Season Special: We Are Not Doomed. Yet!
Construction worker Douglas needs a vacation. But instead of an expensive trip to a faraway planet, he opts for a virtual vacation trip to Mars — in the role of a secret agent. The procedure goes wrong and Douglas is suddenly followed by assassins who are trying to kill him. All that remains is the real escape to Mars, where he meets insurgents who are fighting back against a mega corporation that proverbially wants to deprive them of the air they breathe.
Hardly anyone mixes biting social satire with senseless action cinema as Paul Verhoeven. With Robocop (1987), he has already shown what happens when tech companies want to save the world. With TOTAL RECALL, too, a heartless tech company is becoming an antagonist by exploiting the raw materials from Mars and oppressing the local population. Anyone who invariably thinks of current events in our own timeline has well recognized the frightening parallels. TOTAL RECALL outlines where we are heading with neoliberalistic thinking. Arnold Schwarzenegger shows us once again that it is not too late.
Admittedly, we wanted to have a Schwarzenegger movie in the season special at all costs. The fact that a muscle-bound alpha powerhouse has to fight with fists for a better world can of course be openly questioned. And yet the film teaches three important lessons: First: Too much power spoils the character. Second: In order for power to be concentrated, many must suffer. Third: Sooner or later, the people always fight back. Because remember... we, who can and must resist, make up 95 percent of humanity!
Beware! [Sexual Content] [Substance Abuse]
