Total Recall

Total Recall (1990)

  • 81% of critics liked it
    (42 reviews)

  • 70% of users liked it
    (210,981 ratings)

In Paul Verhoeven's wild sci-fi action movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Schwarzenegger learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a… More

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In Theaters
Jun 1, 1990 Wide
On DVD
Aug 29, 2000
Artisan Entertainment

Critic Reviews

  • Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

    Total Recall is too much -- but it's too much of a good thing.

  • , Variety

    The fierce and unrelenting pace, accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek strain of humor in the roughhouse screenplay, keeps the film moving like a juggernaut.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    A worthy entry in the dystopian cycle launched by Blade Runner, this seems less derivative than most of its predecessors yet equally accomplished in its straight-ahead storytelling, with plenty of provocative satiric undertones and scenic details.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    Melding the ever-more-workable Schwarzenegger mystique with a better-than-average science-fiction premise, the director Paul Verhoeven has come up with a vigorous, superviolent interplanetary thriller that packs in wallops with metronomic regularity.

  • Rita Kempley, Washington Post

    A gratuitous explosion of vainglory and guts, the movie is all firecrackers and giblets and broken glass. The overall effect is like wading through hospital waste.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Dead A


    It was an okay movie. Obviously 90's movies would be hard to impress nowadays.

  • Lanning :


    Geez, the remakes are coming so fast these days that it almost seems like the minute a movie wraps, someone else is picking up the script to reshoot. Ridiculous. This movie is one of Schwarzenegger's best, and I just love the "consider that a divorce" line when Sharon… More

  • Jens S


    In many regards a typical 80s/90s Schwarzenegger vehicle, this film has a lot more to offer below the surface. While being a fast-paced, breathless sci-fi action thriller the story behind it has a few interesting layers about reality, memories and dreams. The film does have its… More

  • AJ V


    You can see the beginnings of 90s sci-fi styles here, I think. Anyway, this movie is a great adventure, and I really liked it.

  • Thomas B


    What the what? Strange goings-on on Mars as directed by resident crazy person Paul Verhoeven. Full review later.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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