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Context: There is some debate as to whether the events in the movie Total Recall are real or a dream (as the movie is quite ambiguous on this), but the director has said that both are true.
Statement:
In short: Total Recall doesn’t tell you whether it’s real or it’s a dream because it’s literally supposed to be both simultaneously, not unlike Schrödinger’s Cat.
https://www.mandatory.com/culture/1...erhoeven-finally-explains-ending-total-recall
“Total Recall doesn’t say whether it’s reality or it is a dream, you know? It’s really saying there’s this reality and there’s that reality, and both exist at the same time,” Paul Verhoeven explained in a Canadian hotel room, the day after the film screened at TIFF. “Because you look at Total Recall there is never a preference, let’s say, taken by me or the scriptwriter, to say this is really what he dreams about and this is the truth.”
https://www.mandatory.com/culture/1...erhoeven-finally-explains-ending-total-recall
“I wanted it to be that way,” Verhoeven clarifies. “Because I felt that it was – if you want to use a very big word – post-modern. I felt that basically I should not say ‘This is true, and this not true.’ I wanted – and we worked with Gary Goldman on that, not the original writers – [and we] worked very hard to make both consistent, and that both would be true. And I think we succeeded very well. So I think of course there is no solution. Hey, it’s both true. So I thought, two realities; that it was innovative in movie language at least, to a certain degree, that there would be two realities and there is no choice.”
Statement:
In short: Total Recall doesn’t tell you whether it’s real or it’s a dream because it’s literally supposed to be both simultaneously, not unlike Schrödinger’s Cat.
https://www.mandatory.com/culture/1...erhoeven-finally-explains-ending-total-recall
“Total Recall doesn’t say whether it’s reality or it is a dream, you know? It’s really saying there’s this reality and there’s that reality, and both exist at the same time,” Paul Verhoeven explained in a Canadian hotel room, the day after the film screened at TIFF. “Because you look at Total Recall there is never a preference, let’s say, taken by me or the scriptwriter, to say this is really what he dreams about and this is the truth.”
https://www.mandatory.com/culture/1...erhoeven-finally-explains-ending-total-recall
“I wanted it to be that way,” Verhoeven clarifies. “Because I felt that it was – if you want to use a very big word – post-modern. I felt that basically I should not say ‘This is true, and this not true.’ I wanted – and we worked with Gary Goldman on that, not the original writers – [and we] worked very hard to make both consistent, and that both would be true. And I think we succeeded very well. So I think of course there is no solution. Hey, it’s both true. So I thought, two realities; that it was innovative in movie language at least, to a certain degree, that there would be two realities and there is no choice.”
