Inception
***SPOILER ALERT***
seriously. If you haven’t yet seen this movie, don’t read a single sentence of this post.
Just don’t do it.
Go see the movie and prepare to have your mind bent.
Then come back and let’s chat.
Some of my observations:
- the house they lived in – the lighting was EXACTLY the same as in all of his memories. And the kids were the same age, and in the same place in the back yard. Even when he “came home”
- Perhaps when Mol showed up, she was actually trying to wake him up?
- His “reality” was driven by guilt.
- He couldn’t go home – he was trapped.
- He couldn’t do an honest day’s work because his wife killed herself – and he was blamed for murdering her.
- He was coerced at the last possible moment to work for a corrupt corporation which enabled him to avoid jail.
- He had a “savior” just when he needed it to remove him from the claws of said corporation.
- His totem was in the hands of at least 2 other people… and it wasn’t even his totem.
- When they constructed from memory, they built Mol’s childhood house, but not his.
- His father-in-law was in LA waiting for him, but lived in Paris.
- His FIL was not French.
- His wife was
- His mother-in-law sounded like his wife, but lived in the US with his kids – not in Paris with her husband. Why didn’t they move?
- His crime was so heinous that the US gov’t would pull strings & go past political issues to get him back to the USA from France… but not any other country? And it wasn’t something that would normally merit that kind of action by the gov’t. (but guilt would make it seem larger in his own mind)
- his kids knew where he was to call him, but the gov’t couldn’t track him.
These are just a few of the things that have come to mind since last night.
So, do I think he ever fully “woke up” – no. I don’t think we ever saw his actual reality. If the top layer were reality, the kids would be in different clothes and would have aged from his memories. They didn’t.
But who knows just how deep he was at that point?
Is it all just the delusions of a mental patient?
Are any of the characters real?
And for those wondering, I think the kids are the actual totem. And them turning around doesn’t mean he’s out. I think it means he’s in even more deeply.
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One thing I wondered though… regarding the phone call from the kids. They sounded older than they looked. She sounded very much like an 8 year old. It is almost as if they had been brought to wherever his body was and were tring to talk to him to pull him out.
What are your thoughts?
5 comments
Whew. Well, I saw this a couple of days ago, so I’ve been trying to pull together a few random threads. I think we’ll go to see it again. Gosh, Christopher Nolan is a GENIUS.
Anyhow – I was convinced that he’d actually spoken to 3 kids on the phone. I agree, they sounded older when they called, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a ‘real’ call anyway. I’m not sure that Mol’s totem really WAS hers.
And…the spinning top wobbled a bit before the movie ended – typical Nolan technique to make you wonder if it really DID topple just after the camera cut out. It’s like The Prestige. I’ve watched it a few times now, and he does the same thing (I think) at the end. If you haven’t seen it, you should. Another mind bender.
I love movies that make me think. Awesome!
The Prestige was amazing. LOVED that one.
As for the kids – I just kept thinking that somehow he did have an actual conversation with them – I just think he was asleep during it. But I’m not totally sure…
Argh! He is sooooooooooo stinkin’ good at these mind benders!
BTW, how is N. Ireland treating you? Are you ready to come back to the PNW yet? *grin*
It’s like the Prestige, but much more like Memento, which while I was watching I was reminded of over and over. I didn’t know that Nolan did all three. I wonder what happened to Nolan…Inception was actually hopeful and redemptive, where I found both the Prestige and Memento to be terribly sad and a biting commentary on the human spirit.
We haven’t seen Memento yet – but it definitely on the list of movies to see. Especially now.
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