R&D Session Three: Total Recall (1990) & Memory Manipulation

Virtual Reality therapy gone wrong?

Total Recall is an interesting movie on the topic of Virtual Reality. My reasoning for this is not only does the movie feature a machine that allows a user to experience "virtual vacations" but it also allows a more malicious act of rewriting reminiscence.

Douglas Quaid/Carl Hauser are two characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas is an everyday man that has been struggling with dreams and memories flooding through about Mars. His wife, is insistent that both of them have never been to Mars, despite the dreams that Douglas keeps having about the planet.

Douglas decides to go and have a virtual holiday on Mars through the help of one of the digital holiday companies, he gets there and gets prepped by the attendants assigned to him. He eventually gets a dose of liquid via a syringe gun that puts him to sleep, and as he puts himself to sleep he is able to recreate from memory his real partner and lover, Melina.

During the virtual holiday, Doug ends up freaking out in a state of psychosis and then it is revealed when the manager of the facility arrives and deducts that Douglas Quaid has had his memory wiped and to get rid of him immediately.

It is later revealed that Carl Hauser was Douglas Quaid, he sends Douglas on this mission to "find out" who he is. Carls real motive however, was a plan set in motion sometime in the making. Douglas had his memory wiped, lived as a normal man and then his life was thrown in jeopardy. This was all to further the plans set by Carl Hauser and Vilos Cohaagen, for Doug this was about finding out who he really was, while the antagonists simply wanted to remove the rebel threat that was surging quickly in the Martian Community.

Wrapping Up

I found this movie fascinating, when I first watched the film I watched it as an everyday going audience member, now with four years of cinematic experience under my belt Total Recall intrigues me even more.

As film makers we tell story that we want the audience to see. Sometimes this may be a fabricated story like in the fantasy/science fiction genres, that being said though. We are manipulating a story to evoke a responses from our audience. Through the filming process we frame the story in such a way that we want the audience to see our vision and feel something from it.

Where in the case of Carl Hauser and Vilos Cohaagen, they take this one step further. They manipulate the permanent memories of people, that way they can make them carry out elaborate schemes like this. Whilst I think this is a barbaric action, in the thought process of "what if the technology was used for good?" This opens up a lot of doors, you could use the technology in running man for example and theoretically cure someone with PTSD.

Taking someone's awful experience, like someone who has served a long time in the army/military/navy/air force and is struggling with everyday life, you could replace the memories with pleasant ones to liberate the terrible memories.

I think in the aspect of using memory manipulation to help could be an amazing tool one day for mankind, but I don't mind if it takes time to get here. After all in the wrong hands, we could have another Douglas Quade. The closest thing that we have to virtual reality therapy is Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET), which has shown signs to help reduce stress through simulated exposure.

Thanks for reading!