Total Recall (1990): What really happened
So my dad used to love this film, I watched it with him a lot when I was younger. Lately I've been watching it a lot myself, and I finally found conclusive evidence as to what really happened in the film.
There are two major possibilities presented - which one "really" happened seems left up to the viewer to decide. The moviemakers give us many clues, however.
As I see it there are two main possibilities presented:
- Quaid is really a secret agent, the unfolding story (everything in it), is really happening.
- Quaid is not an agent, we see his real life up until he visits Recall, after which we see parts of his mental breakdown as his memory implant procedure goes awry. The unfolding events afterwards are part of his experience of getting lost in his mental dream/fantasy world. The doctor who visits him in the dream (bald guy), along with all the other mentions of his Recall trip, are part of his own genuine recollection of visiting Recall in his real life, mixed into his ongoing lucid dream/fantasy taking place in his head. At the end of the film, just as his fantasy dream is ending, he is finally lobotomized back in reality by the people at Recall.
I always took #1 to be the reality of what happened, but now I see that #2 must be what happened, as I will point out shortly (unless the filmmakers didn't really care either way and were just messing with us, which is possible).
Most of the evidence in the film supports theory #1, actually:
We see things happening in the movie which would not be available to Quaid were he in a dream. In a dream, typically, we only see and experience things happening directly to us. Not things like Rictor's conversations with other characters. However this is not definite evidence since part of his dream could have been "experiencing" the knowledge of this backstory, as part of his fantasy.
The Recall female Dr.'s explanation after he flips out and is tranquilized. It seems unlikely this would have been part of a dream for him, since he's asleep. However, again, it could be part of his "internal" lucid monologue to explain the forthcoming events.
Clues about the setup: the sweat on the doctor's brow, the fitting in of his visit to Recall as part of the entire plot
etc. etc. (plenty more)
However, this is the piece of evidence I never really paid attention to until today, which finally sealed the conclusion for me (sadly) that the reality is actually #2, not #1, as profusely suggested above:
When Quaid first visits Recall in the film, he begins describing his ideal woman for his implant. As the camera pans away from the screen, we see the 3D mannequin face morph into the exact image of Malina.
Here's the problem:
If #1 were true, then he was already a secret agent, with subconscious partially-deleted memories of Malina, and was describing her to these technicians, who knew nothing about his real life. But if that were the case, there is no way their computer model would have perfectly matched Malina's real face. It would have been just some random athletic brunette.
We know #2 is true, because in his visit to recall, we see the exact image of Malina generated by the computer system preparing the implant, which is then how she appears in the rest of the film.
In the special edition DVD commentary, however, the writers and directors seem to make it clear that they are making this an open-ended puzzle, and there is some sense in their explanation that #1 is the reality and they are simply introducing the #2 possibility as a tease for the viewer.
It's quite possible that they simply were having fun with the filmmaking process... and not taking this as seriously as I am right now. :P
But I think the Malina clue makes it impossible, if you want to be strict about it, that Douglas Quaid is really a secret agent.
Also, during the film they use the same soft "dream" jingle in the soundtrack every time it's associated with dreaming. Before the final credits we hear that same jingle as he kisses Malina. And the sun bursts out and everything fades to white as his brain is scrambled back in reality.
I'd love to hear any opinions from any other fans of this film, however. Cheers~
TL;DR: I spent too much time analyzing this film. But I believe the Malina clue at the visit to Recall is definitive evidence that the rest of the story is a dream, not real.
EDIT: fixed some wording