Inceptionized!!
That's the only thing I can say after watching the movie yesterday night... Whohaa!! One hell of a movie. Yeah! You'e right... I am late on it. But it was all worth it.
Questions, Questions, Questions, and many more Questions!! Well I am one of those few ones who think they have understood the whole concept of the movie by just watch it once.. But, still I think there will be more things that will pop up in my head each time I watch it.
Let's come to the interesting part!! The questions that will be arising in your mind after seeing the movie would be as follows:
1. Who was in who's dreams?
2. The concept of Limbo.
3. The ending of the movie.
Well, believe me or not.. these are the easiest questions that can be answered by watching the movie carefully.
About the first question, I would say that a dream, within a dream, within a dream, within a dream i.e. 4 levels of dreams are enough to get you thinking on it. When the main plot starts, they start their work in the plain itself. "Yusuf", the chemist dreams the first dream. When they were attacked by the militants of the subconscious that have been developed over the period of time, they were in a van that was been driven by Yusuf. That was the time when they enter into the next level of the dream, that was dreamed by "Arthur". In the first level of the dream, Saito was shot, but wasn't dead (just in pain) which gradually made him weaker in the dreams that followed. Saito wasn't shot dead in the dream 1 to wake him up to reality as it wouldn't have woken him up from the strong sedatives that were given to him, instead, it would have thrown him into a limbo for an indefinite period of time. We'll discuss the limbo in the coming questions. One interesting point to note here, was that 5 minutes in a real world was equal to an hour in the dream. The mind begins to function so fast in dreams that it spends a lot more time in dream than in reality in a specified period. That also goes for the next levels of dreams that were followed. So the ratio remains the same! So, the level 2 of the dream was being dreamed by Arthur, in a hotel, who was already injured in dream 1. The next level of Dream was dreamed by "Eames" the forger in a smow fortress. That should have been the end, but it wasn't supposed to be. As Robert Fischer Jr. was shot by Mal just before he could have opened the safe, he wasn't woken up, he just went into a limbo. The levels of dreams and the sedatives were too much to wake him up. So the 4th level of dream was achieved to bring back Fischer from the state of limbo by giving him a "kick". The 4th level was a shared state. It was being dreamed by Cobb, Ariadne, and Fischer together. Saito also joined the limbo state once he died in the dream 1. Another interesting point was each person who was dreaming a dream did not enter the next level to give a "Kick" to the dreamers in their respective levels. Yusuf, who dreamed the first dream did not go to the level 2 to give the required kick at a specified time. He kept driving the van in level 1 and kept fighting the subconscious militants. Arthur didn't go to level 3 and remained in the hotel in the level 2. Similarly, Eames didn't go to the limbo alongwith Cobb and Ariadne. That Explains the boundaries of the dreams. One more fact was that Cobb never hosted the dreams as Mal wouldn't allow his dreams to be a success as she was always there in his mind.
Simple!! Isn't it? :))
Now the next question: What exactly is a Limbo? Limbo is actually unconstructed dream space – a place of raw (and random) subconscious impulse. Ariadne drops a line early on about the fact that the extractor team can bring elements of their own subconscious into the dream levels if they’re not careful, and since Cobb has spent time in Limbo and has a raging subconscious, the Limbo space they enter includes his memory of the city he and Mal built for themselves.. By the time you reach the Limbo state it can be so difficult to wake, and the dream can feel so vividly real, that the mind stops trying to wake at all – the mind accepts the dream as its reality, like slipping into a coma.
When you wake up in Limbo you don’t remember that there is such a thing as a “real world” – as in any dream, you wake up in the middle of a scene and simply accept it for what it is. Breaking yourself out of this cycle is extremely difficult, which is why Cobb and his wife Mal were trapped in Limbo for what seemed like decades.
Time is the other factor. The deeper you go into a dream state, the faster your mind is able to imagine and perceive things within that dream state. We’re told the increase is exponential, so going deeper into dreams turns minutes into hours, into days, into years. This is why Cobb and his team are able to pull off the Fischer job while the van is still falling through the air, before the soldiers break into the snow fortress, before Arthur rigs the elevator, and all within the span of a flight from Sydney Australia to LA.
In Limbo, the mind works so fast that actual minutes can be interpreted as years gone by. When Saito “dies” from the gunshot wound he received on level 1 of the dream, his mind falls into Limbo, and Saito remains there for the minutes it takes Cobb and Ariadne to follow him into Limbo – those minutes in one dream state feel like decades to Saito in his Limbo state. By the time Cobb deals with expelling Mal’s “shadow” from his subconscious, Saito has begun to perceive himself as an old man.
Mal’s shadow stabs Cobb during the film’s climax, which throws Cobb back out into Limbo and onto the shores of Saito’s limbo house. When Cobb has to “wake” again in Limbo, his mind is muddled just like old man Saito’s brain. Through Saito’s memory of Cobb’s totem and some shared dialogue that included key trigger phrases – “Leap of faith,” “Old man full of regret, waiting to die alone,” etc. – Cobb and Saito are able to remember the meaningful conversations they had and that there is a reality they existed in before Limbo, where both of them had deep desires still waiting to be fulfilled (Cobb and his kids, Saito and his business). Once they remember that limbo is limbo, they are able to wake themselves up (likely with a gunshot to the head).
Now comes the most exciting part of the story- The Ending! Lets us talk about it. The ending of Inception is meant to leave you thinking and questioning the nature of reality. The important question is not “Is Cobb still dreaming?” – What is important is the fact that the character of Cobb goes from being a guy who is obsessed with “knowing what’s real” to ultimately being a person who stops questioning and accepts what makes him truly happy as what’s real.
In the movie, Cobb and Saito (seem to) wake up from limbo, Nolan very purposefully shifts the film into an ambiguous state that leaves it somewhat open to the viewer’s perception and interpretation of that perception – two big themes of the movie, coincidentally enough.
Throughout the film, Cobb continues to obsess about spinning the top and verifying reality – however, at the end of movie, he spins the top and walks away from it before he can verify if it stops spinning or not. His kids come running in and Cobb could care less about about the top or “true reality” or extraction/inception anymore. He just wants to be with his children, in whatever place he can be with them. That emotional connection and desire is “reality” enough for him.
That is what the movie shows you. Now comes the part what you make out of it. Here is what I made out of it:
The whole concept of the story was to create an abstract image for the audience. Have you ever given a thought what if Mal was right? What if Mal knew that Cobb didn't realize he was in a dream? The Ending of the story might justify it, The Totem was never seen falling, so if that was a Limbo where Cobb is still trapped, Mal could well have been right. The whole movie could just have been a dream! If that is the case that means the whole movie is a dream where cobb tries to go deep inside his dreams to come to reality[which is impossible phenomenon]..finally the reality like scene which shows their successful inception is just a misinterpretation[a creative imagination in limbo] of cobb himself dat he has come out of his dream..so hes sure that hes in reality and hence not wishes to see the tottem,,Finally abt the tottem spinning or not.. ill post it in my next comment..KEY:the movie is completely cobb’s unshared imaginative dream[going downwards] after mal’s death[gone backward level]
So we can add 2 more things here. If Cobb didn't wake up and still is in a state of Limbo, there is another obvious sequel coming our way. Or, If Mal was right, then the whole movie was just a dream. They are just interpretations as we can never be sure. Just Like the "Shutter Island", we are free to conclude whatever we want.
In the end, Cobb walking away from the top is a statement in itself that also completes the arc of his character. In a way, the movie is its own maze designed to plant a simple little idea in the viewer’s mind: “reality” is a relative concept.
Hats-off to you Nolan, you have made us talking, thinking and blogging about it.
