get your ass 2 mars

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<learn:pop culture> most people versed in the arnold schwarzenegger canon are familiar with the line, ‘get your ass to mars,’ from the movie <total recall>. (this phrase is presented at 0:39 of the song marz, and recurs throughout afterwards.)

arnold schwarzenegger, larger than life, came seeking the american dream in 1970. the stops along the way led to mr universe titles, scene-stealing in the documentary <pumping iron>, the improbable leading man in <conan the barbarian>, whose thick austrian accent would surely be too weird, ethnic, or indecipherable for american movie-goers. then came even more improbable superstardom that included mainstream action and comedy leads, and eventually to the most improbable role: governor of california.

at the peak of his cultural apex, arnold produced and starred in the movie, <total recall>. the film is based on the 1966 short story <we can remember It for you wholesale> by philip k. dick. total recall tells the story of douglas quaid (schwarzenegger), a construction worker who receives an implanted memory of a fantastical adventure on mars. he subsequently finds his adventure occurring in reality as agents of a shadow organization try to prevent him from recovering memories of his past as a martian secret agent aiming to stop the tyrannical regime of the planet's dictator vilos cohaagen.

since its release, total recall has been praised for its ambiguous ending positing whether quaid's adventures are real or a fantasy, and it has also been analyzed for themes of authoritarianism and colonialism. Retrospective reviews have called it one of Schwarzenegger's best films and placed it among the best science fiction films ever made. <you can thank wikipedia for the write-up by donating to the wikimedia foundation>

the themes within the film still resonate today: the fragility of memory, manipulation of our thinking and perception, environmental degradation, and fractured interpretations of reality. the film’s take on interplanetary environmental destruction for profit connects to the accompanying samples within marz.