like they didn't mutate, like their parents were on Mars and had them and their mutants because of like the Martian environment.

Jen 1:01:42

Oh, maybe. But then the mom and the b the little girl have like the same mutation. Yeah.

Joe 1:01:47

It's a genetic mutation. It becomes genetic.

Tom 1:01:50

Yeah, once it's once it's there, it's there.

Joe 1:01:52

Yeah. The material, the mineral, whatever it's called, I can't remember, and I didn't write it down. Because I could never I never understood what they said. Jen, I was hoping you had watched it with the captions and knew exactly what you're talking about.

Jen 1:02:04

I did, and I'm that's why I kind of half know what it is. Hold on, I'm gonna find out.

Joe 1:02:08

Um there's no mention of what the mineral does. It's just like the turbinium. Turbinium, thank you. The turbinium. They don't they don't necessarily what it does. It's just a mineral that's very valuable. Uh what else? Oh man, I'm sorry. I have a lot of notes about this. This is where you get the raising the price of air conversation right here when we get to Mars. Uh go ahead, Jenny.

Jen 1:02:34

I haven't I have a note about when the what's the guy's name? Kohagen?

Joe 1:02:38

Yeah, Kohagen.

Jen 1:02:39

He kicks over the aquarium and you see the fish trying to breathe.

Joe 1:02:44

Yeah. And then it cuts to the it cuts to the humans trying to breathe. I have a note about that. It was very good camera work and cinematography. Yes. From the fish uh suffocating to humans. Well, mutants suffocating.

Jen 1:02:57

They're not all mutants.

Joe 1:02:58

No, not all of them.

Jen 1:02:59

Yeah.

Joe 1:03:00

Um there's the little person.

Jen 1:03:03

Street of That's the only.

Joe 1:03:05

I think the little person is the Melina. Oh, yeah, Melina, that's right, sorry.

Jen 1:03:10

There's other well now.

Joe 1:03:13

Everyone else we meet is a mutant on Mars, the people who live on Mars.

Jen 1:03:17

Not Benny.

Joe 1:03:18

Yeah, he is. He pulls out his cool weird claws.

Jen 1:03:21

Oh, that's right, that's right. I forgot.

unknown 1:03:22

I forgot.

Joe 1:03:23

He's like, I'm one of you.

Jen 1:03:27

That's right. I forgot.

unknown 1:03:28

Okay.

Joe 1:03:28

Yeah. And that the little person, uh, she is that the is that the one who's on Seinfeld who Mickey likes?

Jen 1:03:35

I recognized her, but I couldn't remember I didn't know.

Joe 1:03:38

I think that's her. From what?

Jen 1:03:39

Thumbelina is her name in this movie.

Joe 1:03:42

Oh, okay. Did they mention that? Yes. Oh, man.

Jen 1:03:45

Because I wrote, I'm so happy Thumbelina survived. And also I wrote new band name, Thumbelina and the Mutants.

Joe 1:03:55

Love it. Sounds like a punk, a punk band.

Jen 1:03:58

Thumbelina. Oh my god.

Joe 1:04:00

Does. Yeah.

Jen 1:04:02

She does stab my favorite character though.

Joe 1:04:05

Oh yeah, that's a good thing. Helm. He deserved. He deserved it though.

Jen 1:04:10

He did. He did.

Joe 1:04:11

Everybody in this movie. Well, not everybody, but like all of the main characters deserve to die in this movie. Except maybe for Rachel Zacotin. She could she could live. Everybody else is pretty terrible.

Jen 1:04:22

Yeah.

Joe 1:04:23

I have a note here. What have I dunno what this means though. Maybe one of you can tell me what this means. What have you been feeding this thing?

Jen 1:04:30

Quado?

Joe 1:04:31

No, this is right it's it's right after Melina shows up, I think. It's after the three boobs. It's in that scene. That whole scene when he goes to the last resort. Is that what the biggest is? I believe that's Venus. Oh, okay. Oh yes, that's when she grabs his crotch. Yeah. Melina says that.

Jen 1:04:54

Oh, he says blondes? Is that what they make?

Joe 1:04:57

Yes, what have you been feeding this thing? And he says blondes, yes. Uh another great line in this movie. Uh I have a question about the three breasted woman. Go for it. Do you think any of the breasts that we see are her real breasts?

Jen 1:05:16

No, I do not.

Joe 1:05:17

They're not. I I feel like there's I have a note here about this, about this. Like they wanted to do more breasts.

