The 1990 film Total Recall is considered by many to be an absolute classic. The technology at the time placed it firmly within two worlds, one capable of doing incredible CGI, and one still firmly planted in practical effects. The marriage of the two was fantastic, and the aesthetic of this movie is burned into the minds of a whole generation.
Back in 2015, fxguide did an extensive interview with Eric Brevig(visual effects supervisor), Alex Funke(director of miniature photography), and Tim McGovern(X-ray skeleton sequence) that you should go check out. They share a lot about their experiences pulling off iconic scenes. I did some digging around and found these featurettes that touch on some of the effects as well.
This first, and longest video is a 30 minute documentary on the whole film. They discuss the concept of the whole film, but there are some great nuggets of practical effects info sprinkled in. Some interesting facts, Patrick Swayze was initially in place for the lead, and at one point, David Cronenberg was in line to direct.
Here’s a completely useless and only somewhat interesting fact. In the first x-ray scene in the movie, a german shepherd gets walked through the machine. When they were filming the motion of the actors for reference, the dog stopped to take a dump right there on the set. It was shown in the reference footage, but not in the movie. You can see the final result here.
The pieces that many will remember the most will be Kuato and the “2 weeks” woman. This clip has Rob Bottin discussing these animatronics in a bit more depth. I really wish I could see some detailed pictures of these mechanisms, I’m sure they’re quite well built.
Miniature artists really had a huge role in this movie. The Martian set was super impressive. I loved the story in this clip about using coke cans to recreate propane tanks.
I really haven’t been able to find much in terms of detailed shots of the animatronics themselves. This picture from CineFex has been floating around for a while, and it shows the whole crew necessary to operate Kuato.
