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Inception

edited July 2010 in Movies
Wow, that was good. Really really good. It reminded me of Godel, Escher, Bach. INCEPTION IS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER, YOU MUST ALL GO SEE IT RIGHT NOW
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  • Should this be the thread where we can talk without worrying about spoiling anything?
  • I assume if you are reading a thread titled "Inception" you have seen Inception. DO IT. SEE IT NOW.
  • Nor have I, but I don't care so much, spoil away. Reading with no point of reference is different to actually seeing it on screen, sort of like a prophecy in a work of fiction - they only make sense after what it talks about has already happened.
  • Correction:
    I assume if you are reading a thread titled "Inception" you have seen Inception.DO IT. SEE IT NOW.
    Or don't care about it being spoiled. It's not a terribly spoil-able movie anyway.
  • I'm curious on how everyone else interpreted the ending...
  • I'm seeing this later this week. Everyone has been talking about it to me.
  • edited July 2010
    To me, the ending symbolized the movie's continuing problem of reality vs. the dream world. Cobb does his reality-check spin of the top before seeing the kids, to see if he was really dreaming, or if he truly was being united with his kids. The movie ends with the top wobbling a little bit, so I think it was left for the viewer to interpret whether or not he was really still dreaming. I thought it was curious, though, that the children were wearing the same clothes they wore when Cobb was recalling the time when he was looking out at them, without seeing their faces. So it might have still been a dream for Cobb.
    Post edited by remix3211 on
  • Just got back from the theater.

    Yeah. Great movie. Probably the best movie I've seen all year.

    As for the ending, me and a few other people in the theater we chanting "drop, drop" and when it cut off, you could hear a groan or exasperated sigh throughout the entire theater.

    I just think he left the ending that way to just be opened to have people to keep talking about it and wonder if it was really true or a still a dream. I hope it was real. It was funny because during the movie I was thinking that there would be some sort of surprise that it was all still a dream.

    I enjoyed every bit of the movie, the actors, the action, and the LONGEST van fall in the history of world!
  • edited July 2010
    Having seen the movie multiple times now, I definitely think you could interpret the ending either way and solidly back up your position on both. Also, if you choose the "he was in a dream at the end" version, you can place the start of the dream at several different points in the movie (or even before the movie) and still have it make sense. You can use evidence found throughout the movie to support just about any interpretation you want. That blew me away. I think I'll be puzzling over which variations seem "more correct" than others for the next while.
    Post edited by Eryn on
  • Everyone in my theater was literally on the edge of their seats. It was amazing.

    I'm all for it not being a dream. The top doesn't spin like it does when it is a dream, and I think seeing the kids faces also solidified it. But I can totally see it still being a dream. The entire movie lends itself to being interpreted in every way (logically) imaginable.

    Did anyone else threaten to kill someone if they didn't get to see the kid's faces?
  • I think it wasn't a dream, personally, because whenever the top spun in the dream world, it was always perfect and never wobbled, as it did in the end. However, I understand that the ambiguity is the entire point.
    Everyone in my theater was literally on the edge of their seats. It was amazing.
    In my theater, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. When the movie ended, people literally started yelling (not screaming) at the screen. I may or may not have been one of them.
    Did anyone else threaten to kill someone if they didn't get to see the kid's faces?
    I did.
  • I think the movie is just about perfect. It has so much going for it and it was clearly made with constant, loving detail every step of the way. I prefer to look at the ending as being full circle. The top was just spinning for a really long time and I think that's how many people look at it as a whole, instead of going full on into debate and discussion.
  • edited July 2010
    Hmm, I wonder if I people I saw it with were just not that into it. I could hear some sighs and sniffs during the last scene between Mr. and Mrs. Cobb, but I barely heard anything at the very end. Maybe a few groans, but that was it. I had no feelings about it, since I honestly didn't really care about Leo's character, so I wasn't vested in whether the ending was still a dream or not. If you think about it from a logical standpoint, as according to the rules of the movie, it's not really possible for it to still be a dream, but it is meant to be open, and I appreciate that.

    Actually... now that I think about it a bit more, the last chunk of the movie has some pretty big holes in the logic. Doesn't make it any less enjoyable, but they do stand out if you think about them.

    EDIT: I should rephrase what I meant regarding the ending, after a little more thought. The fact that the top keeps spinning, trying to lead you to maybe think it will do that forever, is misleading. Regardless of the outcome, whether it is a dream or not, the top should stop spinning... with one exception. However, I don't really want to believe that the one exception is the real case because then that would make the entire movie pointless. Granted, it is still an interesting possibility.

