20 Brilliant Mind-F*ck Movies
6. Total Recall
Paul Verhoevens Total Recall is one of the biggest cinematic mind-f*cks. It takes its inspiration from Philip K. Dicks story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays construction worked Douglas Quaid who keeps dreaming about Mars, where a battle between governers and rebels is currently on-going.
Quaid visits Rekall, a company who can implant you with synthetic memories, allowing you to live out your fantasies. He opts to undertake a secret agent mission to Mars within his imagination. The Rekall staff throw him out on his !*$% shortly afterwards, having realised that Quaid actually has genuine (albeit suppressed) memories about being a real-life secret agent on Mars.
Once he works this all out, Quaid heads up to the red planet on a mission to find the truth. Before he gets any substantial answers, though, he has to head through a bizarre mutant-friendly red light district. Total Recall is properly weird, in the best possible way.