July 30, 2010
on inception
This might be one of the longest things I’ve written on this blog. If you liked inception, read it hombre.
I saw Inception last week and I’m still thinking about it. I think that being a philosophy kid makes me think about this shit a lot more than I should, but whatever. I’ve heard so many mixed theories on inception that I figured I might as well give my own two cents. Its mostly about the end but I figured I’d throw in some other stuff about it as well. My thoughts are so scattered that I’ve broken this up into a million different segments, but, here goes;
The Characters:
One thing you probably didn’t know about Ariadne’s role is that it is likely a reference to the Ariadne of Greek mythology, King Minos’ daughter who had a string that led out of a labyrinth. In my opinion, this shifts the ending toward being that he ends up back in reality. She was his “string back to reality” in that sense.
The only thing I didn’t like is that they all played the same basic role, although each one on their own are obscenely good actors. They fit this archetype that Nolan loves and that bugged me, especially for actors like Leo who can be so dynamic. Can you spot the ruthless, suave and sharply-dressed one? Its like a where’s waldo for first graders.
The Presentation:
Before I get into the score and cinematography, I wanna talk about the wardrobe because of course I noticed that. In short, everything was beautiful haha. Ellen Page looked lovely the whole time, everything JGL wore was tailored perfectly to him and fit his style (both in the movie and personally) perfectly. I mostly focused on Leo though. I think I was the only person in the theatre sitting there going “o0o0o that’s made by Robert Geller”, but he looked like a boss the whole time. Looks like he put on a bit of weight for this role, but he filled everything out perfectly. The one scene that really stuck out to me was the scene where he was wearing the Robert Geller flannel sitting in the hotel room (where we first see his Totem).
In terms of the score of the movie, it was great, but felt like it went on forever and ever and ever. Hanz Zimmer did a great job as he always does, but the whole thing felt like never ending tension that goes on for two and a half hours.
Lastly, I think in terms of cinematography and effects, this is one of the most masterfully done movies in a while, and what makes it even more amazing is that it only took a year to shoot this. Nolan loves his CGI, but the amazing thing is that most of the effects in this movie were shot in-camera as opposed to post editing. For example, remember the scene where Ellen Page and Leo are sitting in the café and things start to explode? Most of that was done with real, controlled explosions. As to how Leo and Ellen were able to keep their composure while things were blowing up around them, I’ll never know. Also, remember the scene in the hotel where JGL is fighting the guy in that zero gravity corridor? There was no CGI work there. That was actually just a brilliantly choreographed fight scene in a zero-gravity chamber. To pull off the scenes, multiple hotel sets were constructed in a converted airship hanger north of London, the most impressive of them all being a more than 100-foot hotel corridor that was able to rotate 360 degrees with the help of eight concentric rings, 30-feet in diameter, which surrounded the set. Fucking mindblowing, right?
The only thing I didn’t like was the stage of dreaming where they were in a hotel, I absolutely hated it because of the light he used. They must have used natural light instead of studio light because it was so fucking yellow the whole time. Not to mention that whole scene was made up of oranges and browns, but the combination of that with natural light and hotel light bulbs made the whole thing look like it was shot in soft focus.
Was It All A Dream?:
I’m almost certain that the ending is reality, although I’m sure Nolan will have us fighting over this for ages. There are a ton of theories around this but after seeing Inception for my third time, and reading some stuff on the internet I noticed that it is most definitely not a dream, and the wedding ring gives it all away. Here,
The movie starts Cobb in limbo with Saito, he is wearing a ring. Step back to the beginning, Leo is trying to convince Saito to let him into his mind to help protect it, this takes place in a dream two layers down. He is wearing a wedding ring. Things go south and we wake up in the apartment, where we think an angry mob is really coming down the street. They threaten Saito’s life with him thinking it is reality, only for him to discover otherwise. In this entire scene Cobb is wearing a wedding ring. However, when they wake up on the train, there is no wedding ring.
In the hotel suite on the phone with his kids, no wedding ring. On the roof talking to Saito, he doesn’t wear a wedding ring. When he is in France, at the Architecture university, he has no wedding ring. The coffee shop in Ariadne’s first shared dream, Cobb is wearing his wedding ring, she freaks out. However, when they wake up in the workshop, he isn’t wearing a wedding ring. They go back under and Ariadne explores the physics of the dreamworld, again Cobb is wearing a wedding ring.
Cobb goes to see Eames, the entire time not wearing a ring. Afterwards, he meets the new chemist, still no ring. The chemist gives him a quick taste of his latest potion, in that scene we get a quick glimpse of his hand and he is wearing a wedding ring. However, when he wake up, he isn’t.. See the pattern?
