The futuristic cars of Total Recall, behind the scenes

Published by Mike on February 3, 2010

Total Recall cars

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away? No, wrong movie), reader Greg Allen caught our post on the Boonie Bug and sent in some screengrabs from the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall guessing that the Johnnycab was based on a Boonie Bug. It wasn’t, but that post did inspire James Belohovek to get in touch with us. James did some work on the Johnny in the Johnnycab and had a chance to take plenty of pictures on set during the filming of the movie. He writes:

I worked at a make-up shop that did the Robot inside the cab. All of us at the shop only knew it as Johnnycab (not describing the whole car and everything in it). Rob Bottin of THE HOWLING, THE THING, And ALL of the make-up effects in TOTAL RECALL called me up to finish off the fiberglass chest, head, and hat of the Robot (Body shopping like a car shop using evercoat bondo). Henrey Alvarez had sculpted the chest suit and parts of the head. The head was molded off of Robert Picardo of Star Trek, The hologram medical officer. Rob loved to use his face.

Once on the job I was required to sand down, add vents(I have a chum box of parts that I pull out for detail pieces), cut the torso, add a pedestal with controls and a wide base. I normally work as a model maker and have worked on some very cool projects but this job I was a prop maker. I also got stuck having to paint him. Jim Clark (Who does the Jack-In-The-Box head for the commercials) helped me hand mix the lacquer paints for the Robot. I also had to make the hat on his head but a technician made the chaser unit.

Because I had body shopped, mixed the paints and soldered the 20 odd lights in his hat I had to go down and baby sit while they did night shots just in case he got ruffed up. During the day I was free to wander around the Studio and take pictures, I did take some shots while they were shooting at night, everyone seemed cool about it.