Let me throw this out here right off the bat (pun intended)…

I truly admire Christopher Nolan because of what he did to the Batman film franchise, and for probably what he’ll do for the Superman franchise. These are big studio films, and his previous works were smaller budget, and I think truly prepared Nolan first, in the ability to tell a story. The amount of hands that go into putting a film out to theaters are numerous, and Nolan’s films have seemed to survive the studio edits and put forth a wonderful, worthwhile, movie experience that satisfies both the intellectual moviegoer and the recreational moviegoer.

Some of you might be remarking, “What do you mean intellectual vs. recreational?”

Well, some people go to the movies to be intellectually stimulated. They want to be blown away by the story, and by what mental challenges the viewer is forced to reconcile with regard to the plot or the relationship between characters. At the end of the film, a discussion must be had regarding interpretations of the plot themes, outcomes, or if some ambiguity exists. Some people go to the movies for a different reason, one that is simply to be entertained. They wish to truly waste a few hours of their time to be engulfed in the unbelievable, the fictional yet plausible, and really just forget about it when they get home.

Christopher Nolan is first and foremost a storyteller. It is in fact his greatest strength, and the thing I get from his films is that first he explains “how?” then he subtly, slowly, answers the question “why?” in regards to the story. The ending of his movies culminates in that final piece of information that says, “This is what we’ve been trying to tell you while showing you how.” We later realize that the beginning of the film had alluded to this all along.

So, Inception.

It is a rare occurrence these days that we see a movie that has been made for the very first time. Granted, there are elements we could find in other films, but these share a commonality, and that is the life we as humans experience. Inception is a film that explores the psychological phenomena of dreams. We all have them. We all understand what they are, and we have certainly seen films use “dream sequences” as either plot devices, or abused to be some sort of dramatic but ultimately lame cop out for what the viewer has just spent the previous hour pondering. One film I can think of that follows the exploration of the psyche is The Cell starring Jennifer Lopez. However, this movie was way more fantasy than Inception is, and the audience saw through this. Another film involving dreams I can think of would be Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky, however that did not go into the lucid dreaming (the fun kind) that most people would rather experience.

Inception manages to step into the science fiction, drama, and fantasy genres rather fluidly. The film itself does not boast to be an authority on its premise, nor does it offer any real explanation as to the technology that is employed by our protagonists that enable them to enter into the dreamscape of another person, but also (and to other participants’ peril) introduce subconscious anomalies into another’s dreamscape. As far as I have been able to tell, the knowledge the protagonists possess is directly proportionate to their individual experiences, thus forcing the audience to conclude that the movie itself does not know everything about why things happen in a dream with relation to the subconscious. Inception, however adds a sense of plausibility in that we are adequately educated enough to form our own questions regarding a subject we really know nothing about. We are given “rules” in the film, but like any great story, the rules are always either violated or ultimately deemed to be subjective at best, and the audience is left with what some may feel is a plot hole, or what some perceive to be an additional mystery to the idea of what dreams/inception/subconscious really are. What is “real” is a question that is never confirmed, but unlike The Matrix, we do not learn that we are simply batteries powering sentient robots, nor do we learn at the conclusion of everything, that even what was “real” was in fact only a reboot of the entire system. Inception at its very base is an ensemble group of actors performing a heist, or in this case, an inception: the planting of an idea at its very beginning so much so that the individual feels as though it were an inspiration, not a coercion.

***MODERATE SPOILERS AHEAD***

Our protagonist, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a so-called dream security expert. His role is to make the target feel as though Cobb is there to protect their assets, and by doing so, Cobb is then made confidant regarding sensitive information and from there, Cobb steals the information. Dom Cobb, however, has a weakness. He used to be able to “architect” or “design” dreamworlds with extreme proficiency during his lucid state, but personal tragedy has introduced a guilty subconscious that projects what he feels are his consequences. This guilt caused him to research his own memories, which are implied to us the audience as something you are not supposed to do, for reasons I’ll attempt to explain later. This guilty subconscious destroys his designs, putting him and his team members at risk of failure towards the end of each job as Cobb must do his part at the end, with his subconscious being a risk.

