Inception (2010)
Christopher Nolan is a special kind of filmmaker. As we saw in yesterday’s review, he isn’t afraid to tackle subject matter beyond this world. Outer space has long fascinated humans, but inner space is also unknown, and that’s why Nolan chose to go there.
Blowing Up our Misconceptions
Note the time clue given in this sequence: five minutes in the dream feels like an hour. (It’s the same under hypnosis.)
Losing a Grip on Reality
In this sequence, the Architect was told to build the dream world from imagination, not on the memory of an actual place. Otherwise, the result could be catastrophic.
A Dream Within a Dream Within a Dream…
What Nolan proposed in this story was that a person could be taken to deeper and deeper levels of consciousness through dream work. This is psychoanalysis at work.
The result is a lengthening of time so that, by the sixth or seventh level, a whole life could be lived in just a day.
The Plot
Dominick “Dom” Cobb and Arthur are “extractors”, who perform corporate espionage using an experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract valuable information through a shared dream world. Their latest target, Japanese businessman Saito, reveals that he arranged their mission himself to test Cobb for a seemingly impossible job: planting an idea in a person’s subconscious, or “inception”. To break up the energy conglomerate of ailing competitor Maurice Fischer, Saito wants Cobb to convince Fischer’s son and heir, Robert, to dissolve his father’s company. In return, Saito promises to use his influence to clear Cobb of a murder charge, allowing Cobb to return home to his children. Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: Eames, a conman and identity forger; Yusuf, a chemist who concocts a powerful sedative for a stable “dream within a dream” strategy; and Ariadne, an architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes, recruited with the help of Cobb’s father-in-law, Professor Stephen Miles. While dream-sharing with Cobb, Ariadne learns his subconscious houses an invasive projection of his late wife Mal. (Wikipedia)
The Subplot
Cobb wants to see his wife, Mal, alive again.
The Totem
A spinning top as a true/false device. If it continues to spin, Cobb is still in a dream. If it slows down and stops, he’s in the real world again.
The Ending Explained
If you really don’t want to know what happens in the end, don’t watch this video…
