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35 Years Ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sci-Fi Cult Classic Repeated A Weird Blade Runner Trick

Ryan Britt

created: June 1, 2025, 11:30 a.m. | updated: June 5, 2025, 4:56 p.m.

The greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi movie ever is, without a doubt, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Like Blade Runner before it, Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film Total Recall was based on writing from sci-fi visionary, Philip K. Dick. But, paradoxically, just like Blade Runner, what makes Total Recall a success is the way it honors the original idea, but utterly transforms that concept into something completely new. This approach mirrors the way Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner took the Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Total Recall is not the same story as Blade Runner at all, but if you squint, it is the 1990 version of Blade Runner, complete with a shortened title.

8 months, 2 weeks ago: Inverse