On April 25, as a “comment,” post your response to Inception. Make your response a thoughtful two, to four, paragraphs. Make in-depth comments (of at least three sentences) on at least three other entries from this class before April 27.
In the cover note section, in your “collaboration” page, note whose responses you replied to for Inception blogging. If you have not done so, also note whose responses you replied to for your previous blogging.
anne f walker 
Inception was an exciting and captivating movie. I could never tell if they were in a dream of if they were in real life. There were so many twist and turns I found myself confused. By the end of the move I began to wondered if the whole experience was a dream, because the top did not fall at the end of the movie. Some people perceived that the top was about to fall, because it wobbled. Others think the top at the end of the movie did not fall meaning that he never left the dream.
My favorite part of the movie is when the girl starts to change things in the dream. She warps things. I liked how tops of buildings touched the other tops of buildings. I fund it interesting how gravity changes and how it seemed like they could walk up a ninety-degree wall. Depending on where you are your perceptions change. Perception changed when the group was implanting an idea into the guys head. I liked how they changed the meaning of father words “I am disappointed in you” to “I am disappointed in you because I want you to be your own person”. The son saw it one way while the father could have seen it another way.
Seeing them manipulate the dream as they were in it was really cool. It’s like they were living inside a sandbox where anything could be achieved (an engineer’s dream right?). It kind of reminds me of various dreams I have where really absurd things happen and nothing seems wrong until after you wake up and think about what you remember. It’s almost like some sort of insight into a separate personality. Interesting stuff. 🙂
During the part where the son is at his father’s death bed, I felt that the father changed the meaning of his words because that was what the son wanted to hear. I thought this because they were still in a dream. Unfortunately, I did not understand why it is they needed to implant an idea in his head, but the idea of implanting ideas is very compelling.
At the end of the movie, my personal opinion is that he decided to continue living in a dream because he wanted to be with his children. I think he overcame his guilt and that enabled to him to take the step towards being with his children.
I also enjoyed watching the creativity when the girl starts to control the dream. Seeing the rooftops of buildings meet with one another was pretty neat. Also being able to seemingly defy gravity was awesome.
Another thing I found interesting was how they could implant certain things into other people’s mind.
*i accidently hit post comment. 😛
I have always wished that I can control my dreams to that extent. How cool would that have been? I would mess with all the scenery in my dream like she did also. I’d also like to be able to place ideas into somebody’s minds. That would be amazing!
I am still dabating if it was in real life, or if it was a dream even though I want to say is a dream. Therefore you have a point with the quote that the father said, it could of gone both ways the father referrering to one thing and the son thinking of something else.
I LOVE this movie. I have watched it a lot since it came out and I’m always trying to figure out something new. For the amount of times I have watched it I’m pretty sure I have figured out all the twists in it. Though every time I watch it I seem to spot something new. The idea of going inside of a persons dream and being in a new world really interests me. How it takes an architecture to build a dream in the maze so projections cant find them. Then you have the idea of the safe in a dream. The safe is the symbol for secrets and thoughts that a person has. So if you have a man thinking about some secret then go into a dream. Then that secret can be found in the safe. You can also plant ideas or called “inception” by putting simple thoughts into a persons head when there are deep into a dream. Everything about it interests me and I really wish I hade the opportunity to play with one of those dream machines because I could have a lot of fun with it. Then the golden question that everyone has at the end, is he still in a dream? I personally always argue with people about this and I argue that he is not in a dream. Though you can make some arguments for he is in a dream. After watching it enough times I have come to find more and more evidence that he isn’t in a dream. This movie is fascinating and I would recommend it to any one who asked about it.
Yes in deed that is the golden questions. I, for example, is my question. I could not really figured it out if he still is in a dream or not. I think is just based on the audience perspectives. But how can you be so sure about him not being in a dream? What is your evidence?
I also enjoyed the movie, because I enjoy the idea about what secrets dreams hold. I find that your personal secrets might be let loose in a dream. I agree with you that in the end he was not still in a dream. I wish I new the real answer to the question, but it is meant to be open ended.
I really enjoyed the whole idea about having shared dreams. An architect can build the world and another person’s conscience fills it in with characters and memories. I think it would be fun to get my hands on something like this if it were real but I also think it would drive me completely insane. Just knowing that people have the ability to infiltrate my dreams and I might never know. It makes me wonder if this would be used as some sort of screening test for employment if it did exist.
