The "Inception" Thread

[Alex]

Those who've seen Inception might find this interesting (it's about the music and score).

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, that was cool. LSPE tweeted it yesterday.

I saw Inception again over the weekend, only to discover I didn't really miss anything the first time - even though I thought I had. I still like it a whole lot, though I never really connect with the characters on an emotional level (I think it's going to be a cold day in hell when Leo DiCaprio sells me on a performance).

That connection is not a necessary thing for me to like the film, though it's a component of most other films I like. This one's just so wonderful in so many ways. Oh, and even after seeing it a second time, and though many people beg to differ ...

Spoiler:

I'm convinced there's not a single moment of non-dream in the entire film. It doesn't matter whether the spinning totem falls or not after the cut-to-black at the end of the film; it's shown falling a couple of other times in what I believe are dream sequences.

Most of the "real world" stuff has the same crazy physical logic of the dreams. And at least one important plot point only makes sense if everything's a dream, i.e., why Cobb can't see his kids - which is his entire motivation and drives him to extremes. I note it doesn't drive him to buy two tickets for them to come to Paris, which would be perfectly reasonable in the real world if this was his real problem. It's only in dreams that obstacles have only one solution that makes no real sense.

Anyway, I prefer that interpretation to giant, gaping plot hole in a film that took 10 years to make. So I'm sticking with it.

[innerSpaceman]

Thanks, Greg. Great idea!



Yay! Inception Free Reign!!!

[mousepod]

Thanks, GD.

[innerSpaceman]

In Inception-related news, Tom Hardy, who plays Eames, says of course he's had sex with men, and discusses his fluid sexuality and femininity/masculinity flow.

[mousepod]

Alex,

I don't think you need to throw out any of the core rules and still have the movie take place inside a dream state.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by mousepod

I don't think you need to throw out any of the core rules and still have the movie take place inside a dream state.

True, it isn't necessary for it to still be a dream state. But I don't see how the presentation of totems and limbo is consistent with your theory of what the purpose of the dream state is. At least not without assuming facts not in evidence within the movie.

But I'd love to be shown what I'm missing.

[innerSpaceman]

Alex, the most successful elements of dreaming presented by the film are those that resonate with our actual experience of dreaming. Thus, time dilation is brilliant. Most of us experience that in dreams, so it was a fun element to have it quantified and further expounded such that the dilation became greater the deeper the levels you experience.

On that note, another resonant concept - in fact, the underpinning of the entire move - is that there are dreams within dreams. I daresay most of us have experienced that. I know I have.

The audience doesn't need to be convinced of these concepts. They have experienced them. But, yeah, totems are bullsh!t.

[innerSpaceman]

Well, the concept of limbo as stated and then as show were radically different.

It was said that if you spent an inordinate of time in limbo, your brain would melt. I guess they were talking about real time as opposed to limbo time, but both Cobb and Saito spent lifetimes in limbo without any brain-melt on return to "reality."


How, in fact, did Cobb escape from Limbo? I forget, if it was told? I know it was told how Mal broke out, but I forget that, too. I suppose if Mal and Cobb were only in limbo for a few weeks of their real life, no brain melt would be necessary. Of course, water would be.

If someone spends 50 years in limbo, how long is that in real time? There must be some Inception Dream Time Calculator up on the internet somewhere, no?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by mousepod

Good point. I completely forgot about that. So the absence of Cobb from any scene isn't a plot hole at all. Nice.

True, but then the absence of the dreamer from a particular scene becomes the new plothole. For example, in the snow level, action is shown taking place in at least three distinct locations at the same time. No one person was present for everything shown.

I'm fairly certain that they present Miles as Mal's father, not Cobb's. Perhaps he's the one who is trying to get Cobb to admit that he performed inception on his daughter.

That's possible, I thought he was Cobb's father but may have missed/forgot something. Steve, since you've seen it twice do you recall anything explicit one way or the other?

What if Mal isn't dead, but in some kind of permanent dream state? If she was the dreamer, that might explain why Cobb uses her totem - and why her "secret" was the totem itself.

Agreed, completely possible truth. But not one, I think, with any evidence in the movie itself.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

It was said that if you spent an inordinate of time in limbo, your brain would melt. I guess they were talking about real time as opposed to limbo time, but both Cobb and Saito spent lifetimes in limbo without any brain-melt on return to "reality."

They also spent times in constructed realities within Limbo. It was said that Limbo was unconstructed empty dreamspace or whatever you yourself created in it. I took melting to meant that you'd go crazy from a near-eterinity in sensory deprivation.

How, in fact, did Cobb escape from Limbo? I forget, if it was told?

The first time? He put his head down on the train tracks with Mal. The second time, if he did escape, presumably he and Saito killed themselves.

I suppose if Mal and Cobb were only in limbo for a few weeks of their real life, no brain melt would be necessary.

Presumably they were in limbo for only a few hours at most in real time. During the limbo explanation it was shown several times that they were lying on their living room floor (same house as he returns to at the end) dreaming. Presumably somebody would have found them and awoken them if they'd been out for much longer than that (having kids and all).