Monday
Jul192010
Thoughts on Inception
Monday, July 19, 2010 at 6:08PM This will probably not be a long post but I have found the movie fascinating and thought I would blog about it.
So, I am in the camp that they whole thing is a dream.
1) I was nearly sure I saw Pete Postlethwaite at the beginning of the movie.
2) Why did he come to the Ken Watanabe's palace in the beginning and the end?
3) He's not using his own totem... he's using his wife's. So it doesn't matter if it's spinning or not.
4) His wife is his subconscious attacking the dream.
5) You can hear the respirator when he's in the airport at the end.
Your thoughts?
a
Reader Comments (18)
How often do you dream about other people when you're not around? I don't know about you, but I only dream as if I am experiencing what is happening, and as if I am looking out from my own eyes.
It might be a dream but then it would be odd to have any action or scene that takes place without DiCaprio in it. That makes it more likely that the end is a dream because it never looses focus on DiCaprio after he wakes up no does it explain what he used as a "kick" to get out.
Alex, I like the idea that he's using his wife's totem. However, if he was dreaming, wouldn't he KNOW that it's not his totem? Wouldn't we have seen him use his OWN totem at some point?
The biggest support of your idea is that his children didn't age. He comes home to them in the exact same state he remembered them. Yet, when he's talking to them on the phone, he has a hard time figuring out which child is speaking (implying they've aged since he saw them last). He's become an expert in this field, and again, the assumption is that he's been working hard to get back to his children and significant time has elapsed. So they should have aged.
1) In the pictures you mean?
2) That was a bit of foreshadow. The beginning scene was actually the ending, and then the rest of the movie was showing what happened up to that point.
3) How so? The totem's are not unique in that they only do specific things for that one person. It's what you know about them and why they are unique to you. So Cobb knew why it was unique to his wife but (I don't think at least) and he carried that trait/secret with him. Kinda like say I have a metal ball. I know exactly how it feels in my hand, the markings on it etc. If I die and then say my spouse takes it, they also know what about it is unique and can keep using it.
4) Yes. It's a collage of his memories of her put into a persona that his sub-concious created. It embodies his guilt etc.
5) I'll have to listen for that at the end when I see it for the third time lol. But doesn't make sense for him to hear it. Why wouldn't you hear it when they were in the other dreams? You could hear the music because it was a concentrated sound through the headphones. They weren't able to hear the mob at the beginning for instance.
I think the end is a dream because his children are in the same clothes as when he left them and they hadn't aged a day.
there's a respirator sound that comes on and off throughout the movie in the deep background of the soundtrack... it was still running in the airport. Unless is was just bad AC in the theater :)
a
I didn't notice the clothes.
I have a feeling his wife was correct and is alive and he is stuck in the dream with her totem.
a
Alright so if he's in a dream who's dream is he in? It has to be his own dream because there are points in the movie where the totem falls over. Only him and his wife know that is why it's unique.
If he's in his own dream, then shouldn't he have been kicked several times for a variety of reasons? But maybe he's got so much experience that he can ignore that and not wake up.
If he's in his wife's dream, then if she dies shouldn't the dream fall apart? There is no one else to build it. You get into a lot more sticky things. Here's a more detailed thing I wrote elsewhere's:
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At the end of the film we don't find out if it kept spinning or not. That was the point of the abrupt cut.
So I just came back from watching it again (soooo good the second time around as well). At each point when they were in (our) perceived reality the top would always fall over. Anytime that he was in a dream was when the top continually spinned. So that leaves two things open for debate. Whether he was in reality or if he was in a dream that he didn't know about.
In a dream: So yeah, his kids didn't look much older (the girl was slightly taller I though, but doubt it). But I'm not sure if that's due to the time he was away. He's probably been gone for quite a while because he's been trying to buy his way back doing jobs. He only became an extractor after Molly's death (I think at least). Also, you need to explain why the top would fall over.
I was watching each time he spun it and there was only once (other then the ending) where it's uncertain whether it fell over. So you know where he goes to find the Chemist dude? They go down and see the people asleep? He does a trial of the compound and comes out of it to the washroom. When he tries to spin the top, he's interrupted. So I'm thinking maybe he was still asleep right there.
Molly also made another point near the end. Those anonymous corporations act like sub-concious security. Problem is... who's security is that? It can't be his because they don't attack their own (Cobb). So that would mean he's in someone else's dream. I doubt it could be Molly because when she jumped off the ledge, that would mean he's in her head still (I think). There had to have been several times as well that he had a "kick".
In reality: So the top stops spinning at a bunch of points. At those times that means he was not in a dream, or at the very least he was not in someone else's dream. If he was in his own dream, his sub-concious would have known about the totem gimmick he has in place and would have been able to cheat it. As for the kids... the age I think was likely just something they did to keep the same actors throughout filming. Them being in the same place at the end was a way to bookend the story for Cobb. Kinda like how the end of LOST is pretty much a complete reversal of the opening scene of the Pilot.
Funny thing I thought of, Fischer's father dies in Sydney. They all travel to LA to bury his father. Notice any parallels? LOST? Hehe, would have been funny if they all got stuck on an island. LOST also had the idea that they were all dead to begin with (not the case anyways) and that there was limbo. Same similar parallels.
He knew he was in the dream world. He chose to stay with his kids, as that's what he wanted most. (as stated, kids didn't age, etc). None of this actually happened. The entire film was in the mind's eye.
Annoying note about the cinema I went to: occasionally they would flash a sub-second light burst into the audience. I think this is a new anti-recording measure. I seriously considered demanding my money back, but it was 2AM when the film got out. Has anyone else noticed this flash? It was localised in the centre of the screen, at the bottom (below the screen itself).