    EDIT 2: Hmph. The more I think about it, the more the one exception makes sense. At this point I'm pretty inclined to make it my interpretation of the movie, and I think I'll do a write up when it's day again to expound on how I came to that conclusion.

    Conclusion for those who can't wait: The entire movie is in Mal's dream.
    Post edited by theknoxinator on
  • If you think about it from a logical standpoint, as according to the rules of the movie, it's not really possible for it to still be a dream
    Why not?
    Actually... now that I think about it a bit more, the last chunk of the movie has some pretty big holes in the logic. Doesn't make it any less enjoyable, but they do stand out if you think about them.
    Tell me.
  • Tell me.
    1) How does level 4 == Limbo?
    2) Getting to Limbo by just falling asleep vs. dying.
    3) Some things like the sedative's effect, the music, and Sato's dying percolate down the levels, other effects like gravity don't.
    4) Timing issues.

    These just of the top of my head. Like 'knox said they don't diminish the movie that much but they do stand out if you have that sort of mindset. For me part of the problem is that at the beginning of the movie they explain too much, and too many of the details of the central concept of the movie. This meticulousness creates an expectation for the film to follow through on consistency which is hard to do. I know Hollywood aims for low IQ audiences, but "you go into other people's dreams" shouldn't need 20 minutes of exposition.
  • 1) How does level 4 == Limbo?
    2) Getting to Limbo by just falling asleep vs. dying.
    They said limbo was "unconstructed dreamspace." Maybe if you hook up to the machine without an architect-designed level, you go into limbo?
  • edited July 2010
    Something I'm confused about- When Saito died in level 3, he went to the fourth level or 'limbo' as Cobb called it. Wouldn't this be a state in Saito's mind? If so, how does Cobb end up in that fourth level?
    The environment in the fourth level is that of the world he and Mal created... Then how did Saito get there without the machine dream?
    Post edited by remix3211 on
  • The non-propagation of gravity definitely took me out of the moment for a minute. Was my only real complaint with the film. When the van flying caused there bodies to start sliding around in the hotel, I was expecting a shot of the entire cast just flying off the side of a snowy cliff to their death, and then the credits.
  • If you think about it from a logical standpoint, as according to the rules of the movie, it's not really possible for it to still be a dream
    Why not?
    My first edit was kind of trying to rephrase this. The ending could very well be a dream still, but the real question is, whose dream is it?

    And yeah, most of my problems with the lower levels of the dream are the same ones Timo pointed out. One of the things that the movie doesn't explain very well is the concept of whether the dreams act like hive minds or not. There is a very small scene showing some people who do share the same dream, but does that always apply? It was my assumption, based on Ariadne's first experience as an architect, that one person is having the actual dream, and the other people in the dream are directly affecting it. So, if you go on that, then the entire inception dream sequence takes place in the mind of Fischer.

    Then you have the whole limbo section, where Fischer and Saito both die in the base, and Cobb and Ariadne dive in deeper to find them. Why does limbo automatically default to the world that the Cobbs built together? And you notice that Fischer was captured and tied up by Mal. Does this mean that even before Cobb can enter limbo, his subconscious is already controlling that whole space? It's certainly possible, but never explained. Then you also have to wonder how Saito pretty much managed to do the same thing somewhere else in Fischer's mind. How do all three remain in limbo when Fischer is sent back up? If that works, then theoretically there's no real reason for the team to dive along with Fischer at each level, they should be able to just dive by themselves. This goes even further when after limbo is over, you see both Cobb and Saito waking up on the plane, well after everyone else has, and without the machine still connected. This could just be misleading, but I wonder how they can both still be in limbo if Fischer has woken up. (And this is part of what led to my real conclusion).

    And there is also the whole thing with the fact that only certain things can pass down the levels. Not to mention, it doesn't seem to matter who is being affected by the above interference, yet everyone in the level below can experience it, which again brings into question the hive mind aspect.

    This is all very nitpicky, but that's just the way my mind tends to work when faced with inconsistencies. When you compare the dream world of this movie to say... The Matrix, as it is being compared to by many, the Matrix was more clearly defined as to what you can and cannot do. You die in one world, you die in the other. Certain rules can be bent or broken, but not all, and those ones that can be bent, anyone can do it. As much as Inception talked about the nature of how the dreams are structured, they never clearly defined it in a physical sense. Maybe a director's cut with more explanatory scenes?
  • edited July 2010
    It's like Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. How and why the world came to be is ultimately unimportant. What matters is what we take away from it all. Also, to whit: Think about how the movie starts. Then, listen to the music at the tail end of the credits. And think about the ultimate effect of the tension at the end.
    Post edited by WindUpBird on
  • On a related note;
    image

    Also, didn't they say the 3rd level was supposed to be the equivalent of 10 years? It sure didn't seem like they spent 10 years there...
  • Is this the Dreamscape remake/re-imagining?
  • Is this the Dreamscape remake/re-imagining?
    LOL, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I having been saying this for a few weeks ^_^
  • If you think about it from a logical standpoint, as according to the rules of the movie, it's not really possible for it to still be a dream
    Why not?
    My first edit was kind of trying to rephrase this. The ending could very well be a dream still, but the real question is, whose dream is it?

