Total Recall
2012 · Directed by Len Wiseman
Original language: English
- action
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the police and joins forces with a rebel fighter to stop the evil Chancellor Cohaagen.
What it’s like
Dense, rain-slicked urban night in cold blue and sickly amber, with the city stacked vertically under a grey smog ceiling and a sleek, hard-edged futurism that reads as glossy digital rather than grain. The camera is restless: handheld chases through crowded transit corridors, sweeping crane shots down towering canyons, and tight, claustrophobic close-ups during fights. Sound is a relentless mix of gunfire, hovering sirens, rattling tram machinery and a thudding electronic score that rarely lets up. The mood is paranoid, propulsive and cynical, a restless thriller with a sense of a society watched and controlled from above. Violence is frequent and fairly graphic, with shootouts, hand-to-hand brawls and bloody injuries, though little that lingers in gore for its own sake, and there is some sexual tension but no explicit content. It suits a loud weekend night when you want momentum, not a quiet evening. It is for viewers who enjoy high-octane action, twisty identity puzzles and a dystopian backdrop they can get lost in.
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