Inception - Blows your mind!

A movie review from my side after a very long time.. This is one movie I have to document in case I lose my mind in the future and need to re-visit the art of Inception :)

From the time the buzz started building for Inception early this year, the question on everybody's mind (mind, not dream!) was : Can Nolan match the staggering achievement which was "The Dark Knight" (not to forget his filmography leading up to TDK)? The answer is a resounding yes.. with quite a margin!

I first watched the movie on opening day.. and I was highly impressed. I am a sucker for parallel story-lines which interact with each other and this movie takes that genre to a completely different level. But, after the credits rolled, even after discussions with friends who watched the movie with me, there were a lot of open questions.. I watched the movie a second time today, and now I am left with only a few questions... almost everything fits in and is explained at some point in the movie..

And for people walking in to see the movie without being corrupted by a lot of internet reviews and spoilers (it is some experience to watch the unexpected concepts unfold), I would firmly recommend a second viewing.. it reveals so much more than is immediately apparent..

Right, it is now time to document my interpretation of the story... so, if you haven't seen it yet - TURN AWAY.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

This is not going to be in the exact order shown in the movie.. I will attempt to put things in a way they can be explained..

Extraction is the art of getting into a persons dream in order to obtain some top-secret information.
An architect is the one who builds the dream.
A target is made to enter (or voluntarily enters) this dream and the target "populates" the dream with his thoughts and sub-conscious.
A host (not actually defined in the movie) is the one who is actually hosting the dream. A host cannot dream in his own dream.
Other "extractors" can enter a dream and influence the target and also go further levels down a dream. They are also responsible for actually getting the secret information.
The architect (initially) and then the host (when active) can modify a dream. But, if there is too much modification, the target's sub-conscious will realize that something is wrong and it will attack the host/architect/extractors who are causing the modifications.
In a dream, the brain works faster, meaning time runs slower. This effect is compounded as the level of the dream increases. So, 10 seconds in real time can amount to hours in a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream.
If anyone "dies" in a dream, they wake up in the level above.
A person can also come out of a dream with a "kick" which is some designated action (like sudden jerk) which will break his/her sleep.
A person will come out of a dream if they are "timed out" too.
A totem is an unique object with unique properties that only the owner knows about. It is used by the owner to ensure that they are not in another persons dream (with too much extraction and seeing real-world objects in dreams, people may no longer know which is real and which is not).
Typically, the architect will build a bank/safe in the dream where the target automatically places his/her most secret thoughts. The job of the extractor then is to get to and open this safe.

Ok.. this is enough "concept" for describing the first half of the movie..

The movie opens with a shot of Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) talking to an old man.. Some wild theory can link this to the next scene, but I am going to ignore the scene for now..

The actual start shows Cobb & Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), his associate, making a pitch to Saito (Ken Watanabe). Cobb is the world's best extractor and he offers to help Saito protect himself, provided Saito reveals his mind to Cobb. Saito says he will consider this and exits. Meanwhile, Cobb meets Mal (Marion Cotillard) who seems to have some sort of hold on him.
Cobb finds the location of Saito's safe and steals the documents there. But, Saito and Mal interrupt him. Mal has alerted Saito that this was a dream.
(Dream Level 2, Target - Saiko, Architect - architect1, Host - most probably Arthur - but not shown clearly)

Now, we know that this entire episode was a dream level.. The group is actually "dreaming" in an apartment somewhere in the Middle-East. In addition to Cobb, Arthur and Saiko, the architect1 is also present here. For the return, Arthur and Saito are killed, while the architect1 makes Cobb take a kick. After a short fight, Saito realizes that this is also a dream level, as the material used on the carpet was not the same as he had put in his mistress' apartment (which was their location).
(Dream Level 1, Target - Saiko, Architect - architect1, Host - architect1)

Then, we finally get back to reality, where the entire team is sitting on a train somewhere (& dreaming) in east Asia.

Cobb and Arthur were thinking they were working for Ceilo Corp (I didnt catch the name properly), with the aim of ransacking business secrets from Saiko's mind. but in reality this was a test which Saito had conducted to see their capabilities. They manage to impress Saito but as far as Ceilo Corp is concerned, they had failed. They attempt to escape, but the architect1 betrays their location and Saito catches up with them and makes a proposition : Make an Inception in return for Cobb's freedom.

Some story catching up here : Cobb is accused of killing his wife (who is Mal) and so is on the run from US Law Enforcement.. He has 2 kids back home, but is unable to return to them. To earn a living, he is now involved in the illegal activity of extraction. Saito's offer is to make all the charges against him disappear.

