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.
That's a big reason I didn't enjoy this movie as much as the original, this was a dumbed down version in my eyes.
With the original, there was at least a question of whether it was real or not. In this one it's very obvious because of whole recall scene with the doctor mentioning everything that's going to happen and then everything going to hell right as the recall process is started...
I mean let's look at what happens. Needle goes in. Suddenly the doctor says "You're a spy! Why are you here!" and pulls a gun on him? Then the police suddenly enter shooting everyone... They made it completely obvious it was not real.
The second reason I didn't enjoy this movie was there was no big reveal / memorable scenes like with Kuato or the taxi cab driver. Just made this movie boring and dumb.
And the man at Rekall in the original also explained the exact same things to Arnold right before he went under and everything went to hell. Everyone in this thread has seemed to have forgotten that scene in the office where Arnold is setting up his Rekall package.
Maybe blonde John Cho just made it stand out more in this one.
Nah, I remember that scene.
The doctor says something's wrong here, and Arny starts freaking the hell out.
Much much different than the doctor pulling a gun on him asking who he is, and cops bursting into the place murdering everyone.
They made it completely obvious it was not real.
Stupid dream movie. The cops were everywhere at the right time for no reason but still couldnt catch him.
PEACE
original movie
tech at Rekall say
"Mars with a blue sky, that's a new one"
definitely a dream, the likelihood of all aspects of a made up scenario being true is very low.
The whole point of this is
1 - inability to tell reality from fantasy
2 - no need or ability to tell, just live it - since you can't tell anyway. This is a one line synopsis of much of western and eastern philosophy, at least those that don't propose specifically avoiding reality.
this actually goes along with PK Dick's own idea's. Towards the end of his life he felt that we might be living in a matrix type environment, in fact he actually used the word matrix.
The extended version has an alternate ending where he looks at his arm and doesn't see the tattoo, and he realizes its all a dream.
Peace.
The director's cut?
Well, yeah, he looks at where the tattoo should be (+ flashback from when the nurse gives him the tattoo) and then afterwards he looks at the ad for rekall, but it's still not clear whether or not it's a dream.
If you listen to the commentary (director's cut) he, himself, mentions that it could be a stamp as well as a tattoo. It's not supposed to be one way or the other.
If it was a stamp, he would have known it was a stamp and wouldn't have looked at his arm.
Come on man, it's completely obvious even WITHOUT that... It's a dream.
You must not enjoy a lot of movies, it seems as if you need an epilogue explaining absolutely everything in the movie to understand it.
People like you are the reason they simplify and dumb down movies.
Then why would he have a bandage in the same spot where the tattoo should be? It was not a dream, it was a temp stamp not tattoo.
shareThe bandage was from the ambulance crew in the last scene.
shareGood business sense that...
"We will mark you permanently so that everyone will know you've come to us!"
Yeah, I don't understand why everyone in the thread keeps using the word "tattoo". Why on earth would it be a real tattoo?? Even a henna tattoo wouldn't have made any sense considering a stamp is so much easier to apply...
Why would they just tattoo you, bang, no questions asked permanent mark on your arm?
It was just a stamp, probably a high tech anesthetic/antiseptic. It was medical, they used it to help the injection. Ever been in hospital? they swap the spot you get injected, clearly the stamp was just a futuristic form of swabbing the site in preparation for the needle. This is the future, we dont permanently tattoo people now for the same procedure, why would they then?
Besides the medical, there are other reasons it isn't a tattoo:
What about privacy and discretion? Recall was used as a sex tool - the guy mentions not including themes of a mistress that you already have in life. If people are coming there to cheat on their spouses as we are told they do, then everybody would probably consider their partner coming home with a recall mark the same way they would treat them coming home stinking of someone else perfume, or with lipstick on their collar.
One last thing to consider:
All the tattoos we see in the movie are luminescent, high tech powered tattoos. Similar to the way his phone operated the tattoos are probably surgically implanted under the skin. If I had to guess I would say that those glowing tattoos could be turned off and on at will. You think they are still using ink under the skin when they have that kind of sub-dermal technology? It wasn't a tattoo, neither logically or relative to their world.
No way they are permanently marking their clients, they wouldn't get business. I bet they dont even put "Rekall" on your bank statement. Call it me making things up, or call it me being old enough to see the logic in things at a glance because i have experienced them enough times that I just get it.
You call that a cameltoe? Put your cheeks into it!
