Total Recall (18): Paul Verhoeven: The Hollywood Years
Sat 16 Aug 2025 (note: this event has already taken place)
7pm
€10.50
113 mins | United States 1990 Director: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin and Sharon Stone It is the year 2084. Every night construction worker Douglas Quaid has a recurring dream that he is on Mars with a beautiful woman. He goes to the Recall laboratories, who offer a hallucinogenic drug that can implant the false memory of an adventurous trip into anybody’s mind. But something goes wrong, and suddenly Quaid’s life is no longer the same: his friends turn out to be foes, his wife is, in fact, an enemy agent and Quaid is pursued by a relentless team of killers. Or is it all a side effect of the Recall procedure? Quaid travels to Mars to find out. Paul Verhoeven’s second American movie uses Philip K. Dick’s novella “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” as the basis for a wild thrill ride pumped up with action, violence and (for their time) state-of-the-art special effects. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers one of his best screen performances under Verhoeven’s direction, delivering the kind of movie expected from the movie star, while also being
complex and ambiguous with elements of humour and an over the top presentation of violence that works as a satirisation of action pictures of the era. “TOTAL RECALL is slick, sly and subversive…Get your ass to Mars!” Time Out
Paul Verhoeven: The Hollywood Years This summer Triskel Arts Centre presents a season of films dedicated to one of the most divisive, controversial and successful directors who worked in American cinema during the late 20th century: Paul Verhoeven. The Dutch filmmaker made his stateside debut with the original ROBOCOP in 1987, a bold and audacious sci-fi action movie with a strong satirical edge. The same can be said of his next picture TOTAL RECALL, starring one of the era’s biggest stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. The steamy sex-charged neo noir thriller BASIC INSTINCT came next, one of the most financially successful films of 1992 worldwide. His followup picture SHOWGIRLS was a failure at the box office and was trashed by the critics when originally released but has come to be recognised as a biting satire of the entertainment industry. Verhoeven helmed STARSHIP TROOPERS next, a violent futuristic sci-fi tale which takes a cautious look at extremist militarism and propaganda. These movies will all be screened over five consecutive Saturdays in August.
