Total Recall

I've always liked Total Recall, even better than Terminator. I watched it last night (on VHS). Anyway, how do you all interpret the events of the movie...


As I see it, there are three possibilities:

1. It all really happened.

2. It was fake implanted memories and when the guy from Recall appeared on Mars, he was telling the truth that the machine was mailfunctioning and that Arnold was stuck in it.

3. It was all fake implanted memories and even that scene was part of the fake memories.



I used to prefer option 1, but now I am leaning towards 3.

Love it. One of my favorite science fiction films and one of my favorites in general.

1 certainly sounds more adventurous knowing that he ACTUALLY experienced it, but I'm open to the other two possibilities.

i think the film doesn't put enough weight on options 2 or 3, and they just wouldn't feel right to how the film played it. It clearly wants to be unambiguous macho escapism to the viewer. Not really spoil it all by making it only a dream within a dream.

I don't particularly like option 2, but I think the best arguments for 3 are:

1. The assistant at Recall mentions "blue sky on Mars" as part of the implanted memories BEFORE Arnold is hooked to the machine. He also mentions alien artifacts, but that isn't as convincing because we hear on the news earlier that there might be alien artifacts on Mars anyway.

2. The girl that he chooses on the computer screen looks just like Melina - he just picks brunette, he doesn't design exactly what she looks like.


Similarly, I think the best argument for it being real is:

Why else would Quaid be having this recurring dream about Mars and the girl even before he goes to Recall?