More concept time :
Inception is the art of planting an idea in another person's mind (as against stealing it). It is much more difficult to do (many think it impossible).
The only way an inception will work is if the idea is put in deep enough and it is simple enough for the target to think that he/she came up with the idea.
Positive emotion will work much better than negative emotion for inception.
Inception would require 3 levels of dreams and with the kind of sedative needed to get so far, a person killed in a dream level actually enters a "limbo" state (& doesn't return to the real world).
Limbo state is the deepest level of dreams and a person can get stuck there for years and years. A person can return from the limbo state by dying (but they dont know that) or by "time-out" at the real world level. But the "time-out" works out to be so many years of desolateness at the limbo level that the person would have lost his/her mind.
Limbo is kind of "shared". Anyone who dies in a dream enters the same limbo. Limbo is totally desolate except for things built by the people who have been in that state.
A kick will bring a person one level up.
Music can be used to warn extractors that a kick is coming and allows synchronization.
External elements (like leaning, water) can penetrate dream levels, typically only 1 level. For example, if a person is pushed into water, the next level is flooded. This is not always true.. similar to how some (not all) real life elements penetrate dreams.

Back to the movie..
The "inception" Saito wants done is to convince the son (Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy) of a business magnate to break up the business empire after hisfather's death. This company is going to run Saito's company out of business - and hence the request.
To get this done, Cobb assembles a team. A new architect Ariadne (Ellen Page) - the brightest student of the man Cobb learnt from, a forger Eames (Tom Hardy) with the ability to disguise himself as someone else and a chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), who makes special chemicals which allow 3 levels of dreams.

Ariadne is not supposed to be part of the actual "Inception" action, but she learns that Cobb has created a world of his memories (acting against his own advise) wherein he is keeping Mal alive and this is the reason he can no longer be an architect. Whatever he knows, she also knows, being his own creation. Mal was now bursting through his sub-conscious and disrupting any plans he was making - in an attempt to keep him in limbo with her. So, Ariadne also joins the action.

The team studies Fischer and notices that he has a godfather Browning who was also his dad's right-hand. Fischer's dad didn't really love him and Fischer considered Browning to be someone close to him. So, the team decides to use this angle - make Fischer believe that his dad loved him and Browning was actually trying to take over the company. Also, because the dad loved him, he wanted him to be his own man.. which meant not taking over the company, but splitting it into smaller parts and starting afresh.

The "inception" team is 6 members : Cobb, Arthur, Ariadne, Saito, Eames and Yusuf.

When Fischer's father dies, he takes the body from Australia to the US. Saito buys out the plane he travels in so that the team gets a clear 10 hour window to work in (this translates to about 10 years in level 3).

This they plan to achieve in 3 dream stages (most of this plan is made up as the events occur, but I will present as a block) :

(Dream Level 1, Target - Fischer, Architect - Ariadne, Host - Yusuf)
In this stage, the Inception team kidnaps Fischer and demands the code to a locker from him. Eames impersonates Browning and says that the dad had created an alternate will asking for the empire to be split. Fischer doesn't believe this since he thinks that the dad thought he was a disappointment. He also knows of no locker. They force Fischer to spew out six random numbers as a combination. In an unexpected twist for the team, they are attacked. It turns out Fischer has been trained against extraction and his sub-conscious was trying to save him from the Inception team. They get on a to a van (driven by Yusuf) to escape and enter level 2 while on it.
Sidenote : It is raining here because Yusuf forgot to pee before the inception started!

(Dream Level 2, Target - Fischer, Architect - Ariadne, Host - Arthur) (Yusuf cant enter)
In this level, Cobb attempts the risky proposition of telling Fischer that he is in a dream and being attacked. Cobb makes him believe that Browning was not really kidnapped at level 1 and might have hand a hand in it. This creates enough doubt for Fischer's sub-conscious to bring Browning into level 2 and admit guilt. Cobb says that Fischer must now enter Browning's dream to understand what his dad really wanted. This level is a hotel and the 6 numbers Fischer told are used for 2 rooms where most of the action takes place.

(Dream Level 3, Target - Fischer, Architect - Ariadne, Host - Eames) (Arthur cant enter)
This is set in a snow station. Fisher is told to crack open a safe here. The safe has the same combination Fischer told in level 1 and contains a paper-fan he made when was a kid. His dad also says he was disappointed that he "tried" to be like the dad, instead of being his own man. This would plant the seed that the dad really loved him and wanted him to split the company. And this would successfully complete the Inception.

