About

Two Weeks is a memorable quote form the 1990 America science fiction action film Total Recall. In the film, the character Quaid poses as a middle-aged woman and attempts to sneak past interplanetary customs, telling them he will be on Mars for two weeks. The disguise malfunctions and repeats the phrase "two weeks."

Origin

On June 1st, 1990, the film Total Recall was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, the character Quaid (portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger) attempts to enter Mars in a disguise. When customs asks how long he will be staying on Mars, Quaid's disguise, a robotic middle-aged woman (portrayed by Priscilla Allen), malfunctions and begins repeating "two weeks."

On November 22nd, 2006, YouTuber David Inman uploaded the earliest available clip of the sign. The post received more than 764,000 views in less than 15 years (shown below).

Spread

Over the next decade, GIFs, images of the scene continued to spread online. For example, on February 4th, 2013, Tumblr ^[2] user televandalist posted a GIF of the scene that received more than 2,100 notes in less than 10 years (shown below, left).

Variations of the meme, replacing the woman's head and Quaid's head with other cultural figures also grew in popularity. For example, on February 6th, 2017, YouTuber Nix Bros. published a variation in that replaces the heads with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The post received more than 8,900 views in less than four years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References