Total Recall 2070 (TV 1999)

In the year 2070, police detective David Hume and his partner Ian Farve attempt to track down a group of murderous androids with ties to a corrupt corporation, named Recall, which are based... See full summary »

Director:

Mario Azzopardi

Writers:

Art Monterastelli (creator), Art Monterastelli

Stars:

Michael Easton, Karl Pruner, Cynthia Preston

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Easton	...	David Hume
Karl Pruner	...	Ian Farve
Cynthia Preston	...	Olivia Hume
Michael Rawlins	...	Martin Ehrenthal (as Michael Anthony Rawlins)
Judith Krant	...	Olan Chang
Matthew Bennett	...	James Calley
Nick Mancuso	...	Richard Collector
Kim Coates	...	Winston
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Nick Blanchard
Damon D'Oliveira	...	Detective Moralez
Angelo Pedari	...	Mario Soodor
Kathryn Winslow	...	Maria Soodor
Anne Marie DeLuise	...	Carla (as Anne Marie Loder)
Joseph Scoren	...	Jason
Alex House	...	Taavo Soodor

Storyline

In the year 2070, police detective David Hume and his partner Ian Farve attempt to track down a group of murderous androids with ties to a corrupt corporation, named Recall, which are based on the planet Mars in this pilot for the sci-fi TV series.

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Plot Keywords:

2070s | film starts with sex | nipple slip | episode starts with sex | tv series pilot | 

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Canada Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Total Recall 2070: Machine Dreams

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Atlantis Communications, PolyGram Television, Pro 7

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The android who serves coffee in the CPB office is named Robby. This is a tribute to Robby the Robot.

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Goofs

Ehrenthal's voice is actually one-half a second ahead of his lips when he is dressing down Hume for arresting Richard Collector.

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Quotes

James Calley: Before you go.
[pauses]
James Calley: The 12mm that killed the android?
David Hume: The out-of-policy 12mm?
James Calley: You have no knowledge of what happened to it?
David Hume: I have no knowledge.
[turns and leaves]
Martin Ehrenthal: [seeing gun on thermal scan] We can stop him before he leaves the building if you want.
James Calley: No. Let him hang onto the gun for the moment. I'm almost more interested in what he plans on doing with it then where it came from.

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Connections

Version of Total Recall (2012)

User Reviews

Another Homage to Philip K. Dick...

This was an unusual video homage to the writing of Philip K. Dick. What made this pilot (and the subsequent series) unusual was that the world pictured was actually a combination of both Total Recall (taken from the story, "We Remember For You, Wholesale") and Bladerunner (from the book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"). This unusual fusion gives the viewer a cop show, with a science-fiction edge which is remarkably sharp.

The story is that of David Hume (Michael Easton), a tired officer of the CPB (citizen's Protection Bureau) who walks a daily tightrope between the duty he owes the people and the cryptic Assessor's Office, which enforces the law on the megalithic corporations whose power dwarfs the government. When Hume's partner Nick Blanchard (Thomas Kretschmann) is killed by rogue androids, he finds himself at odds with everyone. Things only get worse when the department assigns him a new partner, Ian Farve (Karl Pruner), whom Hume sees as naive and hopelessly new to the job. The only bright spot is Hume's lovely wife, Olivia (Cynthia Preston), who is there for him, but she has a few skeletons in her closet, too.

Like Philip K. Dick's own writing, themes of empathy and reality are emphasized throughout the film, while the yawning canyons of skyscrapers and flying cars are offered as a technological counterpoint. The film also mimics one of the central themes in Dick's stories; an existentialist view of the world: do we see things as they really are? Can you, for example, spot the androids in the shots of the streets of Hume's city? The series which followed this movie continued the same style, but its ultimate failure in the ratings was not through poor story quality. The series had, by far, the best writing I've yet seen. What doomed it, I think, was probably the largest irony in the Science Fiction genre. SF stories on TV usually spend too much time on the technological end and not enough on the people themselves. Any one of the Star Trek shows from Next Generation on is a perfect case in point! Total Recall 2070, by contrast, spent too much of its time telling the stories of the people at the CPB; it was too human, and in Philip K. Dick's world of lifelike androids, that is indeed a bitter irony!