INCEPTION Discussion Thread (***Spoilers!!!***)

[winter]

Must-read interview with Dileep Rao, who plays Yusuf the scientist in the film. He's very knowledgeable and offers some great insights as well as some of his own interpretations based on working with Nolan. The interviewer is also good at lobbing interesting questions:

https://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/inceptions_dileep_rao_answers.html

Thanks a million for the link. Very interesting.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Question to you all (assuming it's all a dream reality). When Cobb's wife jumped off the ledge and killed herself, she woke herself up to the "real" reality. Couldn't just just go back to sleep and join Cobb's reality to try to bring him out with her? You see Ellen Page's character join Cobb going under when she finds her in the basement....unless what Cobb thought was a projection of his wife really WAS his wife trying to save him and he trapped her in his own subconscious in that basement. But if that were the case, why wouldn't she just tell him that....

I was suggesting that earlier; that perhaps this movie is a reverse and it is Cobb who chooses to stay in his dream state and Mal is still his prjection but made, in his mind, to be a troubling enemy that he's struggling to rescue... even though it is he who needs rescueing. Mal is his own guilt over his own choice turned into an object to be feared and yet somehow saved.

It's a weird circular argument, but its an interesting maze.

 

[tomandshell]

If the whole thing was a dream, then absolutely everybody could have been a projection. That's why I want to resist that idea--because all of the characters and events would just be products of Cobb's subconscious. If nothing really happened and nobody was real, then the audience can have no connection with the story or the people in it and nothing matters. (I got a bit of that kind of feeling from the excellent interview with Dileep Rao.) If there really was a reality but Cobb stayed in limbo in the very end, then at least the stakes were real throughout the film and the outcome actually mattered. Even if it ends in limbo, there really was a reality he could have returned to, and that reality was witnessed by the audience.

The part of me that likes happy endings would argue that since he sees the faces of his children in the end, that it was real--because the "projection" children in his memory were faceless as they didn't turn to see him before he left. If it was still a dream, he wouldn't have been able to see their faces, right? I'd like to think so.

 

[Wor-Gar]

If nothing really happened and nobody was real, then the audience can have no connection with the story or the people in it and nothing matters.

That's kind of funny considering it's a movie. No movie is real. Yet audiences connect with movie characters all the time; hell, look at us collectors.

Nolan definitely left it up to each person, otherwise he wouldn't have cut at the end where he did. I think any way you want to look at it is fine. After all, everything is in your head anyway.

 

[Mesa]

Couple of things I thought might happen during the movie towards the end.


1) When the kids turn around and Cobb gets to finally see their faces, I thought the kids might be faceless or all distorted or something. Maybe like his memory of their specific facial details had faded since he had only seen the back of their heads for so long.

2) If Cobb was back to reality and wasn't still dreaming, that the kids would be older. They weren't there to meet him at the door and I thought they might be teenagers or something.


Just some random thoughts I had while enjoying this movie.

 

[CelticPredator]

Dillep dude is ____ing awesome. He's been in some of the coolest films ever. Drag Me To Hell, Avatar, and Inception....

 

[Wetanut]

The more I'm reading everyone's ideas (most having excellent points) , the more I'm thinking I need to see this film again. I'm beginning to think that this whole thing might have been Caine's idea. Once Cobb approaches him about finding a new architect and the basic inception scheme, Caine uses this as an opportunity (as he tells Cobb) to bring him back to reality -- an inception within an inception. Cobb is Caine's mark and Ariadne is the inceptor. Caine's desire is to reunite the children with their dad. I'm remembering Caine's face as being extremely satisfied at the end. And I think the ending IS reality.


Or maybe not.



O dear gawd! This is getting waaaay too complex.

 

[Devil_666]

I think we're in a dream right now.

 

[Wor-Gar]

The ad campaign tells you how to interpret the movie...

The Dream Is Real.

 

[Maglor]

It's interestng to think that maybe the "projection" of Mal really was Mail trying to bring him out, and Ariadne was really the projection of his own subsconscious trying to get him to stay in the dream. The entire caper/heist was a construct of Cobb's own mind designed to get him to finally give in to the limbo. He has been resisting it, but by finishing one last job, saying goodbye to the memories of his wife and finally embracing his children he stops fighting, gives in and embraces the dream world forever.

If the whole thing was a dream, then absolutely everybody could have been a projection. That's why I want to resist that idea--because all of the characters and events would just be products of Cobb's subconscious. If nothing really happened and nobody was real, then the audience can have no connection with the story or the people in it and nothing matters. (I got a bit of that kind of feeling from the excellent interview with Dileep Rao.) If there really was a reality but Cobb stayed in limbo in the very end, then at least the stakes were real throughout the film and the outcome actually mattered. Even if it ends in limbo, there really was a reality he could have returned to, and that reality was witnessed by the audience.

