10 Movies That Abandoned The Source Material (For The Better)
5. Total Recall
The original story, "We Can Remember It For You, Wholesale" by Phillip K. Dick is considered to be a seminal work of science fiction literature. However, neither times has it been adapted in its entirety. And only once did that result in a good movie.
It should come as no shock that this movie is so good, seeing as how it was made by Paul Verhoeven - one of the best directors of the 80's. But fans of the book were left disappointed, despite admitting that the contents of the book probably wouldn't work great in a film.
While the idea is fascinating, the book goes in really odd directions with it (to put it very mildly) that you could argue wouldn't really fly in movie form. So the film made necessary adaptations, while still remaining true to the original story's themes and ideas.
It has definitely abandoned the source material (we probably don't need to tell you that Quade did NOT look like Arnold in the original story), but in doing so, Total Recall carved out a place for itself among the great sci-fi films of the 80's.
All in all, it's doubtful Verhoeven is losing much sleep over the whole matter.