Seems a bit odd that everything the asian dude mentions at rekall happened throughout the movie. Not only was he a spy with secret bank accounts, encoded messages, intelligence operative but he was also working for both sides which is pretty out there but exactly the experience he was talking about putting into him....
And out of nowhere the guards find him immediately after he takes the secret agent compound.
But how did he have the dreams before he even thought of going to Rekall?
sharethey were dreams, and when he goes to Rekall his minds uses the dreams he already had to make the new dream at Rekall.
shareAnd that's a big difference from the original.. In the original Melina is shown on the monitor at Rekall as the "female companion" BEFORE the procedure gets underway.
But that's not what they were doing there. Using stuff already in your mind sounds like exactly the thing they wouldn't want to do there, in fact.
share[deleted]
Seems a bit odd that everything the asian dude mentions at rekall happened throughout the movie
I was bothered by this question for the whole movie. It prevented me from getting "into" the movie. The extended edition ending was a major disappointment, however, all is not lost: in the changing room scene, during the debate about who should train the new guy, the Asian guy who recommended Rekall does not have a tattoo. This can be fairly clearly seen if you have a 1080P or higher recording and look at the last time we see the inside of his arm.
If you think about it, a temporary sterilizing stamp makes a lot of sense: you can see the area that is sterile, so there's no wondering if maybe you moved out of the area you swiped.
^^^^ This.
shareI don't think the tattoo means anything, not once was it ever implied it was permanent. I mean who would just give someone a permanent tattoo on their arm without their consent? Yes he might have done that earlier, but what's the point of it? I took it as being temporary, like when my mom had surgery for breast cancer, you go in one day and they use ink to put a temporary tattoo on the area and then you go back the next day or whatever for the procedure and the surgeon knows exactly where to work using the tattoo as the guide. I can't remember what it was, but they do it over 2 days to keep it efficient and so on. I just assumed it was temporary, indicating where to insert the chemicals. Plus keep in mind so many people had those light up tattoos as well, so like someone said in another thread there's no reason to not believe it doesn't just disappear after awhile, or that it got washed off.
I also think that the Rekall people talking about being a secret agent, working for both sides etc could have been a coincidence. I mean, let's say this is all true and he really did have his memory erased and then went to Rekall because he wanted to sail on the Titanic and survive that as his memory. It's possible it would have worked and nothing happened. He instead wanted to be a secret agent which was a conflict as like Rekall said, you can't have a fantasy about having a mistress if you already have one it messes things up. So I think it was the same deal.
The only thing I found annoying was in the original, Doug described WAY more about how he was unhappy and felt that he was meant for something more than just a construction worker etc. I didn't feel that this version showed that as much. I know he mentioned it to his friend, but in the first one he really wanted to go to Mars, felt he was meant for something more, sees an ad for Rekall about climbing the mountains of Mars, and then he goes. I didn't really find that in this one his reason for going to Rekall was all that justified. I thought the original handled it much better, (whether it was a dream or not) by having the doctors freak out saying he's really been there etc, dump him in a cab get rid of him, and THEN things turn to *beep* To have him sit in the chair and suddenly the police etc are there didn't make a whole lot of sense. What was their purpose for storming Rekall, even if it was all real and that he really was working for Cohagen?
"You mean the movie lied!?" - Freddy, Return of the Living Dead.
If you think about it, a temporary sterilizing stamp makes a lot of sense: you can see the area that is sterile, so there's no wondering if maybe you moved out of the area you swiped.
To me, personally, it all seemed to be quite obvious that it was all a dream. And I think he realized this himself through most of the movie.
The fact that he shot Harry makes me think this was the point where he realized it himself, but he chose to shoot Harry because he knew Harry was not real and he didn't want to live his old life any more (he did whine about this for pretty much the entire first part of the movie). You can also notice several effects happening after this, when Lori turns from the concerned wife to the vengeful agent, that indicates that he's "giving in" to the new memories. He just had to let go of the only two things left that he cared about in his old life.
I agree. I think Hauser is a completely constructed double agent character designed by Rekall based on Quaid's fantasy preferences. In fact, when Hauser wakes up in the ambulance near the end of the film, (just before Lori pretends to be Melina), you hear the voice of the Rekall operator in the background.
However, I believe that the character Melina [Jessica Biel] was not a construct of Rekall. Because Quaid had constructed her character previously in his own subconscious imagination. This is where the problem arose. The Rekall operator warned Quaid that no part of the Rekall fantasy could be based on 'real' experiences because this would set up a loopback conflict that could throw him into a coma. Quaid really beleived that the character Melina whom appeared in his dreams was real. Thus when his Rekall fantasy built a fantasy around her, it did set up a loopback conflict in his subconscious confusing his brain as to which reality was real and present. Rekall sent in a representation of his friend Harry to help retrieve the true personality of Quaid. However Quaid beleived so passionatly in the reality of the character Melina that he rejected his friend Harry as a charlaton false character. Thus slipping further into his Rekall induced coma.
When Hauser realises at the end of the film that the Rekall injection tattoo is missing from his arm, he himself realises that he is Quaid in reality. However, he takes a good long look at Melina, and the new world reality that he has helped shape and smiles because he is content to live in this coma induced imagined reality.
"In fact, when Hauser wakes up in the ambulance near the end of the film, (just before Lori pretends to be Melina), you hear the voice of the Rekall operator in the background. "
That's totally incorrect. Those "voices" are his past memories - memories of people warning him not to go to Rekall because "those people will mess with your head" ( Harry ). Those are memories of past conversations.