Jen 1:05:27

Yeah, that was in the re but like three was the sweet spot. It is. Otherwise you start looking like a like an animal. You have like too many, like a cow or a whatever.

Joe 1:05:41

Four or six, even six breasts.

Jen 1:05:44

No, six would have been sweet.

Joe 1:05:45

Three is three and then like three below them.

Jen 1:05:47

No, that's too much.

Joe 1:05:48

Or maybe they look like kind of like a uh an animal. Yeah.

Jen 1:05:53

I think one extra is like, whoa. Like two's good, but three?

Tom 1:05:59

Exactly.

Jen 1:06:00

Like two is good enough.

Tom 1:06:02

But like one more two's great. Just to be clear.

Jen 1:06:06

Right. So imagine there was one extra one.

unknown 1:06:10

Oh.

Tom 1:06:10

That's 50% better.

Joe 1:06:12

I think I have an answer on the Quado conundrum.

Jen 1:06:15

Okay. Listen. So that's like a wait, wait. Who's that author that we me and Brendan always talk about? No, is it?

Joe 1:06:24

No, uh, what's his name? No, the guy who did the uh uh oh. I know what you're talking about. It's got these wild titles where it's always like these two words he puts together, like the like the Gemini experience or something. Like it's like somebody in chat, please tell us you know the I'm trying to Brendan's gonna kill me.

Jen 1:06:50

Oh no, is it Robert Ludlum or something?

Joe 1:06:52

Yeah, I think oh it's Ludlum. Yeah, it is Ludlum, I think.

Jen 1:06:55

Wait. Robert Ludlum.

Joe 1:06:57

Is that the born guy? The born id- Yeah, it's the born guy.

Jen 1:06:59

Yeah, the born identity. Yeah, Robert Ludl, the born supremacy, the born, the matter's circle, the born. Anyway, yeah, so that's what it sounds like the Quado conundrum.

Joe 1:07:10

Okay.

Jen 1:07:10

The Hades factor. Sorry, guys.

Joe 1:07:15

No, it's it's all Robert Ludlund tells us. So the name Quato, it's derived from Quate, which is Mexican slang for twin.

Jen 1:07:27

Oh, maybe he was like a Siamese twins. Yeah. Like a or some people are have like a a like a like a fetus that kind of you have like body parts connected to you that didn't like really form, and this is like uh like in between that and a Siamese twin, I guess.

Joe 1:07:45

So there you go.

Jen 1:07:47

Okay.

Joe 1:07:48

Solve that one. We can close the book on this.

Jen 1:07:51

But why does the other guy lose consciousness with Guado talks?

Tom 1:07:54

Well they're mutants. Whose head is going into the other brain.

Jen 1:07:57

Yeah, they're sharing only one brain can work at a time. I don't know.

Joe 1:08:02

Yeah. Yeah, I uh here's why I have the question of like what is Kohagan? Is he a governor, a businessman? I don't know what he is. He doesn't even have a company name. The agent, it's just called the agency. Maybe this might be more you know, fuel for the this is all fake. It doesn't matter what's really happening because um I don't know if that's done on purpose.

Tom 1:08:27

I think it's definitively done on purpose.

Joe 1:08:29

It definitively.

Tom 1:08:31

I think it the entirety, the the entirety of the movie is designed for you not to uh like not to know whether it's really happening or not while you're watching it. So I think uh having it be vague and like it's not vague. It'd be one thing if Quaid was like, what is the agency? and no one tells him. Like everyone knows what it is, so you don't have to talk about it. That's like real life. Like yeah, like if you're in the office and you're like, oh, the company is wants to do this, no one's gonna go, what company? Like they know what company.

Joe 1:09:01

You're both working. But does co is Kohagan run the agency? I don't I don't know what that is.

Tom 1:09:08

He runs Mars, he just runs Mars. So he's like governor, corporate it's like a corporate run.

Joe 1:09:14

Yeah, it's a corporate run planet.

Tom 1:09:17

And he's the administrator of he's turn Turinium.

Jen 1:09:21

What's the name of the Turbinium?

Joe 1:09:23

Turbinium miner. He makes all his money off of mining turbinium and selling oxygen. So like there's who's going to Mars? It looks so shitty there. Why would they go?

Tom 1:09:34

I I think like you know, Jen made the the the the reference about like how every room is just a window to death. But like tourists, like dumb earth people, are gonna go fly to Mars just to say, I've been to Mars and they went by the sand. Whatever.