Dreams contain people’s more inner and true beliefs. The idea of inserting ideas into people’s minds is very intriguing along with the process of how the characters go about it. I feel that there is significant reason why Cobb could not see his children’s faces. Perhaps his feelings for his dead wife caused him to continue dreaming about her making him block is capability to dream normally, resulting in him being able to see his children’s faces in the end. I believe Cobb wanted to see his children in the dream because he would never see his children in the reality.
I also believe the safe represents the person’s secrets! Since a person usually locks the secrets away, hidden from other people. It would make sense for the safe to be holding secrets. I think the ending is meant to just be a cliffhanger, even though the top begins to wobble, it could be that it still doesn’t stop. But I don’t think I have watched the movie as many times as you have. So you are more familiar with the movie. 😛
The idea of this movie was well thought out, I liked the idea that someone could enter another’s mind and make them feel like the dream is real. The safe made the overall effect even better because it seemed forbidden, but reachable; other than having to interrogate someone for hours hoping to get an answer, one could just change their dream to trick them into telling their secrets.
_____When I first viewed “Inception,” it wasn’t as mindbendingly complex or surreal as I thought it would be—but we can’t market anything like “Baron Munchausen” to today’s audiences. It was a neat little story and didn’t have any cosmic pretensions (as did “Watchmen”). If I had to name one thing that bugged me throughout the movie, it would be the “Hollywood feel” of it. In this reflection, I will focus not on the story itself, but on its execution in the film.
Three examples:
_____1. The “Troubled Past” Ploy.
_____As always, we are made to feel for the protagonist’s plight by giving him a troubled past. This is all good and well, but the fact that it has to do with a lost past love has been done to death, quite honestly. It just seems a very generic way of characterization in such a “thoughtful” movie.
_____2. The “Learning to Be a Family Man” Ploy.
_____Cobb wants to be a father again. That seems like a toned-down motivation, but we can accept it. I’m sure many of us are able to empathize with him, but for a movie this epic, it really was a letdown to see that this guy didn’t want to save humanity or something like that. In a sense, that makes its own nice little story, but I can’t help but feel that they missed a giant opportunity, here.
_____3. The “One Shot and You’re Dead” Rule.
_____This bugged me the over and over again. Every time a person is shot, they fall down dead. Anyone who is willing to do that in a shoot-em-up has obviously never studied combat in any of its forms. No one dies instantly when shot. Even people who are shot in the head survive for a few seconds; and you have to shot them in the EXACT right spot, or they might just survive with major mental disability.
_____’It’s okay,’ Cobb says, ‘They’re just mental projections.’ Oh, okay. So we don’t need to feel bad for the several dozen people they kill. Sort of saps the drama out of the situation, but it serves it purpose of giving the team some people to shoot at. Also notice; most of the “badguys” wear masks. A dehumanizing trick as old as time itself. Halfway through, the ex-wife stabs the architect in the gut and she wakes up because she died. Are you kidding? It would take her hours to die from that! Someone who is shot from thirty meters with a rifle doesn’t fall down dead. They stay alive and shoot back. This is like laser tag!
_____But here’s the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back: When Saito is shot—in the chest, no less, it takes him an hour or so to die. And it’s all dramatic when it finally happens. I hate that in movies! Like how in Return of the Jedi, armored stormtroopers are dying left and right from sticks and stones. And when one Ewok dies, there’s this sad moment like “Oh no, war is hell…”. Pisses me off.
_____Moving on from the whole “troubled past” thing; this film deals with the subconscious mind, right? So why isn’t there WAY crazier and darker sh*t going down? I really feel like it would have added a lot to the style if they had at least ATTEMPTED to make the dream sequences a little more surreal. But the most they employed were paradoxes (I counted one, and it was used twice). I don’t know about you, but my dreams are very surreal. I don’t even think they contain a full spectrum of colors or sounds. So maybe these people could have focused a little less on recreating reality in the dream architecture and worked in a bit more imagination.
But here is my question to you:
_____In the final moments, it is hinted at that Cobb is still in Limbo. But why is that? Saito was about to pick up the gun, right? Well, why is it that killing yourself while heavily sedated throws you into Limbo, but killing yourself in Limbo gets you out of Limbo? You’d think it would send you deeper into Limbo, since you’re still sedated. And writers seem to agree with me, because Cobb might still be in Limbo (if Saito shot him). So how was Cobb supposed to get Saito out of Limbo, anyway?
