Revealing mistake: When Arnie uses the dead body as a human shield, watch the corpse's mouth - he grimaces every time he gets hit (the squibs hurt). (00:31:00)
Total Recall (1990)
1 review
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Rachel Ticotin, Mel Johnson Jr., Michael Champion
Your rating
Average rating
(9 votes)
Total Recall is fast-paced science fiction action-adventure that challenges what is real by having the main character of Quaid experiment with a "virtual holiday" where he could be anyone-in this case, he may or may not be a heroic character like in the James Bond films trying to stop a corporate villain and his lackeys who are on Mars. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Quaid struggles with identity, his wife trying to murder him, a mutant uprising and scores of henchmen to save the day and maybe figure out if this was all a dream or not! Fun, sometimes silly, with a deadly midget in fishnets handling a really big gun and a 3-breasted mutant.
More mistakes in Total Recall
More quotes from Total Recall
More trivia for Total Recall
Question: At the beginning of the movie, Quaid has a friend at work (if my mind's not failing me his name is Harry) that tells him not to go to Recall because some person got lobotomised. Later, when Quaid is returning from Recall his friend stops him and tries to kidnap (or kill) him because Quaid "talked about Mars". I can't understand the role that this man has in the plot. Quaid told his wife that this man is a spy (I wonder how he knew that), and I'd like to know which side he seems to be fighting for (the Agency or the rebels).
Answer: Harry works for the Agency the same way Arnie's wife did. While the wife watched him at home, Harry was to watch him at work. Harry told Arnie that story to keep him from going to Recall and to keep him from having to kill Arnie for bringing up his memories of Mars.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: It depends on whether you choose to believe the events of the film are real or in Quaid's lobotomized brain. If the events are real (i.e. Quaid is actually Houser with his memories blocked) then Harry is from the agency and is there to make sure Quaid doesn't say or do anything that would potentially break his memory block (like going to Recall). If you believe everything is in Quaid's mind after he goes to Recall, then Harry really was just his friend.