I love this movie! I have already seen it twice--once with my family and again with Kevin and my love for it only grew the second time around. Now, it should be obvious that there are going to be major spoilers throughout this blog post, so please don't read the rest unless you've seen the film. In order to explain why I think it is so great, I have to spoil the movie. So, here is your last warning: SPOILER ALERT!!!
Inception basically explores people's dreams. At the beginning of the film, we see the main character, Cobb, lead a team into the dream of a man named Saito. In this dream, Cobb's goal is Extraction, to grab some top secret piece of information out of Saito's head. What is so great about this first scene though, is that you don't realize that they are not only in a dream, but a dream within a dream. This sets up the crazy dream within a dream heist that they pull off later in the film, and gets your mind ready to look for things not appearing as they really are throughout the film.
This initial job ends up being an audition by Saito to get Cobb to perform something called Inception on a rival businessman. Inception is basically the opposite of Extraction, instead of taking information from someone's mind through their dreams, you plant an idea in their head so that they believe it is their idea. From here, Cobb assembles a team of people with various jobs and they start their mission of planting an idea inside the mind of Fisher. This job they do involves three different levels of dreams and an even deeper state that they refer to as limbo.
Well, the main storyline I liked in this film was Cobb's. Him and his wife, Mal, explored dreams in the past, and found themselves in this limbo state where they were able to basically become Gods and create a dream world of their own to live in until they became old. Well, Mal convinces herself that this dream state is actually reality, so Cobb has to perform Inception on her to convince her that it is all a dream and that they need to wake up. So, they kill themselves in this dream state by lying on train tracks and waiting for the approaching train. But, once they woke up, Mal still had the idea Cobb had planted in her mind and continued to question reality and think she was in a dream. So, on their anniversary, she got on the ledge of a tall building and tried to convince Cobb to jump with her so they could wake up and greet their real kids. Mal jumped, and Cobb had to watch his wife die. Then, he was forced to leave the US because he was believed to be her murderer. This meant that he had to leave his kids, and he has been trying to get back to them. Well, Saito promises that with the completion of this job, he can return to his kids.
Basically at the end of the film, Cobb ends up back in limbo, which was where he and Mal built a world for themselves. He finds Mal there (not the real Mal, a representation of her in his dream) and she tries to get him to stay there with her. But, most interesting to me, is that she brings question to whether the whole movie has been reality of if Cobb has been in a dream the whole time. She brings up the faceless corporation that is chasing him and how unrealistic the events that have happened are. Cobb is able to ignore Mal, and he ends up stabbing her and apparently returning back to reality where their mission was a success and Cobb is able to return to his kids and finally see their faces. But, there is a question of if he is really in reality or still in a dream as his totem (a device that allows you to tell if you are in a dream or not) continues spinning (it would fall if it is indeed reality).
What I love so much about this film is how it begs the audience to question their own reality. At the end, it is put into question if Cobb has really returned to reality or if he is simply still in a dream. What seems important to me though, is that he doesn't really seem to care anymore. He spins his totem, but seems to ignore the outcome as he hugs his children. Seeing his children and getting to be with them is reality enough for Cobb--he is tired of constantly questioning his reality. Maybe "reality" is only what we perceive as reality and there is no objective reality. If the kids seem real to him, that is his reality and nothing else really matters to him. But, that is a difficult conclusion because we viewers really want there to be a real world and for Cobb to return to his real kids. It would be sad if he stayed in a dream state, content to be with his dream kids, while his real kids (and possibly wife) suffer in the real world.
This is why I enjoy the movie so much. There is no clear cut interpretation of the movie, everyone comes away with their own conclusion. And this conclusion to you is your own reality, even if it isn't shared by others. There are many points in the film that feel particularly dream-like even when they aren't explicitly in a dream. Is this indication that the whole movie is an elaborate dream of Cobbs? Perhaps, but there is no way of knowing. And, not knowing for sure, is the most fun part and makes the movie stick in my mind and allows me to keep thinking about it even days after I've seen it. It is definitely my favorite movie of the year so far, and might even be in my top movies of all time.