_____And while we’re on the subject! Cobb went into Limbo BEFORE Saito did. So Cobb stays behind to find Saito (whom he can’t be certain is in Limbo, since he didn’t see him die). But when Cobb finally finds Saito, Cobb is his normal age while Saito is ninety years old or whatever. How can he be older? Cobb arrived first! Shouldn’t Cobb be the older one, since it would have taken Saito a year or so to arrive (from Cobb’s point of view)?
_____In any case, this film could have been a lot better than it was, in every way. A competent action movie, if nothing else. Like “The Matrix,” the story and plot serve only as platforms for trippy visuals and exciting chase sequences. Call me a hopeless cynic, but I was not impressed by this film. It was trying too hard to be original. If the story was slow and subtle enough to let the psychology seep in, this film could have been far more artistic and satisfying.
I agree that there are some film clichés in Inception. The love that is lost and Cobb’s desperation in getting it back is something that is very common in movies. I feel that this is common because film makers focus on themes that people can relate to. There is nothing more relate-able than a lost love and the sadness brought on by the experience. It adds a connecting feature to a film that would not be easily relate-able do to its content. No one can relate to someone who goes into someone’s dreams to steal information. The lost love must be added to give viewers something to hold onto that they are familiar with while viewing such a unique situation.
So I thought you had pretty good questions at the end. The one with going even deeper into limbo is a good point and the one why is he so much older then cobb is. Well maybe the reason when you die in limbo it is the very final stage of dream you go back to the top. I dont really have an answer for why Saito is so much older I would have to watch the movie again to try to figure it out. Though i do know the answer to why it took so long for saito to die. When you go down every level in a dream time speeds up because the brain can focus more. so sainto being shot for 10 min in the first level before he died was like 2 hours in the 2nd level and even longer in the third. So really in didnt take long for him to die it just seemed like that everytime they went to a new level. The maybe the reason the girl woke up after being stabbed is not really from dieing but as a kind of kick. Like being dumped in water is a kick or a fall. If u have ever had a dream where u fall you always wake up before you actually hit the ground.There is so many twists in this movie its hard to get them all straight but a lot of them there is answers for if you catch them.
As for Saito dying, that’s my point. If it took so long for him to die, then Cobb should be older than Saito in Limbo because Cobb arrived first. And the kick waking up the architect would make sense if it came from the outside world (like falling or being doused with water). The stab came from inside the dream world, which means she had to have died to wake up from it.
Well Saito dying didnt take long at all. In the first level it took like no time at all, but when they go down a level and another level they are given more time so it takes longer for him to die, but in reality in the first level it was very short. But ya cobb should be older unless saito was in his own limbo but i dont know how that would work
You’ve taken a very offensive stand towards the artistic liberties that were taken in the creation of film. I don’t think the point of the film was to realistically portray combat scenes as they actually occur on battle grounds in real life. If that were the case, we’d be watching a film that could have lasted days on end. Ever seen Hell’s Angels? I agree that drawing Saito’s death out the entire length of the film was stretching it a bit, but it added to the overall suspense of the action film and it gave meaning to how the film ended
I have to agree with you on the “one shot and you’re dead” piece. Many of the injuries that woke up them were not fatal to where they would wake them up within a split second. I would normally have attributed this to some sort of shock a person’s mind gets from such a painful experience but this isn’t consistent. For example, when Arthur is shot in his knee near the beginning he doesn’t wake up from simple pain. This seems like it would be enough to wake him up considering that Ariadne woke up from being stabbed. Also, Cobb’s former wife also says that “killing him would just wake him up, but pain … pain is in the mind.” If pain were just “in the mind” then Ariadne wouldn’t have woken up from being stabbed as you mentioned.
You’ve taken a very offensive stand towards the artistic liberties that were taken in the creation of film. I don’t think the point of the film was to realistically portray combat scenes as they actually occur on battle grounds in real life. If that were the case, we’d be watching a film that could have lasted days on end. Ever seen Hell’s Angels? I agree that drawing Saito’s death out the entire length of the film was stretching it a bit, but it added to the overall suspense of the action film and it gave meaning to how the film ended.
