How to Remember Dreams

by:Sondra C, Jack Herrick, Anonymous, Brigitta M. (see all)


Theories abound as to why we dream, how we dream, and what meaning we can assign to our dreams. Many people believe that dreams can provide insights into our lives and feelings, but for most of us, it's notoriously difficult to remember our dreams. With conscious effort, however, you can remember more of your dreams and recall them in greater detail.

edit Steps1Make a conscious decision to remember your dreams. You’ve got a better chance of remembering your dreams if you really want to remember them. Assuming you do want to, tell yourself that you’re going to remember your dreams and conscientiously follow the steps to make your desire to remember your dreams come true.

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2Put a pad and pen or pencil within easy reach of your bed. It’s best if it just has plain paper with no designs or other distractions. Use this pad only for recording your dreams. Before you go to sleep, make sure it is open to the next page on which you can write so you don’t have to search for a blank page when you wake up. Always put the pen in the same spot so that you don't have to search for that, either. An alternative to writing your dreams is to keep a tape recorder near your bed or under your pillow so that you can verbally recount what happened in your dream.3Place your alarm clock close to your bed. When you wake up you want to be able to focus on remembering your dreams before you perform any other activities. If you can wake up without an alarm clock, you won’t have to worry about turning it off, but if you do need an alarm, make sure you can turn it off quickly and easily, preferably without even moving in bed. Don’t use a radio alarm clock, as the ads or chatter on the morning show will likely distract you from your task.


If possible, try using a gentler way of waking up. Wake up on your own, ask someone to wake you gently and without talking to you, or hook up a timer to the lights in your room. Many people find that they are able to better recall dreams if they don’t use an alarm clock.
4Place a post-it note on the alarm clock, with the words "What did you dream?" or similar in large letters, so that it's the first thing you see when you open your eyes (and turn the alarm clock off).5Get to bed early enough to get adequate sleep on a consistent basis. If you wake up too tired to think, you’ll find it hard to recall your dreams. Too little sleep will also limit the number of dreams you have. People who sleep less than six hours have a hard time remembering dreams. [2]6Think about a major problem or emotional concern right before you fall asleep (nothing that will spark too much of a negative feeling). Think deeply about the situation without pressing for solutions or coming to conclusions. Just thinking about the problem "opens the door", in a sense, to more vividly remembered dreams, and the dreams may even offer more insights regarding the problem at hand. [3]7Concentrate on recalling your dream as soon as you wake up. Typically you can remember only the last dream you had before waking. Don’t move and don’t do anything. Stay in the same position as the one in which you awoke and try to remember as much about your dream as possible before you think about anything else.


Focus your gaze on the first object you see as you open your eyes. Look at the object; focus on it. That object will most often take the vague recollection of your dream to a placemark in memory where it is easier to recall details. A doorknob, a light bulb, or a nail in the wall, for example, will quell your urge to begin your day, and will help you to settle into memories of what you had experienced while sleeping.
8Record your dream in your dream journal. Jot down as much as possible about your dream, starting with a basic sketch that includes such things as the location of the dream, the basic plot, the characters, the overall emotion of the dream (i.e. were you scared or happy in the dream?), and any prominent images you can recall. If you can remember any dialogue, you may want to write it down first, as words in dreams are easily forgotten. Record everything you can, even if you can only remember one image. As you get the basics down, more of the dream may come to you.


Dream about hugs and kissesIf you can’t remember anything about your dream, write down the first thing that comes into your mind upon waking. It may be related to the dream in some way, and it might trigger recollections. Also write down how you’re feeling when you wake up. The emotions you experience in a dream typically remain, at least for a brief period, when you awake, so if you wake up anxious or elated, ask yourself why.
9Increase the number of dreams you can remember by writing in your dream journal every time you wake up throughout the night. You dream several times while you're sleeping, so if you only record the last dream you had before you get up in the morning, there are more dreams you might not be remembering. It’s always tempting to go right back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night, but take the opportunity to remember what you were dreaming before you do—in all likelihood you will not remember it in the morning.


Since you usually only remember the last dream you had, you can remember more dreams by waking up several times during the night. We go through a complete sleep cycle approximately every 90 minutes, so you may find it productive to set your alarm to wake you at some multiple of 90 minutes (such as 4.5, 6, or 7.5 hours) after you expect to go to sleep. Dreams in the later half of the night are typically longer than those you dream soon after going to sleep, so you probably want to wait until at least the 4.5 hour mark to intentionally wake yourself.
This is only recommended for people who get adequate sleep and who can fall back asleep easily. Otherwise, skip this step.
10Keep a notepad or voice recorder with you throughout the day. Often something you see or hear later in the day will trigger a memory of a dream from the night before. Note these recollections without delay, and think about them to see if you can remember how they fit into the rest of the dream.

