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Inception & Theory

Kiotu

Entry posted by Kiotu

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First of all, I haven't been blogging lately. Server's been acting up for the better of the month for me, and school's crept up on me, too (never underestimate homework and its ability to take up all of your time :P).

 

Secondly, I saw Inception.

 

Which was awesome.

 

Seriously, best movie of the year, and one of the best I've ever seen. In my opinion, it's tied with The Prestige as Nolan's best work.

 

I also saw it with my dad, and if you knew him, you would know he's awesome at solving mystery movies (he figured out Prestige's main twist within the first thirty minutes or so). He's much better than I am at doing stuff like that, but at the end we compared theories. Here's what I got:

 

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
My theory is that almost the entire movie is Cobb's dream, with the exception of some moments, like when he talks to his children over the phone. However, everything else is pretty much a dream, which means that ultimately, he's gone A LOT further than just a dream within a dream within a dream. Basically, he's constructing a dream so that it would work in his own mind how to get back to his kids. Some proof:
  • ● At the end, Cobb, Ariadne, Fisher and Saito are all in limbo, which is just the pooled consciousnesses of the people there. How come, then, is it only Cobb's stuff in 'limbo'? This might mean that it was only him in the dream the entire time.

 

● When it's just Cobb and Saito in limbo, note how they don't go through the waking up stages. Remember how everyone gets out in the 'first stage' dream, when the car is sinking, except Cobb? He wouldn't incorporate this into his own dream, because he's not 'there'.

 

● Note how at the end of the movie, after the airplane docks, everyone looks at Cobb. In a dream, everyone looks at someone manipulating the dream. Connection?

 

● When he visits his kids at the end of the movie, they are wearing the same clothes and are in the same positions from when he remembered them. Note also how there are two voice actors for each kid, 'young' and 'older'. How come they sound older on the phone, but they sound exactly how he remembers them at the end?

 

● Back a bit, when he remembers Mal and her suicide. Note how she's opposite him in the hotel rooms, despite her obviously being in their room before (broken glass, etc...). While she could've rented another room, I think of this as a more metaphorical thing. Perhaps she's split with him in real life, and he actually did try to hurt her. Maybe this is Cobb trying to find happiness through his dream. Mal also, in her last scene, questions Cobb how real he thinks the corporate goons after him are. But this is just his consciousness, right? So...

 

● Lastly, the totem he uses isn't his. Remember when Arthur tells Juno that she can't touch his loaded dice, because she might then incorporate them into the dream, which could trick him into thinking it's reality, et cetera... Now, this takes the same principle. Cobb has been using his wife's totem, which spins indefinitely inside a dream, however, I think he's been adding them to his dreams. Cobb's subconsciousness has been tricking him into thinking something is in 'reality' or not. I'm pretty sure the time he spins his totem in real life, he knocks it over.

 

So that's my theory. Feel free to comment on it, or you could just point out typos like a lot of you all normally do. :P

-K

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Watashi Wa

I don't have time to comment on the other stuff, but the answer to why Mal was on the other side of the hotel is simple.

 

 

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She jumped from the other window in order to make it look as if she and Cobb had a struggle, and he threw her out of the window. If you remember, she mentioned that she talked with two lawyers and was declared menetally sane. Cobb new she wasn't (she thought she was still in a dream, and that killing herself would bring her to reality). If she could frame Cobb, he would face capitol punishment and would end up back in reality with her.

 

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Bundalings
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It explains it in that if she wanted to make it look like he had pushed her, she would need to be further out. If she had just... fallen out of the window of the room they were in, it wouldn't look like a struggle.
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Kiotu

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I understand that, but how far could he have thrown her? Probably not much more than she can jump, right?

 

But either way, is there anything else in the theory that you guys can pick apart? :P

-K

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JRRT

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At the end, Cobb, Ariadne, Fisher and Saito are all in limbo, which is just the pooled consciousnesses of the people there. How come, then, is it only Cobb's stuff in 'limbo'? This might mean that it was only him in the dream the entire time.

I believe it is Arthur who explains that "limbo" is made up of whatever is left over in the mind of a person in the shared dream who has already been there. In this case, only Cobb has ever been in "limbo" before, so his visualization is what is used.

 

Note how at the end of the movie, after the airplane docks, everyone looks at Cobb. In a dream, everyone looks at someone manipulating the dream. Connection?

The problem is that the only reason the "projections" look at the dreamer is because they are projections of another person's subconscious (the other person sharing the dream). If Cobb were the one dreaming, why would his own subconscious look at him?

 

When he visits his kids at the end of the movie, they are wearing the same clothes and are in the same positions from when he remembered them. Note also how there are two voice actors for each kid, 'young' and 'older'. How come they sound older on the phone, but they sound exactly how he remembers them at the end?

Honestly, I didn't notice a substantial "age-difference" in the voices of the children, although it is slightly odd that they are relatively un-aged from how Cobb remembers them...

 

Lastly, the totem he uses isn't his. Remember when Arthur tells Juno that she can't touch his loaded dice, because she might then incorporate them into the dream, which could trick him into thinking it's reality, et cetera... Now, this takes the same principle. Cobb has been using his wife's totem, which spins indefinitely inside a dream, however, I think he's been adding them to his dreams. Cobb's subconsciousness has been tricking him into thinking something is in 'reality' or not. I'm pretty sure the time he spins his totem in real life, he knocks it over.

I don't think this really lends itself toward the "it's all a dream" theory. The point of the totem is that it is an object that connects the person to reality. The fact that Cobb got his totem from Mal doesn't effect things much if she's dead. She can't use it against him in the real world.

 

----

 

Ultimately, I think that if you want to go with the "dream-theory," you have to look at just the end of the movie as a dream, rather than the entire movie being a dream. If the ending scene (when Cobb is reunited with his children) is actually a dream, it would simply mean that Cobb never escaped "limbo" with Saito, but that he instead forgot about reality in the same way that Mal did.

 

But honestly, in looking at the themes of the movie overall, I don't think that such an ending is really consistent with the idea of reconciliation that permeates the plot, and so I'm not a fan of the "dream-theory."

 

JRRT

 

Spoiler'd

-K

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