One of those coworkers, Harry, tells Quaid in the early part of the movie not to go to Rekall, as it almost lobotomized a friend of his. Elements that Edgemar proposed, such as a Hilton suite and alien artifacts, also appear. Everyone Quaid encounters is part of the conspiracy against him, but he miraculously outshoots them all, living the promised 'Ego Trip.' The ending, where Quaid turns Mars into an Earth-like paradise, also seems too good to be true. The main evidence pointing to Quaid's adventure being a fantasy is the sheer improbability of it. RELATED: Every Terminator Movie Where Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 Loses An Arm His actions also lead to the transformation of Mars's atmosphere into a breathable world. However, with his new memories, Quaid decides to side with the rebels and kill the government leader Cohaagen. He later learns that it was his prior identity, Carl Hauser, who created the Quaid persona to avoid the mind-reading rebel leader Kuato. Quaid travels to Mars and finds Melina, the woman from his dreams.

Everything about Quaid's life on Earth was a construct, including his relationship with his wife Lori, who is actually an agent sent to monitor him, played by Sharon Stone, who later appeared in Basic Instinct, which was also directed by Paul Verhoeven. Rekall is unable to implant the memories into Quaid because he has real, repressed memories of being a secret agent on Mars working to destroy a rebellion there. The most straightforward explanation is the one Total Recall presents on the surface: that Quaid's memory implant was botched, and everything he experiences after that is real.

Like other movies with ambiguous endings like Inception, ultimately the lack of clarity is the point, highlighting the fragility and unreliability of memories. Either everything that Quaid experiences is real, or it is all (or almost all) a very well-crafted ruse to give him an exciting experience. Everything that happens after that is suspect. He travels to Rekall to implant the memory of being a secret agent on Mars, having always wanted to travel to the red planet. Total Recall begins with Quaid having visions of Mars and a mysterious woman. RELATED: Dune’s Shorter Runtime Is Good For Avoiding Blade Runner 2049’s Failure The resulting movie was a commercial and critical success and one whose meaning has been debated to this day. Dick, a writer known for bending reality and consciousness in his work, leading to similarly ambiguous movies like Blade Runner and A Scanner Darkly. After going through several planned directors, including David Cronenberg, and dozens of script re-writes, the movie was finally filmed by Paul Verhoeven. Total Recall was a loose adaptation of the 1966 short story 'We Can Remember It for You Wholesale' by Philip K.

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