Here are some sections of a article on Chud.com:
Every single moment of Inception is a dream.... The film makes this clear, and it never holds back the truth from audiences. Some find this idea to be narratively repugnant, since they think that a movie where everything is a dream is a movie without stakes, a movie where the audience is wasting their time.
Except that this is exactly what Nolan is arguing against. The film is a metaphor for the way that Nolan as a director works, and what he's ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about making movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director.
...even the dream-sharing stuff is a dream. Dom Cobb isn't an extractor. He can't go into other people's dreams. He isn't on the run from the Cobol Corporation. At one point he tells himself this, through the voice of Mal, who is a projection of his own subconscious. She asks him how real he thinks his world is, where he's being chased across the globe by faceless corporate goons. Michael Caine's character implores Cobb to return to reality, to wake up. During the chase in Mombasa, Cobb tries to escape down an alleyway, and the two buildings between which he's running begin closing in on him - a classic anxiety dream moment. When he finally pulls himself free he finds Ken Watanabe's character waiting for him, against all logic. Except dream logic. ...when Cobb remembers her suicide she is, bizarrely, sitting on a ledge opposite the room they rented. You could do the logical gymnastics required to claim that Mal simply rented another room across the alleyway, but the more realistic notion here is that it's a dream, with the gap between the two lovers being a metaphorical one made literal.
...As is said in the movie, dreams seem real in the moment and it's only when you've woken up that things seem strange. The film's 'reality' sequences are filled with moments that, on retrospect, seem strange or unlikely or unexplained. Even the basics of the dream sharing technology is unbelievably vague, and I don't think that's just because Nolan wants to keep things streamlined. It's because Cobb's unconscious mind is filling it in as he goes along.
[then there is] the dreamy way the film is shot and edited once Cobb wakes up on the plane all the way through to him coming home to find his two kids in the exact position and in the exact same clothes that he kept remembering them, it doesn't matter if the top falls, Cobb is dreaming.
That Cobb is dreaming and still finds his catharsis (that he can now look at the face of his kids) is the point.
[Inception] is a film about filmmaking.
The heist team quite neatly maps to major players in a film production.
Cobb is the director
Arthur is the producer.
Ariadne the architect is the screenwriter
Eames is the actor
Yusuf is the technical guy
Saito is the money guy
And Fischer, the mark, is the audience.
Cobb, as a director, takes Fischer through an engaging, stimulating and exciting journey, one that leads him to an understanding about himself.
The movies-as-dreams aspect is part of why Inception keeps the dreams so grounded. In the film it's explained that playing with the dream too much alerts the dreamer to the falseness around him; this is just another version of the suspension of disbelief upon which all films hinge. As soon as the audience is pulled out of the movie by some element - an implausible scene, a ludicrous line, a poor performance - it's possible that the cinematic dream spell is broken completely, and they're lost.
Inception is such a big deal because it's what great movies strive to do. You walk out of a great film changed, with new ideas planted in your head, with your neural networks subtly rewired by what you've just seen. On a meta level Inception itself does this, with audiences leaving the theater buzzing about the way it made them feel and perceive. New ideas, new thoughts, new points of view are more lasting a souvenir of a great movie than a ticket stub.
Every single moment of Inception is a dream.... The film makes this clear, and it never holds back the truth from audiences. Some find this idea to be narratively repugnant, since they think that a movie where everything is a dream is a movie without stakes, a movie where the audience is wasting their time.
Except that this is exactly what Nolan is arguing against. The film is a metaphor for the way that Nolan as a director works, and what he's ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about making movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director.