The heist takes place in varied stages in a very customized order, so for sake of simplicity I will just lay out one combination. The first stage, the anchor stage, is always the dreamworld of the target but is designed and controlled lucidly by the architect. The target’s subconscious will have villainous intentions towards the team as the target’s mind realizes the invasion, however the target is usually unaware of this. This is where the initial deception occurs and the team must force the target to enter into the dreamworld of his dreamworld, the second stage. A team member must remain in the first stage to execute the wake-up sequence. In the second stage, the target is made aware that he’s in a dream and Dom Cobb presents himself as a security expert that will help protect the target from his own subconscious defense mechanisms. The researcher is also responsible for staying behind in this stage in order to execute the wake-up sequence in conjunction with the first stage. Dom Cobb convinces/forces the target to enter into a third dreamworld, and using information gained from stage one and stage two, the target is led into revealing his subconscious secrets as a means of resolving the dangers Dom Cobb has led him to believe are imminent unless he produces the information they are after and gives it to Dom in order to protect (steal) it. It is in this third stage, the job is completed and synchronized wake up sequences are executed. The target and team members are returned to “reality” with the target none the wiser, but with Cobb having inside information.

Cobb’s weakness in regards to his guilty subconscious (manifested by his late wife), has become an increasing problem. While his best friend, Arthur, is completely aware of Cobb’s weakness, they both have been able to succeed in spite of this leak as we are led to believe she does not always interfere. To mitigate Cobb’s weakness, he is made unaware of each aspect of the job, except for his own part. However, with the movie’s big heist, the reward is a personal one for Cobb and this motivation brings his memories of his children, but also his wife to the forefront of his subconscious. So much so, it begins to interfere with the collective consciousness of each individual with whom he is connected to, whether it is his dream or not. Naturally, at the climax of the film, Cobb is forced to finally confront his subconscious (the memory of his wife) in order to save the job, and himself.

About the memories (here’s my attempt at explaining it)… we are told in the film that accessing dreams is one thing in that one is able to live in an environment created by ambient details retained by the brain. To access memories however, is not as simple as there is no control over what happens as memories are not lucid. The problem with memories is that due to their personal nature, depending on the subject matter, they grow like a virus within the subconscious if they are constantly accessed and “remembered” and not allowed by the psyche to naturally “let it go”. This phenomenon in the movie is summed up with one word: regret. In Cobb’s case, his violation of the rules by accessing his memories repeatedly has put the team in danger of his subconscious manifesting itself in the collective, as each member’s brain must process their own interpretation of the anchor’s dream as designed by the architect, an intrusion by a non-lucid element of the subconscious can prove to be an uncontrollable dangerous anomaly that not even the architect can control, as each person has the ability to design, only one person is allowed to do so. This presents a complexity to the dreamscape, and the idea of dream crimes. It also reminds me of a solution we saw in another movie Johnny Mnemonic in which his memory was erased with each upload/download of information. However, in the film Inception, a mind eraser is not a plausible solution that is available for Cobb, as to retain one’s capacity for thinking is detrimental to the heist’s success.

Overall, Inception presents a strong, yet incomplete knowledge of its plot element, dream crimes, but it also leaves room for open interpretation and the idea that as limitless the mind really is, the science in Inception is still severely limited and subjected to the experience level of the characters. It also plays with the idea that we are all connected to each other in the subconscious based on proximity. The target and the team had to be near each other in order, not only for the machine to reach, but also that the close proximity experienced when conscious would serve as that starting point in the subconscious to where they could easily rendezvous within the architect’s design. This is where the science fiction really makes the leap into fantasy. What is this machine? All we do know is that the machine uses a sedative, but how does the machine join the minds?

Inception‘s main plot involved the planting of an idea, and as far as this viewer is concerned, Inception‘s lack of explanation, but sturdy, plausible sci-fi foundation regarding an inception, has succeeded in doing so to the viewer by forcing us to ask questions, formulate ideas to answer these questions, but also to decide for ourselves what exactly happened to Dom Cobb at the movie’s end scene? Inception securely planted the idea that “this is not real” and now we suffer the same affliction Cobb’s wife… was the ending real or not? We weren’t allowed to be able to tell, and now we are in that mental limbo where we cannot distinguish where reality ended or began.

With that final thought, Inception is a brilliant, sufficiently paced action movie with enough explanation to not feel lost, but with not enough to truly have it figured out. For some this will be a disappointment and cause for frustration, but for others like me, the freedom to be affected by variables that violate what we do know, is a cerebral exercise in itself that forces you the viewer to share in the non-exacting nature of dream science and argue the inevitable questions that serve as either glaring plot holes, or that true to life variable that just screws everything up and forces improvisation. The mind is limitless, Inception, drives that point home.

Inception is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.