Editing Total Recall (1990 film) (section)

==Themes and analysis==
===Themes===
The main theme of ''Total Recall'' is the question of whether or not Quaid's experiences are real or a dream induced by his failed Rekall memory implantation. Despite the film's deviations from Dick's original story, both focus on this theme.<ref name="WiredPKD"/> Verhoeven explicitly wanted both possibilities to be viable, although his personal preference is that Quaid's experiences are a dream. He explained "it's a dream, which is disturbing to the audience because they don't want that, of course. They want an adventure story, they don't want a fake adventure story. So they are on [Quaid's] side trying to believe that it's all true, while [Dr. Edgemar] is trying to tell him that it's not true."{{sfn|Hughes|2012|p=68}} Quaid chooses to believe in his reality and kills Dr. Edgemar.{{sfn|Hughes|2012|p=68}} Lori confirming that the Quaid persona is effectively a dream breaks down the barrier between reality and fantasy, leaving Quaid and the audience unable to definitively determine the reality of what they are experiencing.{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=35}}

It is left up to the audience to determine what is real, and because of Schwarzenegger's public image as a superhuman action hero, the possibility remains that Quaid's adventures on Mars are real. Verhoeven said that re-watching the film can induce more doubt in the audience, particularly when the Rekall manager, Bob McClane, effectively outlines everything that will happen to Quaid after the memory implantation. During the same scene, Melina is shown on the Rekall screen before Quaid has met her.{{sfn|Hughes|2012|pp=68–69}} At the film's end, Quaid still questions if everything is a dream, and Melina suggests that he kiss her before he wakes up. English professor Jason P. Vest said that by not including herself in Quaid's possible delusion, Melina both suggests and denies she is a creation of Quaid's fantasy.{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=37}} Ironside stated that he believed the film is an analog for manipulating reality for the common people through news and the media at the behest of those in power.<ref name="BFIORal"/> Writer Bek Aliev believed that this theme remains relevant in the age of social media, where the line between a person's average life and more curated online life becomes blurred.<ref name="CBRTotal"/>

Another theme of ''Total Recall'' is the meaning of identity in a world where memories are commodities that can be erased or fabricated completely.{{sfn|Vest|2009|pp=xxix, 33–34}} Vest contrasted this with ''Blade Runner,'' in which memory is presented as a precious and vital component of the human experience, while in ''Total Recall,'' memories can be easily removed, replaced, or revised and these changes are generally embraced. When Quaid learns that he is really Hauser, he affirms to himself "I am Quaid" and rejects the Hauser personality.{{sfn|Vest|2009|pp=33–34}}

Author David Hughes wrote that Quaid is not an altered version of Hauser but a completely separate personality with his own memories and morality. He contrasted Quaid with ''Blade Runner''{{'}}s [[replicant]]s—artificial humans—except that it is Quaid's mind that is artificial. Quaid is forced to choose between returning to his original but antagonistic persona or remaining as the artificial but benevolent construct of Quaid. Hughes considered this an interesting moral choice and true to Dick's work.{{sfn|Hughes|2012|p=69}} Quaid is offered a chance at a better life by being restored to Hauser's higher social status, but will lose himself in the process.{{sfn|Hughes|2012|p=70}} Goldman believed Quaid's refusal to be the authentic choice because he did not believe someone would willingly and permanently give up their identity.{{sfn|Hughes|2012|pp=69–70}} ''[[SyFy]]'' writer Noah Berlatsky said that as an everyday worker who desires grand adventures, Quaid is an audience stand-in, and suggested the hologram projector that creates a duplicate image of Quaid to be akin to the audience viewing themselves through the phantom personality that is Quaid.<ref name="SyFyCast"/>

The film presents a politically, morally, and visually unattractive future in which the Earth's locations are covered in brutalist, concrete architecture. Verhoeven specifically chose to use this style because he believed it suggested a cruel society indifferent to the suffering of the Martian colonists as long as turbinium ore mining continues. Mars is represented ubiquitously with various red hues, invoking associations with blood, danger, and a hellish domain.{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=32}}<ref name="LATimesRetro"/> The in-film Propaganda networks show reality being altered in real-time, as they brand the resistance as terrorists and describe the indiscriminate slaughter of them as restoring order with minimal use of force.<ref name="TheGuardianREtro"/>