...even the dream-sharing stuff is a dream. Dom Cobb isn't an extractor. He can't go into other people's dreams. He isn't on the run from the Cobol Corporation. At one point he tells himself this, through the voice of Mal, who is a projection of his own subconscious. She asks him how real he thinks his world is, where he's being chased across the globe by faceless corporate goons. Michael Caine's character implores Cobb to return to reality, to wake up. During the chase in Mombasa, Cobb tries to escape down an alleyway, and the two buildings between which he's running begin closing in on him - a classic anxiety dream moment. When he finally pulls himself free he finds Ken Watanabe's character waiting for him, against all logic. Except dream logic. ...when Cobb remembers her suicide she is, bizarrely, sitting on a ledge opposite the room they rented. You could do the logical gymnastics required to claim that Mal simply rented another room across the alleyway, but the more realistic notion here is that it's a dream, with the gap between the two lovers being a metaphorical one made literal.
...As is said in the movie, dreams seem real in the moment and it's only when you've woken up that things seem strange. The film's 'reality' sequences are filled with moments that, on retrospect, seem strange or unlikely or unexplained. Even the basics of the dream sharing technology is unbelievably vague, and I don't think that's just because Nolan wants to keep things streamlined. It's because Cobb's unconscious mind is filling it in as he goes along.
[then there is] the dreamy way the film is shot and edited once Cobb wakes up on the plane all the way through to him coming home to find his two kids in the exact position and in the exact same clothes that he kept remembering them, it doesn't matter if the top falls, Cobb is dreaming.
That Cobb is dreaming and still finds his catharsis (that he can now look at the face of his kids) is the point.
[Inception] is a film about filmmaking.
The heist team quite neatly maps to major players in a film production.
Cobb is the director
Arthur is the producer.
Ariadne the architect is the screenwriter
Eames is the actor
Yusuf is the technical guy
Saito is the money guy
And Fischer, the mark, is the audience.
Cobb, as a director, takes Fischer through an engaging, stimulating and exciting journey, one that leads him to an understanding about himself.
The movies-as-dreams aspect is part of why Inception keeps the dreams so grounded. In the film it's explained that playing with the dream too much alerts the dreamer to the falseness around him; this is just another version of the suspension of disbelief upon which all films hinge. As soon as the audience is pulled out of the movie by some element - an implausible scene, a ludicrous line, a poor performance - it's possible that the cinematic dream spell is broken completely, and they're lost.
Inception is such a big deal because it's what great movies strive to do. You walk out of a great film changed, with new ideas planted in your head, with your neural networks subtly rewired by what you've just seen. On a meta level Inception itself does this, with audiences leaving the theater buzzing about the way it made them feel and perceive. New ideas, new thoughts, new points of view are more lasting a souvenir of a great movie than a ticket stub.
*MySmiley*
Good news, everyone...
I've invented a faster delivery system for gossip and pornography... now hold still while I inject the internet into your skull.
Good news, everyone...
I've invented a faster delivery system for gossip and pornography... now hold still while I inject the internet into your skull.
Inception *No Spoilers!* - Discussion thread
- 17/07/2010 02:57:23 AM
2122 Views
Saw it. Loved it. Won't mind seeing it again.
- 17/07/2010 04:24:06 AM
1221 Views
Cotillard was amazing.
- 17/07/2010 07:58:08 AM
1072 Views
Wikipedia says Nolan almost ditched the Piaf song when Cotillard was cast.
- 22/07/2010 09:38:56 AM
1353 Views
Everybody in the theater groaned at the ending. It was perfect. 
*NM*
- 17/07/2010 09:49:01 AM
699 Views
*NM*
- 17/07/2010 09:49:01 AM
699 Views
Everybody clapped in mine. Of course, there were some scattered groaning as well. 
*NM*
- 17/07/2010 06:21:29 PM
676 Views
*NM*
- 17/07/2010 06:21:29 PM
676 Views
Yeah, I saw it last night with my fiancee. We both loved it.
- 17/07/2010 03:19:11 PM
1159 Views
Yeah, I walked out of there thinking, "I need to check out Memento."
- 14/08/2010 04:12:06 AM
1038 Views
Gets my vote for best of the Summer.