So finally, the inception. We are on the plane, we clearly see is not wearing a ring. Afterwards, in every single level of dreaming, he is wearing a wedding ring.
(peep that ring mayneee)After he meets Saito as an old man, the conversation continues past what we saw in the beginning, yet even here he is still wearing a wedding ring. Then, when Saito reaches for the gun, the film jumps to an airplane scene, and here is he has no wedding ring.
This is the key; as he is walking through the terminal, no ring, And as he is greeted by Michael Caine, no ring. However, most importantly, when he gets home and spins his totem, no ring.
This is because, in his dreams he is still married to Mol. She shows up everywhere he is and he wears a ring the whole time. Mol exists in his dreams, and therefore when he is dreaming he wears a ring. Most people seem to have not noticed this, but with a director like Nolan, I am 100% sure that this ring/no ring is not just a coincidence and a series of goofs of “oh I forgot to take it off for this scene”.
Finally, the home scene. Looks like a dream? In this case, yes it does. We see the children exactly where they were, doing the same thing, wearing the same clothes. They appear the same age. On my second viewing this was the biggest red flag that it was a dream. But on my third viewing I noticed little differences, such as the kids looking slightly older. The cast list has two sets of kids listed, ones slightly older than the others. They are not voice casts but actual actors in the film. I especially noticed a difference as the camera moves towards the totem, look at the back door where the kids are. The girl is seen throwing herself at Leo, in this scene she looks clearly older than the memory he has of her.
Therefore, reality. Game over.
How Nolan Mindfucked Us Even Harder:
The whole idea of the inception is going deep into the subjects mind, to plant a small idea that eventually manifests itself into something much larger and more powerful.
The small shot of the totem wobbling at the end of the movie changes our entire perception of the plot and makes everyone question what is going on. This small detail manifests itself into an overwhelming idea that completely defines the movie, as the viewers begin to realize that they have ‘creeping doubts’ as Mol calls them when referring to her own scepticism of reality.
In the end, by cutting the film before we see the totem fall or stay, Nolan creates that seed of doubt in the viewers mind that makes everyone question whether it was all a dream, or if it was reality. With this, he contextualizes the whole idea of the movie (planting an idea in someones mind and letting it grow) and the concept of the movie thus becomes reality to the viewer, a heavy thing to think about and something that hasn’t been done before.
Another Approach:
Another idea is that the whole movie is one massive allegory for the actual film-making process. This is because dreams are very similar to movies in that they are unreal stories that we witness and have real emotional responses too. The characters in the movie represent the key people in a movie;
Cobb = Director
Arthur = Producer
Ariadne = Screenwriter
Saito = Financier
Eams = Actor
Fischer = Audience
Further, notice how in the “dream” state, when things begin to drastically change, the projections turn on the dreamer. This is said to represent when a movie goes off track and the audience and critics begin to turn on the movie.
Lastly, movies that end with “it was all a dream in the end” are pretty much usually horrible, because nothing actually matters then. It reduces the significance of anything that happened to zero. Inception however, does this on purpose to show that movies are like dreams, in that nothing is really at stake.
Whats weirder, is that Leo has actually gone on record saying that Nolan was his inspiration for how Cobb should act in the movie. Notice how Leo much Leo looks like Nolan in the movie…
So, is it possible? Is Inception one big fucked up autobiographical take on how he makes movies? I donno guy. Spinning totem. Internet debate.
The Problems:
There are only two things about Inception that really stood out to me as problems/shit that bugged me. This is where I start to write angrily and badly.
The first thing is the ending itself. The whole movie clarifies every little fucking detail imaginable, and most major problems and holes are answered or closed up, and then the ending. The ending is filled with ambiguity, which doesn’t fit the rest of the movie at all. I realize that Nolan wanted to mindfuck all of us, but it just doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of the movie. Unless of course, he was setting us up for a sequel, which I’m so down for.
Secondly, If Saito (who I think was very well cast) knew all this shit about the Fischer company, I believe its fair to assume that the Fischer company (especially the right hand man/head of security) would know just as much, if not more about Saitos business. Especially if Saitos business was the only one standing in their way of energy domination.
So, if we assume that, how then can Saito walk around with Fischer, not only in his dreams, but actually be on the plane with him without setting off any red flags in the mind of Fischer? Also, I know this is in a dream, but Saito actually walks into Browning and that STILL doesn’t tweak anything.
We know that the Fischers aren’t portrayed as idiots when it comes to business, so if the one company that stands between you and domination is buying the airline that you’re flying on, and then he’s sitting beside you on the plane, why the FUCK does that not raise any flags.
Anyways. That’s it. Oh, and Slim Thug didn’t get it.
