In the year 2084, construction worker Douglas Quaid is having troubling dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman there. His wife Lori dismisses the dreams and discourages him from thinking about Mars, where the governor, Vilos Cohaagen, is fighting a rebellion. At Rekall, a company that provides memory implants of vacations, Quaid opts for a memory trip to Mars as a secret agent. However, something goes wrong during the procedure, and Quaid starts revealing suppressed memories of actually being a secret agent. The Rekall employees sedate him, wipe his memory of the visit, and send him home. On the way, Quaid is attacked by his friend Harry and some other men, and is forced to kill them. He is then attacked in his apartment by Lori, who states that she isn't his wife; their marriage is a false memory implant, and Cohaagen sent her to monitor Quaid. He is then attacked and pursued by armed men led by Richter, Cohaagen's operative and Lori's real husband.