'Inception' Mega Thread *SPOILERS FROM POST 292 ONWARDS*

Sad Professor

A lot of people seem to have been turned off by the complexity of the plot and accompanying exposition. I'm usually the first person to complain about exposition, but I didn't find anything wrong with how this film handled it. It's a heist film, and heist films always contain a lot of exposition in the first hour. It is necessary to establish the rules and the goals, even more so in a film like this that deals with people being inserted into dreams. Nolan couldn't afford to gloss it over. And as said, it's refreshing to see a film that gives the audience so much complicated information and trust them to understand. But it's the summer and everyone is in comedy brain-fart mood. The audience at my showing seemed more excited about the trailer for Piranha 3D.

Re: the ending, I think it was reality, or whatever passes for "reality" in the film. The tops wobbles at the end, but Nolan cuts away before it falls so as to leave us with that little bit of doubt. I don't think his intention was to make us think Cobb was still stuck in Limbo, but to make us question our own idea of reality. From a dramatic standpoint, it doesn't make any sense for it to be a dream.

Carcharodon

As blockbusters go it is well above the average, I enjoyed the concept and it was all pretty well put together.

There are some minor flaws for me but these are more opinions on how I feel a film not fall into the hollywood cliche mode but it was original and engaging enough for the most part.

The one big problem I had was Ellen Pages character, nothing against her but it seemed like her character was never given a chance to engage the audience with the poor cheesy lines she was given. And also I hated the way she was recruited and then suddenly became so emotionally involved with Caprios character, was kind of yawn.

The Highwayman

meh it passed a few hours nothing to get worked up over.

irishh_bob

Edinduberdeen wrote: »

Really?? I thought everything was explained thoroughly - it wasn't that complicated.

what was being explained wasnt that interesting in the 1st place , this movie was a shrinks dream , i despise the whole area of deep thinking

Earthhorse

sprinkles wrote: »

But he did look confused when he got there. Something wasn't right with the scene and he noticed it but then saw his kids. I can't remember what he looked at - I thought it was the table place-mat...

Let's say it was the table place-mat; he could just be confused by seeing the real one for the first time in years. We just don't know.

krudler wrote: »

Heres a question, in Fischer's dream, why does he never once question that the head of his biggest rival company is in his dream helping him? Saito's prescence isnt alluded to once by him.

I thought Saito was the head of his rival's security, not the head of the whole firm.

Mitch Connor

Edinduberdeen wrote: »

I once dreamt that Spiderman and I were delivering coal. Not once in the dream did I question why Spiderman was helping me.

If you had known it was a dream (and Fisher knew it was a dream) you probably would have thought it odd.

evil_seed

This film is a masterpiece. I think there's more to it than just dreams and reality. Cobb is dealing with letting go of his wife, getting over her death. What we perceive as our reality is actually his dream.

The totem he holds through the whole film is not his so it is not unique. It was his wifes.

So how is he to know what is real or not. In the end he accepts that his wife is gone and moves on with what he wants to be reality. Hope that makes sense

BlitzKrieg

rumour has it on the imdb forums

his totem is actually his wedding ring, as it only appears in dreams and in reality he doesnt wear it

supposable...its from people who have watched it far too many times...

Handsome Bob

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

rumour has it on the imdb forums

his totem is actually his wedding ring, as it only appears in dreams and in reality he doesnt wear it

supposable...its from people who have watched it far too many times...

As well as from people who have probably dissected every single still from the film. :pac:

Edinduberdeen

Mitch Connor wrote: »

If you had known it was a dream (and Fisher knew it was a dream) you probably would have thought it odd.

Not really - if I knew it was a dream then I'd know that my dreams typically incorporate people and places that have been on my mind recently. If anything I'd find it less odd.

Edinduberdeen

irishh_bob wrote: »

what was being explained wasnt that interesting in the 1st place , this movie was a shrinks dream , i despise the whole area of deep thinking

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean. What was being explained was the set up for the action to follow (I found it quite interesting anyway)... it was a shrink's dream? What does this mean? You despise deep thinking? Like, you don't like to think about things in any depth? (Not that I think this movie requires too much thinking about in depth).

trustno1

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

rumour has it on the imdb forums

his totem is actually his wedding ring, as it only appears in dreams and in reality he doesnt wear it

supposable...its from people who have watched it far too many times...