I enjoyed the film Inception. I feel that the movie was very visually stunning and kept attention very well. The special effects were done well. I would also think it would be a hard task to visually represent dreams. I know that most of my dreams are complicated and illogical. Their ability to portray what was going on in the film was impressive.
The film goes through many twists and turns due to the concept of the film. The characters are inside the dreams of others. Being able to tell whether or not they are in the dream world is difficult throughout the movie. They jump from scene to scene and from level to level constantly; however, the constant shifting kept my attention while viewing the movie. Another thing that added to the plot of this movie was Cobb’s need for his lost wife. He struggles without her and she gets into his head as you can see throughout the movie.
This movie also has a twist at the end. It is known throughout the film that if Cobb is in a dream and spins the top, it does not fall. If Cobb is in the real world the top will fall. At the end of the film the top is spinning. The top wobbles. Whether or not what he is experiencing is real is up for interpretation. I have had many debates about this after first seeing the film. I would like to believe he is in the real world but the nagging possibility he is not is apparent.
I agree with you about whether Cobb is dreaming or not is up to interpretation. I’m still debating, I can’t really chose a side. Even though I’ve watched it a few times since it came out. The wobbling makes me think that he could possibly be experiencing reality, however, it doesn’t show the top falling. With that I think he is still dreaming. But that depends on the interpretation.
While watching, I find myself rethinking whether the things in the movie were actually true because they commented about how dreaming about one’s memories changes how people remember them. I really liked how while dreaming, their surroundings affect their dreams, especially the weather and music. One idea that intrigued me was that a person’s subconscious attacks foreign dreamers. As the movie progressed, I had a hard time keeping track of which characters were in the first, second, or third level dream. I felt that the entire movie was motivated in trying to persuade someone that they are believe one thing but in actuality is false, and in the end, we never really find out if what is occurring is true or false. I believe Cobb’s dream at the end showed that he was actually dreaming and not reliving a past memory.
How do memories changes how people remember them? I thought if you dream and construct everything from memories, that’s how you get lost between a dream and reality because you cannot distinguished it. I also liked how the surroundings affect their dream, but this movies confuses me since it’s hard to keep track when they are in a dream or not.
Dreams and memories are very closely tied together. I know that when I have dreams that are realistic I can sometimes confuse them for actual memories. The only dreams I am sure are dreams as soon as I wake up are the ones that are crazy and illogical. Sometimes I just dream of conversations or going to the store and I have to ask myself if it really happened or not. That is a huge theme of Inception and I agree that he was dreaming not in his own memory.
I agree that the film made you wonder about reality as an entity possibly being false. Maybe from the film director’s perspective, he meant to translate the philosophical ideals of late, like those of Descartes, and manifest them into a relatable medium such as this aesthetically sound film.
The perception that the dream was being effected by the thoughts of the people was really cool. The movie used this as a sort of mood setter as to what was going to happen next and that was quite clever. The movie gets clearer as you watch it more than once but some aspects remain confusing.
I also had trouble keeping track of the characters and the different levels of dreams. I also like how the surroundings and weather changed, especially when it was raining due to the guy having to use the bathroom. I have no idea if the movie was true or not.
I agree, the first time I watched this movie I couldn’t figure out what was going on and which “level” or who’s head they were in. After a while it got a little bit easier to figure out but was a little complicated at times still.
I, too, liked that our subconscious attacks the foreigner dreamers if they manipulate the dream too much. It kind of reminds me of how our immune system works when there is a foreign disease attacking our system. I’m not sure if he was dreaming or not at the end, but if he was then wouldn’t the wife have been there?
This movie is great but it bugs me at the end. I have watched this movie a few times since it came out. At the end of the movie he spins his “toto” (however you spelled it) but it doesn’t actually show if it stops spinning. I cant really figured that out, if his still dreaming or not and that bugs me. I want to say he is not dreaming but I cannot really tell because the movie ends up with his “toto” still spinning. However, before ending it looks like it was about to stop but like I said I cant figured it out exactly. Probably the filmmakers wanted the audience to have their own thought about it, if he was still in a dream or in reality. He could also still be in a dream because in his dreams he reconstructed everything from memories. Which means he could be lost and not distinguished reality with a dream. Well this is what I think: While in a dream, you always end up in the middle, right? It could mean that Cobb ended up in the plane because he wakes up kind of lost and only cares about going home. He also constructs from memories, so the plane could be just a memory along with the house when he arrives. The people, including his children could be just projections. Which he could be still in a dream or lost in “Limbo”. But this is my point of view, I could be wrong.
