Special effects of Total Recall (1990 film)

The special effects of the 1990 action film Total Recall were developed by visual-effects company Dream Quest Images, with contributions by Stetson Visual Services, Metrolight Studios, and Industrial Light & Magic.

He conceived of futuristic Los Angeles as a large coastal park with fountains, sunken gardens and solar collectors, describing it as a tranquil place where residents sailed, rode horses, and bicycled.

A different version depicted the city after a severe earthquake; the buildings now hung upside-down underground on shock absorbers to mitigate future quakes.

[16] Bottin's crew studied video footage of the actors' faces and movements to replicate them, and the heads were enhanced with miniature motors, cables, springs, and rubber muscles.

[18] Bottin called designing the mutants "fun" because he could use any ideas he wanted, but he attempted to retain some realism to avoid identifying the film's events as a dream or reality.

[21] For the three-breasted prostitute (Lycia Naff), Bottin needed a slender actress to facilitate applying the prosthetic breasts; sizing them took several attempts.

When Bottin received the on-set footage, however, the tracker looked like a "silver bullet" which would fit in Schwarzenegger's nose and did not warrant an elaborate special-effects head.

[30] After studying the footage, Bottin wanted to have Quaid extract something larger from his nose and commissioned a spherical object housing the small silver tracker.

[8] In the original script, when Quaid is watching Hauser's video on Earth he learns how to use a device placed over his head which would shoot out steam and open to reveal a mask.

On set it worked well, controlled by an operator with a push-pull system for each linear bearing for each slice of the head; children's clay filled in gaps in the starting position.

[35] Designed as a parody of McDonald's, the Johnny cab service is a chain of cheap, futuristic taxis driven by generically polite and cheerful automatons.

Three models were built (one for dialogue scenes which were mainly computer-controlled), including the eyes, mouth, and tongue on a sophisticated neck which moved like a ventriloquist's dummy.

For a subsequent scene where Quaid tests his high-tech holographic watch, Schwarzenegger was filmed with a camera dolly on the left side of the screen using a motion-control track.

[30][4] The train-station X-ray scanner effect was led by Tim McGovern and his team, including George Karl, Rich Cowen and Tom Hutchinson.

In Schwarzenegger's case, the reference balls were positioned too closely and the software could not discern them individually; the expert could provide only limited cyclical motion as a result.

[4] The method switched to CGI after a presentation by Metrolight on their intended approach using keyframe animation with Brevig's footage as a reference; he thought it would be an "exciting" way to realize the effect.

Despite its scale, it could not replicate the vast exteriors Verhoeven wanted; it was re-used for scenes of characters walking on the Martian surface, however, enhanced with matte painting backgrounds and forced perspective miniatures created by Stetson.

[2] The Venusville bar was designed by William Sandell to look hard and metallic, like a Last Chance Saloon "at the end of the universe" with video screens showing pastoral Earth scenes.

[2] To convey explosive decompression when Richter shoots out the window of the spaceport, the cast were manipulated by wired and concealed support poles; the effect was enhanced with wind machines and debris.

[47][9] Burg said that when the mole (built on a Toyota or Volkswagen chassis) arrived on set, "nobody was pleased with the way it looked" and the exterior needed to be modified for filming in two days.

Scenic artist George Hanson assisted in three hours with techniques he knew could make pieces appear aged or weathered with paint, including roofing compound, talcum powder and acetone.

[11] To create a believable depth of field—the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects in an image—the miniatures were filmed with a long exposure; five seconds of footage could take several hours to shoot.

[44][48] They were built with chicken wire for shape and covered with old carpet before model-maker George Trimmer dressed them in fine sand and red mortar dye.

[4][2] From the inside of the train set, the Martian exterior through the window combined four layers; each moved at a different pace to create the correct speed and depth.

Reverse forced perspective was used, moving from smaller objects to the largest, so the mountain miniature set and foreground rocks (apparently in the distance) are closest to the window.

The Stetson crew spent two months debating whether to build it horizontally or vertically, settling on the latter because it was the only way it could fit on Dream Quest's stage; however, it was limited by the 25-foot (7.6 m) ceilings.

[9] The bridge footage of Cohaagen, Richter, and other characters walking into the reactor was filmed in Mexico from the highest point the location crew could find: a water tower on the Churubusco lot.

[19] As the ice cracks, releasing gas, dozens of crew triggered the effects, fire extinguishers, nitrogen vapor, and steam beneath the set.

[16] Special effects artists Richard Stutsman and Randy Cabral installed copper tubing in the top third of the mountain to direct jets of steam and nitrogen to its surface.

[16] To supplement the full mountain views, insert material (including background plates for Quaid and Melina writhing on the slopes) was filmed on larger-scale partial miniatures at Dream Quest.