This is what I mentioned earlier. If you do watch it a second time - keep an eye on the ring.. I have never seen such a well hidden hand, there are definitely times when Nolan does not want to you knowing as to whether or not he is wearing it at times - his wedding ring is definitely his totem in his dreams (apart from the flashbacks)

krudler

irishh_bob wrote: »

what was being explained wasnt that interesting in the 1st place , this movie was a shrinks dream , i despise the whole area of deep thinking

go watch The Hills or something then.

GampDub

trustno1 wrote: »

This is what I mentioned earlier. If you do watch it a second time - keep an eye on the ring.. I have never seen such a well hidden hand, there are definitely times when Nolan does not want to you knowing as to whether or not he is wearing it at times - his wedding ring is definitely his totem in his dreams (apart from the flashbacks)

Surely the his wedding ring can't be his totem either as it would have been made by a jeweller, held by his best man, then the priest and finally by his wife to place on his finger

The spinning top is definitely his Totem, sure he says so! The reason it is unique to him is that as it was his wife's only she originally knew the weight, denisty etc of it but now that she is dead and he found it he is the only living person that it is unique too, therefore no living person can recreate it in a dream which is the purpose of a Totem after all!!!!

I think people are reading into too much off screen stuff that may or may not happened! Nolan tells you everything you need to know on screen there are no big mysteries!!! It may take a few more watches to truely get the film and personally I can't wait watch it a few more times!

My favourite film in a long time... was totally wrapped up in it from the very beginning!!!!

Sad Professor

Yeah, although the accuracy of the spinning top as his totem is totally dependent on his wife really being dead. Otherwise, it's not reliable because she knew the weight as well. When he started using it as his own, he assumed she was dead, but could he really be sure? If she wasn't, then anytime the top falls he could be inside her dream.

trustno1

GampDub wrote: »

Surely the his wedding ring can't be his totem either as it would have been made by a jeweller, held by his best man, then the priest and finally by his wife to place on his finger

As he is only wearing it when he dreams - it was touched by no one but himself i.e. he is imagining himself wearing it and therefore that he is dreaming. The spinning top is defiinetly Mal's totem - only that Cobb knows its uniqueness to Mal, which he use's for her Inception.

Do keep an eye on the ring when you watch the film again..

I still find it interesting that all the totems are game related - Spinning top, poker chip, chess piece and dice and wonder if it has any signifigance?...

RichTea

Earthhorse wrote: »

If anything, Cobb going home is the one time we do see people getting somewhere in the dream. Throughout the film characters end up in places with no transition scene to explain how they got there e.g. Cobbs and Saito in Mombasa and Eames inflitrating Fischer's family. They just arrive. This is, of course, a pretty normal film convention.

Cobb going home is the only time we see how someone got somewhere, the only time we remember how he arrived.

Didn't think of it that way at all. Bloody hell I need to see it again.

GampDub

I really think people are trying to unneccessarily overcomplicate this movie... yeah it is not the easist film to follow but I genuinely believe we are told/shown everything we need to know.

Nolan has been very clever with it though by not totally spoonfeeding the info to the audience. Hence the reason we are having these discussions, there are no right or wrong answers!

This is a movie that is both entertaining and challenges the brain, no doubt alot more people will come up with alot more opinions on the movie and that is what makes it so great and this is the reason I love movies... we all get to make up our own minds as to what the movie is about and once we all believe what we thing is going on in our own minds then Nolan has done his job!!!

Then again this whole forum might all just be a dream, now where did I leave that Totem

RichTea

GampDub wrote: »

I really think people are trying to unneccessarily overcomplicate this movie... yeah it is not the easist film to follow but I genuinely believe we are told/shown everything we need to know.

Nolan has been very clever with it though by not totally spoonfeeding the info to the audience. Hence the reason we are having these discussions, there are no right or wrong answers!

This is a movie that is both entertaining and challenges the brain, no doubt alot more people will come up with alot more opinions on the movie and that is what makes it so great and this is the reason I love movies... we all get to make up our own minds as to what the movie is about and once we all believe what we thing is going on in our own minds then Nolan has done his job!!!

