There's been a crapload of crap about everything in this film. Mostly crap. The ending to be precise. By god, do not read this if you have NOT seen the film yet. You should though, it's easily my favorite film of the year, and not just because Ellen Page gets wet (although it doesn't hurt).
SPOILERS IMMINENT
SERIOUSLY, STOP READING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT
LAST WARNING
Ok, you're on your own. I'm now going to explain my views. And I'm going to waste time hand holding your way through. If you can't understand the terminology, well...I warned ya.
The ending:
Ok, so the top is spinning. It starts to wobble. Is it going to fall? IS IT?
Cut to black.
Both times I saw it, the entire audience groaned, sighed, and laughed. Nolan is pure genius. Because that was OUR kick. You know what a kick is? Good. We have been in absorbed in a different mindset. The movie. And the last, shocking shot, is the kick that takes us back to reality.
Is the whole film a dream? Maybe. Remember what Cobb says to Ariadne?
"You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up in the middle of the dream."
"I guess"
GUESS how the movie starts?
IN MEDIA RES.
AKA- in the middle of A SCENE. Do we know how he got there? NO.
The totem:
It's not even Cobb's. It's his wife's. Remember what was said earlier? Only the user of the totem can know it's fundamentals. Arthur's is a loaded die, and only he knows the exact weights. Ariadne's is some sort of chess piece...which we never see her use >.<
But then again, it's irrelevant in reality. Reality will determine whether that top falls or not. If it was a dream, it could keep spinning endlessly. In reality, it has to fall eventually. The ending...we see it wobble. We do NOT, however, see it topple.
IF, if the whole movie WAS a dream...who is the host of the entire movie?
Yusuf is the host for the first technical dream. It's raining because he didn't go to the toilet, and it's registering with his mind, hence the downpour. Whoever hosts the dream CANNOT go deeper. Which is why he is left to drive the van. Arthur is the next host, which is kinda obvious, the hotel designs, matched with his impeccable fashion and his past architecture designs with the Japanese castle fits him perfectly. He is left to fight off the guards, and also, he uses the anti-gravity to his advantage. Eames is the lucky owner of the third dream level. They TELL the mark, Fischer, that they are entering his Godfather's mind, because Fischer thinks he, Browning, has betrayed him. But really they're entering Eames. And he is forced to fend off a battalion of guards.
Limbo. It belongs to whoever was there last. And Cobb and Mal were the last inhabitants, for about 50 years. So that's why the cities were there. Because they got bored and built shit :)
Did Saito trick Cobb from the start?
Saito, PLANTED the idea of Inception within Cobb's mind. Think about THAT. And Cobb pulled it off. Which means the idea was successfully planted. Well done Saito.
Which makes the whole movie an audition to see if Cobb could pull it off.
Also, if the whole film was a dream, then WE have been 'Incepted'. The idea that the whole film was a dream was successfully planted in our brains. We can't get rid of our thoughts, and if you're like me, you just keep thinking whether or not it was a dream, or reality. Inception=successful. Nolan, you magnificent bastard.
"Do you want to die alone? Old, and full of regrets?"
Guess what the signature song is called, to signal the incoming kick? Edith Piaf's "I Regret Nothing"
In the end...Cobb didn't care about the totem spinning. In every other sequence, he waits until the top falls over, even planting a gun to his head in case he was still in a dream. But by the end...he just doesn't care. He wanted to be with his kids.
Oh...and there ARE differences in the clothing during the DREAM kids and the END OF FILM kids. Subtle...subtle though. I CBF going through the list.
When was the last time we saw it spin until it toppled over? After the sedated dream under Yusuf's chemicals for the first time? WRONNNGGGGGG. Saito interrupts before Cobb can spin it. And we don't see him spin it until the end. WHICH MEANS, the whole sequence could've been a dream from that point. He might still be under sedation from that point.
528-491. What does it mean?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. But the deeper we go into Fischer's subconscious, the more HE thinks they start to mean something, and in the end, he uses the numbers to open a safe WITHIN his mind, thinking that the combination meant something.
The henchman SUCK at aiming during the snow level. Um...that's because they're technically working for Fischer, who no longer sees the entire team as enemies. I still don't get why they didn't disappear completely. But...that would've been a boring movie.
"Mal. Bad. In the latin." -Firefly quote from the 2nd episode, but it's relevant, seeing as the antagonist's name is MAL.
You know how in a dream, the projections can detect an intruder, and they start staring, then act hostile? When Cobb is walking out of the airport, his entire crew is just...staring at him. Along with Fischer, who gives a glance.
Ok, that was a weak point. Still, that scene was very surreal.
Ok...Or maybe it wasn't a dream. He woke up, got his kids back. Happy ending. It's logical, and it's the ending I choose to believe.
The END...or is it?
The biggest give away had to be the fact that there is no beginning to the film (like you said), what Michael Cain says to DeCaprio when he sees him in Paris - "Come back to reality" or something like that - and when they visit that dream den, and the asian guy is like "you would know" or "who are you to say otherwise" or some shit like that. I don't really remember :P
ReplyDeleteOh, and the fact that DeCaprio's kids are no older in his final dream state than his remembered dream of them...he's supposedly meant to have been gone how long?
ReplyDeletemmm it was about 2 years...but there is a subtle difference between the kids in the dream and the kids in the end. i just cbf posting them :P
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