The part of me that likes happy endings would argue that since he sees the faces of his children in the end, that it was real--because the "projection" children in his memory were faceless as they didn't turn to see him before he left. If it was still a dream, he wouldn't have been able to see their faces, right? I'd like to think so.

Dude, make up your mind!

 

[jedibear]

...If it was still a dream, he wouldn't have been able to see their faces, right? I'd like to think so.

Well. if it was real, then he'd better take those kids clothes-shopping because they were wearing the same thing in every scene...including the reveal.

I think he's in limbo, either by his own design or Ariadne's doing (or both).


Hey...isn't it cool to have a fun, interesting discussion about a good movie in here for a change? I like it!

 

[Maglor]

I think what people are wearing is not hard evidence for the limbo theory. Does anyone you know where each outfit once and then through it away?

Also we don't know how long Cobb was gone do we? They may not have aged a whole lot, so they could be about the same size they were in his memories/dreams. They sounded pretty young on the phone.

I think that the ending can be seen as "dreamy" or as a "happy ending montage/wrap-up." I think that was intentional, and that either could be right.

 

[jedibear]

...I think that the ending can be seen as "dreamy" or as a "happy ending montage/wrap-up." I think that was intentional, and that either could be right.

Oh, absolutely! That's the beauty of this ending...that it allows that...it explains why so many folks are hearing both groans and laughter when that screen goes dark...either is valid.

I like what Dileep Rao says in that interview, (paraphrasing wildly here) about how it's interesting on how folks are so focused on weather or not the top falls instead of the fact that Cobb just walks away not waiting to see...running to his children finally revealed to him...not caring either way and one could consider that the leap of faith Mal asked for or an even more basic acceptance and/or surrender to the situation, be it limbo or life...

 

[civiclx]

Just a couple questions/thoughts

How did Cobb's father know exactly when to pick him up at the airport? Did Cobb tell him that much about the new job?

If Cobb was that desperate to see his kids, I wonder why he never had them come visit him in Europe. Maybe the grandmother, his mother or mother-in-law, wouldn't have liked the idea but I'm sure his father would have helped him out.

 

[Mongoose94]

I saw this movie last night and I was amazed. This was the best movie I have seen in a long time. It was so well thought out and planed. The ending mad me soooo mad!! How could it just cut to black!! but I guess that just adds to the awesome.
This is Nolans masterpiece.

 

[Maglor]

How did Cobb's father know exactly when to pick him up at the airport? Did Cobb tell him that much about the new job?

Assuming that the ending was in the real world, he must have called him and asked him to meet up. As I said, if it's real, the ending is a montage/wrap-up.

 

[civiclx]

I'd like to think it's real world as well. But how could Saito have gotten things cleared up so easily. Did he really have that much power?

Also, at what point was Cobb in limbo before? How did he and Mal get there? I'm wondering because Saito went there after he died so did Cobb and Mal die in one of their dream levels? But then I guess they would have had to have been heavily sedated like Saito or else they would have just woken up? But then how did the train send them back?

Does Fischer spend a brief time in limbo? I'm assuming he does after he gets shot. How is Saito so much older than Fischer when he is found?

Uhh, that is all for now

 

[tomandshell]

How is Saito so much older than Fischer when he is found?

I would love to hear an explanation for this.

Hey...isn't it cool to have a fun, interesting discussion about a good movie in here for a change? I like it!

I totally agree with you! This movie has stayed in my mind for the last few days. Unlike Prince of Persia, which I forgot about by the time I reached the parking lot.

 

[civiclx]

I'm trying to stay out of this so I don't make myself sound naieve or stupid...ok too late

Ok wondering who thinks it was all real where Leo and his team completed a job for Saito and Saito got Leo cleared?

For those that think it was an inception on Leo, at what part of the movie do you believe it began?

 

[Wetanut]

I'm trying to stay out of this so I don't make myself sound naieve or stupid...ok too late

Ok wondering who thinks it was all real where Leo and his team completed a job for Saito and Saito got Leo cleared?

For those that think it was an inception on Leo, at what part of the movie do you believe it began?

I think it began as soon as Ariadne came back to agree to take part in Cobb's original plan. I think she might have met with Caine's character and got instructions from him. Note that she was constantly with him (except for the bar scene) throughout all the levels of dreams, even down to the limbo that Mal was in -- where no one else had been allowed before. As Eames stuck like glue to Fischer, so did Ariadne to Cobb. Throughout, she was talking to him as if she was his confessor/conscience (as Eames in guise of Browning). If it was going to be anyone in that kind of relationship with him, one would think it would be Arthur, who has been obviously with him through many extractions and probably shared many close calls and therefore trust would have been built. He would logically know him better than anyone. And yet, this total stranger, with only a recommendation from Caine's character, takes on that role. Having been an architect himself (I presume before he became an extractor), Cobb would put trust in her and Caine's recommendation implied that she was unquestionably trustworthy.