Very interesting. I’d like to know more about what you mean by “you always end up in the middle”. I think you’re correct about the audience not being sure about what state even the film maker is making the movie from – in a dream or in reality. That ideal could then be extended to ask ourselves if we are actually in a dream or if we’re living out our realities.
Ya i agree the people that made the movie wanted people to be bugged by this and always be arguing about it. I say he’s not in a dream for several reasons. One when he is stuck in a dream he is in limbo. Limbo is already created for him because he has been there before. And if he ever saw his kids he would never see their faces but he was able to at the end. People always say to me that they were wearing the same clothes which is true but I ignore that fact since they kids finally turn to him. Another fact is that he does wake up in the plane, the plane should defintly not exist in limbo. When he was in limbo with his wife there was no people just him and her because they were both stuck there. All those other people dont exist in limbo.
The end bugs me too. I want to know if the totem stops spinning or not as that was the whole point of the story. The story left us at a cliffhanger and that is not right for a movie. I do believe, though, that if you watch the movie over and over again, you gain a better perspective of what is going on and you tend to catch little things you missed before.
I also agree that the movie was confusing at the end. Especially with the question did the top really fall or is it still spinning. The question of the top bugs me every time I watch this movie, because there is no right answer.
The thing most people forget about this is that the top that he spins, isn’t his “toto” or whatever it’s called. If you recall, it was his wife’s. She had left it in the safe and he had broken into it to try and retrieve it. I don’t really know which thing is actually his, but the top isn’t his, so the fact that it spun or didn’t spin makes it totally up to us whether or not we know if the whole movie was real or not.
I also didn’t like the end of the movie. It is cruel what Hollywood does, to keep us wondering if he is actually out of the dream realm or if he is stuck. I personally believe he got out, but you never know with these types of films. For all we know they are going to come out with a second movie that shows how he escapes. Otherwise liked the concept of the film.
I agree, this movie was done in the mind set of making people believe new ideas, and for people to question todays world. Also, the movie now have an akward ending where they leave the audience wondering about a lot of ideas throughout the movie.
The first time I saw the film Inception I was shocked by how accurately it was able to transition from each layer of a dream to the next with apparent ease, yet it maintained the connectivity between the events that occurred in each one. It exacerbated the idea that each decision you make can have a drastic consequence on the future. For example the timeliness of the “kick” that was given to wake each member of the team on their way out of the dream. The creativity that went into designing each level and the dynamic of how actions in other levels would play into what happened to the members was mind-blowing. What was more impressive, was the way it tied everything together nicely in the end.
I thought it was interesting how they used fine details in the creation of the dream, as a reference point for explaining important events that occurred in the film. The idea that every experience we have in “reality” could be used to explain something far greater than what we thought was mind boggling. However, the concept that reality isn’t really what it seems was not a surprising twist because it’s something that has been used in films for the past couple decades.
The aesthetics that were used to create the film were innovative like the creation of the entire city, the lighting, the architectural tricks that were placed (stairs), etc. My question is how did the idea change to accommodate for modern technology and the ideas of others? What was interesting to me was the creativity that went into the film as a whole, especially in testing the limits of the available technology and creating a whole new world of intrigue.
I agree with you on all the parts that really just make your mind wonder. Connecting all the pieces together was interesting and seeing it all fit together made the movie entertaining. This movie interested me a lot mainly from how creative it was.
The transitions in the movie were very smooth and I agree that it was one movie that stood out to me. It has a lot of things that are small are easy to miss if watching for the first time. Watching it more than once helps with getting a better perspective of the movie as a whole.
Interesting observations on the details of the movie. I thought that the creativity that went into the movie also translated to how the characters had to creatively use their imagination to navigate through the different levels of dreams. Maybe this was done to emphasize the idea that the creation of dreams is based on perception.
This movie was very interesting in that it was based on perceptions. It would be reality at one point and then change to a dream state, then back to reality. The movie confused me at some points as to whether it was a dream or reality. I liked the totem he used to check whether it was reality or a dream. I believe it worked to a certain point and then it stopped working and it would stop spinning based on his perception. It was supposed to keep spinning if he was in the dream but fall over if it was reality and we see it keeps on spinning. This shows that it was a dream and not reality at all. The transitions were smooth yet confusing. It wasn’t a choppy film but I did have moments where I was not able to follow the story. This is the second time that I have watched the movie and it allowed me to catch many things that I had missed the first time I watched it. Compared to other action movies, it has a much in depth plot and has a better story line. I feel that this movie was all about perception both inside the movie itself and how the viewer perceived it as.
