Inception was AMAZING (spoilers)

[Reasonable]

TheRealMafoo said:

Reasonable said:

I very much liked it.

Couple of discussion promoting questions based on my 'reading' of the film:

1 - Who was ever actually awake and when was this?  How can we be sure?

2 - If the Spinning Top was actually Mal's Totem then what was Cobb's true Totem?

3 - Why would Cobb replace his Totem with Mal's?

4 - What does it signify that Cobb walks away from Mal's Totem?

5 - Who does Cobb really seem to know at the end of the film and what does this signify for all that went before?

Casual note : if a dream state is indicated by a scene starting abruptly already in flight what can we deduct about the film's openning scenes?

Last point, I also don't agree the film lost focus at all.  Without sounding arrogant it's pretty obvious to me reading reviews that they are split into those who lost their way and those who didn't - note I don't mean plotwise but thematically.

I have no doubt that every moment of every scene was carefully measured and considered for inclusion in the final cut and that therefore there is no meandering in the film from Nolan's point of view, only in how well we interpret the purpose of each scene and it's content.

It's not film as commercial Art quite on the level of 2001, but it is a very nice mix of commercial thriller with something a little deeper than usual and that's a relief... for me anyway.

Warner's must love having Nolan on their payroll - he's like a less complex more commercial Kubrick in approach and I imagine they love that combination.

As for awake or not awake, no one knows.

I have one  theory that I have yet to see on the internet:

The only part of the movie that's real life, is the opening scene. The rest of the movie is a dream state induced by the old man. He has felt the totem that is the lead characters, so from that point forward, he can do anything with it.

This would also answer why he took her totem. He never really did. It was always his totem.

It would also be a cool way to play with the idea of inception. The scene at the end where he is in the room with the old man and he is there just to bring him back, could have been the old man using inception on the man character to cover up that he wanted to kill him. Instead, he thinks by the end of the movie that he just wants to bring him back.

So the entire movie is an inception, just not the one we were thinking it was.

Nice reading.  I have a few, none seem to conflict with the film so clearly half the fun of Inception is the open nature of what is applied.

POSSIBLE SPOLIERS BELOW

 

A reading of mine is that Cobb's childrens' faces are his Totem.  He never wants to see a false image of their faces hence why he always looked away until the end of the film when he abandons his temporary Totem - Mal's - and embraces his own again.

Another possibility is the whole thing is a dream until Cobb wakes in the plane at the end.  Everyone he sees is a stranger who featured in his dream, and the only people who really know him are his kids and Father in Law at the end.  There is no dream tech, the whole thing was a dream, one in which, filtred through it, we get elements of his real life issues mixed with the dream thriller.

 

END SPOLIERS