In the '80s, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven came to America and started churning out a series of notable sci-fi adventures. "Robocop" established him as a distinct voice within the genre, and then Arnold Schwarzenegger tapped him to direct the long-gestating "Total Recall." During that time, he also managed to gain a reputation for his no-nonsense approach to filmmaking.

That was certainly the case by 1989 when it came time to shoot "Total Recall," a retelling of the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick. Verhoeven assembled a talented cast to tell the story of Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), a construction worker who, plagued by dreams of Mars, opts to have memories of the planet implanted in his head, only to find out the dreams were actual memories. It's all a bit confusing, really, but it proved successful despite its gargantuan (for the time) budget of 65 million.