Jen 1:09:49

Maybe they don't know how bad it is until you're gonna be.

Joe 1:09:51

Well, there wasn't that there was that one nice restaurant they would always show, or yeah.

Jen 1:09:55

Well, I guess like an avalanche was coming down, but it was like ice and I don't even know what oxygen coming in.

Tom 1:10:02

Yeah, it was air. It's just air.

Jen 1:10:04

Air. So everyone that survived the glass explosion was really happy because they could breathe.

Tom 1:10:10

That's yeah.

Jen 1:10:13

Now they would have to be shut in. They could have the windows open on Mars. And the whole the whole atmosphere changes in about three minutes. The entire planet is blue now.

Joe 1:10:23

I'm so sky. I'm so confused now by this movie, but I think it's more confusing than the story's pretty straightforward, but uh, it's got its twists. But uh Arnold gets oh, yeah. I have a note here you can make a drinking game out of how many times Arnold Schwarzenegger gets hit in the crotch. Uh and then there's a great here's a great line. Consider that a divorce.

Tom 1:10:47

That's yes, well, another great Arnold line.

Joe 1:10:52

Uh yeah. Uh I think we got more Arnold just pushing guys, pushing innocent people down the stairs when he's running.

Jen 1:11:02

It's fine.

Joe 1:11:03

What else? We got a bar fight.

Jen 1:11:06

Yeah. When they sneak them through the wall.

Joe 1:11:09

Yes.

Jen 1:11:10

Just kills the women with three breasts. Like, what are you doing?

Joe 1:11:13

I know, like, what's wrong?

Jen 1:11:14

That's like what a waste.

Joe 1:11:16

Yeah, what a waste. I still get upset when you find out Benny's a bad guy.

Tom 1:11:22

I do too. That was what they were gonna say. Like, I I wanted that to be like he's so likable.

Joe 1:11:28

Yeah. But too likable.

Tom 1:11:31

So for every good Arnold one-liner, I feel they're like most auto movies have a really bad Arnold one-liner, and hey Benny, screw you is awful.

Jen 1:11:43

Oh god, I didn't even get that. Screw you, yeah. She screws him, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe 1:11:47

He's got the drill. He screws him to death with a drill. Yeah. Yeah. That's you don't even see it.

Jen 1:11:52

That's like one that they do kind of off camera, which I'm shocked about because every other gory thing is in this.

Joe 1:11:59

Well, I think I think because it didn't involve his head or face, because I feel like Verhoven only wants to do weird gory stuff with people's faces.

Jen 1:12:07

Can we screw it through his eye? We can't. There's absolutely no way we can. Okay, then forget it. Just leave it to their imagination.

Joe 1:12:14

We've run out of we've run out of fake eyeballs. This is where I have my existential question of who deserves the body? Who deserves Arnold's body, Quaid or Hauser? That would that's the question. But it's his body, though.

Jen 1:12:33

Well, he shouldn't have given it up if he wanted to keep it.

Joe 1:12:36

That's true.

Jen 1:12:37

Or did they force him? No, it was all like a plan on his own. Yeah, yeah. So he could get into the to Quado.

Joe 1:12:43

Right. Yeah. It's a very elaborate plan. I don't know how they knew how he would react to all of the things that happened, though. Like it wasn't they didn't know he was gonna go and become friends with Quado.

Jen 1:12:57

Not really. That's how.

Tom 1:13:06

It's worked out that way.

Joe 1:13:08

Well, again, I don't know if it's just a movie or it's it was done on purpose.

Jen 1:13:12

It's a movie. Um I don't know.

Tom 1:13:15

Right. So go ahead. Um in the beginning, when he first goes to recall, McLean says, uh, in the secret agent ego trip that he he's opts for, by the time the trip is over, you'll get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the entire planet.

Joe 1:13:30

And uh that's what happens.

Tom 1:13:32

Right. And and when they look at the like when they're inst installing like the thing in there, someone goes, that's a new one. Blue sky on Mars. Right? So literally, like, I don't know. It's it's tough. It's tough. Oh, I missed those. Yeah.

Jen 1:13:46

I didn't hear the yeah, that part.

Joe 1:13:49

Oh, okay. So then confirmed.

Tom 1:13:53

Lock lock it up.

Joe 1:13:54

Lock it up. Stories, stories over. Um, would you like to hear how the the short story ends, Tom?

Tom 1:14:02

Or yes, I would like to hear how the short story ends.

