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Inception
KvP:
I don't think the implication was that there is a "science of dreams" that people are trained for. The impression that I seem to get was that dream manipulation is taboo and/or illegal, certainly in terms of extraction and inception, but there's also the telling scene in the chemist's basement that is essentially an opium den for dreamers. Dream manipulation is insinuated to have long-term effects on faculties ala psychedelic drug use. Also there's the fact that Ariadne is apparently unaware of the technology prior to her integration into the group. I think it's more the case that the architect controlling the dream on the macro scale is just that, an architect, someone with a very high spatial intelligence who can make sense of complex structures and designs.
Even though the answer to the question is probably beside the point of the film, I keep going back to the beginning of the film and weighing how what we see impacts the "reality" of the film. I think there are definitely a lot of elements that keep the question open - knowing that on some level the film would toy with the perceptions of the characters and the viewer (as all Nolan non-Batman films have) I watched the film like a hawk for things that seemed off, and there was quite a bit. Perhaps it's just an unintentional byproduct of how break-neck the pace of the movie is and how little is explained prior to the beginning of Cillian Murphy's dream, but I did notice the faceless and ruthless nature of Cobalt Engineering, and how they seemed to come out of nowhere, not unlike the antibody-like entities of the subconscious. As noted in this spoilerific discussion, there is a certain weird quality to the entire excursion that Cobb takes to acquire the aid of Ames and the chemist, beyond the sudden appearance of Cobalt / Saito. The aerial shots of the city are especially labyrinthine (which, granted, could be a simple visual motif throughout the film in and out of dreamspace, but there might also be a greater significance).
But more than that, the first point at which I figured something was off was when Cobb was speaking to his children over the phone. I suspected that it was over the phone was important - at that point I began to question whether there was something going on with Cobb, whether he was conjuring up the voices of his children (my first guess was that his children died in whatever calamity befell his wife). I remember him using his spinning top but I also seem to remember him handling his gun with some uncertainty - I'll have to look again on second viewing but in retrospect I think it's certainly a moment of doubt, with Cobb wondering if he might wake up if he shot himself.
jimbunny:
Of course he wonders. He's coming unglued from the unresolved trauma of Mal's psychosis/suicide and his own frequent contact with the idea of unreality. But his victory at the end isn't that he overcomes an obsession with reality and is content to live in a dreamworld; it's that he has persevered and attained that reality. If, after the end of the movie, Cobb comes back and sees the top spinning, or is somehow unable (as he might already be) to fully convince himself of reality, I think it crushes him. The movie becomes a tragedy.
Here's a theory: Nolan wanted to make (or should have made) this movie more of a tragedy (more along the lines of Memento) but for some reason (studio pressure, for example) didn't. Thus, being neither one thing nor the other, it's a bit of a mess, but unique and intriguing all the same. This is actually why I hated The Prestige the first time I saw it - it's such a genre free-for-all. But that improved after a few viewings, so maybe I should give this one the same chance.
KvP:
I don't think it was supposed to be a tragedy. The rules of inception are important thematically - as the team has to bring Cillian Murphy to a place of resolution and catharsis in order for it to work, so does Cobb come to a place of resolution and catharsis with his past.
That's not even getting to the fact that the move was essentially Ocean's Eleven, complete with elaborate, high-stakes heist and an escape that has to be pulled off with extreme precision in order for everyone to make it out.
kemon:
--- Quote from: LTK on 24 Jul 2010, 02:07 ---I loved this moment, in Fischer's second dream:
Ariadne: Everyone suddenly started staring at us.
Arthur: I see. Quick, give me a kiss.
- They kiss -
Ariadne: They're still staring.
Arthur: Well, it was worth a try.
- Arthur walks away -
I almost missed it, if it weren't for the rest of the audience laughing. Anyway, what I thought was exceptionally well executed was the handwaving, in the sense that there was barely anything that needed to be handwaved. What completely made the suspension of disbelief in this one is all the assumptions that went in the basic premise. Think about it: They never mention how it is possible to enter someone else's dream. They never say what the buzzing machine in the metallic case does. Everything they explain about how the dream world works overshadows how they get into the dream world in the first place. The whole concept is so engraved in the film that there appears to be an entire college education dedicated to the science of dreams, which Ariadne came from.
As a whole I really enjoyed the movie, especially its theme of "You don't control your mind, your mind controls you", but in some places it was indeed a bit obvious how the dream-world rules existed to give you a pretty show. Needing a 'kick' to awake from the dream, what better excuse to make everything end with a big bang?
--- End quote ---
that part was great.
i believe the purpose of the case was two-fold. firstly, it supplied and regulated the drugs for inducing sleep. secondly, it connected everyone so they'd be in the right dream. i don't think there was any implication that you could just fall asleep without any sort of gear and wander into someone's dream.
Blue Kitty:
I don't think it's been posted yet, but here's an Inception comic leading up to the movie.
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