Thoughts on Inception

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

After watching Inception, one would think that they have everything figured out, well I really don’t have it all figured out. I do have some theories and ideas about the movie but that’s about it. Before I dive into some of my thoughts, for those who haven’t seen Inception yet, do not read as it will contain spoilers, yeah, last time I said that I didn’t want to say much but now I feel like sharing some of my thoughts and sharing some links on various interpretations. So WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN INCEPTION YET. Okay, now moving on. There are many different interpretations for the movie Inception as it is a very complex and deep movie. I want to start off by sharing some links with you that I have gone over and I find very fascinating, here is a great place to start:

NEVER WAKE UP: THE MEANING AND SECRET OF INCEPTION

inception: aftermath theories, thoughts, oscar buzz, and more

Inception Explained: Unraveling The Dream Within The Dream

The first link I really like, and one of the reasons that it sticks out to me is because it compares the idea of Inception performed by Cobb and his group to filmmaking. You think about it, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the director, Saito is the producer, Ariadne (Ellen Page) is the set designer, Eames is the actor, and Mr. Fischer is the audience. Everyone performing Inception has a certain task that will help plant the idea into the audience. When we think about filmmaking, everyone involved in a good movie (one with a good story and theme) is trying to share the idea with the audience that will help them in their lives, yes filmmaking is about making money (as any job) but it is also to share a good story and good ideas with the world. Eames does say in the movie that in order to perform Inception, you need imagination, and that is very true with filmmaking as well. These ideas do come from the first link, but they are ideas that I totally agree with, so do give that article a read.

Now I do want to cover one part of the movie that a ton of people are debating about, the ending, was Cobb dreaming at the end, this one is easily debatable one way or the other. My opinion is that he is dreaming at the end. Here are some of my thoughts as to why he is dreaming at the end. Lets start off with when he enters the room to see his children, he goes into his apartment that he and his wife had, would have his or her parents kept the place, and the more interesting thing, his children are basically in the same place as they were when he left doing practically the same thing. They also look like they really haven’t aged, and they haven’t aged (which can be a hard thing to dispute entirely as we don’t know how long he has been gone) but they did sound a little older on the phone when he talked to them at the beginning of the movie. Here is another reason as to why I think he was dreaming at the end, for Fischer and Ariadne to get out of limbo they basically fell off the top of the collapsing buildings and kill themselves, and then they would end back in the 3rd level of dreaming. They needed to get out of all the levels of dreaming first before they could officially wake up. It seems like at the end when Saito killed Cobb and then himself, it’s almost as if killing themselves would only get them out of limbo and then back into the 3rd level of dreaming. At the beginning of the movie, Cobb shot Arthur in the head to wake him up but that only brought him back into the 1st level of dreaming.

Of course, this is my own interpretation, and these are only a few of the ideas that have stuck out to me, I could go on for a very long time, feel free to share your own in the comments section. Plus, I do recommend checking out the links provided, if I do find any more good ones, I will put them up.