Joe 1:14:07

Um, so a lot, like I said, the first maybe 15 or 20 minutes or so of the movie is fairly close to the book. He goes to recall. There, there's like similar like a type of issue where he's talking about all this stuff, and they're like, wait a second, he's been to Mars already scenario. Um, so they kind of stop the process, they refund him his money, like half of his money, and send him on his way. But he winds up going back to recall because the whole idea with them is like, if if you remember that you were here, that means we didn't do our job, so we'll give you a refund. Like that, obviously, because you wouldn't come here if the recall worked. So he goes back, he gets the rest of his money, but then like government agents come, but they're not like it's not Michael Irons I didn't Kohagan. They're just like government agents coming, and then you f you find out that like he was an assassin and he was on Mars. Um, and the agents want to kill him, but then he's like, Well, what if you he's like, Well, what if you, you know, memory me, you know, put me back basically, the way I was. Will you not kill me? And they're like, Yeah. So then they like study him and they they find out that everything stems from this fantasy or dream he had when he was a kid. Right. Go ahead, go ahead.

Jen 1:15:25

No. So they're like, what if we replace this with something else? So what's like a dream, what's like your dream or something when a dream you've had, another thing that you wanted to do? And he's like, Oh, I always wanted to like like save the world from aliens or something. And they were like, All right, we'll put that one in.

Joe 1:15:46

It's it's it's from like a when he's a kid, he had this really, very like strong fantasy.

Jen 1:15:52

And then when they go to put it in, they're like, oh, this was also real. This also really happened to him, and it wasn't a fantasy.

Joe 1:16:00

But this is the Go ahead, tell him what the actual fantasy is.

Jen 1:16:04

It's like the I forget exactly what happened with aliens.

Joe 1:16:07

He's approached by aliens, and these little aliens are like the size of rats. Um they they're coming there to invade, is it? And then he's like very nice to them, though. So they appreciate that.

Jen 1:16:20

Yeah.

Joe 1:16:21

So they basically um leave and say, We as long as you're alive, we won't come and destroy Earth. It's basically like, Well, wait till you're dead because he was nice to them.

Jen 1:16:32

Yeah. And then so then they were like, Okay, well, if this is true, you better not kill this guy. Yes. The aliens are gonna come and destroy Earth as soon as he's dead. And that's kind of like they're like, all right. And they just leave. Like, that's the end, basically.

Tom 1:16:49

Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

Jen 1:16:51

So every everything that he wanted, every fantasy that he had, like, actually he already did. And the aliens had wiped that from his memory, too. So he wouldn't remember that that happened. So it's like.

Tom 1:17:04

But that is okay. Yeah, yeah.

Jen 1:17:07

So it's really not recalls, but the boss of recall is like sweating and like going crazy because he's like, everything we try to do, like you or it already actually happened to you. It's funny. Like it's yeah.

Joe 1:17:20

Yeah, it's definitely funny. It's it's it's so bizarre that twist with the alien. Yeah. Because I'm thinking as I'm reading this, I'm like, oh, you're gonna find out like after it ends that he that was his fantasy, like what we're saying in the movie happened. But they're like, Phil, Philip Dick's like, no, no, no, we're gonna take it a step further.

Tom 1:17:39

Also, also real. Okay.

Joe 1:17:40

Yeah. Yeah. And it's just like, oh, I guess we should make sure this guy doesn't die.

Jen 1:17:44

Because as soon as he dies, like, that's it. Yeah.

Joe 1:17:47

They're coming. Yeah, so you can see where they veered off a bit.

Jen 1:17:51

Yeah. But like nothing happens. It's just like all happening at recall, basically, or like at his house. And you're just like hearing about the memories. He never like actually goes to Mars. You don't really see any of this.

Joe 1:18:06

They take him to like New York, yeah, because it takes place in Chicago.

Jen 1:18:10

They do?

Joe 1:18:11

Yeah, when when the the government agency takes him in, they bring him to New York, and then remember that they're like doing the testing on him to try to figure out like what was going on.

Jen 1:18:21

Yeah, but don't they take him back to recall to do the recall. Okay, okay.

Joe 1:18:26

They do. They go they go from Chicago to New York, then back to it feels like unnecessary traveling for the story.

Jen 1:18:32

For a 22-page story.

Joe 1:18:34

Yes, it does.

Jen 1:18:35

Whatever.

Joe 1:18:37

But yeah, so it does veer off, like I said. This could have been this movie, could have been what they uh were gonna implant in him at recall. The memory that they were gonna implant in him. You could say that.

