In the ten years since the release of the film ‘Inception,’ the impact it has had on the individual’s mind has been profound. The mind-bending exploration of dreams and the power of the subconscious continue to resonate with viewers. The film’s complex narrative and thought-provoking themes have sparked discussions and debates, challenging our understanding of reality and perception. ‘Inception’ has left an indelible mark on the cinematic landscape, reshaping the way we think about dreams and influencing subsequent films and TV shows. Its enduring legacy is a testament to its originality and psychological depth..
The key obsession with Inception after watching it is whether or not the spinning top falls or continues to spin. Nolan doesn’t show us the outcome, and I remember the audible groans in the audience when it cuts off before we can perceive Cobb’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) fate. Long discussions online ensued, where people go back and forth on this, taking great pains to belabour the point that Cobb’s totem didn’t belong to him and that it was originally Mal’s (Marion Cotillard), or that we see it start to topple before the fade to black.
We get so caught up in the ending that we forget that it really isn’t about whether Cobb is still dreaming or not, but rather if he has allowed himself to return to reality. On my rewatch of the film, despite the corporate espionage elements and the mind-bending visuals of the dreamscape, it was the treatment of grief that got my attention – that is the true inception we are meant to focus on. It is like Cobb says, “an idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow, it can grow to define or destroy you.”
From the beginning, we see how the memory of Mal has invaded Cobb’s subconscious, much like a virus, resiliently present. While Cobb is on a job trying to extract information from Saito (Ken Watanabe), she comes in to thwart things. She gives Cobb up to Saito, shoots Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in the leg so as to torment him (and Cobb as a result) and, as we see, the job isn’t completed and now Cobb has more people on his tail. But the thing is, Mal isn’t truly Mal, merely a manifestation of his subconscious, a creation of his grief that keeps surfacing to foil things for him. Despite this antagonistic presence being nothing like his wife, Cobb cannot bring himself to harm this image of his wife. Even when he has a clear shot of her and she’s about to take out Fischer (Cillian Murphy), he doesn’t allow himself to discern the difference between the dream and reality.
This is because Cobb hasn’t dealt with his grief and his guilt, choosing to push everything down and repress it all (which manifests as a prison of memories, trapping Mal within). He chooses to keep dreaming, plunging himself into one dream world after the next, refusing to deal with reality. He also makes unsanctioned trips into dreamworld, because in his dreams, he is still with Mal. He is on dangerous ground here, since he is using real memories for his dreams, and in doing so, makes it increasingly impossible to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not. When he is in limbo towards the end of the film, Mal uses this as a way to convince him to stay, since why obsess yourself with reality when you can’t really perceive the difference anymore? Cobb’s reality is strikingly similar to that of a dream, with him being chased by faceless corporations and police forces, much like how the projections in a dream chase after the dreamer.
We are constantly treated to visuals of Cobb’s memories with Mal, which come unfettered into his mind while in reality. They are brief glimpses, but attached to them a trauma still unarticulated. We know that Mal is dead, we don’t, however, know why. As the film goes on, we eventually find out, that Mal’s death is the result of inception, with Cobb planting an idea so deeply within her mind that she was unable to shake it – “your world is not real”. The world of dreaming spills into reality, inundating everything with its shade, so much so that Mal couldn’t see past it. It was all a dream to her, and the only way to wake up was to die.
It is a startling thing to see Mal leap to her death, envisioning that it will lead her to reality and a reunion with her children, only for it to end. Cobb is forced to witness her death while knowing the role he played in her demise. Yet, Inception doesn’t want us to fear dreaming. Getting lost in fantasy is detrimental, but we need dreams to problem-solve, to work through our issues. Eames’ (Tom Hardy) issue with Arthur is that he plays things too safe, never allowing himself to dream bigger, even when it is necessary.
When Cobb finds himself in limbo again, his grief and guilt work together to convince him to make a life with Mal there, so that he could still keep his promise, with the two of them continuing their lives together. His grief wants him to commit to this reality, so this way, he never has to lose his wife. But as he beholds his fictional creation of Mal, he recognises that this fantasy will never be able to match up to the reality of her. And that’s what we get with dreams, it gives us something that comes close but it cannot replicate the complexity of reality. There is a paradox here, because dreams are a manifestation of our imagination, where the sky is the limit, yet reality’s nuances cannot be conjured up.
So you see, while the entire operation was meant as an inception for Fischer, it was a process that included Cobb as well. He needed to go down deep into his subconscious to rid himself of the virus of grief (seen through Mal’s death in limbo), and after he emerges from the dream, finally experiences catharsis, able to let go of his wife and come to terms with her death. He forges forward to find Saito, because the man is the only one who can bring him to the reality of his children. So yes, if we look at the way the film is layered, it becomes obvious that the ending is reality. We begin with a man whose mind is infected with grief, who at the end comes to terms with this grief, allowing its removal.
Also, Michael Caine already revealed the truth to us. Nolan told him that when he is in the scene, it’s reality. And who did we see at the end? Michael Caine. But like I said, that isn’t really the point.
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This content discusses the ending of the movie Inception and suggests that the focus should not be on whether the spinning top falls or continues to spin, but rather on the theme of grief. The protagonist, Cobb, is haunted by the memory of his deceased wife, Mal, who appears in his dreams. He is unable to let go of his guilt and grief, and instead chooses to live in dreams rather than face reality. The content also explains that dreams can be beneficial for problem-solving and exploring one’s imagination, but they cannot replicate the complexity of reality. In the end, Cobb is able to let go of his grief and move forward. The article concludes by mentioning that a clue to the reality of the ending is the presence of Michael Caine’s character, who is said to represent reality.
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