"Wake up! Wake up! Quaid struggled to get up. They only had 10 seconds or so to leave before the alarm drew in to the guards. However, the bullets that flew everywhere immediately sealed the only exit.
"I love you!" Quaid kissed her lover deeply, signaling her to flee from the window...
"Ah!" Quaid was shocked, and it turned out that he was having nightmares again.
Douglas Quaid is a 007 standby worker on the robot police production line. Every night, he was haunted by nightmares.
At the same time, in the same place, he was being hunted down with the same woman who was not his wife. Thinking of this, Quaid shuddered: Is it because of too much pressure, or is there something else hidden?
Frequent nightmares, long-term insomnia... About 1/3 of the world's people, like Quaid, have sleep problems. Dreams are the satisfaction of subconscious desires. Dreaming of being in trouble and being hunted down is a projection of dissatisfaction with reality and escape.
Many nightmare-ridden people have to rely on alcohol and drugs to get rid of the nightmare. However, in the future world, there is a kind of "memory transplantation" black technology that can not only solve Quaid's sleep disorder, but even allow him to live a fantasy life.
As a hit worker of the "996" blessing, if you have such an opportunity to escape the status quo, do you want to change your life?
Total Memories
Phoenix TV Movie Station will broadcast on March 25 at 21:15
At the end of the 21st century, the Earth was divided into two, with the "British Commonwealth" at one end and the "colony" at the other. The global chemical war has made the earth almost uninhabitable, and living space has become the most precious resource.
Quaid is a resident of the "colony" and takes the "fallen road" every day to cross the center of the earth to work in the factory. Plagued by nightmares and unhappy work, Quaid finally came to Rekall to change his fate.
He bought the company's virtual tour. During the journey, he can transform into a super agent who saves the world and turn dreams into reality.
Quaid (Colin Farrell) who receives a memory transplant
However, the process of memory transplantation accidentally touches Quaid's hidden memories. He was inexplicably hunted down by the Commonwealth police, and even the trusted pillow man revealed his true face.
Quaid's wife, Lori (Kate Beckinsale)
In the constant escape, Quaid was rescued by the woman in his dream. It turned out that the woman was Melina, the daughter of the rebel leader Mattia. She had been looking for Quaid, hoping that he would help the colonies resist the oppression of the British Federal Government.
Melina, daughter of the rebel leader (Jessica Bell)
As the line between reality and dream becomes blurred, Quaid, whose life hangs, falls into contemplation: What are realities and which are illusions? What exactly is his true identity? What earth-shattering secrets are hidden behind it?
The film Total Memories (2012) is based on the novel by Philip S. Thompson. K· Dick published his short story "My Memories Can Be Wholesaled" in 1966.
Set in the post-industrial dystopian world, Dick's work revolves around the contradictions of totalitarian governments, mega-conglomerates, artificial intelligence, hackers, and the little people at the bottom, and has been called a precursor to the "cyberpunk" genre.
Philip P. K. Dick
This great genius science fiction writer was not recognized by the world during his lifetime, but the classic science fiction blockbusters such as "Blade Runner", "Total Memories", "Minority Report", and "Blade Runner 2049" that are familiar to the majority of fans are adapted from his novels.
Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049
Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report"
Among them, the 1990 version of "Total Memories" has also been remade many times. The film's exploration of elements such as dreams, multiverses, and dual identities, as well as the confusion of fantasy and reality, have deeply influenced many science fiction movies related to dreams or virtual worlds in later generations, such as "Aurora Hunting Order", "The Matrix", "Hacker in Other Dimensions", "Inception" and so on.
1990 edition of Total Recall, 1999 episode "Total Recall 2070", 2012 version of Total Recall
In the 1990 edition of Total Memories (also known as Cosmic Veyron), Arnold Schwarzenegger's construction worker triggers hidden memories and experiences a thrilling mars adventure. Playing his beautiful wife was Sharon Stone, who later became famous for "Instinct".
Total Memories (1990)
As a big production of the year, the old version of "Total Memory" fully demonstrated the cult elements and absurd fun of old-fashioned science fiction films.
The robot car of the future
Quaid's exposure to the Martian vacuum caused internal pressure to rise outward and protrude from the eyeballs.
Eye-opening mutants
Compared with the old version, the 2012 version of "Total Memories" focuses more on the presentation of intense action scenes and cool visual impact.
20 years later, computer CG technology has also made great strides in the display of sci-fi elements: maglev cars, robot police, under the skin embedded mobile phones, only 17 minutes can cross the "falling road" at both ends of the earth...
Maglev cars
Robo-police with real-time communication skills and independent judgment of killing decisions
However, what most excited the majority of fans is director Len Wiseman's tribute to Blade Runner.
Born in 1982, Blade Runner paints a vivid picture of los Angeles in 2019: dilapidated buildings, deformed buildings, crowded streets, and huge advertisements suspended between buildings.
Giant ad in Blade Runner with an oriental face
There are also the troubles of contemporary people living in this post-industrial city: urban depravity, technological abuse, material waste, air pollution and racial discrimination.
A mix of East Asian elements in Blade Runner
A similar mix of urban styles in Total Memories
This grim, gloomy picture is disappointing and frightening, but it is also reminiscent of the current situation in the United States that has been hit by multiple blows such as the epidemic and the extreme cold storm.
