Inception

The totem doesn't mean anything because it wasn't his totem (and others -- at least his wife -- had touched it).

The whole thing was a dream. Every part.

 

I disagree, Ace.

Also, the guy who played Yusuf in an interview with NY Mag. Very insightful stuff regarding the whole movie. Yes, there are obviously spoilers.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/inceptions_dileep_rao_answers.html

 

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Why I think the whole thing is a dream. Here are some things from the "real" or "remembered" reality that don't make sense:

1. Why is Michael Caine waiting at the airport for Cobb? He was just in Europe. How did he have time to get back and meet them?

2. Why is it that virtually everyone Cobb -- but Ellen Page -- meets is aware of this dream business?

3. Those mazes -- that a sixth grader could draw -- are proof that Ellen Page has the chops to be some genius architect?

4. Why would Saito go so simple from being the victim to hiring Cobb and being such a big help for such a vague reason and a long shot at that?

5. Why are the kids dressed the same way in "real" life as in the dreams?

6. Why would Mal trash the hotel room as a fake fight scene and then jump from the building across the road? The cops are supposed to believe they fought in one rum and he carried her across the street and to the opposite window?

7. Why when he is being chased by the Kobol baddies, does he get into that alley that closes in on him? That's a classic dream scene.

8. Why is it that people shoot and shoot and shoot at each other from point blank range and the good guys never get hit. OK, that's Hollywood.

 

OK, here I go...

There was an entire sequence of events - guiding Ariadne to build mazes, meeting up with Yusuf and Eames, planning the entire Inception, etc. - between when he talked to his father and when the plane landed. That was probably several days in between. It's totally posible he'd get back to the airport.

They're hired guns. You've gotta have a team.

That's more of a plot hole.

In their group dream - the opening scenes - he told Cobb and Arthur that he was testing them. I believe it was after they woke up from layer two and were sitting in that loft in layer one, while Cobb had the gun pointed at him. Saito wanted to see how good they were so he could use them for the Fischer plot.

The kids in his dreams were his memories that he relived in order to stay connected with them. This could actually prove that he didn't wake up after going to layer five to get Saito, rather than the entire movie being a dream, and thus constructed a limbo where he was happy with this kids and had let go of Mal.

Yea. But she had a bunch of other evidence working for her - that three psychiatrists said she was sane, and she had that fake letter written up to force Cobb into jumping, too.

That alley did not close in on him. It did not move. It was just more narrow at one end.

LOL. Yes. The good guys never get hit that close, but once they pull out a gun, they drop 3-4 baddies.

 

In the final scene, the kids were the same age and wearing the same clothes as the dreams/memories.
If he had been away from home for as long as implied, they would not be the same age and wearing the same clothes.

 

I also don't know what to make of the grandmother. She was always a disembodied voiced calling the kids or on the phone. Seemed kind of dreamlike but not sure how it fits.

 

Saw it today. I'd give it a B minus.

Great production values, all the elements of a good action flick and of course the conceit about the dreams gave it an intellectual sheen without the movie actually being smart.

Ellen Page may had some of the worst lines of the movie. She should have just explained everything in a voice over.

However, did love that they played Edith Piaf when they were counting down on 'the kick'. Marion Cotillard (Mal ) also played Piaf in a French biopic.

All in all an extremely enjoyable two and a half hours. Will go see it again with HC.

 

Setting my sights lower, I loved the movie, as did my daughter, and I was just proud of myself for figuring out where I had seen the English guy before -- as Praetor Shinzon from Star Trek: Nemesis...

 

A handy flow chart that explains all the levels:

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/film/5-levels-inception-infographic.html

 

So does this:

http://www.bustedtees.com/dreamlevels

 

Why is Eames the fourth level? I've heard that said before, but weren't they going into Fischer's dream under the guise of going into Browning's dream? Also, wasn't it Eames who said "why couldn't he dream about the beach?" when they ended up in the mountains, referring to Fischer?

 

OK , I withdraw the previous question. Seems Fischer made the comment, because he thought they were really in Browning's dream.