Jen 1:18:56

Yeah, so in in the story, he really was a secret agent, and there was no like bones about it, basically. Right. In this, it was like, oh, is it happening? Is it not happening? You don't really know.

Joe 1:19:07

But well, you think it's not happening, and then the whole thing with the aliens pops up, and you're like, oh, this no, this really was happening.

Jen 1:19:15

What do you mean?

Joe 1:19:18

His other dream that turned out to be really. Oh, in the story. In the story. Yeah, yeah, in the story.

Jen 1:19:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe 1:19:23

Um, so just like a couple other pieces of information, I don't know, just like about the the adaptation. So Dick died in '82, but he did get a chance to read the original script and reportedly loved it. Um, or at least one version of the script. The script loved so many. I don't know if it was the original, but it was one of the versions. This thing was rewritten so many times. Um, this movie was originally rated X for the violence and had to be heavily edited to achieve the R rating.

Jen 1:19:59

I'd love to see the X version.

Joe 1:20:01

I wonder if that's what I saw. The extra four minutes.

Jen 1:20:05

X stands for you said X stands for extra violence.

Tom 1:20:08

Uh in this case it is. Like, I don't think the rated X is for like gratuitous sex. I think it's for even more violence.

Joe 1:20:15

Do you um do you know who voiced uh the Johnny Cab?

Tom 1:20:20

I do. He looks like him.

Joe 1:20:22

Oh, he does look like him, Robert Picardo. Robert Picardo, yeah. Yeah.

Tom 1:20:27

The doctor from Star Trek Voyager. Or um he's in Gremlins 2. The girl Gremlin like uh marries him at the in Gremlins 2. Oh yes. He kind of gets like uh what do they call that? Like uh Stockholm syndrome into Yeah. She tortures him until like he succumbs to her girl gremlin charms.

Joe 1:20:50

Uh Schwarzenegger got injured on this uh on glass. Surprise, surprise. Got cut. He got a deep cut on his wrist during a window smash scene and had to be stitched up on set.

Tom 1:21:02

Wow.

Joe 1:21:03

Uh it doesn't surprise me with all the breaking glass in this movie. It's a lot of breaking glass. Yeah. Yeah. 42 different drafts, supposedly, this script went through. 42 drafts. Yeah.

Tom 1:21:15

Well, I I can imagine, you know, based on what you're saying and like the long process of this and the people who were considered for it at one point. It probably was a very different movie without Arnold attached to it. And was like, Oh yeah, now now Arnold's in it. Let's make it all.

Joe 1:21:32

Yeah, but Arnold.

Tom 1:21:34

Right, you're saying in the in the book, right? Like uh Quaid is Quail and he's a very like nebushy kind of like uh you know doesn't really have much of a personality, to be honest.

Jen 1:21:50

I wonder if um Christopher Reeve was considered to play like Nebishy to action hero the same way he did as Superman. Or if that's why his hat was in the ring.

Joe 1:22:02

Probably. Yeah. I think he would have been a good Quail. Clark Kent Quail.

Tom 1:22:08

Yeah.

Jen 1:22:09

Yeah, and then Superman Quaid.

Joe 1:22:12

Yeah.

Jen 1:22:12

Or whatever, not Quaid, but Superman uh.

Joe 1:22:15

He never really becomes a he's never really a Superman in the story, though.

Jen 1:22:18

Well, you you hear that he had been, you don't see it.

Joe 1:22:20

That's true. It's true. You know he killed somebody.

Jen 1:22:25

No.

Joe 1:22:25

Uh he was an assassin. Murdered somebody on Mars.

Jen 1:22:28

Just one, just one guy. Not only 700 people that he killed.

Joe 1:22:33

Not random innocent people walking around and using them as shield, like human shields. Jesus Christ. Oh.

Tom 1:22:42

Machine gun bullets, uh really famous for not passing through bodies, too. Yeah. Like that would sound. Right. Why would is that guy's back made out of iron? Like, why would why would the bullets not just pass through?

Joe 1:22:57

Were they like Uzies they were using or like something small, right? Yeah. There was a couple of bigger guns.

Tom 1:23:03

They're still like, I don't know, like 20 feet away from them.

Joe 1:23:07

That's true. Maybe the guy uh that's dead was wearing some sort of body armor.

Tom 1:23:12

Yeah, that's what it was.

Jen 1:23:14

Plot armor. Oh it's his dream. You can't die in your dream.

