Inception (2010)

[biodroid]

Mouse - not that I can recall, it seems like they were still in the dream world which makes sense but then again with a mind bending movie like this anything goes and that the fun of it. I reckon it was an actual flashback because they are consciously remembering what happened in the dream so that is how he saw himself and his wife because they were there so long.

 

[Mouse]

I guess that makes more sense. I hope it wasn't a continuity error or something anyway!

 

[biodroid]

Hehe, i didn't pick it up, but will be getting it on Blu-ray just to ake sure anyway

 

[Culhwch]

In such a measured, thought-out film, I have no doubt it wasn't a continuity error. I read it the same way as biodroid.

 

[JenJen]

Watched Inception last night.
Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.
Fabulous environments (I especially liked the lanterns in the asian-style building in the beginning and end)
Fantastic CGI. (The bit where the new architect plays around with Cobbs dream and blows a lot of stuff up)
Nice characters. (I especially loved Mal. She was a thoroughly unsettling character)

Intense moments! My favourite must be when the new architect (what's her name again?) plays around inside Cobbs dream and his conscience starts fighting back. The scene where they are on the bridge and Mal starts walking towards her, through the crowd, in a quick pace while the architect is screaming: Wake me up! Wake me up! WAKE ME UP--

Heart stopping moment! Gah!

 

[clovis-man]

Fabulous environments (I especially liked the lanterns in the asian-style building in the beginning and end)

I just thought of this yesterday (and I've "only" seen the movie once, so have had no chance to check to see if I'm right): The interiors remind me greatly of the Francis Little house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's well known that Wright was fascinated with Japanese art and it shows. Coincidence?

My favourite must be when the new architect (what's her name again?) plays around inside Cobbs dream and his conscience starts fighting back.

Ariadne. That was Ellen Page, who played the title role in Juno.

 

[Allan06]

I realised after watching this movie and reading the ideas of people who's been analyzing the movie; trying to find out whether it was all a dream or it wasn't or simply he's back in the real world with his kids. If you truely think about it, it doesn't matter, it happy ending because in both perspective he is happy now and he is at peace with his kids and no longer in torment.

 

[biodroid]

I aso thought maybe he likes to stay in the dream world because he can see his kids but then again it's supposed to be a "what if" scenario just to play with head.

 

[Dave]

1) It matters if there is going to be a sequel.

2) It matters in relation to Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the decision that Neo must make at the end of the Matrix trilogy, of whether to wake people up from their illusions. The question is "happiness" over "the truth".

 

[clovis-man]

1) It matters if there is going to be a sequel.

Oh, please, no! Can't we just have a nice stand-alone movie?

 

[biodroid]

Hehe, one can only hope for a sequel to explore this new dimension properly but I don't think it will be made just doesn't make sense to do Inception Part 2, "Return of the Dream Thief, one man against an entire subconscious...again...will he ever see the faces of his grand kids..."

 

[Anthony G Williams]

Written, directed and produced by the brilliant Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), this was one of the films of 2010 most eagerly awaited by SF fans.

It is set in the near future in a world the same as ours except that a combination of drugs and technology permits people to invade the dreams of others, imposing their own dream structures (designed by specialist "architects") in order to obtain secrets and even influence their target's subsequent actions (a process known as "inception"). The principal character, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert at this, and is hired by a powerful industrial organisation to influence the heir to a rival energy corporation (Cillian Murphy) to break up the corporation on the imminent death of his father. Cobb assembles a team who succeed in drugging the heir on a long flight and proceed to take him on a dream journey, steadily downwards through dreams within dreams, each with its own distinct setting, until facing him with a modified recreation of his father's deathbed scene. During this process, Cobb is hounded by guilty memories of his wife (Marion Cotillard), who committed suicide as a result of his manipulations, and who appears in the dreams constantly trying to frustrate his actions.

This is an intelligent, convincing and exciting thriller which held my attention throughout, but it certainly requires concentration to keep up with the fast-moving events as the story keeps flipping between dream levels. I understand that a lot of viewers found it baffling, but as I was aware of the general plot in advance I had no problem in following it. However, there were some details I was uncertain about or unaware of, and I found the Wiki plot summary (which I read after seeing the film) useful in tidying up some loose ends.

I rarely watch films more than once, but if I've enjoyed one enough to want to see it again, I like to leave at least a couple of years between viewings so that the details have faded from my memory. However, Inception is one of those rare films that I immediately knew I would want to watch again before long, in order to obtain even more enjoyment through a deeper understanding the next time around.

Christopher Nolan has done it again - the man seems unable to make anything but excellent films. What I like most about his work is that it is exciting but also highly original and intelligent - a league above the usual by-the-numbers, predictable and sometimes downright moronic level of Hollywood action movies.

(An extract from my SFF blog)

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Ok, sorry to come late to the party but I've only just seen the film on DVD.

If others have pointed out my observations again forgive.

Regarding the film itself I thought it was very good although there were a few plot problems which I could easily forgive given the overall feel.

The thing that struck me was how it reflected so well my own dreamscapes and dream within dream experiences. Uncannily 'lifelike'.

As to the ending, in my opinion it is a dream. The golden rule was that no one ahold ever get their hands on anothers token. If someone did they would learn it's properties and hence be able to make the invented dream world appear real.

