AlthoughTotal Recallnever received a sequel, at one point, the future Steven Spielberg sci-fi filmMinority Reportwas almost a follow-up to this Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. As a film based on the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, it’s not surprising that theTotal Recallfilmmakers looked to other writings from that American sci-fi visionary for sequel inspiration. While this didn’t end up happening, it’s a fascinating Hollywood what-if to imagine how things would have panned out differently if Schwarzenegger reprised his role as Douglas Quaid in this futuristic story of surveillance.
Many of thebest Schwarzenegger movieswere in the sci-fi genre, as he’s excelled in classics like theTerminatorfranchise, the Stephen King adaptationThe Running Man, and the thought-provoking cloning storyThe 6th Day. With such an incredible body of work behind him,Total Recallstill stands as one of his most impressive projects and has maintained acult followingto this day. WhileTotal Recalldid continue with a television series and a remake starring Colin Farrell, a true sequel was never made, althoughthe idea of adaptingMinority Reportfor Schwarzenegger was thoroughly explored.
Total Recall 2 Could Have Used Philip K. Dick’s The Minority Report Story
Screenwriter Gary Goldman Options Dick’s Story
The bookTales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Madeby David Hughes sheds light on how Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Minority Report” very nearly became aTotal Recallsequel. The story goes that theTotal Recallco-writer Gary Goldman, who was gearing up to make his directorial debut, actually optioned Dick’s story with plans to release it as a low-budget feature. However, once he showed it to theTotal Recalldirector, Paul Verhoeven, he suggested it would work well as a sequel.
WhileGoldman knew that “The Minority Report” had little to do with the concepts of fractured identity seen in the originalTotal Recall, he felt there was something about the tone of the story that made it the perfect candidate for a follow-up film. This was an exciting proposition that would have allowed Goldman to take the franchise in a new direction while remaining thematically consistent with the original. Both Verhoeven and Goldman saw this as a way of doing a sequel “that seemed original, not repetitive or derivative.”
Could Minority Report’s Story Have Worked As Total Recall 2?
There’s Plenty of Thematic Connections Between The Two Stories
Minority ReportandTotal Recalleach share a common DNA in the form of their originator, Philip K. Dick, meaning it feels incredibly feasible that the story could have worked well for a potentialTotal Recall 2. However, this would have required significant changes because, although each story paired action with government conspiracies, thematically they were also tackling quite different subjects. While themes of fate, memory manipulation, and the fickle structure of reality ran through all of Dick’s work,simply copy-and-pasting Schwarzenegger’s Douglas Quaid into the story ofMinority Reportwould have felt jarring.
Instead, aTotal Recallsequel that told the story ofMinority Reportwould have to take into account the fact that Quaid lives in a world where implanted memories and altered identities are central. The addition of the PreCrime predictive unit that Tom Cruise’s Chief John Anderton works for would have had to be introduced as a natural extension of the world ofTotal Recall, and the writers would have needed to be extremely careful that all these lofty concepts didn’t cave in on one another.
The preventive crime force ofMinority Reportand the Mars-centric worlds ofTotal Recallalso feel like two distinct futuristic imaginings, so for this to work as a sequel idea, a lot of work would need to be done to bridge the gap in worldbuilding. However, with the right script,it’s plausible thatMinority Reportcould have been reframed within the cinematic world ofTotal Recall. Combining these two unique landscapes also offers endless narrative possibilities, and it’s exciting to imagine what other stories could have been told in a potential franchise had this idea made it into production.
Why Total Recall 2 Never Happened
The Project Never Got Off The Ground
Hughes further outlined (viaGizmodo) the background behindTotal Recall 2to reveal that the reason the film never happened was that Carolco Pictures struggled to secure financing for the project before going bankrupt in 1995. Schwarzenegger himself was also not very enthusiastic about returning as Quaid, as the subsequent years saw him achieving great success in releases likeTerminator 2: Judgment Day,Last Action Hero, andTrue Lies. Once the rights to “The Minority Report” were bought by Miramax in 1997, writer Goldman and Ronald Shusett removed theTotal Recallelements from their script.
With plans for aTotal Recallsequel all but abandoned, Jon Cohen was brought in to write a script for a standalone feature at the same timeSteven Spielberg and Tom Cruise were searching for a project to collaborate on.Spielberg was originally supposed to direct Cruise inRain Man, but he ended up dropping out to makeIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In 1998, Spielberg and Cruise committed to makingMinority Report, although the production was delayed for several years and the director madeSaving Private RyanandA.I. Artificial Intelligenceduring the intervening years.
Minority Report Ending Up With Spielberg & Cruise Was For The Best
There’s No Need To Rewrite History When It Comes To Minority Report
The idea ofMinority Reportreimagined as aTotal Recallsequel offers plenty of exciting possibilities, but the truth is that things worked out exactly how they should have. While Spielberg’s filmography includes some of the best sci-fi movies of all time, includingClose Encounters of the Third Kind,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, andJurassic Park,the neo-noir stylings ofMinority Reportmade it one of his best releases in the 2000s. Cruise also did a great job as Chief John Anderton, and his sleek, stunt-based action hero persona is strikingly different than the muscle-clad talents of Schwarzenegger.
WhileTotal Recalldealt with themes of memory and identity, the free will versus determinism ideas posed byMinority Reportwere wrestling with far different questions. As Spielberg’s first movie in the post-9/11 era,Minority Report’snarrative about stopping crimes before they occur felt particularly relevant and was a prime case of the right movie at the right time. As a satirical, philosophical, and thought-provoking release from two Hollywood titans,Minority Reportfalling into the hands of Spielberg and Cruise was for the best and there’s no reason to go back and change the past in this story.
