RocShemp

Yeah, it's awesome. It's from filmschoolrejects.

gmanca

Finally saw it; really enjoyed it but not as an immediate hit with me as The Prestige, The Dark Knight, or Memento were. I agree with what was said earlier that the characters weren't as developed in relation to the audience but because of the vast amount of them, Nolan gets appreciation.

I do think that

The end was more of a "trick" than another completely plausible interpretation, emphasized by the little smirk Caine projects to the camera. I would have liked to have seen each dream in the dreamer's POV as in how real dreams are to real individuals but that would have been more of an art house take than a commercial one.

Will need to see it in IMAX as there is a definite issue with the center channel when it comes to the dialogue, particularly in the beginning of the film.

Jaymole

Saw the film yesterday and enjoyed it although it had some flaws (the third level dragged, a couple of the action scenes were confusingly shot & Watanabe's old man make-up being 3 of them)

as for the




I would like to hear what people think of that scene and my view of it.

riotinmyskull

pretty sure they were in the same suite...just had some visually confusing architecture.

Jaymole

mdc3000

^Disagree entirely. I've seen it 3 times and there is really nothing that suggests it's a dream in that part. His arm waving doesn't tell us anything other than he wants her to come inside...I don't think the scene changes drastically if he POINTED at the window behind her instead - it's just the general "get inside" idea being conveyed. If anything I'd put that blame on Leo, but it wasn't a deliberate 'clue'. People want this movie to be a lot more complex & ambiguous than it actually is.

Groucho

Agreed. The only thing that was deliberately left ambiguous is the final sequence beginning with Cobb and Company waking up on the plane.

PopcornTreeCt

Bingo.

Jay G.

Jaymole

Well, we have to agree to disagree. I don't think I am making it any more complex or ambiguous by suggesting what I did. I think the way that scene is set-up and played out is a major clue and can't be forgiven due to a bad choice of architecture or an actor's own way of doing something....not with a director like Nolan.

Jay G.

I don't think the architecture of that room is bad, in fact I think it's very interesting, both visually and thematically. It even makes sense in terms of plot: Mal could've picked that room because of the opposing windows, meaning she could draw Cobb to the first one, and when he reached it, she'd be able to talk to him face-to-face while on her window ledge, and he'd be unable to grab her and pull her back in from his window.

I do think it's apparently a confusing architecture for some, which is causing them to make an assumption that isn't true (the windows are in different buildings), leading to interpretations that are thus incorrect.

Note that I don't think that the fact that the windows are part of the same building necessarily disproves that that sequence is part of a dream. However, the sequence isn't as clearly a dream as some think it is, and could easily be reality (which I think it is).

Lastblade

I agree with this, and that Nolan planted an inception in us with the last scene (that it might be a dream/not).

Eva Kaine

RichC2

Something like that.

I feel the movie is very straight forward as well. Still very good, just very straight forward.

Michael Corvin

RocShemp

Over at Blu-Ray.com, someone noted that all the dream sequences are shot with a different lens than the reality sequences. I'll see if I can find the post. It'd be a good thing to watch out for at the end in order to lay these theories to rest.

I'm in the "not a dream" camp, by the way. But I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.

EDIT: Dammit. I can't find the post. Maybe I saw it at a different forum.

slop101

Ah, an actual unintended coincidence!

Regardless, only about 1 out of a thousand movie-goers would pick up on the Cotillard/Piaf connection.

But as to the score; it is the music they hear before they're supposed to wake up (slowed down). So what the music is actually saying to the audience: wake up! wake up! Which makes it even more obvious that the movie is supposed to be entirely a dream.

RocShemp

Actually,

slop101

Because it doesn't exist, as the entire movie is a dream - even if there's some differences in the lenses - the instances of dream-logic occurring in the "real-life" sequences are far more obvious and overwhelming than any sort of shooting lens would be.

RichC2

Wow, you read that completely differently than I did. If it were a dream we'd have the same music playing over the scene with the kids, trying to wake Cobb up. Instead, we mostly hear it when they're in Limbo, where the music would be slow as a snail.

Somebody on another forum made a point about Cobb's wedding ring -- he doesn't wear it in reality, but the second they're in a dream, there it is.

jiffy97

She invited him to the hotel as part of her setting him up. She picked a hotel with that "odd" layout for a specific reason. She isn't in another room in their suite. She is in a different suite altogether. She invited him to the room he went to, she pre-trashed it to look as though they had a fight, and was waiting for him in a room across the alley so he would have no chance of stopping her from jumping.

Solid Snake

Same here man...

Dr Mabuse

Saw it in a theatre today.

5 stars. Loved it.

Those Hollywood guys get all the cool firepower lined up for movies. Those ACR's and SCAR's were awesome

Mabuse

I saw this 2 weeks ago and I've been waiting for someone to bring up the russian film Stalker. The final moment of Inception (the top) seems clearly derived from the last shot of Stalker.

Reading the last shot of Inception as an homage to Stalker pretty much solves the riddle of Inception. And the solution is:


There is no right or wrong answer. The audience can believe it's a dream or they can believe it's real. It's a test of the audiences own faith and you can decide for yourself, or wonder forever.

The Bus

SPOILERS

The whole film is not a dream. The clue is the score. There's a piece of Zimmer's score where there's a second hand ticking. This ticking never shows up in any of the dream sequences, but it does in reality: Paris and Mombasa. It ties into the beginning of the movie where it shows the second hand ticking normally once we're back in reality.

The other aspect of the film is Mal's jump. Everyone seems to assume that she magically jumped across a chasm to get to the ledge she's on.

First off, they are not in their apartment. It is the suite they get to celebrate every anniversary. So it was known what room it would be. Mal got there early and trashed the place to make sure it looked like Cobb had gone crazy. Now, since the floor plan of the hotel is E-shaped, she went down the hall to a different room, but one that she knew would face the window. This way, there was no way for Cobb to stop her / pull her in. Remember, she planned it for a long time: she wrote the letter to the attorney, got tests to show she was sane, etc.

What makes it confusing is that in Cobb's "prison" for her, she's shown in the hotel suite, not across the hall. But that's in Cobb's dream, not in the reality of the past.

Another point I wanted to address was Saito(?)'s "one phone call" to rescue Cobb. Technically, he could've begun to make arrangements weeks in advance. Then, when he was on the plane, he simply said something along the lines of, "Yes, let him through" to whomever his contact was.

A few other thoughts, that may or may not be interrelated and/or true:

- Page's character was a plant by Michael Caine's character. She knew how to build dreams and was showing off to Cobb so that he would agree to bring her into the dream. Her goal was not to be the architect, but to "fix" Cobb and make him OK with his guilt.
- This could mean that the final scene is a dream of Caine's planning.
- Or that the entire team was in on it.
- Or that Cobb could always go back to the US, but his guilt prevented him from doing that and he imagined he would be persecuted.
- When Cobb is talking with his kids, we hear an exchange along the lines of:
"I told you Mom is not around."
"Oh, she's not here."
"What do you mean here?"
The "here" has a double meaning. I don't remember the exchange exactly.