But before this can happen, there are a lot of problems coming from Fischer's sub-conscious attacking them at every stage. Also, Mal tries to interrupt and Cobb is able to resist until the point when the team misses the proposed first kick (the van going off the bridge in level 1, room floor bombed off at level 2). At this point, he realizes things are getting crazy and asks Ariadne to reveal shortcuts in the architecture added by Eames. Once he knows this, Mal enters the picture and shoots down Fischer before he can get to the safe. Cobb has an opportunity to stop her but is not able to pull the trigger. Also, Saito had got hurt in level 1 and it finally catches up to him and he dies in level 3, sending him into Limbo.

So now, the van is off the bridge which means level 2 has become a zero-gravity space. Cobb realizes that there is another opportunity available in about 10 seconds at level 1, when the van hits the water. Arthur would have to come up with a way to get a kick in zero-gravity level 2. He rigs up everyone into an elevator and plants explosives which would force a drop and hence a kick. Meanwhile, Fischer is killed by Mal and Cobb is dejected thinking the mission has failed. But then, Ariadne comes up with a plan - go into limbo and revive Fischer. This means that they would need a kick at level 3, so Cobb asks Eames to set up explosives to collapse the building they are on.

The inception team on the plane (real world) actually has a lot of time, but the events at the other levels leave them with very little time to return to level 1.. so the kicks at all levels need to be synchronized.

(Dream Level 4/Limbo, Target - no one really/Mal is closest, Architect - Cobb/Mal, Host - Cobb) (Eames cant enter)
Cobb and Ariadne enter Limbo. They know that Mal would be hiding Fischer knowing that Cobb would come after him. They find her and Cobb finally confesses his guilt. While experimenting with Mal, they had entered limbo. They lived a long life there.. but Cobb got frustrated as time went on. He wanted to get back to reality, but Mal didnt. She locked her totem away in her "safe". So, Cobb "incepted" the idea that this was a dream (this was how he knew Incpetion was even possible) by getting into her safe and spinning her totem, permanently. But this simple idea was magnified and Mal felt that she was in a dream even when she finally came back to the real world. She wanted to die at every level and get back to reality, even when she was already there. So, she had committed suicide believing it to be escape.

Cobb offers to stay back in Limbo if Mal tells where Fischer is. She does that. Ariadne gets Fischer and pushes him off the building just as Eames uses a defibrillator on him at level 3. This brings him back to level 3 and he completes opening the safe. The "Inception" is successful.

The synchronised kick is started (van hits water in level 1, Arthur uses bombs the lift in level 2, Eames detonates charges in level 3) and Ariadne jumps off the building in level 4 so that they all return to level 1. Ariadne shoots Mal just before she jumps, helping Cobb to finally close the chapter on her.
Cobb stays back in Limbo saying he will find and save Saito. We now go back to the first scene with Cobb talking to the old man. This old man is Saito. It is implied that many years have passed in Limbo. (there are some contrasting old/young shots in Limbo... best suggestion is that people who realize that limbo is not reality dont age as much as those who dont). When they meet, seeing Cobb's totem reminds Saito of the original mission and seeing Saito helps Cobb to remember that Saito was supposed to get charges against him dropped in real time. Saito kills Cobb then himself and they both return to real life.. both having gone very close to losing their minds in Limbo, but saved just in time and returning just before the 10 hour deadline in real time.

The plane lands in the US. Cobb is able to get back to his children. The open ending then questions if this is reality (or) another dream level!

In summary:
Top notch acting, the best technical aspects and a superb musical score which just seems so apt.

It takes quite a visionary to actually put up a story like this on screen, keeping audiences interested and also have them follow the time-tracks, and Nolan delivers big time.

As the credits roll, the brain is numb trying to process all that it has seen (last experienced with "The Matrix") - so there are probably some slip-ups that got glossed over (one phone call from a foreigner can get murder charges dropped in minutes?).. if I find enough, I will update this blog.. but for now, I think this movie is one awesome effort advertising original content!

Whew... that was quite some experience... here are the things which I still had doubts about after my second viewing (further thinking could lead me to answers -or- more questions too!) :
1. When the van goes off the bridge (first kick, level 1), why didn't Arthur wake up?
-> Hypothesis : Maybe a "trained" extractor can resist the kick? But then, the same Arthur was used to demonstrate the kick working everytime.
-> Best answer I've read till now : Inception requires a "synchronised" kick.. meaning, to return from level "y" to level "x", the person should get a kick in both levels at the same time.
I'll have to listen to the dialogue where the music piece in introduced to confirm this.
2. Limbo comes only when people die in a dream. How could Cobb and Ariadne just enter it as though it were Level 4?
-> Hypothesis : Cobb was the only one who had been in limbo before. So, he could just enter it even when alive. Hmm... but limbo is projected as being an "end-all" - if Cobb could get in & out so easily - maybe it isnt so bad after all.

Score : 89 (Deserves to be seen in the theater, at least TWICE!!)