- 17/07/2010 10:15:51 PM
1047 Views
THAT's what I'd seen him in...
- 17/07/2010 11:36:34 PM
936 Views
He was in G.I. Joe as well. Did an excellent job as the Cobra Commander. *NM*
- 18/07/2010 02:58:33 AM
547 Views
*NM*
- 18/07/2010 02:58:33 AM
547 Views
I felt there were two ways they could have gone with this movie
- 20/07/2010 06:26:34 AM
1071 Views
I thought it was smart of Nolan to use architects in manipulating/exploring the mind instead of
- 20/07/2010 08:03:42 AM
1112 Views
nice theory
- 21/07/2010 12:20:21 AM
1051 Views
Re: nice theory
- 21/07/2010 06:47:39 AM
1128 Views
It makes sense, but eventually feels like over-thinking the entire film.
- 21/07/2010 06:37:20 PM
1038 Views
The place where Cobb meets Adrienne (minor spoilers)
- 21/07/2010 04:18:41 AM
1307 Views
One thing I thought was interesting
- 21/07/2010 05:51:38 AM
1224 Views
If Dreaming was mainstream enough to be taught in schools, Ariadne would have known about it.
- 22/07/2010 10:12:50 AM
1158 Views
There was Inception for real - I mean for REAL real
- 22/07/2010 03:45:15 PM
1075 Views
2 questions
- 21/07/2010 12:22:20 AM
1212 Views
Re: 2 questions
- 22/07/2010 07:40:34 PM
984 Views
We get it, and the thought occurred to me in the movie. It is, however, just a movie. So... yep. 
- 22/07/2010 09:02:56 PM
955 Views
- 22/07/2010 09:02:56 PM
955 Views
Classic sci-fi for the ages - My Theory + Plot Twist Elements Used
- 22/07/2010 05:01:26 PM
1314 Views
Enough people should have seen the movie by now, so here is a spoiler question for people to answer!
- 23/07/2010 12:45:18 AM
1078 Views
Objective answer=Neither. Subjective Answer = Spin
- 23/07/2010 03:15:43 AM
976 Views
Um... No. The drop theory is perfectly sound.
- 23/07/2010 09:23:56 AM
1060 Views
Nope. Here's why....
- 24/07/2010 02:28:03 AM
1003 Views
No. It's just a movie. It can drop within the context of the movie. End of discussion. *NM*
- 24/07/2010 10:47:06 PM
599 Views
the kids
- 23/07/2010 07:41:37 AM
1023 Views
Yeah but they turned and he saw their faces
- 29/07/2010 02:03:53 AM
1076 Views
But is that not the point of the film
- 29/07/2010 02:21:11 AM
1230 Views
I can accept that theory, even if I don't agree with it (yet?), but it's just a theory
- 02/08/2010 02:01:34 PM
1005 Views
It doesn't matter what happened to it, because it wasn't his. It was his wifes.
- 25/07/2010 12:45:29 AM
1220 Views
Loved it, but still trying to figure things out. Here were some of my biggest problems.
- 25/07/2010 07:22:53 AM
1009 Views
Bookwyrm, to the rescue! Here are the As to your Qs
- 25/07/2010 06:05:35 PM
1021 Views
I haven't even heard of this movie until now. Maybe I'll see it when I don't have to pay... *NM*
- 28/07/2010 04:39:53 AM
534 Views
Every single moment of Inception is a dream.
- 29/07/2010 02:52:39 AM
1224 Views
Here's my problem with this and other theories advanced in this thread.
- 29/07/2010 10:19:55 AM
1073 Views
What the Costume designer has to say about the ending and the kids. Also: The ring.
- 03/08/2010 08:25:19 AM
1169 Views
Just scored free tix on a radio contest. Time for a re-watch! 
*NM*
- 03/08/2010 08:09:36 PM
603 Views
*NM*
- 03/08/2010 08:09:36 PM
603 Views