I was on a sci-fi binge recently that had me ending up watching Total Recall — the Arnold Schwarzenegger version, which despite its many faults is way better than the Colin Farrell version (which from this point on, everyone should just try to pretend never existed).
Total Recall is a good movie and it has a lot going for it. It’s got an interesting science-y plot, great direction under Paul Verhoeven (who at the time was fresh off the heels of another sci-fi action fave RoboCop), and for 1990, the special effects aren’t that bad.
The technical aspects aside, it’s got Arnie who isn’t exactly a bad thing to have on an action film. Pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone, who plays an excellent antagonist for the first half of the film, gained mainstream recognition through this movie as an agent who can kick ass in a truly nineties powersuit (which in my opinion, shouldn’t exist outside of that decade).
However.
As a self-proclaimed science geek, Total Recall bugs me on the science front.
Spoilers ahead!
Much of the movie is set in Mars after Arnie’s character, Quaid, has a disastrous experience at memory-implantation service, Rekall. Mars, in the film, is under the control of corrupt governor Cohaagen who tolerates dangerous mining practices and holds a monopoly on air.
It’s the monopoly on air aspect where the movie really stumbles on the science. In the film, Mars’s population live in regulated domes where people pay to breathe. By virtue of the Governor Cohaagen’s monopoly, people keep paying more and more to be able to survive (because you can’t just not breathe, right?).
Total Recall’s story starts after an important discovery is made: apparently, the aliens (or people who existed on Mars before humans did) built a reactor capable of digging into Mars’s glacier core and producing oxygen which will eliminate the need for regulated domes. Cohaagen, of course, wants to keep this info hush hush, hence the necessity of eliminating Quaid (The plot’s a bit more complicated than this, though).
Well and good, right? If the reactors start working and converting that glacier that releases oxygen as a by-product, then that means the Mars colony will be free from Cohaagen’s tyranny, right? WRONG.
To live truly breathable, life-sustaining air, that means Mars’s atmosphere has to be able to simulate Earth’s and may only differ by the tiniest of margins. If you were paying attention to science class, you’ll know that the Earth’s atmosphere is composed of roughly 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases.
Now that 78% nitrogen is important. Aside from being used by virtually every living organism for biosynthesis (proteins and DNA, people), it also makes sure we don’t die from too much oxygen — yes, that is a thing. The human body can only be exposed to oxygen until a certain threshold and once partial pressures of oxygen exceed a certain limit, oxygen toxicity occurs and that leads to a number of not-pleasant scenarios. Not to mention, oxygen is fodder for fire, so naturally, a high oxygen environment would experience more fires, a lot of them spontaneous. So really, expect a lot more random explosions. Good luck living in that world.
Presently, Mars’s atmosphere has just about 1% nitrogen, nowhere near enough to sustaining the atmospheric conditions humans are accustomed to. Arnie, however, star of the planet, manages to turn on the reactor and it releases a glorious cloud of what we assume is breathable air that just manages to pull Arnie, who, at this point, was writhing around by virtue of being exposed to the harsh Martian surface, from the brink of death.
Assuming all of that gas released is pure oxygen, the Mars surface is nowhere close to sustaining life, for some of the reasons I’ve outlined above. To add insult to scientific injury, as this big oxygen cloud disperses, the Mars population is treated to the vision of a beautiful, blue Martian sky, much like the sky in Earth.
Again, if you’ve been paying attention in science class, the reason why the sky is blue is because of the presence of — yep, you’ve guessed it! — nitrogen, of which there is barely any in Mars.
Now, at this point in the movie, this internal monologue going on in my head, as the humans rejoice, was just too much and I thought any contention I offer to the science gods of this film could be answered by the very simple cop-out, “But it’s the future.”
Fine, I concede. Take your ridiculous oxygen cloud with you and enjoy your celebratory random explosions, Mars.
I will give you a boon though: there is one scene in the film that is a science win. As Arnie, exposed to Mars without protection, was writhing on the ground, his eyes were bugging out and he was swelling all over just before the fortuitous oxygen cloud saves him. As Daryl, physics teacher extraordinaire of darylscience.com, points out, this scenario is pretty accurate:
Our bodies have evolved here on earth. Therefore, we have exactly one atmosphere of pressure to fight back all the time or we’d collapse. Mars has much less atmosheric pressure than earth. Thus, our own internal pressure would want to come out! Yuck! This is the argument against the common belief that a human body would explode if thrown into the emptiness of space. Not. Unlike a balloon which would explode, we have holes where the pressure can be alleviated. It would simply mean that everything inside would come outside. A mess, but no body explosions.
So science gods of Total Recall, at least this is one point for you, versus one million points for real science gods out there (like Daryl, from darylscience.com).
BONUS: Daryl also tackles the science of other Hollywood movies at (you guessed it) darylscience.com.
Friends, it would help if you told me you read this and whether or not you enjoyed it. I might do more science-related posts like this because despite the frustration, I had fun.
Also, I am not a physics major, so if you see anything wrong with the science I mentioned, please tell me!
