‘Total Recall’ remake erases Mars/ET storyline

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Colin Farrell in the 2012 remake of Total Recall.

Sony Pictures has released the synopsis for the remake of Total Recall, which hits cinemas August 3 this year. It reads as follows:

"'Total Recall' is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick. Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world, Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate."

The original Total Recall (1990), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

No mention in there, you’ll notice, of The Red Planet. That’s because, as noted late last year by The Hollywood Reporter, the Total Recall remake has ditched the Martian storyline of the 1990 original (and of the Philip K. Dick source material). Instead, the new story involves competing nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, with protagonist Doug Quaid (Farrell) as a factory worker in the latter “who begins to believe he is a spy, although he doesn't know for which side.”

The original movie, based on the Philip K. Dick story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, followed Quaid’s character – a secret agent (or is he?) – as he journeys to a Martian colony (or does he?) and fights to overthrow its tyrannical leader who controls the production of air. While on Mars, Quaid uncovers ancient alien technology that ultimately serves to liberate the colony and terraform the harsh Martian landscape into a new, breathable frontier for humanity.

Though disappointing to this blogger, the filmmakers’ decision to do away with Total Recall’s Martian angle might actually serve the movie well in terms of ticket sales. Historically, Hollywood’s Mars-based movies have bombed at the box-office – a mystery I contemplated recently in my article Hollywood and the Curse of Mars.

Total Recall 2012 is directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld, Die Hard 4.0) with a screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback.