10 Movies With Ridiculously Subtle Foreshadowing That Nobody Noticed
6. A Schwarzenegger Joke Hints At The Mutant Suffocation - Total Recall
Total Recall is the Citizen Kane of foreshadowing. Pretty much every frame in the opening twenty minutes has some link to the later story, all helping build the mystery of whether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger is dreaming or it's all a lot of coincidence. From the spiel the Rekall guys dole out to the rant a sweating Dr Edgemar gives, the film delicately toes the line of reveals, making it just that little too hard to come down definitely on either side.
But there's one piece of foreshadowing that often gets overlooked, probably because it doesn't tie directly into the Rekall plot, but is still awesome. When Schwarzenegger's Doug Quaid meets (or rather remeets) mutant Tony he quips "Relax, you'll live longer." Clearly to show Quaid's increasingly cocky nature, it acts as a sly hint towards Tonys later fate; the advice becomes literal when he and the rest of the mutants are trapped in Venusville slowly losing air.
I don't quite know why this line hasn't been as focused on as the rest of the films foreshadowing. Yes it doesn't tie directly into the reality puzzle, but could easily be used as fuel for the dream theory; Quaid's mind is predicting whats happening next in his trip.