Movie

Total Recall (2012)

This remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film is widely regarded as inferior and falls short in key areas. The Earth setting doesn’t capture the sci-fi feel of Mars, and Jessica Biel is bland as resistance fighter Melina. But Kate Beckinsale’s version of Lori – an all-action, tough as nails operative – is a notable improvement on Sharon Stone’s great but under-used femme fatale.

Anyone who’s seen the 1990 movie will mostly know what to expect, though the update throws in a few variations. Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a factory worker from The Colony (22nd century Australia) and employed in the United Federation of Britain (UFB for short). In this post-apocalyptic future, most of the planet is uninhabitable, and commuters travel through the Earth using a gravity elevator known as The Fall.

Doug dreams he’s a secret agent on a mystery mission with a beautiful woman. Fleeing UFB troops in black armour is more exciting than his day job, so it’s no wonder Doug wants more. Against the advice of his friend, he goes to a company called Rekall, which implants memories. The tech wizards have a safety policy that nothing in the simulation can be true in real life, but it’s only a dream… right? It turns out Doug really is a spy (with a heavy dose of amnesia), and the UFB is very interested in finding him.

Whatever Rekall did activates Doug, and he bests a dozen UFB troops with martial arts and inventive use of grenades. Not sure what to do, he goes home to his devoted wife, Lori. Except she suddenly develops a British accent and reveals herself as a UFB operative who’s only known Doug for six weeks. He gets her at gunpoint for some brief questions, but Lori is far more skilled than regular troops and quickly regains the upper hand. Doug flees with Lori hot on his tail, which leads to a chase across the enormous Colony shantytown and its Oriental-style tiered levels.

After eluding his false wife, Doug gets a call from a phone implanted in his hand and a message from a former colleague. The man advises the fugitive to get rid of the phone – also a tracking device – and directs him to a safe deposit box. Happy for the assist, Doug cuts out the phone with broken glass and gives it to a homeless guy, who soon receives an unfriendly visit from Lori. That’s a woman you don’t want to be on the wrong side of.

Lori asks her boss for information about Doug’s identity and isn’t happy with his reply. In fact, she orders the UFB soldiers to shoot on sight. In the safe deposit box, Doug finds recorded video instructions from himself before the memory wipe. And high-tech spy equipment, which may come in handy for figuring out who the hell he is.

Villainess

Lori (Kate Beckinsale)

The villainess becomes Doug’s main foe over the course of the movie. Despite working for the ruthless UFB dictator Chancellor Cohaagen, she’s the antagonist with the most screen time. Action ramps up several notches when Doug travels into enemy territory, escapes the authorities, and jumps onto a highway. Good thing the woman of his dreams arrives to rescue him. Melina is a member of the resistance and a skilled hovercar driver. Apparently, she and Doug were lovers, which adds romantic spice to the high-speed chase that follows.

Lori (who else?) leads the pursuers. Besides regular troops, the UFB has a droid army at its disposal. This leads to a CGI-heavy action sequence with all kinds of crazy stunts. Melina gets in a few jibes about Lori before she pulls off a dramatic swerve and shoot manoeuvre. Lori is not that involved in truth. Mostly it’s shots of her looking frustrated, and Quaid eludes the UFB by disabling the hovercar’s magnetic system and dropping to the streets of London. Down there, vehicles still have wheels, including the traditional red buses.

Doug finds another message from his former self, which reveals he previously looked very different and was called Hauser. The former UFB agent apparently had a change of heart and wants to aid the resistance by providing information stored in his brain. Not long after this revelation, Doug’s friend from work (remember the mundane factory job) turns up and claims it’s all a dream. His arguments aren’t at all convincing, such as wearing a bulletproof vest because Doug “put it” on him. He speaks in an unfamiliar accent to reinforce the fantasy, and it takes Melina sweating to stop Doug shooting her and turn his weapon on his “friend” instead.

After that dialogue-heavy ruse, Lori ditches her concerned wife act and resumes her role as the badass agent. The ensuing chase – with a relentless Lori and her droids hunting Doug and Melina through the transporter shafts – is the movie’s most exciting scene. The villainess is actively involved, whether she vents insults at Doug or uses her robots for mobile cover while advancing on the trapped heroes. Lori thinks she’s victorious after she bests Melina in a catfight and plants an explosive charge, but the fugitives prove equally resourceful and jump to another platform to escape the blast.

We’re then treated to bleak landscapes as the heroes enter contaminated territory. However, Doug’s joy at contacting the resistance proves short-lived when it’s revealed the “information” in his brain is really a virus. The entire sequence of events has been a clever charade by Cohaagen to locate the rebel leader. Hauser never switched sides and volunteered to have his mind wiped. Lori gloats as the UFB take Melina prisoner and strap Quaid to a memory-implanting machine. Fortunately, the villains don’t stick around, and a resistance trooper frees Doug before the procedure.

Cohaagen launches a droid invasion of The Colony to gain the most valuable resource in this dark future: living space. Lori’s not as involved in the big action set piece that follows. She chases the heroes around a Fall transporter and is ordered not to intervene directly, while Quaid plants explosives to sabotage the operation. Cohaagen shows up in person to fight the hero and has numbers on his side until Melina pilots a gunship to even the odds. With the villain foiled, the heroes escape the explosion, and Lori is seemingly killed in the blast.

Quaid wakes up in an ambulance with Melina by his bedside. A tough villainess killed off-screen – that can’t be right, surely? Lori’s holographic disguise might have worked if the real Melina hadn’t wounded her hand. Quaid fights Lori – briefly – then finishes her with an electric paddle stun and a gunshot.

Honourable Mention: Total Recall

Total Recall (1990) – Lori (Sharon Stone)

To avoid repetition, this extended honourable mention is light on story details. Douglas Quaid is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Melina by Rachel Ticotin, and Cohaagen by Ronny Cox. Other than that, it’s the same tale of an ordinary worker discovering he’s a secret agent and that plenty of people want him dead. The second half is on Mars, with a subplot about an alien device that generates oxygen from ice. The primary henchman is Richter (Michael Ironside), and Lori is relegated to a supporting role.

Despite this, Sharon Stone makes an impression that leaves the viewer wanting more, though what we get is very good. Lori’s reveal is better handled, with a shadowy figure attacking Quaid after he returns home from Rekall. After a brief shootout, the “intruder” is revealed as Lori, and Doug discovers his wife has martial arts skills. She plays the innocent woman to buy time, but Doug is too smart to fall for it.

After flying to Mars, Melina becomes the female lead while Richter pursues the hero. There’s an annoying taxi driver who’s obviously a mole, so the reveal is unsurprising even to a first-time viewer. The false wife doesn’t show herself until the villains try to convince Doug he’s experiencing a false memory. After he sees through their lies, Lori stops pretending to be nice and kicks the hero in some rather sensitive places.

Lori’s best scene is her last. She gets into an extended fight with Melina after the heroine arrives to rescue Quaid. This is a drawn-out tussle – one of the better female v female examples – and it’s Lori who comes out on top. Just when the villainess is about to kill Melina with her own knife, Doug shoots the weapon from her hand. Lori pleads for mercy, but Quaid shows her none and gets a trademark Arnie one-liner: “Consider this a divorce”.