Poster © Sony Pictures Releasing. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Sci-Fi
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 58 mins
ReleasedAugust 3, 2012
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorLen Wiseman
StarringColin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel
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Total Recall (2012)
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| Total Recall's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Sci-Fi |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 08/03/2012 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 58 mins |
| Budget | $125M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Total Recall by Ronald Shusett Dan O'Bannon Gary Goldman Jon Povill, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Total Recall's Interests | |
| General | The Fall elevator, rainy Colony streets, police robots, memory implants, phones built into hands. |
| Music | Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Movies | Total Recall (1990). The original trip, with Mars and Arnold. |
| Television | Black Mirror. Every episode asks if you should trust your own brain. |
| Heroes | Matthias (Bill Nighy). Leader of the Resistance, calm in a world that is not. |
| Total Recall's Crew | |
| Director | Len Wiseman |
| Writers | Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback, Ronald Shusett (story), Dan O'Bannon (story), Jon Povill (story), Kurt Wimmer (story) |
| Producers | Neal H. Moritz, Toby Jaffe |
| Cinematography | Paul Cameron |
| Music | Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Edited By | Christian Wagner |
| Production | Columbia Pictures, Original Film |
| Distributed By | Sony Pictures Releasing |
This remake took Mars, the jokes and the weirdness out of Total Recall, and kept the title. What’s left is a chase. Colin Farrell is fine as Quaid, a factory worker with spy dreams, but he plays it so straight that the movie never wonders if he’s losing his mind. Kate Beckinsale chases him through nearly every action scene like a Terminator with great aim. Len Wiseman fills every frame with rain, neon and lens flares, and the hover-car chase is slick. Bryan Cranston plays the villain and gets almost nothing to chew on. The one great idea is the Fall, a commuter ride through the core of the planet, and the film shrugs at it like it’s a subway. It made $198.5 million worldwide on a reported $125M. A 3.4 because a movie about fake memories should not be this easy to forget. $50.63 says you queue up the one with Mars in it before these credits finish.
What works: The rainy, neon cities look great, and the hover-car chase is a slick, well-staged set piece.
What doesn’t: It strips out the humor and the mystery about what’s real, and Bryan Cranston’s villain is a total blank.
Who it’s for: Colin Farrell fans and anyone who wants a glossy sci-fi chase with no interest in thinking about it afterward.
Spoilers
Quaid learns he really was Hauser, an agent Cohaagen used to find the resistance leader, but he picks the resistance anyway. He destroys the Fall with Cohaagen’s robot army aboard, and a Rekall sign near the end hints that it all might be a fake memory.
Late in the 21st century, chemical war has left just two places to live: the wealthy United Federation of Britain and the crowded Colony on the far side of the planet, linked by a giant elevator that drops straight through the Earth. Factory worker Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) rides it to work every day, then heads home to his wife Lori (Kate Beckinsale). He keeps dreaming he is a spy, so he visits Rekall, a company that sells fake memories. Before the session starts, armed police storm in, and Quaid discovers he fights like a pro. Len Wiseman directs. One hundred eighteen minutes, and nobody knows what's real.
Anyone who has ever woken up unsure about a dream. Skip Rekall.
| Colin Farrell | Douglas Quaid / Carl Hauser |
| Kate Beckinsale | Lori |
| Jessica Biel | Melina |
| Bryan Cranston | Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen |
| Bokeem Woodbine | Harry |
| Bill Nighy | Matthias |
| John Cho | McClane/Mac |
| Will Yun Lee | Marek |
| Dylan Scott Smith | Agent Hammond |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $198.5M; Domestic box office $58.9M; Opening weekend $25.6M; Profit / loss (est.) -$88.3M; Rotten Tomatoes 30%; CinemaScore C+; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 30% (233 reviews); Metacritic 43 / 100; CinemaScore C+; IMDb users 6.2 / 10 (278,106 votes); movie.guru score 3.0.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.