Well said. Though, he didn't have a mark from the injection itself, did he? I tried looking for it, and couldn't tell.
shareWhat is your problem?
sharePretty stupid to go on the movie board before you see the movie and think that the movie wouldn't get spoiled. You really think you can rely on strangers that much?
shareIts not a spoiler, hes asking a question. Dont be so hasty to be an ass.
shareIDD
This is what absolutely ruined the remake for me.
With the original at-least you had a choice, the ending was up to the viewer but leaned towards being real, for me at least.
The ending in the remake, with the missing Rekall tattoo at the end is just a cop-out and totally ruined the film for me.
I'm desperately trying to find something I missed or find some way of ignoring the last scene.
Based on what I saw, I'm going to say it was real. His dreams in the beginning, along with the bullet hole scars, and the fact that it's the same girl from his dreams that appears in his "rekall" just seals the deal. At least in the original they were a little more obscure with letting you decide, but in this one it's pretty clear it was all real.
Also, why the hell would rekall give someone a tattoo. That's the dumbest *beep* I've ever heard. It was obviously just a marker for the needle, plus pobably disinfects the area prior to the needle going in. Ever get a shot? They rub the area first in rubbing alcohol or disinfectant to prevent infection. That's the same premise they did here, just more... futurey?
I agree,
The dreams in the beginning of the girl lean towards this being real, how would rekall know of his dreams and make them real, unless he was making the fantasy himself as the black guy implied.
The bullet mark on his hand could be explained as it was in the movie, it was an accident at work.
The cops barging in to the Rekall center at the beginning could easily be explained as well; if you were a high priority rouge agent, and had your memory erased, ofcourse you will be monitored and alarm bells would go off if you headed towards rekall. Authorities would have sent the cops as soon as he entered Rekall to stop it from happening just in case you get your memory back.
What is confusing is; if it was real, why would they have kept him alive working a crappy job in a make shift marriage. They should have just killed or jailed him to begin with. Its also not clear why he was wanted alive and not dead. I thought he would have been the leaders son or something, but he wasnt.
But doesnt rekall make memories, meaning you will have a memory of these events and not actually continue living them.
So if it wasnt real, what would be next? He would wake up the next day in reality with the wife that he just killed and have the 'memory' of all the movies events. How would he continue living and functioning with those memories. Rekall would be a crappy suicidal service then. Its real but the movie just wasnt thought out that well.
The director threw in that last stupid scene in about the tatoo and the Rekall logo to add a twist that only causes much confusion for a cheap gimmick.
The whole movie leans towards things being real until the final gimmick scene.
Have to agree with you.
It was kinda real but the director or producer wanted to give in the Inception twist: he didn't care if it was real or fake anymore, he was cool as it is.
I disagree I believe the whole thing was Rekall. Rekall knows his dreams because they are apart of his mind, of which they can and did scan. Rekall set up everything that he wanted, his friend Harry during that one scene where he got shot was the catalyst that it was all a dream.
Life's tough, it's tougher if you're stupid.
you're confused as to why he was kept alive in a crap job? The whole scenario was explained in the scene after bill nighy is killed.
the chancellor explains that they had planned the whole thing as houser knew that the only way mattias was going to trust him (since he couldn't be swayed by words alone) was for houser to be "captured" and his memory to be wiped clean.
They could then implant the bait (the kill code for the drones) which was actually the tracking mechanism in his head, and keep houser around to be freed and taken back in by the rebellion. When houser gets to mattias, the trap is sprung.
if they had killed/jailed him, the trap would've never happened and they would never find mattias.
I see what youre saying, but its not entirely clear that this was the case, the chancellor could have been lying to try to keep Hauser on his side...
If they had 'planned' all of that out, that he was to go to rekall and eventually end up with mattias, then why were they trying so hard to capture/kill him before he gets to mattias. Shouldn't they have made it just a wee bit easier for him to survive or remain free?
Why did the cops barge into Rekall and try to kill/capture him at the beginning, lucky he didn't just surrender there.
Why did they make it so hard for him to figure who he was out, 'the key', the account, travelling to Britain undercover.
If Hauser planned this, how would you explain the dream; apparently him and the girl knew and trusted each other before hand, he was trusted by that whole side before hand (as a hero and leader) as is evident, no need to go to such extremes.
Why would you wipe your memory clean because someone cannot be swayed with words, he cant read minds (like the first movie) so he could have still faked it.
If we go that way, it just further established that the story line really wasn't thought out that well.
