Supermallet

I know plenty of people who think the ending of Minority Report is not a dream.

statcat

I didn't like this movie at all but it's not really my kind of thing to begin with. I'm surprised it's ranked #3 on IMDB, right below the Godfather. I expect it to sink in the ratings after a few weeks/months when the hype dies.

TheMovieman

Well, that generally happens anyway since you can't sustain constant 9 or 10/10 ratings, if people give it a 7 or 8/10, that alone will drop the average. The Dark Knight was #1 for a while -- longer than I expected --, then dropped within the top 5 and it's now #12. Same thing with Lord of the Rings.

But it seems that if people were generally going against Inception, it would be having larger drops and in its fourth weekend now, it only has a 32.3% drop (weekend 2: 32.0%, weekend 3: 35.7%), so I don't see it dropping that much.

Burnt Thru

A few questions regarding Inception...

1) How are different people supposed to be able to exist in limbo together even if they didn't all go there at the same time or by the same mechanism? Is this supposed to be some form of hive mind idea?

2) How could Cobb and Ariadne go to limbo by using one of their little dream boxes when the other characters had to die while sedated to get in there?

3) Why is everything in limbo from the imagination of Cobb? Surely he and his wife aren't the only ones who have gone there. Is the suggestion that this is an actual place that anyone can visit but that nobody has since the time Cobb and his wife were there?

4) Why is Michael Caine in the movie for only 2 minutes. And why does he appear at the airport right at the end when he hasn't been in on the mission (supposedly) at all?

5) If Cobb is in fact dreaming the entire thing then does that mean all of the other characters are constructs of his imagination as well? In that case shouldn't there be more bizarre "dreamlike" aspects to the story - people with horses heads, famous animated characters and the like? The idea of an artificial maze dream world with tightly controlled limits negates this point but not if Cobb is in fact dreaming the entire story (except perhaps the ending).

DVD Josh

Sort of answering BT (and I'm sure mentioned in one of the 31 pages of this thread that I didn't read since I only saw the movie 24 hours ago), but my first impression was the the WHOLE movie was a dream. When I found out that Page's character was named Ariadne, that was another big clue to me. As might have been mentioned, Ariadne let Theseus out of the labyrinth.

So here's a sort of explanation of Inception:

* Dom is stuck in limbo and refuses to leave
* A trusted avatar (his father) sends in Ariadne to help get him out
* Dom instantly trusts Ariadne because he can identify with her talents in the dreamscape
* Ariadne then leads Dom out of Limbo through the Fischer construct (by making it so Dom thinks that he is working out of Fischer's limbo, not his own)
* The ending is real, he is finally out of limbo

We'll never really know for sure unless Nolan ever says (and he won't). So my interpretation can be as right or as wrong as possible.

PopcornTreeCt

I'll have to rewatch it. I don't remember it ever being ambiguous and it was never mentioned when I talked to friends and family about the movie.

whoopdido

I've seen Minority Report a bunch of times and it never once entered my mind that the ending was a dream. Never once ocurred to me to go that route, but I guess that could be the case.

fumanstan

There was a decent thread here about the Minority Report ending. Personally, I don't buy it, but its an interesting theory.

Giantrobo

Right. I'm not saying the ending Minority Report was a dream. I'm just saying I remember that the question did come up in the MR thread years ago and Inception's ending made me think of this.

Giantrobo

2) I think they said that Cobb had been their before and this was why he could go again and even take someone with him.

3) See #2

4) Yeah I thought Caine was in France(A University Professor?) and the kids were with their Grandmother in America? Why was Caine suddenly in America? Reading DVD Josh's post may answer this...

5) Yeah, it's interesting that these characters had so much control. I mean we never saw a dragon or weird spaceship or anything.

TheMovieman

I'm in the same boat. The times I have seen it, I never got an inkling that it was a dream either.

Supermallet

Personally I think Minority Report ends terribly unless it's a dream, in which case, it works perfectly.

Here's a good summary of why I think it has to be a dream:

http://www.flakmag.com/film/spielberg/minority.html

Giantrobo

I believe most agree it wasn't a dream. But there were a few here on dvdtalk.


http://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/...rs-within.html

Supermallet

Bah! Next you'll be telling me that Deckard was a Replicant!

whoopdido

Not necessarily calling you out or anything, but it seems like often some people only think a movie ends well if it ends on a sour or downer note.

What's wrong with Minority Report ending somewhat happily? Why is it terrible if Tom Cruise doesn't end up wasting away in that frozen prison or whatever it was?

I'm sorry but I really can't think of any other examples off the top of my head, but I know there are examples out there where people just don't like an ambigious ending if it turns out to be happy, but if it ends up as a "sad" ending then it's brilliant.

Just looking at your statement...it's the same movie. One has a happy ending and one has a sad ending. Why is the happy ending terrible and the sad ending perfect?

Groucho

As stated in another thread, there's an adolescent/film-student mentality that likes to re-interpret every movie to be a dream. It usually paves the way for deeper film criticism, so I guess there's no harm.

Supermallet

I'm certainly not opposed to a happy ending when it's warranted. Most romantic comedies wouldn't work if the ending was a downer. But the ending of Minority Report wraps things up into such a neat package, complete with big bow, that it's either outrageously poor storytelling or there's something deeper going on.



Minority Report is a sci-fi noir, and noirs tend to end unhappily (not always, but often), and it's also based on a story by Philip K. Dick, a man not known for being all sunshine and roses.

So it's not that all happy endings are bad and all downer endings are good, it's about the context. And in the context of Minority Report, a happy ending doesn't play. Another great example is yet another Philip K. Dick sci-fi noir adaption, Blade Runner. The theatrical cut has a tacked on happy ending that is entirely as hokey as the ending of Minority Report. Take off the happy ending, and you get a film masterpiece. With Minority Report, if the ending is a dream, the movie makes sense.

Jay G.

Actually, the short story Minority Report, which the movie only tangentially resembles, had a happy ending for the protagonist.

Supermallet

Whoops! Well aren't my cheeks red.

The rest of my points still stand.

Trevor

Same here. Enjoy the film and have seen it several times, never occured to me that it could be a dream ending. But after reading up on it a bit, sure, maybe. It would actually make me like the film a bit more if that is what he really meant.

Giantrobo

Nope. He only DREAMED he was a Replicant. Remember the Unicorn Origami? That was his Avatar.

Giantrobo

Welcome to DVDTALK. It's what many here do. Blame the TV show "DALLAS"

But seriously, I get what you're saying.



[/thread] Groucho has spoken.

Supermallet

PopcornTreeCt

In my opinion, I don't think the comparison is warranted. Inception's ambiguous ending had me thinking as soon as I left the theater and reminded me more of American Psycho.

Minority Report was always pretty concrete for years until I visited DVD Talk.

Giantrobo

We will agree to disagree. In my opinion it's a fair comparison.