Total Recall

Total Recall 1990 Movie Poster

Total Recall, another Schwarzenegger film, was released in 1990.  Yes, we realize that technically that is not the 1980's, but we liked the movie so much back then, that we felt we had to include it.  The movie was re-made in 2012, and although technology has progressed since 1990, we can't say the newer version was any better.  The movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid,   formerly known as Carl Hauser.  Sharon Stone stars as Lori Quaid, his faux wife.  The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was a huge money maker.

In the year 2084, Douglas Quaid is an ordinary construction worker having bad dreams about Mars.  Mars, which is inhabited, is under siege by a group of rebels being battled by Governor Cohaagen, who is looking for some type of artifact on the planet.  In an effort to take his mind of Mars, Quaid actually chooses a Mars-based secret agent memory engram while visiting Rekall, a company specializing in vacation-type memory implants.  Something goes wrong with the procedure, and it is realized by everyone, except Quaid, that he has been to Mars before.  They wipe Quaid's memory and send him on his way.

After his co-workers and his wife try to kill him, Quaid begins to realize there is something more to his dreams about Mars, and that perhaps he has been there before.  Quaid ends up with a suitcase that contains a recording from Hauser, who Quaid actually is, where Hauser explains the whole thing to Quaid.  Hauser gives Quaid (himself) instructions on what he needs to do on Mars.  Quaid meets up with the rebel resistance, where their leader, a mutant named Kuato, reads Quaid's mind and realizes that the artifact that Cohaagen is looking for is a device that would put breathable air on Mars.  In the end, Quaid defeats Cohaagen and starts the oxygen reactor, a new day dawns on Mars.