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In the Mars version, it was a doctor. In the 2012 version, his friend, Harry. How did he know to not take the pill / shoot his friend rather than Melina?

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In the 1990 version:

  • Dr. Edgemar claims it doesn't matter to him if he gets shot, because he isn't actually real. But when Quaid notices a drop of sweat running down Dr. Edgemar's face he takes it as a tell-tale sign that Dr. Edgemar is lying (why would he be afraid to die if he is not real?)

        Sweat


In the 2012 version:

  • Harry tells Quaid that Melina (and everything else) is not real. But when Quaid notices that Melina sheds a tear because she is afraid of losing the man she loves, he decides that she must be real.

    Wether or not that makes sense is related to this question.

        Teardrop

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umm... what? care to add a bit more explanation because this doesn't make any sense to me. – DForck42♦ Nov 20 '12 at 15:57
In the original movie, the man's drop of sweat indicated the man was not a computer-generated hallucination but a real human who was scared because he was in real danger. Similarly, in the remake, the woman's tear indicated she was experiencing genuine emotion and therefore was a real person. I'll edit this into the answer now... – Shane Finneran Nov 20 '12 at 17:48
@DForck42 - Sorry, only after your comment I realized that my answer wouldn't make any sense to someone who hasn't seen the 1990 adaption. I expanded my answer. – Oliver_C Nov 20 '12 at 18:08
@ShaneFinneran - Thanks for trying to help me out. – Oliver_C Nov 20 '12 at 18:09
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In the 1990 version, I would stress that this does NOT resolve the question "was it real, or a dream?" which is fundamental to the movie. Dr. Edgemar's explanation could be 100% accurate; the sweat could be either a measure of Quaid's subconscious control over the dream creating cues that his subconscious wants, or Dr. Edgemar could easily be stressed about being the final hope to save the life of a patient. The sweat resolves the question to Quaid's satisfaction, but not an outside observer. I've not seen the 2012 version, but I expect the same applies. – Scivitri Nov 21 '12 at 1:26

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