Christopher Nolan's Inception

[Warhammer]

It's kind of funny, because I've been on an Inception blitz lately as well. I'm always reminded of it, when I'm faced with a situation that I wish was not real. That, to me, three years later, is what Inception really means - facing your guilt or regrets and accepting them as your reality, acknowledge that you have to escape your own mental prison, then face life again ready to truly live.

It's late and I'm blabbering, but last week I got a call about one of my design clients. His 15-year-old son was killed the week before, and I was asked to design the program for the memorial. I couldn't but wonder how my client was feeling right now (and by extension, the entire family) - did he manage to tell his son he loved him before the end? Did he regret not doing so enough? And above all, I wondered if he wished he could wake up from this nightmare. Everyone probably did. But you can't escape this reality. You can escape to a dream reality of course, where horrible things don't happen and all your loved ones are still with you, but all you're doing is trapping yourself within your own mind.

I just watched the ending again, and even though they seem hokey, the "I'm an old man now....filled with regret, waiting to die alone..." "Come back so we can be young men together again" lines just hit me really hard. Escape from your own mental prison, where you'd be doomed to regret forever. Escape it so you can live.

I'll never be able to watch the film the same way again. Exceptional post, Anita.

 

[flickchick85]

That IS an exceptional post. All the time we spent back in 2010 dissecting what's real and what's not, what everything means in each dream level, etc. I don't think I spent much time looking at the core emotional theme of the story like that. Thanks for sharing that perspective, Anita.

 

[Schlosser85]

Yea, the movie definitely has a core theme of it not mattering whether it's a dream or reality, but your emotions and your heart being what's real.

Cobb not caring about his totem anymore at the end because he's with his children. Fischer with the projection of his father.

 

[Anita18]

That IS an exceptional post. All the time we spent back in 2010 dissecting what's real and what's not, what everything means in each dream level, etc. I don't think I spent much time looking at the core emotional theme of the story like that. Thanks for sharing that perspective, Anita.

I think the core emotional themes are only obvious upon repeat viewings. The multiple dream levels are a powerful distraction!

And I do wonder if Nolan was only able to write Inception like this after he really grew up. We did have discussions before about how Nolan seemed to be obsessed with darkness and revenge (Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, TDK to a point) and whether that was a pattern he'd show in all his movies. But even if he's had a pretty short career so far, he's married and become a father several times over in that span. Your worldview changes. You start losing people you care about.

That emotional realization that was reposted, I didn't make that until tragedy struck to someone I knew. When you're young, you often don't have that sort of knowledge. Inception and TDKR showed dramatic emotional shifts from Nolan's previous films, I think.

Long story short, I can't wait for Interstellar and whatever Nolan comes up with in the future.

 

[BatLobster]

Nolan also lost his father in 2010 too I believe. I actually saw an interview with him in a screenwriting magazine a while back where he himself talked about how being a father has changed him on so many levels, his worldview etc. and how that might seep into his work. And yeah there definitely seems to be a big emotional shift in Nolan's work, and more of an optimism that's starting to emerge. Which is great, it keeps him honest artistically and keeps it fresh for us as an audience.

But yeah, nice bit of posting Anita. I think you nailed it.

Side note...I watched Captain Phillips today and the ending music is a very blatant ripoff of "Time". Like, you just know that was the temp track and they fell in love with it and tried to recreate it. It took me right out of the movie and made me want to watch Inception.

 

[craigdbfan]

I felt the same thing with 12 years a Slave and the main theme in that film. Granted it was Zimmer so there's that but still it was distracting.

 

[Tequilla]

Like the user said , Inception deal basically with the acceptance of reality. Whatever it is. This is really how we define ourselves. By accepting.

You know what is truly exceptional ? What happens with other Nolan characters that dont follow that route ? That try to run , hide or lie their own realities? They all have tragic outcomes.

We have Mal obviously. She dies.

Leonard. He lies to himself endlessly because he knows he will never heal ("how can i heal if i dont feel time"). He's an extremely tragic character. By not accepting what happened , he ends up in an eternal cycle of seeking revenge. He refugees himself in an escaped reality.

Angier. Incapable of having his own existence perceived. 2 bodies. 1 person. He's unable to cope with it...what does he do ? He kills himself every night. For every show.

And then comes Cobb. Which breaks the pattern. He faithfully accepts it. And he gets , at least from the audience perspective , an happy ending alongside his kids.

I think i could even stretch this to Batman's trilogy , which deals a lot about identities. This is definitely a central theme in all Nolan films , more specifically how do we define and perceive ourselves.

 

[flickchick85]

I think the core emotional themes are only obvious upon repeat viewings. The multiple dream levels are a powerful distraction!

And I do wonder if Nolan was only able to write Inception like this after he really grew up. We did have discussions before about how Nolan seemed to be obsessed with darkness and revenge (Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, TDK to a point) and whether that was a pattern he'd show in all his movies. But even if he's had a pretty short career so far, he's married and become a father several times over in that span. Your worldview changes. You start losing people you care about.

That emotional realization that was reposted, I didn't make that until tragedy struck to someone I knew. When you're young, you often don't have that sort of knowledge. Inception and TDKR showed dramatic emotional shifts from Nolan's previous films, I think.

Long story short, I can't wait for Interstellar and whatever Nolan comes up with in the future.

I agree that his work seems to be evolving on a thematic level, and it's really interesting to watch. Interstellar can't get here soon enough.

 

[craigdbfan]

McConaughey and the rest of the cast I feel are going to be as great of an ensemble as the cast in Inception was. I'm really getting that feeling.