Sorry, no. A few things.
You say the "construction" of Mellina caused a conflict, but quoted the operator as saying "that no part of the Rekall fantasy could be based on 'real' experiences". Mellina wasn't a "real experience" if she was constructed by Quaid. More so, his *real wife*(or so they would have us believe) was in the "Rekall fantasy", not to mention Harry.
The conflict with Harry, he simply realized Harry was working with UBF, planted to watch him(at work) like his wife was planted by UBF to watch him(at home). He was tipped off to this not based on what Harry had to say, nor the pleading of Mellina. He was tipped off because of Lori. Why was Lori acting so strangely? Lori was already in "the dream", as a secret agent wife trying to kill him. But they portrayed Lori, in that scene, as having "entered the dream" like Harry. If Lori just "entered the dream" why did she not come to try to speak to Quaid? Surely she isn't afraid for her life, as Harry explains it's not real and shooting him would do nothing to him "in real life". But still, Lori insists on hanging back, in the crowd. So which is it? If it's a dream she has to either be "secret agent wife" or "entered the dream to support him/save him wife". At that moment she's being neither. Why? Because it's real and she *is* afraid to stand in front of his gun, and furthermore, he can see that the outfit she's wearing is exactly the same as "secret agent wife"(vest and all), with the addition of a light sweater.
Lastly, the "tattoo" is missing because a business doesn't permanently mark someone for using their service, a repeat, entertainment service no less. Confirmed by viewing the asian guy(new guy)'s arm at Quaid's factory job.
I do agree with your take on the ending. I don't know if he knows or doesn't know what reality truly is, but it's obvious he's content in living in this one, whether it's real or not.
I am, unfortunately, now 100% sure it was a dream. This however, can only be proved in the directors cut.
The guy Marek, that introduces him to the Rekall center, has the same tattoo on his arm. You only see it briefly when they are discussing who should train Marek.
If anyone needs this explained any further. The tattoo would be there in the end when he looks at his arm if it was real. You can argue "it could wash off" or whatever, but Marek having that tattoo makes it very implausible. On the contrary it makes sense that this would be an indicator for others to see that you have used Rekall. As a "warning" if you should start behaving erratically. Such an indicator shouldn't be able to wash off.
Remember that you can only see this in the directors cut.
Having not seen the original, I can't compare it to that, but I don't think you need to. I can't really decide which one is more plausible, so we'll start from the beginning. Quaid/Hauser is having strange dreams about being chased by the Cohaagen's forces. Just so happens, those forces are real. The Resistance fighting is real, etc. Marek DOES have a tattoo on his arm from Rekall. Fast forward and he goes to Rekall, where, when mentioned, he hits on the 'Secret Agent' fantasy option. Notice the music changes and he reacts, queue that something has triggered him (is that part of his REAL memory breaking through the reprogramming?). Rekall guy talks about the secret accounts, double agent, Resistance, etc. (could Quaid/Hauser then use this to fill in his fantasy, does Rekall use a template that the subject fills in with faces [will discuss later] lucky guess, ?). They run a scan of his brain, no conflict is found, meaning he has no memory of being a secret agent (he wouldn't though, if his memories were erased and new ones implanted). As the serum starts to flow, they abort because an alert came up (is that the start of the fantasy or did the scan break through to some stored memory of his past [perhaps that 'black box' mentioned later]).
So fast forward, yada yada, I don't think I miss much until you get the lobby where Harry shows up. Did I miss the part where they could insert friends into your fantasy to bring you back? As far as I knew, if your brain was fried it was fried. There was no mention of, "If you pick something you have actual memories of, its all good, we can send a friend in to save you". So lets break here. Let's say his memory was erased and new ones implanted with a wife, job, etc, why would it be crazy to think they had someone else, in another part of his life? I mean, a lot of your life is spent at work, why not have a plant there too to keep tabs on him. So he shoots 'friend', he escapes.
Now the end of the movie, there's the whole capture scene, but that really has no bearing on whether its a fantasy or not. At the very end, he looks at his arm and there's no tattoo. If it was real, it SHOULD be there, unless the injection process needs to take place for the tattoo to become permanent, in which case it wouldn't be there because the needle was pulled.
Now for some other odds and ends.
The bullet marks. Its extremely possible it was a work related injury, that he transplanted to his dreams about the escape, which was then taken with him into the fantasy. Or it could be that when his old memories were erased, his 'work accident' memory was implanted as an explanation.
Rekall, what EXACTLY do they do? Do they supply the entire fantasy and insert the subject as a character or do they create the template and you fill in the details? If the subject has to fill in details, such as characters, settings, etc, isn't that pushing the bounds of the whole 'mistress' scenario? The subject is going to insert people, places, etc. he knows into his fantasy, therefore his real life and fantasy life will become intermingled...isn't that what they want to avoid? Rekall would have to supply the ENTIRE fantasy and put the subject into it as a character, therefore they couldn't POSSIBLY know about Melina and they wouldn't use his wife or friend because you'd be back to square one.
And finally we know its real because, no straight man in his right mind would create a fantasy where his wife is Kate Beckinsale and she's trying to kill him. Any fantasy regarding her and a bed wouldn't make it out of the bedroom for the duration of the fantasy, ergo it was real.
My version, its real. He's having dreams of his escape and the new memories are failing. Goes to Rekall, it fails because it finds some part of his memory intact and reads the truth. Real life ensues.