I like how you brought up how the movie was based on perceptions. That made it clear to me as to why the professor had chosen this as one of the films that we would have to watch on a hybrid day. I too, felt confused at some points when I watched the movie the first time through. If you are still confused, I’d say give it a second view because you can probably catch things you don’t see the first run through. That’s what I had done and it made the movie make a lot more sense in some aspects.
Inception was one of the movies that I really wanted to see when it came out. When I did end up going to see it I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of events that are happening all in parallel. Jumping between these different levels was a big distraction for me. However, once we got it on disk and I was able to watch it more I really started to get a grasp of what exactly is going on and why. Even when watching it this time I am still finding out new things and realizing the depth of what is going on. I saw how the events of one “dream world” affected the next and how important the events in one setting were in the next. For example, the van falling off of the bridge into the water was significant in the hotel setting because there was a total loss of gravity. It was necessary for them to think creatively to work around these drawbacks and even find their way around new barriers that appeared in their way.
One of my favorite aspects of this movie was how they solve the death of Fischer, the inception target. He is killed by the projection of Cobb’s wife and all hope seems lost but they figure out that they can fix it by following him into Limbo and saving him. I really liked this because it made their already complex plan a little bit more complex. I also found it interesting how much they expanded the events of the plot with all of these parallel dream universes but also managed to neatly tie it all up into a conclusion that was satisfying. Although the ending of the movie may be debatable, I think it ended in reality. All throughout the story the top would spin endlessly shortly after it was spun to signify a dream. However, the spinning top at the end, although we never see it fall, begins to wobble. This makes me believe that if the movie had gone on for just a bit longer, we would have seen the spinning top collapse.
The overall idea and concepts of the movie were easy to understand; however, I too found it really confusing when keeping tract of which characters were in the dream world, and if they were, which level. I liked the idea that death used to be an easy way out of the dream world, but because of how long they are in the dream world, we can’t.
I like that the dream world is multifaceted. The world requires imagination in order to successfully navigate through it. Sometimes I find myself believing that the dream world is the reality. As for the ending, I believe Cobb was having a real dream. Although we are not exactly sure if Saito died in reality, I feel that Cobb was desperate to see his children after killing the shadow of his wife he created.
I also found it a bit confusing at first since they present so many different events all at once. You have to watch it a few times to start to understand what is really going on. I like how the producers left the ending a cliffhanger, so the audience can argue about who is right.
The movie starts out as Dom Cobb being washed up to the shore. some militants find him and bring him to there leader. It is an old Asian guy and tells Cobb that he is waiting for someone. The scene is foreshadowing of what to expect of the movie. the movie in general is very mysterious and dark. What Cobb does is to extract information but not while they are awake but in there dreams. this concept where dreams are actually telling you something is true to a certain degree. Dreams are what makes you have an imagination. in dreams, you can build a fantasy world that does not exist in reality. and this is what makes this movie great because it shows that dreams can actually be reality. that can be either good or bad depending how you view it. Cobb’s job is too plant an idea into another person’s mind which is called inception. It is very risky because the idea can change the way the person lives and make them a different person in whole. the idea can also disintegrate and not develop in the mind which will lead to destroying the entity that is trying to plant the idea with projections that are just subjects in the mind. destroying these projections does not lead to anything erasing. in My opinion this is one of the greatest movies of all time.
This movie did have a very interesting plot. It is an idea that has not really been explored before in a movie before. I agree that it was a great movie!
Watching inception brought many interesting ideas to mind. The most intersting was being able to go into someone else’s dream, which has an impact on future events. I also believe the safe has to do with the person’s inner secrets.
I enjoyed watching the scene where the girl starts shaping her dreams and the world folds in half, making the buildings rooftops touch. The fact that the world can be folded, like a cube, and be able to defy gravity, or be able to change side of the cube and make it seem like they are defying gravity was very interesting.
The end of the movie is a cliffhanger, the toto is still spinning but it starts to wobble. You do not know if it still spins or if it falls.