Joe 1:23:20

Yeah. Anyone have any more notes about this movie?

Jen 1:23:24

Um, I had a note. Arnold with the jackhammer at the beginning. It's just like how can we make everybody see Arnold's muscles more?

Joe 1:23:35

It was so stuck. It was very like glaring in the beginning, and especially like after I had just re-reading the story. Like, I knew Arnold was gonna be there, but yeah, he's got like the short, short sleeves, and he's just like it's like this one's for you, ladies.

Jen 1:23:50

Yeah.

Joe 1:23:52

Uh so what did I say? This movie, uh uh, where's my notes? I just had the notes about the money this movie made. It was like 260 something million dollars or something like that. It was a huge hit. Yeah. You guys you guys didn't know that that this was a huge hit?

Tom 1:24:09

Um no, I I assume that it was. I think you know, at this time, you know, basically everything Arnold touched turned to gold. This movie's awesome. It is.

Joe 1:24:19

It was the it was 261 million dollars worldwide on a budget of 65 million. So yeah, they made a lot of money. It was the fifth highest grossing film of that year. Um, and it won a special achievement academy award for visual effects.

Tom 1:24:35

Be dance with wolves for that?

Joe 1:24:37

Was that nine? That wasn't 90, wasn't that later?

Tom 1:24:40

I don't I I don't know. That was just a joke. I I thought it was I think it is 90 actually, but yeah. Yeah, 1990.

Joe 1:24:46

Okay.

Tom 1:24:47

I don't think dance with wolves was up for a special Oscar for visual effects, but um I don't think so either.

Joe 1:24:55

Alright. Shall we get to our ratings? Yes.

Jen 1:24:59

Sure. Are we rating the movie or are we rating the adaptation?

Joe 1:25:04

We have this conversation like every two weeks. It's we're rating the movie, the movie itself. And then we you know, and then discussing whether it was a successful adaptation.

Jen 1:25:16

Okay.

Joe 1:25:18

So, um, the movie.

Tom 1:25:20

Uh 11 stars. This movie's dope. Um, I would give this movie. I love this movie, I I legitimately do. I don't think it's perfect, but I think it is uh really, really very good.

Joe 1:25:34

I I uh four stars. Four stars? Yeah. Not five. I wonder if Tom's gonna give out a five-star. Um Jen, how about you?

Jen 1:25:46

Um I like it. It's good, it has a lot of good action. Um the story's good. I do like that it isn't real. I feel like that I like whatever. I think that it isn't real. I think it that people have said it isn't real, and I I think that adds to the intrigue of the movie and makes me like it more. Because if it was just a straight movie, I don't think I would have liked it as much. So I'm gonna say 3.75.

Joe 1:26:11

Okay. Uh I'm gonna give this a 4. Uh 2.5. I was gonna almost go to 4.5. This movie's awesome.

Tom 1:26:24

It is awesome.

Joe 1:26:25

I hadn't seen it in a long time, and it's still awesome. It's it was even more awesome because of like me noticing just how many innocent people get killed by our hero. So, and I never really thought about it that him still being in recall. I don't know. I've always felt like I don't know, I feel like I just never thought about it. I don't know why. Maybe I didn't care, or it wasn't the move, it wasn't the point of the movie for me. I was like, I didn't I don't know, but I like that I think about it now. So thank you, Shelf to Screen Podcast.

Tom 1:26:56

You know what? I I'm changing my mind. But I want a 4.25 for my rating as well. All right. So just out of curiosity, movies that beat the that it was uh that had more box office than Toro Recall in 1990.

Joe 1:27:12

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't tell us. Don't tell us.

Jen 1:27:14

Can I guess?

Joe 1:27:15

Go ahead.

Tom 1:27:15

Yes, you can guess.

Jen 1:27:16

I'm not sure if I have the right year for this movie, but Home Alone?

Tom 1:27:20

Yes, by far his number one movie of the year.

Jen 1:27:22

Okay.

Joe 1:27:22

Wow, good call, Jen. You mentioned Dances with Wolves, Tom.

Tom 1:27:26

That also beat it, yes.

Jen 1:27:27

Okay.

Joe 1:27:28

Okay. I don't know if I know.

Tom 1:27:29

There's another, there's another movie starring one of uh one of the actors considered for the lead in this film, uh, that uh made more money than dances with wolves.

Joe 1:27:40

Oh wow. So we said uh what Richard was Richard Dreyfus? Is Mr. Holland's opus? No?