Also, explain this: If recall only implants memories of a past life, that means eventually you will wake up in reality. Rekall doesn't suspend reality indefinitely and have you living in a dream world while your body is in a coma or mental suspension, you're supposed to get up and keep living in reality after the memories are implanted.
So when he wakes up in the morning in bed with the agent who tried to kill him, wouldn't that greatly conflict with his memories? How would he accept her as his wife, the first thing he would probably try to do is kill her.
When he rides the fall to work, wouldn't he be thinking 'hey didn't i just destroy this thing yesterday?'
When he sees his colleague, wouldn't he be like 'what your alive! Didn't i put a bullet in the head?'
If we go with the dream path, too many holes, better stick with its real and explain away the glitchy ending scene.
"What is confusing is; if it was real, why would they have kept him alive working a crappy job in a make shift marriage. They should have just killed or jailed him to begin with. Its also not clear why he was wanted alive and not dead. I thought he would have been the leaders son or something, but he wasnt."
The UBF leader Cohagaan explained this in the scene where he finally caught Quaid, Matthias and Mellina(directly after Matthias and Quaid finally meet).
Apparently Quaid(or Hauser in his previous life, more accurately) was still loyal to the UBF. Hauser's plan was to suggest to Matthias that there was a "kill command" code for the synthetic army and it was stored in a Black Box in Quaid/Hauser's memory. Hauser went through a lot of trouble(the Key, bank safety deposit box) to make sure that once his memory was *voluntarily wiped* by the UBF, that he could convince the new Hauser(Quaid) that this was a fact.. so that Matthias would meet him in person and Quaid could lead Cohagaan straight to Matthias.
What's really uncertain is, if this were true, could Hauser simply have said it himself to Matthias? I don't understand the entire need to "pretend" to get abducted by the UBF > wipe memory other than a recurring dream(possibly intentional) > get placed at a *beep* job, under watch by Lori > question life/seek Rekall due to dream > fight way back to Matthias. If this were all true like Cohagaan suggests, Cohagaan must have been pretty damn confident he would elude and butcher a great number of his forces, without death, to be able to make it all the way to Matthias so that he could in fact be lead to him. Though, this may explain certain suspicions some comments had about the police letting him slip through the cracks, like the car scene where he dropped right in front of a helicopter. I was also expecting him to be surrounded at the bank, as the witnesses they were questioning clearly saw him view the message about the deposit box.
All in all, I think Cohagaan was lying. One critical point in the movie, that gave Quaid direction, was the phone call from Hammond.. which led him to the safety deposit box. If Hammond was truly a part of UBF plot, he wouldn't have given his life for him at the end, cutting him free from the chair.
He was wanted alive because he's a valuable asset, and if he could be retooled to work for the UBF Cohagaan would have preferred that. Remember Mellina said that he gave the resistance a fighting chance, the upper hand. In fact, that's probably what they were in the process of doing with him. Lori admitted she had only on the job of watching him for 6weeks. It's plausible that they were waiting to see how he would react to his memory being wiped, so far(with the dreams) he wasn't fairing so well. They also made mention, somewhere in there, of his activation. Something like "how was he activated?! I didn't authorize.. blahblah". It seems they were keeping him in stasis until he was needed, at which time they would probably take him in and inject him with *their* memory for him(what you saw in the green syringe in the scene where Hammond cut him loose).
[deleted]
They gave him a lobotomy!
-- I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
The plot of the movie is suppose to be designed for the audience to decide for themselves if its real or not so it can go either ways depending on you. The director of the original movie intended for this, and the remake seems like it went the same way so you just have to ask if you believed that its real or not.
shareYep. It's up to the viewer. There are clues for both possibilities. The intention was to leave it up in the air. And apparently it's working.
shareExcept they made it extremely clear to the viewer as soon as the needle went in that it was an illusion, when they suddenly raided the place.
shareIt wasnt real. The movie was an attempt at screwing with the mind that didnt work. They mention if they were that in the past then it wouldnt end well and it would mess up the person after they woke up.
While it wasnt real, his dream at the start and bits about him being a spy were correct previously I believe were that was the intention. They wiped his memory and had him working in a boring job, I think he was kept alive because he was the sun of Cohaagen which is why he was so loyal (they mention that he was brought up by his dad etc). The scene with Harry explains how the fantasy was based around his memories.
The syrum went into him so he was always going to be a fantasy. No tattoo cops popping up at the right time and disappearing when all hope is lost.
It's all a dream in the original movie. It is ambiguous but if you listen to the director's commentary he explains that in the end the screen fades to white which symbolizes him waking up.
share