10 Ambiguous Movie Endings That Had Ridiculously Simple Solutions
3. Total Recall
The Ambiguous Ending: Is Quaid asleep or not?
Were talking the original here; the ending of the remake asks a much simpler question, How did this get made? More than a typical Arnie/Verhoeven gore-fest, the entire film plays with the audiences perception of reality, everything occurring as predicted, but with the same level of realism (note: not much) throughout. The ending leaves it really open, with Schwarzenegger's Quaid saving the day with blue skies on Mars (exactly what a Rekall worker said earlier in the film), but without anything definitive either way.
The Simple Solution: The directors commentary answers it.
We cant really use the source as an explanation here, as the Dick short story is equally as ambiguous (although it does have the nice reveal that the protagonist's purity is in fact the sole reason aliens havent invaded Earth). A common argument for the entire thing being a dream is that the plots so outlandish it couldn't be real, but as this is an Schwarzenegger movie its not really a viable solution. What is a viable solution is what the director thinks. In the DVD commentary Verhoeven states that he believes everything to be a dream. Of course what the director thinks isn't always how the work will be regarded (just look at the insane theories about The Shining presented in Room 237), but its certainly a good answer to take for this film.