Total Recall unlocked another decade of blockbusters in the 90s for Arnold Schwarzenegger, hereafter referred to as Arnie, following a string of hits in the late 80s.
Back then, America was different. Michael Jordan was coursing the airs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were wholesome superheroes battling purple ooze, there was no internet, the coolest kids had mullets, and movies came on cassettes and Panasonic VCRs which had to be sanitized and scrubbed of scratches with cleaners.
Madurai in 1990 was peaceful and uncongested. Vijayakanth reigned supreme in the state’s mofussils as the machine gun-toting, red-eyed vigilante, brooking no competition even from the formidable Rajinikanth.
Even then, everyone knew Urnaald.
I guess Arnie had an earthy appeal to us back then. Unlike other movie stars, we understand him. He speaks less and shoots more. He never overly relies on his muscles when there is a weapon handy. His movies never evoke the dread of the unknown or challenge life’s tragedies with a cancerous ending in weepy hospitals. He pumps iron, delivers deadpan one-liners, and shoots various guns, invariably ending with the biggest guns that he rips off the mangled remains of tanks and helicopters that he has felled in scenes earlier.
If a movie taxes him by requiring him to deliver two lines without an edit, he makes up for it by playing a Robot in the subsequent production.
Yes, life was simple, and Arnie was a staple in Madurai. A cultural lightning rod connecting L.A. to Ellis Nagar.
Total Recall was released in 1990. I still remember the day I was returning home on a city bus and sighted his poster on a dry wall, staring menacingly with dark glasses on. It promised “big action in your nearby screen.”
Directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on Philip K. Dick’s mind-bending short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.” It was peak cyberpunk dystopia stuff—memory implants, identity twists, and a future where corporations run the show. The plot follows Quaid (Arnie), a guy who starts off thinking he’s just a regular construction worker, only to find out his memories might be fake and he’s tangled up in some espionage on Mars. The tech—like the Rekall memory-implanting gizmo—feels both retro-futuristic and plausible, which is classic sci-fi gold. It’s not just about gadgets, though; the film digs into what’s real versus what’s engineered in your head, a theme that’s still freaky and relevant today with AI and virtual reality creeping into our lives.
When I first watched the movie, it scared me because I couldn’t understand it. It still had guns, car chases, and aliens. But there was something more. Arnie was thinking. Why was he thinking? What problems does the world face that need a cerebral Arnie?
I filed the movie as a stylistic dystopian interplanetary bullet-fest and decided to revisit the film later.
And now when I rewatched it, boy, was it a blast! It had Sharon Stone sweating her way to glory, a shootout at a space bar with a midget on a bartop blasting a sub machine gun among alien mutants, and a Hilton on Mars.
Arnie’s first dialogue in the movie is his universally recognizable “yhyaagh.. yhyaagh” – and in Total Recall, he’s at his prime—cheesy one-liners, bulging biceps (the man’s practically a walking human tank with a flat top), and all. He’s not just muscle, though; he sells the confusion and paranoia of Quaid perfectly, flipping between badass action hero and a dude who’s genuinely lost in his own skull. Lines like “Get your ass to Mars” or “Consider that a divorce” (after blasting Sharon Stone’s character) are pure Arnold—dumb, fun, and unforgettable. He grounds the crazy plot with his sheer charisma, making you root for him even when the story gets bonkers.
And Mars is the cherry on top. The movie turns the Red Planet into this grimy, domed colony full of mutants, oxygen struggles, and a tyrannical governor named Cohaagen – a Jeff Bezos lookalike with an even worse haircut. The practical effects—like the bulging eyes from depressurization or the mutant leader Kuato popping out of a guy’s stomach—are gloriously gross and imaginative. It’s not some sterile sci-fi utopia; it’s a dusty, dangerous hellhole that feels lived-in. The idea of terraforming Mars, rebels fighting for air, and ancient alien tech buried under the surface adds layers of mystery and stakes that make the setting pop.
Put it all together—killer sci-fi ideas, Arnie being Arnie, and a Mars that’s equal parts gritty and insane—and you’ve got a movie that’s a total blast. It’s pulpy, it’s smart, and it doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. That’s why “Total Recall” still rules.
I might not have understood Total Recall then. Heck, I can’t claim I understand it fully even now. I still oscillate between the whole movie being the “Mars experience” he signed up for and “it was all real.”
In a world where nobody has time to book holidays, Total Recall would not be a bad idea to pitch to overworked humans.
Who knew that Arnie was such a Steroid Seer? And if a problem makes you think, shoot first. Think later.
Go watch it. I loved it.
The Reluctant Book Worm 
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