Carolco Pictures, 1990

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

The plot: Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) is a jaded construction worker trudging through life in the distant future with his wife, Lori (Stone). He has recurring dreams about Mars and longs to visit the colonized planet, where the locals are rebelling against a large-scale mining operation. Seeking escape, Quaid goes to Rekall, where clients pay to have fake memories of perfect vacations implanted in their minds. He selects the illusion of a trip to Mars as a secret agent, but something goes wrong during the procedure. Before he knows what’s happened, Quaid is assaulted by both a coworker and his wife, who explains that his entire life as he knows it has been a delusion created by memory implants to suppress a dark secret in his head. Hunted by armed authorities led by Richter (Ironside), Quaid flees to Mars, where he meets the literal woman of his dreams and is beckoned by the mysterious rebel leader Kuato. He soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving rumored alien artifacts in the mines. But is the whole adventure just Quaid’s imagined “holiday” at Rekall?

Why it’s good: Watching “Total Recall” 22 years after its release, it’s fascinating to see how much the imagined Earth of 2084 resembles the real world of 2012. The fictional world of the film has flat-screen, wall-mounted TVs and full body scans at transportation centers. But things are different on Mars, and it’s the film’s bizarre visual effects that will implant themselves in your memory. There are deformed psychic mutants, a three-breasted prostitute, and a grotesque infant-man growing out of another guy’s stomach, among other strange wonders. Based loosely on a story by Philip K. Dick, the movie has one of the coolest sci-fi plots ever devised for the big screen, a multi-layered mind-fuck that pits dreams versus reality and memories versus actions. We remain just as confused as Quaid about whether he really is a secret agent fighting to save Mars or a regular man trapped in an elaborate hallucination.

Why you should own it: Coming out in 1990, “Total Recall” bridges the ’80s and ’90s, both in the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger and in science fiction cinema generally. Just two years later, Arnold would star in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which replaced all those latex costumes with mind-blowing CGI. Paul Verhoeven has directed sci-fi flicks on both sides of the hump, from 1987’s “RoboCop” to 1997’s “Starship Troopers” (he also helmed Sharon Stone’s racy “Basic Instinct” in 1992). Michael Ironside is another genre veteran who made an early mark as the telepathic villain of Cronenberg’s “Scanners” in 1981. While “Recall” looks a bit goofy by today’s standards, it still feels like a fresh gust of originality, filled with outlandish effects, explosive action, bloody violence and fantastical plot twists. Its existential premise has even been taught in some college philosophy courses (probably by lazy professors). If the remake looks a little too glossy for your taste, just stick with the original.