Inception
Christopher Nolan constructs a puzzle box out of dreams in this sci-fi epic
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Other Notable Films From Nolan: Interstellar, The Prestige, Tenet
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard
Screenplay By: Christopher Nolan
Movie Synopsis: A team of criminals travel into people’s dreams to steal their thoughts and/or plant ideas. (Or something.)
Signature Line: “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”
THE INTRODUCTION
An accounting of time, and people, and context
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 dream heist masterpiece, Inception, is very complicated. So much so, that the movie spends its first 100 minutes periodically explaining who people are and how things work.
There are lots of characters to keep track of, and at least eight of them are vital. There are lots of disparate worlds to orient yourself within, and time operates differently in all of them. And there are lots of plotlines to follow, one of which involves a powerful businessman who wants to become an even more powerful businessman by exploiting the relationship between a different powerful businessman and his son, who is a budding powerful businessman.
It’s a lot. It’s definitely a lot. But here’s the thing: It’s never too much. Something ridiculous will happen (like all of the gravity suddenly disappearing from a hallway) or a character will say something outlandish (like when one guy explains to a new member of his heist team that going into a dream within a dream lets them access a deeper part of a mark’s subconscious and he very earnestly says “Downward is the only way forward”), and it somehow always feels right. And more than that: it somehow always feels necessary.
Christopher Nolan always shows up with a very big idea that’s (a) fun to learn about, (b) exciting to think through, and (c) exhilarating to watch play out on screen. And Inception—which brought in over $826 million at the box office, won four Oscars, topped dozens of year-end lists, and spawned endless debates about what various parts of the movie are communicating—is perhaps the finest example of that.
THE VIEWING
A timestamped rewatch of Inception
3:01: Leonardo DiCaprio is here. He plays Dom Cobb, the leader of a team that specializes in breaking into people’s minds via their dreams. What a lot of people don’t know is that Dom Cobb’s full name is actually Dominazzo Cobbington. You can see it briefly at the end of the movie when he hands his passport to a customs agent at the airport
3:02: (That’s actually not true.) (It’s just funny to me to think about a guy who looks as cool as Leonardo DiCaprio does in this suit having a name as dumb as Dominazzo Cobbington.) (That being said, there IS a lot of secret name symbolism stuff in Inception: “Dom,” for example, is the Polish word for “home,” which is where Dom Cobb spends the entire movie trying to return to. And the name “Cobb” sounds very close to “khwaab,” which translates to “dream” in several South Asian and Middle Eastern languages. I’ll point out some more things like that as we make our way through this.)
3:19: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is here. He plays Arthur, Dom’s right hand man. Right now, he and Dom are auditioning for a job with a powerful businessman. Their conversation is taking place inside a dream. Except but here’s the thing…
4:37: It’s actually happening inside a dream that’s happening inside another dream. So much of Inception plays out like that. One world is tucked inside another world, which is tucked inside another, and everything is all mushed together and overlapping. It’s either a quirk that you love (in which case you’re cool and fun) or a device that you find to be incredibly annoying (in which case you’re lame and a dork and should loosen up a little).
4:38: P.S. The man asleep on the bed is Ken Watanabe. He plays Saito, the aforementioned businessman auditioning Dom and Arthur. Watanabe is such a fun actor. He has a distinguished air about him that makes everything he says and does feel important. I would love to hear him do something ridiculous, like order Taco Bell or call someone a “weak ass bitch.”
5:45: Marion Cotillard is here. She plays Mal, Cobb’s deceased wife. He feels a ton of guilt for her death (we’ll go over why later), and so a projection of her is always haunting his subconscious. Cotillard is really great in this. Very unsettling. She spends basically the whole movie creepily staring at people and things.
14:23: Christopher Nolan movies are awesome because his characters say the silliest things possible in the most serious way possible. Here, for example, Saito realizes that Cobb and his team have placed him in a dream that’s inside another dream, leading to this exchange:
SAITO: A dream within a dream. I’m impressed. But in my dream, you play by my rules.
GUY BEHIND SAITO: Ah, yes, but you see, Mr. Saito…
COBB: We’re not in your dream…
GUY BEHIND SAITO: We’re in mine.
There are only, like, three directors on the planet who can make that kind of shit feel cool, and my boy Chrissy Noles is number one on the list. I love him so much.
16:12: All of the members of Cobb’s dream heist team carry a totem, which is an item unique to each person that helps prevent them from mistaking a dream world for the real world. This top here is Cobb’s. (If he spins it and it never falls over, that’s how he knows he’s in a dream.) And that leads me to my favorite Inception fan theory, which is:
