The exceptional action sequence that almost saved the failed ‘Total Recall’ reboot
Not a single soul was crying out for Total Recall to get a remake, with the original having set a bar so high that it was unreasonable to expect any reinvention to stand a chance of clearing it.
In the hands of director Paul Verhoeven and star Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 1990 version made the most of its massive budget to deliver a subversive, darkly hilarious, outrageously violent, and action-packed sci-fi escapade that secured classic status and continues to generate debate to this day over its intentionally ambiguous ending.
The filmmaker responsible for the Underworld franchise taking the reins on a do-over that never needed to exist in the first place hardly generated wide-ranging enthusiasm, which was reflected in the shrug of indifference Total Recall V2.0 was greeted with upon its release in the summer of 2012.
Lacking any of the infectious enthusiasm, energy, and borderline self-awareness of its predecessor, Len Wiseman’s blockbuster was a dour and overly serious affair that was entirely reflective of its own aesthetic, with every fibre of the movie’s existence caked in the beige and grey hues of its futuristic setting.
That being said, it does involve one standout action sequence that was so impressively conceived, choreographed, and executed that it’s remarkable it exists in the same production. Everything about 2012’s Total Recall is underwhelming, but when Wiseman and his team put their heads together and actually tried something daring, it reaped huge rewards.
When Farrell’s Douglas Quaid first attends the Rekall facility to experience the memories he’s carefully selected, a small army of goons busts in to stop his visit. From there, he single-handedly decimates every single one of them in rapid succession, with the camera swooping and pivoting around the frame to create the illusion of a single unbroken shot.
It would have been easy to stage a relatively straightforward fight scene, but the crew instead opted to try something that had never been done before. To realise Wiseman’s vision, Farrell was required to spend a week intensely preparing for the brawl, which required 22 takes to capture correctly on-camera.
The set was kitted out with three cameras mounted on super slider rigs typically associated with sporting events, which can travel at a speed of 15 feet per second. Attaching them together to create a pinball effect that careens around the frame to be merged in post-production into one seamless-looking, unbroken take, the end result is a breath-taking display of ingenuity and staging that sits ill-at-ease with the turgid nature of Total Recall as a whole.
It equates to roughly 15 seconds of screentime in a three-minute scene from a 118-minute movie, but it’s far and away the only memorable thing about the Total Recall remake. If the rest of the film had even shown the slightest interest in using as much creativity and imagination on display in its signature set piece, then it would have done a significantly better job justifying its own existence.