Extraordinary things like folding the world in half or defying gravity are all very intriguing because it’s not something that we see everyday; actually we don’t see it at all. This fact is important because it can be used as evidence to define whether the layer is reality or surreal. Since we don’t see people or objects defying gravity in our world, maybe the layer in the movie is a dream.
The point you made about the safe being someone’s inner secrets is interesting. I never thought about it that way. What were your thoughts on the ending? What do you feel it really is, a dream, or reality? My favorite scene was also where she was first brought into the dream and she made a street by using two mirrors. That was a pretty cool scene if I say so myself. Don’t you think it would be cool if we were actually able to go into our dreams and just shape them to what we wanted them to be?
I thought that all of the great ways that in the dream world people were able to defy gravity or make buildings bend was amazing a well. It is a very interesting idea the the dream world could be so vivid and real that it seems better that reality. 🙂
I agree, with the idea that one is able to go into someone else dream. Also, the fact that the world can be folded in half sounds strange and interesting. But I still think is weird the fact that we are not able to see it on the daily and there is gravity everwhere.
I notice the movie uses a lot of symbolism when the group enters a dream. Just like you said, a safe can be used to store a person inner secret. Additionally, training the brain to fight invaders can be represented by personal body guards. The pinwheel at the end of the movie also symbolizes his father’s love.
This movie has become a movie which everybody acknowledges has made them think since the Matrix. In this movie, the idea that dreams can be infiltrated and ideas being placed into your mind made us wonder if any of this was possible, or has been done to us already.
I enjoyed how the whole movie played out. When you thought you figured out what was real or not, they would completely shoot down your perception and show you that it was the opposite of what you believed. Even at the end of the movie, it left an impression of whether or not anything in the movie was real or not.
I believe that the end of the movie made me question the whole movie. This is because the “top” that he had, was probably not his. The top was hidden in their home, in a playhouse that his wife had imagined. He had taken out that top (which makes you believe that it was her’s) and then “leaves” the “dream world” and returns to “reality”. With just this simple action he had taken in the movie, the rest of it seems to me as if all of it was a dream still. He should have no idea how the top worked, and even whether or not it would fall or stay up. This would show us that in the whole movie, we really have no idea what is “real” and what is a “dream”. It was because this movie made me think so much that made it that much more interesting to me to watch and try to understand.
Yes, I agree with your statement that the movie didn’t draw any clear lines between reality and dream. In fact, the twists in the movie only made the line more blurry. Yet, I think that the producers did this to emphasize one of their major themes on perception. They left the movie ambiguous so that their audience can perceive what they thought was reality or surreal.
Ah, it’s pretty cool that you brought up the Matrix and how Inception has become a movie that everyone just thinks about now. Where you mentioned about distinguishing the line between reality and dream, I agree. It is a pretty unclear “line” between the two but that’s what makes the movie awesome (in my opinion). The fact that everything is up to interpretation is what made this film much more enjoyable to me. Wouldn’t it be awesome to just somehow manipulate the dreams that you are a part of? Because I think that would be pretty darn cool. Haha.
I have seen Inception a few times before. During the first time, I was not able to grasp any solid concepts of the movie besides transitions in dreams. After the first few runs of the film, including this one, I understood one of the themes – perception. The characters had their own perspective on what was a dream and what was not. Others perceived phrases differently. For instance, Cobb’s wife perceived that the real world actually wasn’t real at all; it was only a dream and to get to the real-real world, she had to kill herself. Contrary to her beliefs, Cobb thought that the real world was the real world and that his wife was going insane. Another instant that reinforces the idea of perception is when Fischer thought that his father never approved of him because he openly told him of his disappointment in him. But he later learns that his father was disappointed in him because he wanted him to become his own person. Such a twist on meaning. These examples reinforce the idea that beliefs are shaped by how people perceive the world.
Perception is a great theme that was explored during this movie. I thought that it was also interesting that the wife committed sluiced because she did not believe that the real world was real. She believed that the dream was reality.
__After the first time I viewed “Inception,” I spent some time thinking about what was probably considered as “real” and what was considered as a “dream” in the movie.That’s what I loved about this film the most. The fact that it leaves so many thoughts and events open-ended made every thought the viewer had opinion based. I remember when I first saw it with my friends back in high school. There was much unrest among the group, whether it was debate about the ending, or debating on if the whole movie was a dream where nothing was ever done in reality. This whole “open-ended” feeling was kept throughout the film and that’s what made me enjoy it the most.
