Entrambe.
Atto di Forza, film del 1990 diretto da Paul Verhoeven e interpretato da Arnold Schwarzenegger è volutamente disseminato di indizi che portano lo spettatore a credere, in egual misura, che le vicende del protagonista siano un sogno oppure la realtà.
Per anni i fan del film, ispirato ad un racconto breve di Philip K. Dick: “Ricordiamo per voi” (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale) si sono interrogati se l’avventura del protagonista, Quaid, fosse un sogno, una memoria impiantata, oppure la realtà.
Fino a che, in un’intervista: “Paul Verhoeven FINALLY Explains The Ending of ‘Total Recall’” il regista pose finalmente la pietra tombale sulla discussione.
Total Recall doesn’t say whether it’s reality or it is a dream, you know? It’s really saying there’s this reality and there’s that reality, and both exist at the same time
Paul Verhoeven
Poi aggiunge:
I wanted it to be that way. Because I felt that it was – if you want to use a very big word – post-modern. I felt that basically I should not say ‘This is true, and this not true.’ I wanted – and we worked with Gary Goldman on that, not the original writers – [and we] worked very hard to make both consistent, and that both would be true. And I think we succeeded very well. So I think of course there is no solution. Hey, it’s both true. So I thought, two realities; that it was innovative in movie language at least, to a certain degree, that there would be two realities and there is no choice.
Paul Verhoeven
In conclusione, le ambiguità e gli indizi, lungo tutto il film, sono volti premeditatamente a creare due interpretazioni delle vicende del film, entrambe corrette e sbagliate allo stesso tempo.