It took several years, dozens of screenplay drafts, and multiple teams of actors and directors to bring Philip K. Dick’s short story “I Can Remember It For You Wholesale” to the screen, but the end-result, directed with gusto by Paul Verhoeven, is a mind-bending action classic that unfolds like a sci-fi North by Northwest. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Quaid, a construction worker on Mars in the late 21st century, who undergoes an unusual identity crisis while trying to save himself and the working-class Mars colonists from an interplanetary conspiracy. The film was nominated for its Sound and Sound Effects Editing, and received a Special Achievement Award for its Visual Effects, including the literally eye-popping creations of Rob Bottin (The Thing).

DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven. WRITTEN BY: Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Gary Goldman. SCREEN STORY BY: Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill. CAST: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox. 1990. 109 min. USA. Color. English. 35mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.  

Oscar Sundays in June and July highlight summer hits and fan favorite blockbusters.

Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.