Introduction
Written and directed by the man who brought blockbuster titles like The Dark Knight (2008), The Prestige (2006), and Memento (2000), Christopher Nolan megged another memorable masterpiece. London was chosen for the premiere of Inception on July 8, 2010. The film was subsequently released to the rest of the world by the 14th of July. On its opening day, the movie reeled in $21 million and $62.7 million in gross for its opening weekend.
The ability to interpret and manipulate dreams excites people as it is something not even modern science has been able to do. Which is the main reason Inception has piqued the interest of many a moviegoer because it delves into the dream world, something so common yet a mystery to the science of psychology.
Summary
The movie revolves around Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo De Caprio, a master in the modern art of theft by extraction. “Extraction” is a fictional technique where the thief steals valuable secrets from his target by going into the latter’s subconscious while they are in their dreams. The rationale is that the human mind is most unfettered and therefore most vulnerable in this dream-state. Saito, played by Ken Watanabe, is the powerful and unscrupulous Japanese businessman who wishes to use Cobb’s talents for his own gain. Being what he is, he bribes Cobb by promising to clear him of all criminal charges imposed on him by United States authorities.
Cobb agrees to what is thought of as an impossible task, Inception, the planting of an idea into the subconscious of the target. Robert Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy, is their target. The son of an oil magnate and the business rival of Cobb’s employer, Saito wishes for Cobb to have Fischer dissolve his father’s business empire and sell it off willingly. For this task, Cobb assembles a team in the persons of his business associate Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Earnest (Tom Hardy) a forger who can impersonate people in dreams, Ariadne (Ellen Page) a dream architect, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) a chemist.
Cobb and his team trap Fischer while inflight in an airline Saito had bought off for the purpose of the inception. Sedating Fischer, the team go with Saito into a three level dream for the Inception. They have Fischer believe that his father’s will was for him to dissolve the empire so he could make something of himself on his own, all the while making Browning (Tom Berenger), his Godfather and his father’s most trusted adviser, the villain.
During the Inception the team is attacked by Cobb’s dark past in the form of his deceased wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) ultimately leading to the death of Saito and Fischer within the dream and sending them to Limbo. To save their mission, Cobb and Ariadne go into a fourth-level dream where the former confronts his guilt and saves their mission.
The movie leaves viewers hanging with an ending scene of Cobb spinning a brass top, his way to tell if he is awake or still asleep. If he was asleep it would keep on spinning, but if he was awake it would eventually stop as reality dictates. Before the fate of the top is revealed, Cobb walks to his children, and the credits roll.
The movie leaves a lot to think about not only in the ending but also right from the very beginning. First of all, there is the character of Cobb. He is a master in the art of extraction yet he is always bothered by the guilt of causing the death of his wife, the first victim of inception. If he was always bothered by these memories, how could he have been successful in the first place? It is evident that his wife always affects the dreams for the worse, in both the invasion of Fischer’s and Saito’s dreams.
Another thought-provoking aspect of the movie was dying within the sedated dream. Dying in the dream sends one to a limbo which is, Cobb explains, like living in a dream world for decades that by the time one wakes up, their grasp of reality has thoroughly weakened. At this point, the tale takes a dark turn: Cobb admitted having spent fifty years in limbo with his wife. This resulted in her death and is the reason for his anguish.
The foregoing element is what makes Inception unique; as it puts everything into question, throwing a shroud of mystery over the movie and leaving the audience with even more to think about than what the movie explained. Nolan turned the story of a grief-stricken widower seeking redemption into an epic puzzle that leaves moviegoers deep in thought.
Conclusion
Inception is another masterpiece by Nolan as he blended Sci-Fi and action, while keeping the audience thrilled and at the edge of their seats with thought provoking scenes and mysterious ending. Nolan uses the enigmatic world of dreams to deliver viewers into a confusing web of intrigue without losing them yet keeping them thinking long after the movie has finished.
Works Cited
“Inception 2010”, IMDb. Internet Movie Database. 2010. Amazon.com.