Movie Critique: Total Recall

Movie experiences in science fiction have gradually shifted toward generating a more and more authentic visualization for the user. As graphical experiences have become better since groundbreaking movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey there has always been a desire to make it as real as possible. The effect of these movies wanting to bring an escape into a different reality has also affected the results of such movies.  Total Recall is a perfect example of taking the purpose of science fiction films and implementing it into the movie itself.  

Total Recall is based around the idea of generating the core of what make a human being, memories.  There is a notion that memories can change a person completely.  During the movie Quade even questions what is really the truth. His "real" memories tell him one reality, yet he has been living a life based off memories that have supposedly been implanted into his mind. Memories are what give us a past and an identification of ourselves, which is why Quade questions whose side he is really supposed to be on throughout certain moments in the movie. However, even though Quade does question his identity and what kind of person he really was before this nightmare came into play, there is a point that the movie makes that is even more important than Quade remembering his past. That is, Quade decides to make his future regardless of what his true identity was previously.  Alison Landsberg brings this point up in her essay Prosthetic Memory.  She says, "Memory - is not a strategy for closing or finishing the past - but on the contrary, memory emerges as a generative force, a force which propels us not backward but forwards" (Liquid Metal p 239).  What she means by this is that it does not matter what memories authenticate in the past, this does not generate our identity. Rathers, it is what courses we take in the present to create our identity as we so choose. 

This relationship to the real world holds some validity even by todays standards. The generation of a different reality can be quite consuming. Technology has provided that alternate, sometimes better, reality that everyone seems to get consumed by. The implementation of social media, alternate reality video games, all relate back to the idea of Total Recall's idea of implanting different memories. While they are not true memories per se, rather we use these different realities to generate a different and "authentic" reality that consumes our life.

Total Recall's influence in the science fiction world brings to mind certain issues of what really generates an authentic experience and identity of our personal lives.  Our identity in today's society however seems to be generated by so many aspects of society. Consumerism, advertising, social media, video games, all force these different visual experiences that ultimately have some sort of effect on our lives and how we respond to the reality around us every day.