The most damning piece of evidence besides his story "just happening" to play out almost identical to how the salesman described it. Is that the lady on the computer is Melina. That seems to be the ultimate piece of evidence to suggest this was all an implant and hes a vegetable
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If that was the intent, they did a poor job. There are too many scenes of action happening away from Quaid, things he wouldn't be aware of.
The movie is just as it appears at first blush.
fair but could be the "story" filling in. a movie from foley Quaids perspective would be weird
shareHow do you explain Total Recall having an image of Melina for the memory implant?
shareThat whole 'Melina image' thing is contradictory on multiple levels.
First, we see Melina in Quaid's DREAM before he ever goes to Total Rekall or whatever the place's name was.
This hints 'it was all real'.
Then we see her in the menu, and this hints 'it was all fake'.
I mean, does Quaid select that type of a woman because of his dream, because it actually happened and then the system just happened to generate EXACTLY her, or does he remember dreaming about her because he's programmed to remember a woman like that and is retroactively remembering the dream according to the specifications?
This movie doesn't take a stance either way, and blurs the waters for both explanations, so you can never just say 'it was all fake' or 'it was all real' without being able to be questioned heavily on your stance. This is a bit annoying thing about the movie.
However, I think he was lobotomized, because of the FADE TO WHITE at the end AND what Quaid says JUST before it happens..
I prefer to believe the Recall program was already running in the opening dream scene and that the whole program plays out to the very end of the film.
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However, I think he was lobotomized, because of the FADE TO WHITE at the end..
"If that was the intent, they did a poor job. There are too many scenes of action happening away from Quaid, things he wouldn't be aware of."
No, they didn't.
I mean, this movie does give REASONS to believe in either conclusion. It does fade to WHITE at the end, and everything the doc says DOES COME TRUE - even 'walls of reality come crashing down' IMMEDIATELY when the doc is shot.
I mean, you can't take ONE thing and make your conclusion based on that, when this movie has SO MANY THINGS for both explanations. This movie does not make a clear-cut case for EITHER solution.
I like to think the Lobotomy theory is the correct one, it's more poignant and satisfying that way.
However, BOTH explanations are _CONTRADICTED_ in the movie, so you can't just take a stance and stick with it without realizing there are things that contradict that stance. In THIS way, this movie is a bit poorly made, because it tries to have its cake and eat it, too. But it's not a clear-cut case, the way you ignorantly seem to think.
So I'm ignorant. I have worse traits. Still, there is far more evidence that this wasn't a lobotomy. The only evidence favoring a delusion is coincidental circumstance.
Because the film makers didn't literally lay out that this was anything but a story the way we saw it, it wasn't a delusion. The fact that the writers left some clues to say otherwise doesn't change what they actually filmed.
He's not a vegetable, he was LOBOTOMIZED. There's a difference.
In any case, yes, he did get lobotomized.
Also, no, he didn't get lobotomized.
The movie doesn't take a strong stance either way, but it hints at both possibilities a lot - while still contradicting itself and both possibilities enough that it can't really be said to be either possibility. In a way, this movie is worse than Schrödinger's cat.
All of the action and plot resolution away from Quaid, including while he was unconscious at Rekall, the female tech saying they didn't do the implant yet....all while he was unconscious....indicates it all happened and was not in his head.
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The final shot, fading to white, is specifically supposed to represent lobotomization according to Paul Verhoeven's commentary.
Note that this does NOT mean Quaid was actually lobotomized. Verhoeven is a ham-handed director, so he purposely left clues in the film suggesting both possibilities, even to the point of inconsistency.
For example, Melina appears in the implant data before he ever meets her. But they state that they didn't do the implant while he's still out.
So yeah, avortac4 is sorta half-right.
The movie doesn't take a strong stance either way, but it hints at both possibilities a lot - while still contradicting itself and both possibilities enough that it can't really be said to be either possibility. In a way, this movie is worse than Schrödinger's cat.
he's so into mars in the beginning that i feel it isn't a dream.
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