Blade Runner presents a cyberpunk world of a white upper class that pits the underclass against the chaotic multicultural underclass. Here, there is a strong contrast between highly technologically advanced human civilization and fragile and small human individuals.
Tiered cities in Blade Runner
Total Memories presents a similar, violent and depraved world. Multi-level flyovers divide the city in two, with the "Commonwealth" of interests of multinational groups representing the elite at the top and the "colonial" laborers at the bottom, which have long been replaced by artificial intelligence.
A tiered city in Total Memories
As the "screw" on the factory assembly line, Quaid can't see the hope of life even if he works overtime. The immutable life, the seven-year itch of marriage, made him desperate to escape from reality.
As a result, Quaid can only achieve a fully immersive "dream" through high technology.
In fact, elements such as "memory transplantation, dream customization, dream reading" and other elements have long been common in science fiction movies.
For example, the "replicants" implanted with memory devices in Blade Runner have the same memories and emotions as humans; Neil in "The Matrix" learned martial arts through memory transplant software and even quickly mastered the skill of flying airplanes; the dreamers in "Inception" can not only steal secrets from human dreams, but also implant some fictional beliefs into people's consciousness through dreams...
The dream-making process of Inception
Although it sounds incredible, these "black technologies" are not far away from us.
In 1978, former German biologists proved that bees' memories could be transplanted through experiments by bees looking for honey.
In 1997, researchers exchanged memories for two German Shepherds.
In 2018, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) claimed to have successfully achieved memory transplantation in sea snails by injecting ribonucleic acid (RNA).
However, the human brain is much more complex than the animal brain, and the most difficult problem in the various advanced functions of the human brain is the way memory is stored. With the development of medicine and technology today, can human memory storage and transplantation really be realized?
In 2016, Elon Musk founded Neuralink, a company that researches neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces. The company's research focuses on creating brain-computer interaction devices that can be implanted into the human brain, allowing the human brain to be directly connected to computing devices.
Neuralink's first product is the new "post-brain intubation" technology. Through a neurosurgery robot, it is safe and painless to perforate the head like minimally invasive eye surgery, quickly implant a chip into the brain, and then read the brain signal directly through the USB-C interface and can be controlled with an iPhone.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
In August 2020, Neuralink launched a coin-sized chip, LINK V0.9, that can be implanted in the head. The chip communicates with brain cells through electrodes and connects to external devices via Bluetooth low energy, digitizing brainwave signals.
At that time, the human brain will be combined with artificial intelligence to not only store and play back memories, but even transfer memories to other devices, such as completely new bodies or robots.
Neuralink's LINK V0.9 chip has a diameter of 23 mm and a thickness of 8 mm, supports wireless charging, and has a one-day battery life.
They have successfully implanted chips and wires into the monkey's skull, using this extremely thin wire to connect to the brain, achieving the goal of letting the monkey play games through brain waves.
Like existing wearable technologies, in addition to direct brain-computer communication, chips can monitor body temperature, pressure values and exercise data, and through these data, issue warning messages to users about heart attacks or strokes.
In addition, deaf-mute people and stroke patients can communicate with others through this device. These people with disabilities can also express their thoughts with the help of other electronic devices connected to them, such as smartphones.
The technology will also help treat diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia and spinal injuries, addressing problems such as memory loss, hearing impairment, insomnia and depression.
Regarding when to transplant chips to human brains, Musk said that in order to ensure the safety of transplanted chips, close communication is currently being carried out with relevant departments in the United States. If all goes well, human experiments will begin later this year.
Neuralink's brain-computer interface technology sinks electrodes into the brain and then uses chips to communicate with computers outside the skull. (Source: CNET website)
If the experiment is successful, those whimsical sci-fi scenarios will become a reality. At that time, humans can not only rely on telepathy to send each other messages, but also achieve another form of "immortality" after death by preserving and transferring memories to another person or robot.
However, this disruptive technology has created great controversy while changing the world.
In the face of the invasive surgery of "opening the head and inserting the chip", how many people are willing to bear the safety hazards and medical risks caused by it?
Even if the surgery proves to be risk-free, are you, or yourself, the one who accepts the memories of others? Will you also have the same identity anxiety as Quaid, even unable to distinguish between reality and illusion, and eventually trapped in other people's memories?
As the boundaries between robots and humans become increasingly blurred, in the modern society where artificial intelligence fully penetrates human life, if robots have human memories and even self-awareness, how to avoid ethical confusion and loss of control? How to prevent robots from threatening human privacy and even life safety?
In the Terminator series, the supercomputer Skynet has its own will, sees humanity as a threat, and uses weapons of mass destruction to exterminate all mankind.
Since "donor" resources are scarce, what kind of "recipient" can preferentially enjoy this result? Will memory transplantation create a new intellectual hegemony, further widen the gap between the rich and the poor, make the class divide more serious, and will ordinary people face more serious exploitation by "super human beings"?
All these questions are still unanswered. However, Quaid, who has been erased from his original memory, tries everything he can to recover his memory and find his lost self.
Faced with Quaid's confusion, the rebel leader told him meaningfully: "Everyone wants to find their true self, but they don't know that the answer is in the present, not in the past." ”
Existence and nothingness, memory and reality, either way, it seems that there will be regrets.
Live the moment, follow your heart, and it will tell you the answer.
A tribute to Blade Runner
Movie Q&A
Would you like to receive a memory transplant?
Text: Fore Magic Song
Editors: Fore Magic Song, Li Wei