Tom 1:27:46

No, no, that movie doesn't. That was later.

Jen 1:27:49

Not super that wasn't a Superman movie. It wasn't a Superman movie.

Tom 1:27:52

Okay, no Superman movies were done.

Joe 1:27:55

This wasn't Ferris Bul. No, Ferris Bulas was earlier.

Tom 1:27:57

Yeah, like 87, I think, or 86.

Joe 1:28:02

Ghost? Ghost.

Jen 1:28:04

Ah, ghost.

Joe 1:28:06

I saw Patrick Swayze. I forgot he was originally signed on for the Australian production.

Jen 1:28:10

Ghost is a great movie.

Joe 1:28:11

Okay, wait, did we miss one?

Tom 1:28:12

Is there one more than there's three more that made more money than World War Right?

Jen 1:28:17

Alright, give us cleanse. I want to guess.

Tom 1:28:20

Okay. Next 20 minutes of the podcast. Okay. The next on the list was not this person's first movie, but turned an actress into a superstar.

Joe 1:28:33

Moonstruck.

Tom 1:28:34

Nope. The bodyguard. No, that's 92, I think. It is it is a it's a romantic comedy, but I would really call it more of a romantic dramedy.

Jen 1:28:48

Fried Green Tomatoes.

Tom 1:28:50

No. When Harry met Sally?

Jen 1:28:52

No, no, that's a romantic drama.

Tom 1:28:57

D. It's technically a romantic comedy, but it's I think it's it's pretty dark in places.

Jen 1:29:03

My girl.

Tom 1:29:05

No. I wouldn't call that a romantic.

Joe 1:29:08

Yes, it is.

Tom 1:29:09

That's a romantic comedy. That's like a coming of age film.

Jen 1:29:12

Yeah, whatever.

Tom 1:29:14

Um where a little boy dies. Yeah. That's the dark part.

Joe 1:29:19

That's the Romney part.

Tom 1:29:21

Yeah. It's very romantic. Very romantic.

Jen 1:29:23

Um Sleepless in Seattle.

Tom 1:29:25

No, that's also later.

Jen 1:29:27

All right.

Joe 1:29:28

Can you give us an actor that's in it? You said a woman.

Tom 1:29:31

Richard Gere. An officer and a gentleman.

Joe 1:29:34

Pretty woman. A pretty woman, duh.

Tom 1:29:35

Alright. The next movie was for the kids. And it's a live action with voice work.

Joe 1:29:43

Live action with voice work? A kids movie.

Tom 1:29:46

We 1990. We caught this movie fairly frequently, I would say as well.

Jen 1:29:54

No, that's 80s, right?

Tom 1:29:56

89, I think. Yeah.

Jen 1:29:58

Live action with voice work.

Tom 1:30:00

It's not Space Jam, is it? It's not Space Jam. That was like 1990.

Jen 1:30:04

No, that's 80s.

Tom 1:30:05

Not Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. That's also earlier. Um there are there are four. I think I just got it from the chat.

Jen 1:30:14

I think I just got it from the chat. Ninja Turtles. It is Ninja Turtles. Good job, Skeeter. Got it.

Tom 1:30:20

I tried to give Skeeter a little nod when he put it in chat. Last one that beats Total Recall.

Joe 1:30:31

Movie year.

Tom 1:30:32

Start an ex-James Bond and a new spy hero. Ex-James. No, that movie came out in like 1990. 94. I think it was after Conair. Am I right with the ex-Bond? Oh, wasn't it? That is the proper ex-bond.

Joe 1:30:55

Okay. All right. Sean Connery and a spy?

Tom 1:30:59

Sean Connery and someone who is a new spy hero.

Jen 1:31:05

Not a male or a female.

Tom 1:31:07

Male. It's not an Indiana Jones movie, is it? It's not an Indiana Jones movie. Okay. He's not like a James Bond type spy. It's much more of a new uh post-Cold War.

Joe 1:31:18

Hunt for Red October? No.

Tom 1:31:20

Hunt for Red October.

Joe 1:31:21

Oh, that was 90?

Tom 1:31:22

Yeah. I thought that was earlier.

Jen 1:31:25

Thomas Crown?

Tom 1:31:26

Is that Jack Ryan is the new spy? Jack Ryan. The lead of the film. Yes. Oh, I thought is the new spy hero.

Joe 1:31:37

Well, that's the connection between him and Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones that I was making. There you go. That's it. Because Harrison Ford later plays Jack Ryan after that movie.

