Inception: In the loop of Dream & Reality

Mystery, thrill, suspense, drama, action- Inception, Christopher “Dark Knight” Nolan’s masterpiece has it all. Unquestionably one of the greatest films ever made, Inception has stunned us with its uniquely twisted plot, baffled us with its intricacies, confused us with its ending, made us forget about our own surroundings. But don’t worry, I am not here to say what has already been said about it a thousand times before; rather I want to break down to you, as simply as I can, how the whole movie unfurled. (So needless to say, if you haven’t watched it yet, please, for your own sake, go see it now and come back later, if you want to.)

The thing about this movie is, no matter how many times you watch it, whenever you start talking or thinking about it, you always have to straighten up some things in your mind first- ‘what does the dreamer do’, ‘what does ‘subject’ mean’, ‘how does the subconscious react in a dream’- things like these. To get you going, the dreamer builds the world of the shared dream; everyone else sharing that dream is a subject; the subject’s mind populates the dream with the projections of his subconscious. While in the dream, if the projections of the subject’s subconscious sense that someone else may be messing with their world, then they will automatically try to neutralize the threat (or, if the subject himself is emotionally unstable, his projections may sabotage the whole dream). In a shared dream, someone- the dreamer himself or another subject- can target a specific subject to extract information from his mind or possibly, plant a new idea there. And implanting such an idea on someone else’s mind that naturally sticks to his subconscious- an idea that shows an original source of creation, literally faking genuine inspiration- that’s ‘inception’.

The chief protagonist, Cobb accepted Saito’s (a very powerful businessman) proposal to perform inception on Robert Fischer’s mind to make him decide to break up his father’s empire (Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate) and in return, if the job be done successfully, Saito would fix Cobb’s charges (allegedly murdering his wife) permanently so that he could go back to America to see his children. His 6-member team consisting of himself, Arthur (point man), Eames (forger), Ariadne (dreamer), Yusuf (chemist) & Saito (tourist) drew up an exclusive plan with intricate details that would involve all sorts of tricks, techniques, illusions and most excitingly 3 dream levels in order to let the idea grow seemingly naturally on Fischer’s mind with more and more time at each level down (brain function in a dream is almost 20 times faster than in real world; and a dream within a dream has the same effect). And after finishing embedding the idea completely at the bottom dream state, they would synchronize a kick (a way to wake someone up from a dream) to penetrate all three levels simultaneously to go back each layer up to finally end up in the real world.

(*TF=Time Frame)

[Everyone except the dreamer is technically a subject; only the targeted one is shown in the diagram]

However, they had to deviate from their plans a lot, though in the end they managed to pull off the incredible idea heist. A lot of crazy improvisations and unscripted actions went on each level; Fischer was shot dead by Mal (Cobb’s lovely dead wife) in 3^rd level and got resuscitated by Ariadne & Cobb who traveled to 4^th level to save(!) him (yeah, you don’t exactly die when you die in a dream; you either wake up or go further down in the dream levels); Ariadne learnt the truth about Cobb and inception- how he did it first on Mal and Cobb finally let go of his regretting memories with her (Mal); Cobb stayed in the 4^th stage to die to fall down to limbo (an unstructured empty dream space with raw, infinite subconscious where times run so slow that people eventually lose sight of what’s real and what’s a dream) to rescue Saito who had already ended up there (Cobb was the only one among them to survive limbo before). Honestly speaking, there were so many twisted and complicated things going on with such enormous details that every once in a while you would have to pause just to synchronize all the events in your head and scramble to get everything straight. After all this drama, they somehow got back to the real world; Saito, miraculously not losing his mind in limbo, made a phone call for Cobb to honor their agreement; Cobb finally landed in America without getting caught.

                       

Yet this mind-breaking plot was not enough for Nolan; he had to make us insane. And he did, with the ending. Even 10 years after Inception’s theatrical release, to this day people are still debating about the true meaning of its final scene- whether Cobb was still dreaming or he did indeed see his kids in real life. There are many fan theories out there on the internet, some with fairly plausible logics and some just pure fantasy. As Nolan has kept his mouth shut the whole time and there is little doubt that he will not open up anytime soon, there is really no way to know for sure what it actually meant. But that won’t stop anyone, in fact that will just make it all the more exciting. So here I am with my explanation…

The way I see it, the director is just as important as the movie itself; you somehow need to have an idea about how he thinks about his work. If this very movie with the exact same details was directed by Martin Scorsese(watch Shutter Island) or David Lynch (watch Mulholland Drive), the ending might quite possibly mean something else entirely. So instead of asking what happened, you should ask why it happened or should happen in the eye of the director. As for Nolan, his message is almost always philosophical which means the idea portrayed by the final scenes will be more significant than the scenes themselves. The theme doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive or even a happy one; it can be dark and heart-wrenching too. But the main thing is he will try to offer a sense of finality, some sort of a goodbye when he finishes his film; the focused character(s) will have a touch of acceptance to his(/their) fate, no matter however right or wrong you judge that fate to be. From Memento to The Prestige to The Dark Knight Rises (if you think Bruce lives, think again; why should the scene of Bruce alive at the end necessarily mean he is actually alive – what could be the underlying concept?), Nolan has always drawn a conclusion that, in the deepest sense of the word, defines the fundamental desire and the absolute foundation of subconscious personality his characters express, and Inception might just be the finest example. From the very beginning, Cobb’s motive was clear: to go back to his children; inception was merely the means to that end. The guilt of killing his wife Mal by inception may always haunt him, but as far as the film is concerned, what truly defines him and justifies his actions is his love for his kids.

If the totem spins and spins without falling, then Cobb is in a dream; if it topples over, he is awake, we know that. But then the final scene- the totem continues spinning for a very long time and just before the cut, vaguely looks like slowing down a little, but before you realize if it actually falls or just goes on spinning, the scene ends and the movie finishes- what does it mean? You saw what happened, now think about why. For Cobb, that scene- that moment to finally see his children’s faces, that is almost too dreamy to be real. A dream he always visualized, a moment he always craved to witness; and when that came true, it was as if Cobb’s reality was too much to handle. More than the scene, perhaps more than the plot itself, this is the message the director tried to convey. An imaginative artist who always has time for the specific little details that, in his mind, reflect the true meaning of something, this is the way, I think, Christopher Nolan settled for, for the audience to say goodbye to this iconic cinematic creation of his: Cobb meeting his children in real life, expressed, more beautifully than said in a mere quote, in a perfect scene simultaneously dangling between dream and real world which captured the true essence of Cobb making peace with his reality.