However this is where the last scene fell down. If the top was the actual top it should fall over after the 'correct' time. But it would only be relavent if the top was spun by it's owner because he needs to see it fall. So spun in isolation the top is useless. The fact the token is not in the hero's possession is the real tell as this just shouldn't happen: however, it is and it doesn't fall indicatiing that the grandfather has it and can control it.

So he is the dream master and he's in the hero' dream. So all that went before was a setup to convince the hero the return to the US was real and earned.

The major problem there is that only the hero and his wife know what they did and what kind of world they created and at what level. You can only manipulate my dreamworld if you know what I dream about and believe me I ain't telling anyone. Especially as Mrs Tein as forbidden me to divulge them.

 

[Dave]

I really do like your idea that 'Reality' was actually only the Grandfather's dream. I've not seen that idea anywhere else and I can't fault your argument for it. It would mean that there were actually 6 dream levels and not 5. Unfortunately, I don't think it is what Christopher Nolan had in mind, at least not if this is really his handwritten map:
See Christopher Nolan's Handwritten Map Of The Inception Dream Levels
And a 5 level dream explanation is what most people describe, but I really like films that can be talked about like this forever and no one can really say, or are none the wiser.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Another aspect of the 'wrongness' of the return was the children appeared not to have aged at all despite his long absence.

My original thoughts on seeing the girl that the grandfather introduce was

"Oh, hello, this is the the daughter"

However this didn't seem to pan out.

As I said I came late to the party. Your comments about the newness of my idea does seem to have been explored though because, after reading your post above, I discovered this :-

Dissecting 'Inception': Six Interpretations and Five Plot Holes - The Moviefone Blog

Which seems to highlight some of the misgivings I mentioned in my first post.

I have no doubt there will be a sequel. Too much was left untidy at the end IMO.

I wouldn't be surprised if the wife makes a reappearance in the next level up.

By this I mean this plot line gives all sorts of opportunities. It could easily end with a new born baby or some old guy who has just died.

Incidentally, and I may have mentioned this before, I'm becoming more convinced that this form of dream is the underlying argument for life after death.

As I mentioned above, in recent years, I have experienced this form of 'reality' in my own dreamscapes. That is I have begun having dreams where I live a completely different life. Waking and sleeping for forty or fifty years with all the mundane events one experiences in 'real life' only to wake and find it all a dream. I suspect that in those last gasping moments of death where the brain is rapidly loosing it's grip on reality there is the possibility of vast time lines of dream existence; the only difference being that at the end you don't wake up.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

Incidentally, and I may have mentioned this before, I'm becoming more convinced that this form of dream is the underlying argument for life after death.

As I mentioned above, in recent years, I have experienced this form of 'reality' in my own dreamscapes. That is I have begun having dreams where I live a completely different life. Waking and sleeping for forty or fifty years with all the mundane events one experiences in 'real life' only to wake and find it all a dream. I suspect that in those last gasping moments of death where the brain is rapidly loosing it's grip on reality there is the possibility of vast time lines of dream existence; the only difference being that at the end you don't wake up.

Unfortunately all of the growing body of evidence concerning the mind and the way it functions reinforces the case for this being inextricably linked to brain function: when the brain ceases to function, our life ends.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

A G W: Without doubt.

However, in those few minutes between the body ceasing to function and the brain actually dying (three to four minutes** so I'm told, which is also reputed to be the length of the average dream) there would perhaps, be time for for one last monster dream.

If a brain in such a state was subsequently revived, the mind/person might get the impression that it had in actual fact, experienced an afterlife state.

** I understand that hearing is one of the last senses to go. Which is why, if you are in the presence of someone who has just passed, you shouldn't bewail and scream at the loss, as this will be the last thing the dying person will experience.

 

[J Riff]

Watched it twice. At the end- would prefer to think it was all just one dream, containing the other 5 or 6 levels, because A: explains any anomalies in plot, and
B: too much trouble to try and figure out who's dreaming what!
Good action movie no matter what else is actually supposed to be going on.
I had a top just like that, but haven't seen it for years...

 

[soulsinging]

Its like watching Matrix but without ever writing about the fake world,what the machines was doing,why they needed the humans etc

If you think the world of the matrix made sense after the first movie, then I need better drugs.

[spoilers]

Inception is miles ahead of most movies in my book. I'm convinced that Cobb is still dreaming at the end... the identical look of his kids at an age where they'd change rapidly, the unexplained move of michael cane from france to the us, the way saito completely and conveniently (in the way only a dream agent can) erases a murder from his past... all hallmarks of a dream.

in fact... and here's my 2 cents... i think he has been in mal's dream the whole time... but i've had too much wine to explain this theory now.

 

[biodroid]

soulsinging - my thoughts exactly, I also think:
[Spoilers]

That when they were in limbo, didn't Saito have his totem? Which as Arthur explained to Ariadne that if anyone else touches it it defeats the object of it's use, thats why it looked like it fell over at the end which means that he probably is in a dream because his totem is tainted so it will act untrue to whoever uses it now.

[Spoiler end]

I heard they might make a sequel or they might move it along to a tv series.