Then again this whole forum might all just be a dream, now where did I leave that Totem

That might be true but I think a lot of the fun of the film is the discussion that follows it. Nolan surely knew this and I bet he's enjoying hearing all of these madcap theories.

Brendog

I heard that after all the credits have run you can hear the sound of the spinning top falling which means Cobb is NOT dreaming....

did anybody hear this....or has heard this rumour?

RichTea

Brendog wrote: »

I heard that after all the credits have run you can hear the sound of the spinning top falling which means Cobb is NOT dreaming....

did anybody hear this....or has heard this rumour?

I think that's a rumour. It's also an excuse to go again just to make sure.

trustno1

RichTea wrote: »

I think that's a rumour. It's also an excuse to go again just to make sure.

I listened for it on the second viewing but wasn't able to hear due to the groan from the audience when it cut to black!.. but I don't think its there..

Sad Professor

There's definitely a wobble right before the cut to black though.

Paleface

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Its probably best to just make up your own mind on the whole thing as I doubt Nolan made it with the intent of it being entirely clear cut.

Its open to interpretation like all good art!

Peyton Manning

A truly magical piece of music. As well as being one of the best films I've ever seen, it is far and away the best score I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4XxaWXsO78

Renn

Renn wrote: »

Thought the score was good too while I was watching it but it doesn't really hold up too well when listening to it on its own. One or two good tracks but then again, it feels like I've heard these tunes before. Don't know if I've heard them from a Bourne movie or if Max Richter's score for Waltz With Bashir is clouding my judgement.

.

seraphimvc

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

My issue with limbo is that in the flashbacks the only other active object we see aside from cobb and mal is a train for waking them up, so I was unsure if projections were possible that deep down in your sub concious as the links with reality become so strained your concious elements fade away hence why spending 50+ years there could easily make you believe it is reality. But I could easily be wrong and projections are easily possible, in fact the notion with Mal is that he has created this projection of her but has buried it as deep as possible in his subconcious that limbo could possible be where she is most prominant.

i read back my post and realise that projection is possible in limbo:o
when ellen page/fisher/Cobb go back to Cobb's limbo in the end, that Mal in their apartment is Cobb's projection:pac: the train or whatever else would be Cobb's projection in the Saito/Cobb world.

but then when i think back the whole idea of limbo, like you put the explaination nicely:

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

I'm not 100% on this, but limbo is vast untapped subconcious, if you've never been there its empty, just a shoreline with nothing on it, but because it does not have any rules applied to it you can create to your heats content in that world. But because Dicaprio had been to limbo before the remains of his last visit remain in limbo. Now I assumed Saito in another distant part of limbo started building his own dreamworld (which is like the dream they meet him earlier in the film.) and it took Cobb the god knows how many years to find him, hence Saito is ancient by the time he finds him. Cobb on the other hand is not taken in to limbo as reality because he is doggidly obbessed in getting back to his kids and knows its not reality, the 10 hour time limit would have lapsed in this time and simply kicking themselves once should bring them out.

if limbo is an empty space, wouldnt saito know thats not reality? if i was there i'd definitely know :pac: and if you know it is not reality you can get yourself out of limbo(eg like shooting yourself) straight away then.

i'd say you can build your own world in limbo if you want but not necessary, like Cobb/Mal did since Cobb purposely wanna see how far can they go.

the final scene was the scene where Saito/Cobb share their dream together of the last mission. Saito looks older simply means he entered limbo earlier than Cobb.

sprinkles

The reason Saito looks older, a lot older is that he was in Limbo a few minutes in level 4 time before Cobb went in, that would be years in Limbo time.

There are projections in Limbo - Saito's guards for one.

blue_steel

Brilliant film. Seems clear to me that the end was still in Limbo. Cobb's children haven't aged or even changed their clothes from the last time he saw them. Also his father was living in Paris earlier so why would he be there to meet him at the airport in LA? Open to interpretation of course but thats my take.
Great entertainment either way

L'prof

blue_steel wrote: »

Brilliant film. Seems clear to me that the end was still in Limbo. Cobb's children haven't aged or even changed their clothes from the last time he saw them. Also his father-in-law was living in Paris earlier so why would he be there to meet him at the airport in LA? Open to interpretation of course but thats my take.
Great entertainment either way

FYP. I did find it strange that he was waiting at the airport, I'll have to think about that one!