(2) During its first week in theaters, Christopher Nolan’s Inception climbed to 3rd place on IMDb’s top list and reached 4th place among the highest-grossing opening films ever. It was stylistically compared to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and was almost immediately given cult status by hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.
(3) What lies behind all this excitement? This analysis aims to provide some new perspectives on what Christopher Nolan’s Inception tries to convey. Inception is an action film designed to convey a set of advanced ideas to its audience, building a world of ideas around the philosophical questions: “How do I know what is real?” and “Am I dreaming right now?”
The film revolves around the concept of “inception”; the art of planting an idea so deeply in someone’s mind that it changes their attitude, actions, and entire life destiny. The director suggests that all the ideas, notions, and dreams that you and I have control everything we do. We only have true control over our lives when we learn to manage our interpretations, instead of being controlled by them.
Hereafter, I will summarize the different parts of the film and analyze what I believe is its meaning.
(4) 1. An Idea, a Mission, and the Rules of the Dream World
The ocean waves crash against the rocks, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is seen lying disoriented, washed up on a beach. Suddenly, he is apprehended by a guard and taken to an old Japanese man sitting at a table. The old man goes through DiCaprio’s few belongings, picks up a strange little metal spinning top, spins it, and mutters to himself: “I know what this is… I saw one like it many, many years ago. It belonged to a man I met in a half-forgotten dream, a man obsessed with radical ideas…” And so the film begins, and soon we are drawn into the plot.
Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), a “dream thief,” is hired at the beginning of the film to plant an idea, an idea that, once in place, will change the entire world. After accepting the mission, Cobb assembles a team of six people who begin planning an advanced heist; a “thought-crime” that takes place on multiple levels of the subconscious minds of everyone involved.
The heist goes as follows: One of the world’s largest energy companies is on the verge of achieving world dominance in the energy market, a monopoly situation that would make the company a new world power. The company’s founder is close to death, and his son is prepared to take over his father’s empire. The mission that Cobb and his team face is to enter the son’s subconscious and plant an idea that leads to the conclusion: “I will split up my father’s empire,” thereby preventing the company from achieving global influence.
(5) The preparations for “idea planting” are extensive, and as the paradoxical rules of the dream world are laid out, we are taken on a journey into how our subconscious works.
“They say we only use athe three layers of ego-defense within Fischer that each dream level is meant to break down. As Ariadne said: “Each level relates to the part of the subject’s subconscious that we are trying to access.”
Yusuf’s Dream (Rainy City) – Breaking Down Status
This dream level aims to break down Fischer’s “status” defenses, which he frequently uses: a) He refuses to let anyone share a taxi with him, b) when he is robbed, he pretends not to care, c) he hands over his wallet, claiming it is more valuable than its contents, and d) when he realizes he is kidnapped, he says he has a kidnapping insurance policy covering $10,000,000. However, Fischer begins to get nervous when he believes they are torturing his godfather Browning. He gets to meet Browning, whom he trusts, and confides in, revealing his secrets. Then they enter the next dream.
Arthur’s Dream (Hospital) – Questioning Friends
This dream level is designed to make Fischer question his friends. Here, Fischer’s status is dismantled, and he is reminded of it by being tricked by a beautiful woman who steals his wallet. He has recently confided in Browning, but with Cobb’s help, he realizes that Browning must have been behind the kidnapping. Fischer breaks down more and more, not knowing whom he can trust, and they proceed to the next dream.
Eames’s Dream (Snow Fortress) – Meeting the Father / Liberation from Guilt
In this dream level, Fischer faces harsh cold, great dangers, and many fears/projections that try to prevent him from meeting his father, who is dying inside a large safe. Inside, Fischer is ready to accept his greatest fear—that his father is disappointed in him for never living up to his expectations. However, everything changes, and Fischer realizes that his father is disappointed instead because his son did not follow his own path and trust himself. This is a very poignant scene in the film.
3. Conclusion – Becoming Whole Again
Carl Gustav Jung said, “Going to the movies, detective novels, and murder mysteries allow the experience of all danger, excitement, passion, romance, and dreams that people are otherwise deprived of in their ordinary lives governed by work.” Like many other psychologists, Jung compared watching movies to psychotherapy. The film, according to Jung, gives the viewer a chance to internally experience the same emotional journey as the film’s hero, helping the viewer draw new conclusions about their attitude toward themselves and the world around them.
With this in mind, we can consider the film’s deeper theme, which is about every person’s longing to become whole again. While planning the heist, Cobb says, “We all yearn for reconciliation, for catharsis” when they talk about Fischer’s relationship with his father—but this applies more to Cobb, who, filled with guilt over Mal’s suicide, recreates her over and over again in his own memory-based dream world in an attempt to alleviate the pain.
This is meant to reflect how we humans constantly project parts of ourselves onto others because we do not know any other way to connect with our inner selves. We “outsource” both problems and solutions to the world around us, to past events, and to what we hope will happen in the future. Even falling in love is a result of this. Joseph Campbell describes romantic love as “a seizure that comes through recognizing your soul’s counterpart in the other person.”
(10) Jung speaks about this when he says that if a conflict in one’s inner world is not brought to consciousness, the same conflict will manifest in the outer world as one’s fate. In other words, when a person is still divided and does not become aware of their inner polarity, the outer world will force a situation that splits their surroundings into two opposing halves. This division often appears as a struggle between good and evil, light and dark. In this way, our inner world constantly manifests in the outer world.
At the end of the film, Cobb is forced in a final confrontation to resolve all conflicts by confronting his infected and guilt-ridden memory of Mal. This resolution needs to occur at the deepest dream level, “Limbo,” a word in old literature referring to the border of the underworld, an afterlife state much discussed by medieval Catholic theologians.
To face reality and dissolve the power of illusions over him, Cobb admits the truth to himself when he confronts his memory of Mal, his shadow:
Cobb: “I can’t stay with her anymore because she does not exist.”
Mal: “I’m the only thing you do believe in anymore.”
Cobb: “I wish, I wish more than anything, but I can’t imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection, your imperfection… Look at you. You’re just a shade, a shade of my real wife. Yes, you’re the best that I can do but, I’m sorry, you’re just not good enough.”
When Cobb resolves his deepest knot, we also see how all other knots are untied. The entire team wakes up from dream after dream, illusion after illusion, and a “catharsis” occurs on all levels. Cobb finally returns home and has the courage to look his children in the face again.
Appendix: Miscellaneous Tidbits
Inception is full of water – water is a symbol of emotions:
The first thing seen in the film is water, as Cobb washes up on the shore.
The first “kick” to wake Cobb involves him being pushed into a bathtub full of water.
Several times, Cobb splashes water after being in a dream.
Fischer is given the sedative in a glass of ice water.
It rains in Yusuf’s dream.
It rains in Arthur’s dream.
Eames’s dream consists of snow (frozen water).
The van is submerged in water.
Building a dream from memories…
“Building a dream from memory is the easiest way to lose grasp of what’s real and what’s a dream…” was the theme explored in Christopher Nolan’s first major film, Memento.
Ariadne’s Name:
Cobb teaches Ariadne how to design the dream world’s labyrinth, but it is Ariadne who helps Cobb find his way out of the labyrinth he has created for himself. In Greek mythology, it was Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, who gave the Athenian hero Theseus the ball of thread that allowed him to find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth.
Dream Levels:
“Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times normal. Now, when you enter a dream within that dream, the effect will be compounded.”
“We are building a house on the rock”
Dave