Typing on a train on iPad. Please forgive spelling oddness.
I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. I have just been reading this blog post which kind of supports your theory. http://chud.com/articles/articles/24477/1/NEVER-WAKE-UP-THE-MEANING-AND-SECRET-OF-INCEPTION/Page1.html
I'm not sure if I go along with it entirely, I really think I need to see it again but I don't think it really matters in the end if he is dreaming or not. I think ultimately we can just make up our own mind. :)
I believe he is NOT in a dream, if only because the story is resolved at the end, and dreams (at least MY dreams) are never resolved!
Matthew
I like Damon Lindelof's response..."There is a THIRD possibility -- It neither stopped... nor kept spinning. The story ended before either could happen. Discuss."
...which is the perfect response from the writer of Lost. (And it works for the end of The Sopranos too.)
Comments on our Facebook thread about Inception:
Check these "theories" : http://bordersac.com/tech-journal/2010/7/19/thoughts-on-inception.html
Eric July 19 at 7:42pm
Hmmmmm. Fascinating theories. The guy who goes over dream vs reality is very good. In many ways this film reminds me of 12 Monkeys. Different people have two thoughts on the end - Bruce Willis saved mankind or he didn't.
I think the most interesting point is, why is Cobb using his wife's totem and not one of his own? Thinking about that causes me to lean towards the dream argument. However, if he is still in a dream, when did he enter it? There would be some clear clue.
That's why I lean towards reality. Okay, so the kids look the same age - but how long has he been gone? No one can really say. As to the question, "What kick did he use to come back to reality?" - It doesn't matter. He already showed us in the sequence with his wife that he could make a kick to bring himself back at any time. The only thing keeping him there was his wife.
So when he finally lets her go, he is finalyy ready to do what's necessary to move on. In some ways I think that his wife kept him in the dream but his kids were his personal totem to bring him back to reality.
Bryan Hudson July 19 at 7:57pm
I'm going to see it again (which is part the marketing plan for sure!). Did he see his grandfather in the USA or in Europe? Didn't his wife stab him in the dream? Didn't they leave him on the van? I missed how he got back.
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Bryan July 19 at 8:30pm
The film started in a dream, but we don't know what level.
Eric July 20 at 12:06pm
So I woke up this morning thinking about the movie AGAIN - lol! You guys help me to see if I'm remembering this right. Whatever is locked in the safe is your secret. (Saito's plans, the will, etc) Cobb's totem was actually Mal's deepest secret, what he found locked inside the safe of her mind. (I don't remember if we were told what that secret was) But Cobb alters that secret and the spinning totem that he locks back in her mind now represents the inception in the same way that the pinwheel represents inception. In Mal's case, it is the thought he planted that "this is not real". So I think that after they escape and Mal kills herself, he creates a totem, something that will help him stay focused on what is reality, which is the symbol of Mal's secret, which is now the symbol of his secret and what grounds him in reality, his guilt. From this point on he instructs others to have a totem that will ground them in reality as well. Do they need this? Not really.
I think that Cobb conditioned himself with the new sedatives so that he could protect his team from Mal and be able to prepare himself to "kick" himself and his team out if they should get "killed" in the dream. Once Cobb finally confronts Mal and releases her by releasing his guilt, his totem no longer has any power because his guilt is no longer grounding him. At that point, life, the ability to move on,, saving Saito so that he can see his children again, is what grounds him even more. I think the spinning totem at the end is a metaphor that he is now living his dream.
Bryan July 20 at 12:38pm
Eric: Cobb needs to put YOU on his next team!
I fully agree with your analysis. Cobb's main motivation was to go home. That's why he took the job. That was the reason for everything he did--to get back to his children. He had taken the Inception method too far (kinda like the people getting into the wrong type of "prosperity" message or trying to live on prophecies) and it caused harm. That's why kept warning people not to abuse it, because he did.
He used his special abilities to do a "win-win" using the other team members: Help the asian guy stop the dominance of a single company controlling global energy, clear his name, purge his guilt and get his kids.
At the end, the spinning top wobbled, which meant it was going to fall. It was a "happy ever after" ending.
I think Cobb escaped the dream despite the fact that it wasn't shown when he left the submerged van. The reason why is because Miles (Played by Michael Caine) was there when Cobb went back to his children. And the reason why Miles wasn't in a deep dream as some might suspect is because Miles was the one who referred Ariadne (Helen Page) to Cobb... Well that's my theory. I'll have to watch it again.
I think that Inception is better than Shutter Island if only just because of the possibility of a happy ending.
Oh. So after Ariadne had found Fischer and thrown him off the building to "kick" him awake, Cobb said that he would follow later when he found Saito, because Saito had died and was in the world somewhere. Only after washing up on shore did Cobb finally find Saito, which happened at the beginning of the film. For some reason Saito had Cobb's totum, which he then spun and that was when Cobb started to remember who he was and what he was looking for.
The whole point of the movie is "Women are always right" hehe.
His wife knew they were stuck sharing a dream and killed herself and got out. I picked that when they showed her jumping.
He's still stuck in limbo in a mess of his own imaginings. He thinks he's escaped at the end, but he's only fooling himself. No doubt his body is somewhere stuck on a respirator system a'la The Matrix while he lives out his 'life' in the dream world.
"5) You can hear the respirator when he's in the airport at the end."
Shades of Vanilla Sky. ;)
His wife's totem -- if it's her totem we keep seeing throughout the movie, whose idea was really the inception? Or maybe it was proof that inception didn't work.
I just saw it, so need to ponder more; it's a nice change to see a movie that generates discussion and thinking, but first pass has me wondering if anything was real.
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