Tom 1:31:47

And the sequels to this film. Yeah. All right. So I don't know why we did that, but that was fun for me. So thank you.

Jen 1:31:52

That was fun.

Tom 1:31:55

That was a good movie year, though.

Joe 1:31:56

Yeah.

Tom 1:31:57

That was a really good movie year. Yeah. Other movies that year, just now because we're doing it. Um, no, don't even think. Tracy Die Hard 2, Back to the Future 3. All also that year. Okay.

Joe 1:32:09

Back to the Future 3, yeah. Okay. I like that. Actually, that was probably better than two. Yeah. Anyway, uh, successful adaptation, Jen.

Jen 1:32:19

I I you can't really even I no, but it's not fair to say no. It's it's an inspired by.

Tom 1:32:26

Yeah.

Jen 1:32:27

It's they I mean, the idea, the the the core of it is is good. You know, and then they just go off the rails. But it's I'd say yeah, but yes, but no.

Joe 1:32:37

They took the premise. Um Yeah, I mean, it would have been cool if they incorporated a little bit more of the uh that weird, crazy, bizarro twist at the end.

Jen 1:32:48

Yeah, they try to be like something with aliens, but not the same thing. I don't know.

Joe 1:32:55

Uh yeah, instead there's mutants and a nuclear reactor.

Jen 1:32:59

Like why did the aliens do that? Why did they put their alien handprint in a button? Because it's not real, that's the answer. But yes. Yeah.

Joe 1:33:08

I mean not because it's a movie, it's because it's all No, it's because it's Yeah.

Tom 1:33:12

I don't get into this, but like when you wanted to figure it out. You're seeing stuff that's gonna be in the Total Recall like scenario. One of the things that you see, like in the Total Recall office at the beginning of the movie, before Arnold goes under is the reactor is like is the map of the reactor. It's just there in the beginning.

Joe 1:33:31

I didn't see that. Damn it. I have to I I feel do I have to go back and watch Total Recall again next year? Maybe next week or tomorrow. Uh yeah, I kind of agree with you, Jen. I'm like on the fence and I'm like, I think it was a successful adaptation in the sense that it took the premise of the story and did a good job fleshing it out and you know making it its own.

Jen 1:33:55

Um wasn't a bad adaptation. Yeah.

Joe 1:33:58

Like I said, the first 15-20 movie, 20 minutes of this movie is pretty close to this to the bug.

Tom 1:34:04

Yeah, it doesn't sound like people who are real fans of the short story are gonna be upset with the movie.

Joe 1:34:09

Like no, I think uh most I think most uh fans of the story kind of um I think the thing they didn't like was the ch was the the turning of you know Quail to Schwarzenegger. Quaid Yeah, to Quaid. Quaid, Quaid. Um I think that was the biggest problem people had. Which, you know, whatever. I get it. But it was still a really cool movie.

Jen 1:34:37

So you think like Quaid I know they're spelled differently, but like Quaid and Quado are like very similar sounding names. I wonder if he did that to like oh, the the guy that's like everyone's looking for is like similar to my name. I don't know.

Joe 1:34:52

I don't know.

Jen 1:34:53

It's just like weird to have two names that are that close to each other.

Joe 1:34:56

Well, we know why Quado is named Quado, right? We talked about that already. Quaid, I guess it was just like we're not not quail. Quail is too weird.

Tom 1:35:03

Yeah, you're not gonna have Arnold play a guy named Quail.

Joe 1:35:06

That would be pretty cool if his name was Quail. All right. I think this is a good place to uh wrap up this conversation. This was a longer conversation in this movie than I thought we could have. Uh but I do want to remind everyone to follow us on social media, check out our Twitter, it uh Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, join us over in Discord to continue the conversation there. Uh, we also post our episodes on YouTube, so go to our YouTube page uh and like and subscribe and see our faces. Brandon review us, whether we listen to the podcast, and check out our Patreon page to support us that way. Links to all the aforementioned information are included in the show notes to this episode. Tom, any final thoughts?

Tom 1:35:43

Uh no, I feel like I've had a lot of thoughts. If you haven't seen Total Recall, go watch it.

Joe 1:35:48

The 1990 Arnold version. Yes. Jen, final words.

Jen 1:35:54

So you guys did already reference my quote, but I'll say it again anyway. Consider that a divorce.

Joe 1:36:04

Thanks everyone for listening, and you'll hear us next time.