10 Philip K Dick Movie Adaptations Ranked Best To Worst

10. Total Recall (1990)

What’s remarkable about Total Recall is how well it expands PKD’s 1966 story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale into a blockbuster that in spite of its colossal budget (and then record number of product placements) still remains faithful not just to the source material but the spirit of its author.

The hero is Dick’s usual working schmuck but even though he’s played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the script still finds room for all of Dick’s usual obsessions: voluptuous but treacherous females, paranoia, psychotic episodes and conversations about what represents reality. The main plot of a supposedly innocent man discovering his whole life has been a lie is in keeping with PKD’s work, no matter how bloody or outlandish the onscreen shenanigans become.

There’s also a sequence where Arnie shoots his wife and says, “Consider that a divorce”, which makes this one of the greatest movies ever made.