Editing Total Recall (1990 film) (section)

===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"/>