    And yeah, most of my problems with the lower levels of the dream are the same ones Timo pointed out. One of the things that the movie doesn't explain very well is the concept of whether the dreams act like hive minds or not. There is a very small scene showing some people who do share the same dream, but does that always apply? It was my assumption, based on Ariadne's first experience as an architect, that one person is having the actual dream, and the other people in the dream are directly affecting it. So, if you go on that, then the entire inception dream sequence takes place in the mind of Fischer.
    From what I gathered, the third level is actually Eames's dream. Arthur puts the headphones on Eames's ears when he starts the musical countdown, Cobb asks Ariadne if Eames added anything to the maze, and Eames is the one who stays behind to set the charges for the last kick. Thus, it makes sense that the dream doesn't start collapsing as soon as Fischer gets shot; the dreamer, Eames, is still around to keep things in place. Fischer is still just the subject, filling the dream with his subconscious as he has on the other levels. I think they only said they were going into Fischer's mind at that one point because that showed a shift in the method by which he would be going deeper. Rather than being sedated into a further dream state as before, he allows himself to be hooked up to the machine (as a subject still, unbeknownst to him) and dives down with them, thus making it possible for him to remember what's already happened in the previous dream states without having to be reminded by Mr. Charles.
    Then you have the whole limbo section, where Fischer and Saito both die in the base, and Cobb and Ariadne dive in deeper to find them. Why does limbo automatically default to the world that the Cobbs built together?
    Arthur said that there isn't anything in limbo - except for what's been left there before by anyone else sharing the dream. Everyone is still hooked up to the same machine in a hive mind sort of way, as you guys put it, and Cobb has been to limbo before. Ergo, since Cobb is sharing the dream with everyone, his limbo world (and presumably the ability for his subconscious to affect it, in the form of Mal) is brought in with him. The rest of your questions in this paragraph are pretty much taken care of by the fact that they're in Eames's dream rather than Fischer's. Also, even after Eames and the rest have woken up, the limbo state can still be sustained since Cobb and Saito are still asleep and hooked in. The limbo state is Cobb's, so it won't go away as long as Cobb is still asleep.

    What confused me, actually, was how in the world Saito became an old man while Cobb was still young. Didn't Saito enter limbo after Cobb and Ariadne? Was he just in his own personal part of limbo for a while? Even if he was, that still doesn't really explain the difference in time. Am I missing something here?

    Oh, and the lack of gravity shifts on the mountain level did bother me too. They might not have felt anything from the van fall, sure; maybe they're too deep for that to have an effect beyond that initial kick. But there wasn't even anything when Arthur set the charges to send the hotel elevator rocketing down the shaft. You'd think that would have a more dramatic effect than the van fall, if anything. Maybe they just didn't want to interrupt Fischer's moment with his dad for story's sake? Maybe we're supposed to think that the kick from the elevator drop doesn't start until Eames sets the charges as far as time flow goes? That would go against how the scenes are edited together, though. The editing sure makes it look like we're supposed to think the elevator thing is going on before the hospital charges go off.

    :/
  • Clearly the movie was not as meticulously self-consistent as say, The Sixth Sense.
  • Sort of. For the most part (about 80-90% of the movie), the rules and world were scarily self-consistent and well-realized, I felt. It was just near the end that things started to get confusing and seemingly contradictory. I imagine someone will still find a way to have it all make consistent sense at some point, and considering the script that was written over the course of about ten years, I imagine it all makes sense to Nolan at least. For the average viewer, though, it's going to feel like there are a few holes.

    Speaking of ten years: the part where they mentioned the week/six months/ten years bit was just to demonstrate the relative flow of time in each level in comparison to the other levels. What it means is that if you spent the entire ten hours of the Sydney/Los Angeles flight in a particular level, that's how long it would take before you just woke up of your own accord (without a kick).
  • Clearly the movie was not as meticulously self-consistent as say, The Sixth Sense.
    No, but it did not affect my enjoyment of it.
  • No, but it did not affect my enjoyment of it.
    Nor I.
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