__After watching it this second time, it made me realize that I wish there was technology where we could go into our dreams and be a part of it. I always tell my friends about the crazy dreams I had, and if this technology was real, we could all just experience it together. But, if that happens, there would be no way to distinguish what is actually “real life” and what is just a “dream.” One thing I particularly enjoyed in the movie was seeing inside of Cobb’s mind. We see that there’s even an elevator in it! I felt like this was a great representation of one’s mind, including the conscious, subconscious, and “deep” mind. It had me pondering whether or not my mind was built that same way, and better yet, what was actually lurking around in my subconscious. Overall, it was a great film to watch a second time.
_____From what I heard about this movie, a lot of people were confused about the story line. This is my first time seeing this movie and the storyline seemed pretty clear to me. Some of the parts may leave some questions but the story will eventually answer them. However though, like some
endings to movies, the writers would always like to leave the audience questioning in the end.
_____What makes this movie stick out from other movies is the complexity of it. Not only did this movie has action, it was sophisticated. They expressed one’s mind as a dream, and by going into another person’s dream, they could manipulate another person’s mind. The idea of entering someone’s mind through a dream is what made this movie so interesting. However, they took it one step further and entered a dream within a dream. This may cause confusion, but it allowed the movie to step further and to become the movie it is. I couldn’t think of “Inception” as the same movie if they only enter 1 dream instead of multiple dreams at once.
_____The movie seemed like one big puzzle to me. They give us parts of the story one piece at a time and as we connect the movie together, the whole story starts to fit together. For example, the beginning of the movie fits in with the end of the movie. Then when the train intercepted the mission, we later learned that it was caused my Cobb’s personal problems. However, some parts might have not connected well and this is the reason why people get confused with the movie.
Inception. A thrilling and mind-twisting movie about the brain and thoughts. As the characters travel from one dream to the next, it was difficult for me to understand if they were in reality or not. This is a clear transition from one dream to the next, and within each dream other things happen. Implanting an idea into a mind is the hardest thing to remove and is the more easily spread than any disease. These dreams go into the unconscious and create different worlds. It is a way of getting information from people. The dreams can seem more like reality than real life, because they are so real. This is shown when one of the character’s wife did not like real life as much as the dream because she could not tell the difference, and eventually committed suicide. To know if you are still in the dream or not, you have a sort of talisman. It was a very interesting movie about transition and translation. I liked the special effects and the different scenes that the characters went in.
The movie was also very knowledgeable to me too. When they said that an idea is the hardest thing to remove, it caught my attention because it makes sense to me.Having a small thought could grow in your brain over time. It would then develop and become a bigger idea that derived from that small idea.
_____I was finally able to get my hands on Inception. I found the overall movie to be very intriguing. The idea that we can manipulate people by manipulating their dreams is a unique thought. I liked how the spinning top was his conformation on whether he was still in the dream because everything seemed so real. Of course Hollywood had to put the love twist in the movie, where he couldn’t let go of the love of his life and she would disrupt his focus. It shocked me, though, that she didn’t come back to life; which is new for Hollywood to do.
_____Overall the movie was good and had an original concept that most movies do not have. I liked the dream aspect of the whole movie and wish that that was actually possible.
Inception is a mind, blown thinking movie. Thismovie made me think whether the people, were in real life, or if they were in adream. The thing I liked about Inception was that, five minutes dreaming was anhour in inception. Also the only way out of being in inception was to die, butalso when someone was being tortured in the dream they can feel the pain. Inceptionwas just mazes and you can go around, and you could go from one place toanother. Cobb stayed in limbo at the end so he can get his friend back to keephis promise that they made. Cobb wanted to go back to his children because hiswife had framed him of him killing her. He did the mission of going inside ofFischer’s mind to switch his dad’s word around. Instead of his dad saying hewas disappointed in him, they changed in in saying he was disappointed in himbecause he was not his own person. The purpose of this was so that Fischerwould not take over his dad’s company so Saito would not have any competitionin his business. At the end the top started to wobble, indicating that he washome and he was not dreaming.
The idea that 5 minutes of dreaming equals 1 hour of inception makes sense in real life. A small nap with a dream can last a long time but when you wake up, only a small amount of time has pasted. Additionally, sometimes my body would act out the actions I do in my dreams. These could be jerks or sleep talking.