===Analysis===
According to Vest and English professor Frank Grady, most political assessments of the film considered it [[left-wing]] for its anti-corporation and revolutionary message but Vest perceived a more [[Conservatism|conservative]] subtext in which the "white protagonist saves a society of the less well-off who cannot save themselves".{{sfn|Vest|2009|pp=39,41}}{{sfn|Grady|2003|p=44}} They identified ''Total Recall'' as one of many films produced throughout the 1980s—such as ''[[Rambo: First Blood Part II]]'' (1985) and ''Predator''—that were "fronted by white male characters who employ violence to preserve American righteousness, liberty, autonomy, and reinforce an idealistic American image of combating unnecessary bureaucracy, fascists, communists, and foreign and domestic threats". Schwarzenegger identified himself as a conservative and supporter of [[President of the United States|U.S. president]] [[Ronald Reagan]], which Vest opined made him "an unusual choice to portray the protagonist who liberates Mars from Cohaagen's dictatorship".{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=39}}{{sfn|Grady|2003|p=42}} Quaid's rejection of the Hauser persona can be seen as an example of self-determination and American exceptionalism, but in doing so he also avoids responsibility or punishment for Hauser's acts, which Grady considered an act of [[Cynicism (contemporary)|moral cynicism]]. Historian [[Stephen Prince]] described Quaid's choice not as the loss of self, but conscious rejection of it.{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=39}}{{sfn|Grady|2003|pp=44–45}} Remarking on the similarities between ''Total Recall'' and the science fiction film ''[[The Matrix]]'' (1999), educator [[Neal King]] found that both protagonists begin as discontented workers who learn their life is a fabrication, become instrumental to those rebelling against overwhelming authority, and eventually learn they were deliberately created to quash the rebellion. Any good deeds they perform are a result of who they were programmed to be, meaning their free will is an illusion.{{sfn|King|2008|pp=4–5}}

Grady and ''SyFy'' writer Stephanie Williams described the [[privatization]] of air in ''Total Recall'' as the extreme of unchecked corporate power, comparing it to the real world privatization of water sources by companies whose core incentive is to increase profits, such as in the [[Flint water crisis]]. The mutants on Mars are the result of early colonists exposed to a toxic atmosphere because of cheap domes, and their offspring still serve Cohaagen, meaning the authorities have escaped any responsibility for their involvement. In the end, Cohaagen suffocates in a toxic atmosphere that he could have changed at any time.{{sfn|Grady|2003|p=44}}<ref name="SyFyPrivatization"/> The film also contains a number of product placements for brands such as [[Pepsi]], [[Coca-Cola]], and [[Jack in the Box]], promoting corporate interests while portraying an anti-corporate stance.{{sfn|Grady|2003|p=44}}

Linda Mizejewski, a professor of women's studies at the [[Ohio State University]], suggests that the name "Cohaagen" is supposed to sound [[Afrikaans]] and this, along with the character's links to the mining industry, is part of an analogy between [[Apartheid|Apartheid-era South Africa]], in which there was a highly prosperous [[Mining industry of South Africa|mining industry]], and sharply defined class divisions, akin to those in the film between the mining executives and the ordinary, oppressed Martians.{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=40}} Likewise, Aliev considered the relationship between the lower classes on Mars and the government to be analogous to real-world colonial and post-colonial social structures, such as Apartheid. The technology that undermines the existing power structure is a metaphor for decolonization and championing the voices of the oppressed.<ref name="CBRTotal"/> Vest believed ''Total Recall'' did not offer a positive representation of minorities, as Benny, the only important African American character, collaborates with Cohaagen and helps assassinate the Martian freedom fighter Kuato. Vest believed that his repeated references to having multiple children "reinforced stereotypes of African American men as irresponsible and promiscuous", and that "his alliance with Cohaagen presents the character as untrustworthy, selfish, and corrupt".{{sfn|Vest|2009|p=46}}

Vest identified certain elements in the film as sexist and misogynistic. Many female characters are presented as prostitutes or mutants, which he believed suggested that "femininity is a source of moral or physical deformity". Many female characters are violently killed throughout, such as Lori, who is dispatched while Schwarzenegger quips that she should "consider that a divorce". However, while Melina is sometimes reliant on Quaid to save her, both she and Lori are portrayed as effective fighters and Melina is essential to saving Quaid's life at the end.{{sfn|Grady|2003|pp=44–45}}{{sfn|Vest|2009|pp=42–43}} [[Union College]] film studies co-director Michelle Chilcoat wrote that ''Total Recall'' began a decade of [[cyberpunk]] films that focused on a separation and transformation of the mind away from a traditional human body, such as ''[[The Lawnmower Man (film)|The Lawnmower Man]]'' (1992), ''[[Strange Days (film)|Strange Days]]'' (1995), and ''The Matrix''. Even so, Chilcoat argues that given the option to become anything via Rekall, ''Total Recall'' repeatedly asserts Quaid's heterosexuality.{{sfn|Chilcoat|2004|pp=156,162}}