Skip to main content

Movie - Total Recall (1990)

 

My views

Plot

In 2084, Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Vilos Cohaagen, who controls the mining of valuable turbinium ore. On Earth, construction worker Douglas Quaid experiences recurring dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman. Intrigued, he visits Rekall, a company that implants realistic false memories, and chooses one set on Mars (with a blue sky) where he is a Martian secret agent. However, before the implant is completed Quaid lashes out, already thinking he is a secret agent. Believing Cohaagen's "Agency" has suppressed Quaid's memories, the Rekall employees erase evidence of Quaid's visit and send him home.

En route, Quaid is attacked by men led by his colleague Harry because Quaid unknowingly revealed his past; Quaid's instincts take over and he kills his assailants. At home, he is assaulted by his wife Lori, who claims she was assigned to monitor Quaid by the Agency and that their marriage is a false memory implant. He flees but is pursued by armed men led by Richter, Cohaagen's operative and Lori's real husband. A man who claims to be Quaid's former acquaintance gives him a suitcase containing supplies and a video recording in which Quaid identifies himself as Hauser, a Cohaagen ally who defected after falling in love. According to the recording, Cohaagen brainwashed Hauser to become Quaid and conceal his secrets before securing him on Earth. Hauser instructs Quaid to return to Mars and stop Cohaagen.

On Mars, Quaid evades Richter and, following a note from Hauser, travels to Venusville, a district populated by humans and those mutated by air pollution and solar radiation within the cheaply built domes protecting the colony. Quaid meets Melina, the woman from his dreams, who knows him as Hauser and believes he is still working for Cohaagen. In his hotel room, Quaid is confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar from Rekall, who explains that Quaid is still at Rekall on Earth, trapped in his fantasy memory and on the verge of permanent brain damage. Quaid notices Edgemar is sweating and, believing he is real, kills him. Quaid is captured by Richter's men, but Melina rescues him and Quaid kills Lori. The pair escape with taxi driver Benny to Venusville.

The mutants lead them to a hidden rebel base, where Quaid meets their leader Kuato, a mutant growing out of the abdomen of his brother George. Kuato psychically reads Quaid's mind, learning that Cohaagen is hiding a 500,000-year-old alien reactor built into a mountain that, once activated, produces breathable air but could also destroy all turbinium, ending Cohaagen's monopoly over both resources. Benny shoots George, revealing himself to be in Cohaagen's employ, and Cohaagen's forces attack the base, killing the rebels. Kuato implores Quaid to start the reactor before Richter executes him. Cohaagen disables Venusville's air supply to slowly suffocate the remaining inhabitants.

Quaid and Melina are brought to Cohaagen, who explains that Hauser was his close friend who volunteered to become Quaid as an elaborate ruse to bypass the mutants' psychic abilities, infiltrate the rebellion, and destroy it. Quaid's Rekall visit had activated him earlier than planned and Cohaagen has been helping him to survive the oblivious Richter's pursuit. Cohaagen orders Hauser's memories to be restored in Quaid and Melina to be reprogrammed as his subservient lover, but they manage to escape to the mines below the reactor. Benny, Richter, and his men attack them, but the pair outwits and kills them all.

Cohaagen awaits them in the reactor control room, claiming that activating it will destroy the planet. He activates an explosive to destroy the controls, but Quaid throws the explosive into a nearby tunnel, where it detonates and creates a breach to the Martian surface. The explosive decompression blows Cohaagen out to the surface where he suffocates and dies. Quaid activates the reactor before he and Melina are also blown out. The reactor melts the planet's ice core into gas that bursts to the surface, forming a breathable atmosphere and saving Quaid, Melina, and the rest of Mars's population. As everyone beholds the now-blue sky, Quaid momentarily wonders if everything was a dream, before he and Melina kiss.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IT - Which Is Faster: find | cpio -pdvm OR rsync?

To determine which is faster between find | cpio -pdvm and rsync for copying a large directory tree locally, we need to consider several factors: the nature of the operation, the tools' design, the system environment, and the specific use case. Let’s break this down based on the information provided in the web results and general knowledge about these tools. Overview of the Tools find | cpio -pdvm : find : Recursively lists all files and directories in a given path. cpio : A tool for copying files into or out of a cpio or tar archive. In this case, with the -pdvm options: -p : Pass-through mode (copy files from one directory tree to another). -d : Create directories as needed. -v : Verbose mod...

IT - Troubleshooting Kodi DLNA Visibility Issues After Windows Updates: A Deep Dive Into Conflicts, Fixes, and Lessons Learned

Title: Troubleshooting Kodi DLNA Visibility Issues After Windows Updates: A Deep Dive Into Conflicts, Fixes, and Lessons Learned Subtitle: How I Diagnosed and Solved Intermittent Kodi Visibility Problems on a Samsung Smart TV After Windows OS Updates and Media Server Conflicts Introduction Home media streaming should be seamless, but anyone who has integrated Kodi into a smart home setup knows that stability isn't always guaranteed. Recently, I encountered a frustrating issue: Kodi, running perfectly on my Windows 10 Pro desktop, suddenly became invisible to my Samsung Smart TV via DLNA. The journey to resolve this seemingly simple visibility issue turned into a deep technical rabbit hole involving Windows Media Server, Universal Media Server, Jellyfin, NordVPN, and the very internals o... The System Setup Before diving into the problem, it's essential to understand my hardware and software setup: Operating System: Windows 10 Pro (build 2009) Media Server: Kodi (...

Movie - The Wizard of Oz (1939)

  My views Plot In rural  Kansas ,  Dorothy Gale  lives on a farm owned by her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, and wishes she could be somewhere else. Dorothy's neighbor, Almira Gulch, who had been bitten by Dorothy's dog, Toto, obtains a sheriff's order authorizing her to seize Toto. Toto escapes and returns to Dorothy, who runs away to protect him. Professor Marvel, a charlatan fortune-teller, convinces Dorothy that Em is heartbroken, which prompts Dorothy to return home. She returns just as a  tornado  approaches the farm. Unable to get into the locked storm cellar, Dorothy takes cover in the farmhouse and is knocked unconscious. She seemingly awakens to find the house moving through the air, with her and Toto still inside it. The house comes down in an unknown land, and Dorothy is greeted by a good witch named  Glinda , who floats down in a bubble and explains that Dorothy has landed in Munchkinland in the  Land of Oz , and that the Munchkins are cel...