Total Recall

Plot hole: When Hauser/Quaid returns to Mars, some of the people that knew him before as Hauser call him Quaid. (00:45:40)

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Suggested correction: If you're talking about when he's disguised as the fat woman, only Richter calls him Quaid. But he knew him as Quaid.

Bishop73

Factual error: Throughout the movie, whenever the domes are breached (which happens much too often) it is said that there is only vacuum outside. But Mars has an atmosphere. Its thin and mostly CO2, but it's there.

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Suggested correction: While it is not a true vacuum outside the domes, it's around 1% of Earth's atmosphere. The effect of a dome breach would be close enough to a true vacuum to the people affected.

Suggested correction: "Vacuum" is a colloquial way of saying low pressure, just like the 'vacuum' you use to clean the house creates a low pressure to cause suction.

Suggested correction: It's possible human colonization of the planet affected the atmosphere.

If the Martian atmosphere ceased to exist, the sky would be always black, never red as seen in the movie (Mars' sky is actually a butterscotch color during daytime and bluish during twilight).

Other mistake: When Quaid goes through the x-ray machine the first time, the person behind the man with the dog isn't shown to be carrying anything (there's no purple object shown). But then later the purple object is seen.

Bishop73

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Suggested correction: Could simply be someone else with an item passing the person without any. He was walking very slow and certainly 1 person passed him, could be another one did as well.

lionhead

Two people would have had to pass him and there's nothing to indicate 2 additional people were walking that much faster than him, or close to him.

Bishop73

They were off camera before. 1 person definitely did pass him so a second person doing the same is not unlikely.

lionhead

They weren't off screen long enough.

Bishop73

I've seen this part multiple times. Who you see behind Quaid before entering the machine is first a woman with a handbag, then a man with mustache and case, then a blind man with a dog, after him a woman with a handbag again and more people. Now, the man with the mustache and case and the second woman with the handbag probably paused before entering the machine because we don't see them when Quaid passes, only the first woman with a bag, then a blind man with a dog and then a man with nothing. So both must have then sped up and then passed the man holding nothing. You see them walking faster than the others too. Not illogical when people are rushing to work or home either.

lionhead

Continuity mistake: In the apartment, Lori grabs a knife, and after the first slice, switches the knife to her right hand. After the second slice, the knife can be seen midair as she tosses it from left to right again.

Movie Nut

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Suggested correction: It's not being shown tossed from right to left, you just see her spin the knife in the air to hold it in a different position.

Bishop73

Revealing mistake: After the fight with Richtor, Arnie throws his severed arms off the elevator. If you look closely at the bottom of the elevator you can see the arms do not fall all the way down. They disappear once they hit the floor of the stage Arnie is acting on - they forgot to animate some arms falling on the bluescreen image.

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Suggested correction: Rictor's arms were torn off when the elevator passed through a floor or a tier or something. Is it not possible that this is where the arms fell to? I don't think they were meant to fall all the way down...

You missed the point of the mistake. It's not about the arms falling to the Mars ground. As the elevator platform is moving up, we can see the background below the platform. When the arms are tossed over, they should be visible below the platform as they fall, since it's open space. But in the scene, the arms just disappear once they hit the real life stage ground because they weren't added in during post.

Bishop73

Plot hole: It's revealed by Cohagen that he had everything set up for Quaid to get to Quato including convincing Quaid that Benny was an ally but there's no way Cohagen could have known that Quaid would have chosen the other taxi driver instead of Benny. So if Quaid had picked someone else or even decided to walk to where he was going Cohagen wouldn't have got anywhere in drawing Cuato out.

jbrbbt

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Suggested correction: Simple, every cab driver there was under his control. Didn't matter who was picked. Ever see a movie where everyone in a restaurant turns out to be an agent, or that scene in John Wick with everyone in the park.

Other mistake: In the scene after Arnold kills the construction hoods he goes home to Sharon Stone and tries to convince her that it was real by showing her his bloody hands with which he was grabbing her shoulders, yet there is no blood on her or the appliances he turned off upon entering the apartment.

More mistakes in Total Recall

Hauser: Howdy, stranger. This is Hauser. If things have gone wrong, I'm talking to myself, and you've got a wet towel wrapped around your head. Now, whatever your name is, get ready for the big surprise. You are not you. You are me.
Quaid: No shit.

Bishop73

More quotes from Total Recall

Trivia: Most of the movie was shot in Mexico because it was believed labour costs to build the sets would be cheaper there, but it turned out that the cost of importing required materials from the US negated this benefit.

Daz

More trivia for Total Recall

Question: There is a scene in the movie in which Arnie disguises as a woman to pass the entrance control in Mars. Moments later, the mask he's using starts to malfunction and he has to take it off. When he's doing that, we can see that the man who's playing Quaid is not Arnie but a stunt double. Why did the director choose a stunt double to replace Arnie in a scene that's not risky at all?

Answer: It's not a stunt double, it's a mannequin (fake head actually) of Arnie, used for the artificial head shot.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Total Recall

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