Description

Total Recall: Movie Special              One-shot Comic
DC Comic’s authorized movie adaptation of the Carolco Pictures film “Total Recall.”
Writer: Elliot S. Maggin
Artist: Tom Lyle
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Bob Pinaha
Editor: Robert Greenberger
Cover by: Movie Photo Cover

Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, and Sharon Stone. Coinciding with the North American release date of the feature film, DC Comics published The Total Recall Movie Adaptation is based on the Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett screenplay which was loosely based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”. Sometimes it pays to have Total Recall…but sometimes it can get you killed. That’s the problem Doug Quaid, a construction worker who discovers that he is actually a secret agent formerly named Carl Hauser, and travels to Mars to uncover his true identity and why his memory was erased.

Imagine being haunted by dreams of another life, on another planet, with a woman who’s not your wife. Then imagine the life you believed you were living here on Earth was the lie…and your ‘dreams’ of life in the Martian colonies were the reality. Douglas Quaid is haunted by a recurring dream about a journey to Mars. He hopes to find out more about this dream and buys a holiday at Rekall Inc. where they sell implanted memories. But something goes wrong with the memory implantation and he remembers being a secret agent fighting against the evil Mars administrator Cohaagen. He also discovers that he possesses information that could change the history of two worlds…or could get him killed by the people behind the bizarre realignment of his life.

Story/Spoilers
In 2084, Mars is a colonized world under the tyrannical regime of Vilos Cohaagen, who controls the mining of valuable turbinium ore. On Earth, construction worker Douglas Quaid experiences recurring dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman. Intrigued, he visits Rekall, a company that implants realistic false memories, and chooses one set on Mars (with a blue sky) where he is a Martian secret agent. However, before the implant is completed Quaid lashes out, already thinking he is a secret agent. Believing Cohaagen’s “Agency” has suppressed Quaid’s memories, the Rekall employees erase evidence of Quaid’s visit and send him home.

En route, Quaid is attacked by men led by his colleague Harry because Quaid unknowingly revealed his past; Quaid’s instincts take over and he kills his assailants. At home, he is assaulted by his wife Lori who claims she was assigned to monitor Quaid by the Agency and their marriage is a false memory implant. He flees but is pursued by armed men led by Richter, Cohaagen’s operative and Lori’s real husband. A man who claims to be Quaid’s former acquaintance gifts him a suitcase containing supplies and a video recording in which Quaid identifies himself as Hauser, a Cohaagen ally who defected after falling in love. According to the recording, Cohaagen brainwashed Hauser to become Quaid and conceal his secrets before securing him on Earth. Hauser instructs Quaid to return to Mars and stop Cohaagen.

On Mars, Quaid evades Richter and, following a note from Hauser, travels to Venusville, a district populated by humans and those mutated by air pollution and radiation. He meets Melina, the woman from his dreams, who knows him as Hauser and believes he is still working for Cohaagen. In his hotel room, Quaid is confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar from Rekall, who explains that Quaid is still at Rekall on Earth, trapped in his fantasy memory. Quaid notices Edgemar is sweating and, believing he is real, kills him. Quaid is captured by Richter’s men, but Melina rescues him and Quaid kills Lori. The pair escape with taxi driver Benny to Venusville.

The mutants lead them to a hidden rebel base, where Quaid meets their leader Kuato, a mutant growing out of the abdomen of his brother George. Kuato psychically reads Quaid’s mind, learning that Cohaagen is hiding a 500,000-year-old alien reactor built into a mountain that, once activated, produces breathable air but could also destroy all turbinium, ending Cohaagen’s monopoly over both resources. Benny shoots George, revealing himself to be in Cohaagen’s employ, and Cohaagen’s forces attack the base, killing the rebels. Kuato implores Quaid to start the reactor before Richter executes him. Cohaagen disables Venusville’s air supply to slowly suffocate the remaining inhabitants.

Quaid and Melina are brought to Cohaagen, who explains that Hauser was his close friend who volunteered to become Quaid as an elaborate ruse to bypass the mutants’ psychic abilities, infiltrate the rebellion, and destroy it. Quaid’s Rekall visit had activated him earlier than planned and Cohaagen has been helping him to survive the oblivious Richter’s pursuit. Cohaagen orders Hauser’s memories to be restored in Quaid and Melina to be reprogrammed as his subservient lover, but they manage to escape to the mines below the reactor. Benny, Richter, and his men attack them, but the pair outwits and kills them all.

Cohaagen awaits them in the reactor control room, claiming that activating it will destroy the planet. He sets off an explosive but Quaid throws it down a tunnel, creating a breach to the Martian surface. The explosive decompression blows Cohaagen out to the surface where he suffocates and dies. Quaid activates the reactor before he and Melina are also blown out. The reactor melts the planet’s ice core into gas that bursts to the surface, forming a breathable atmosphere and saving Quaid, Melina, and the rest of Mars’s population. As everyone beholds the now-blue sky, Quaid momentarily wonders if everything was a dream, before he and Melina kiss.

Comic is bagged & triple boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1990
Format: FC, 64 pages, Comic, 10.25″ x 6.5″
UPC: None Stated

Collectible Entertainment note: One-shot Comic is in Fine + condition.  Very Nice!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Total Recall and/or Movie Adaptation collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Recommended.

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