TOTALLY RECALLED

TOTAL RECALL (1990)
dir: Paul Verhoeven

TOTALLY RECALLED
MAD #299, December 1990
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

The Cracked parody goes into a bit more detail so if you're lost without what I write follow there.

I don't think the MAD staff knew that Teller's whole act was that he didn't talk.

Reference to the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito vehicle Twins which will also be parodied here in a couple weeks.

TOTALLY RECALLED
Cracked # 258, November 1990
a: Walter Brogan

In the future Doug Quade (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has a dream he's on Mars and is woken up by his wife Lori (Sharon Stone)

The woman in the dream is Maria Shriver, Schwarzenegger's real life wife, an anchorperson and well-known Democrat though he was Republican governor of California.

They have x-rays on the subway, and Doug tells his co-worker he's considering Recall, a virtual reality program where you roleplay at another location yet are just at the office there for only a few minutes. People tell him it's dangerous but he does it anyway. His fantasy visit to Mars malfunctions and he ends up escaping into what is apparently the real world and being chased by people he ends up killing.

Doug gets back home to tell his wife what happened. She turns out to be an assassin sent from Mars to kill him. It is Quaid that's the fantasy and he was given secrets the Martians must retrieve. He actually is Carl Hauser, the Martian secret agent from Quaid's fantasy, and has no idea what's really going on. He has a tracking device inside him, and is being chased by Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), who owns all the air there. Other spies on Carl's side find him as he's running through the city, tell him to put a turban on so he can't be detected, and where a suitcase is that has a projection of himself that gives him instructions. First he must pull the tracking device out through his nose then “get your ass to Mars”.

Doug/Carl is in some alleyway while he's following instructions and throws the device out into the street. Cohaagen's man think they've tracked him down but get to the alleyway and see rats surrounding it. He takes a flight to Mars disguised as a middle aged woman and the robotic disguise malfunctions, he breaks out of it at the same time Colhaagen's men find him, and it explodes.

On Mars, Carl follows the clues which tell him to find Melina (Rachel Ticotin). A cab driver named Benny (Mel Johnson Jr.) takes him to Mars' red light district and he finds her at a bar. Later, while Hauser is in his hotel room, Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) intervenes. He's a Recall employee who's come to talk Quaid down. Carl Hauser was never real, this is all part of the fantasy, but the machine broke and Quaid's stuck in the alternate reality. He brought Lori to help. Carl doesn't believe a word of it and shoots them.

Carl and Melina think Benny's helping them escape Cohaagen but he's actually bringing them to Kuato (Marshall Bell) member of the rebels that speaks through his conjoined twin, trying to stop Cohaagen from turning off the air and suffocating everyone on Mars. Carl does, gives everyone breathable air, then wonders which he's which reality he's in.