 

[titansupes]

I agree that his work seems to be evolving on a thematic level, and it's really interesting to watch. Interstellar can't get here soon enough.

Indeed. As to Anita's excellent post, I feel both Inception and The Dark Knight Rises very clearly fit into this new Nolan mold (Bruce goes on to find his own cartharsis). It will be interesting to see if Interstellar continues it. I think it will, given how bittersweet yet hopeful the teaser was.

 

[samsnee]

Michael Caine offers definitive explanation for the ending of Inception

Uh, spoilers I guess?

Speaking at a recent Inception screening in London, he explained how he first received the script and asked Christopher Nolan what parts of the film were dreams and what was reality.

“When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it, and I said to him, ‘I don’t understand where the dream is,'” Caine explained.

“I said, ‘When is it the dream and when is it reality?’ He said, ‘Well, when you’re in the scene it’s reality.’ So, get that — if I’m in it, it’s reality. If I’m not in it, it’s a dream.”

 

[David H.]

The ending of Dark Knight Rises is a dream.

 

[DarkKnight88]

No, he's in it so it's reality. The ending of Interstellar and Dunkirk are a dream.

 

[Boom]

I always took the ending as being real. The top continuously spinning was more symbolic than anything. Cobb's dream was to be reunited with his kids. He was living that dream.

 

[Iceman]

I thought this was one of my favourite modern films when I first saw it and it has stood the test of time to an extent now and is as rewatchable as ever.

 

[samsnee]

Definitely has one of the best trailers ever.

 

[David H.]

No, he's in it so it's reality. The ending of Interstellar and Dunkirk are a dream.

Hey, Alfreds have dreams too, y’know.

 

[Flash525]

No, he's in it so it's reality. The ending of Interstellar and Dunkirk are a dream.

Pretty sure that wasn't a dream.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Pretty sure that wasn't a dream.

Michael Caine wasn't there so, yes it was.

At least we both agree that Dunkirk's ending was a dream.

 

[Schlosser85]

For people sometimes saying Nolan's films are devoid of emotion (which, did you not see the scene with the backlogged video messages in Interstellar?), Inception gets me multiple times.


Cobb letting Mal go, Fischer with his father.

Even the "riddle" about how it doesn't matter where the train takes you, because you'll be together.


There's tons of emotion going on.

 

[Flash525]

Michael Caine wasn't there so, yes it was.

It's been a while since I've watched it, but Brand not being there at the end doesn't equate to it being a dream sequence.

At least we both agree that Dunkirk's ending was a dream.

I don't recall myself saying that.

Inception is the only one of the three that is questionable.

 

[David H.]

I believe this is proper usage:

 

[DarkKnight88]

It's been a while since I've watched it, but Brand not being there at the end doesn't equate to it being a dream sequence.

I don't recall myself saying that.

Inception is the only one of the three that is questionable.

I think you might be a dream.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

For people sometimes saying Nolan's films are devoid of emotion (which, did you not see the scene with the backlogged video messages in Interstellar?), Inception gets me multiple times.


Cobb letting Mal go, Fischer with his father.

Even the "riddle" about how it doesn't matter where the train takes you, because you'll be together.


There's tons of emotion going on.

While I agree, I definitely think Interstellar took it up a few notches, the ending of Interstellar actually brought a tear to my eye while Inception just made me sad.

IMO though both great movies.

 

[Dr.]

Michael Caine offers definitive explanation for the ending of Inception

“I said, ‘When is it the dream and when is it reality?’ He said, ‘Well, when you’re in the scene it’s reality.’

I don’t doubt that this is what Nolan told Caine - so that he could better conceptualize his scenes. But I wouldn’t say this bit of new info is at all “definitive.”

Assuming the (much commented upon) theory that Inception is a metaphor for filmmaking, it makes little sense that one part of it should represents a baseline “reality.” In fact, if the viewer could confidently decode and distinguish “real” from “dream,” it rather defeats the purpose of the crafted ambiguity.

Now, in terms of the film’s various narrative “levels,” it’s true that the framing one (the one that includes Miles - Caine’s character) appears to be the highest. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “real” - i.e., not also a dream. Indeed, there are several funky and implausible elements in this level that strongly imply a dreamlike character.

One is that the team’s navigator of labyrinths and mazes just happens to be named Ariadne. Another: the notion that Saito, with just one phone call, could make an arrest warrant for murder disappear. And another: Miles - who apparently lives and works in Paris - just happens to be waiting for Cobb at the LA airport (assuming, apparently, that Cobb’s dream mission would succeed and that Saito would make his farfetched call to the authorities to have Cobb’s charges dropped). Yet another: there’s the sci-fi “shared dream” technology, itself. Ostensibly, it’s used in military training. But the fugitive Cobb and his buddies have easy access to it. Moreover, a squalid location in Mombasa also has the tech and provides “dream services” to the poor locals. All kinda fishy individually; and in combination, very fishy. Lastly, there’s the movie’s final image: the spinning top. On the theory that this scene occurs in “reality,” the top should eventually fall and confirm matters. And the fact that the shot cuts before this happened is, allegedly, insignificant - it’s just Nolan being mischievous. OTOH, can we legitimately assume a confirmation that the filmmaker took pains to withhold? Moreover, several folks have pointed out that the top wasn’t originally Cobb’s totem; it was Mal’s. So on that basis, it might be assumed that the top is useless as Cobb’s barometer for reality. It may be, as it were, an “unreliable narrator.”