How to Have the Dreams You Want

by:Anonymous, Sondra C, Flickety, Darklink440 (see all)


Have you ever wanted to dream about a specific event? Person? Place? Being a different person? Well you've come to the right place. Read on. Don't worry despite the fact it may look so, it is not that long.

edit Steps1Get a blank piece of notebook paper, or if you have or want to use a small journal, that is fine. Write down what you want to dream about.


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2Be sure to be as specific and detailed as possible. What gender are you? What is your hair like? What clothes do you have on, and what colour are they? What are you doing? Who are you with? Where are you? What are you holding in your hand? These questions may, if not will help you be specific. Pay attention to the details.3Also, draw a picture of yourself on who you are, and what you look like.4If you would like, draw the people involved in the dream. Who are they? Are they your friends? Boyfriend? Girlfriend? Fiancé? Keep in mind that this step is optional, but DO draw yourself!5It is highly recommended that you draw where you are when you would first have the dream. If you're at someone's house, or at a spa, that's fine and also your business. But draw, if not write where you'll be. Either way, describe where you are.6Remember to label everything, even your drawings.7When finished, have it on your possession when going to bed tonight. Read it or look over all the pictures you have drawn. To maximize the chance of having this dream, read it or look at the gallery until you get sleepy or rub your belly and tap your head!.8Also, when thinking of your dream, do it it in the first person point of view (through your eyes) because you would be a fail if you did it the other way.9ALSO, think of JUST that as you will not dream, so you will have it in your head and won't dream of it tonight.

How to Lucid Dream

by Sondra C, Choicefresh, Jack Herrick (see all)


The most basic definition of lucid dreaming is "being aware you are dreaming while dreaming". Most lucid dreams are about things you want to happen. Although most people know they're lucid dreaming, you can change your dream to how you want it to be. Lucid dreams usually occur while a person is in the middle of a regular dream and suddenly realizes that she or he is asleep and must be dreaming. The person is then said to be "lucid", and may enter one of many levels of lucidity. At the lowest level, the dreamer may be dimly aware that he or she is dreaming, but not think rationally enough to realize that events/people/actions in the dream are not real/pose no threat. At the highest level, the dreamer is fully aware that she or he is asleep, and can have complete control over his or her actions in the dream. However, with low mental control your decisions could be biased not by your opinion, but by your brain. You can control your dreams using the lucid dreaming methods that follow.


edit Steps1During the day repeatedly ask 'Am I dreaming?' and perform some reality checks whenever you remember. With practice, if it happens enough, you will automatically remember it during your dreams and do it.
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2Keep a dream journal. This is perhaps the most important step towards lucid dreaming. Keep it close by your bed at night, and write in it immediately after waking. Or you can keep a recording device if you find it easier to repeat your dream out loud. This helps you recognize your common dream elements (people from your past, specific places, etc.), and also tells your brain that you are serious about remembering your dreams!3Learn the best time to have a lucid dream. By being aware of your personal sleep schedule, you can arrange your sleep pattern to help induce lucid dreams.


Studies strongly suggest that a nap a few hours after waking in the morning is the most common time to have a lucid dream.
Lucid dreams are strongly associated with REM sleep. REM sleep is more abundant just before the final awakening. This means they most commonly occur right before waking up. (Sleep-onset REM is a symptom of narcolepsy. If you have lucid dreams right after falling asleep, you may wish to consider seeking medical advice from a sleep medicine specialist. However, there are studies which show people can recall dreams after being awakened during non-REM sleep).
Dreams usually run in 60-minute (Weiten Psych book 2004) cycles during sleep. If you are working on dream recall, it may be helpful to try waking yourself up during one of these cycles (interrupted dreams are often the ones we remember).
4Try Stephen Laberge's mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming (MILD) technique.


Set your alarm clock to wake you up 4 1/2, 6, or 7 1/2 hours after falling asleep.
When you are awakened by your alarm clock, try to remember the dream as much as possible.
When you think you have remembered as much as you can, return to your place of rest, imagining that you are in your previous dream, and becoming aware that you are dreaming. Say to yourself, "I will be aware that I'm dreaming," or something similar. Do this until you think that it has "sunk in." Then go to sleep.
If random thoughts pop up when you are trying to fall asleep, repeat the imagining, self-suggestion part, and try again. Don't worry if you think it's taking a long time. The longer it takes, the more likely it will 'sink in,' and the more likely you will have a lucid dream.
5Attempt the WBTB (Wake Back To Bed) Technique. This is the most successful technique.
Fall asleep.
Set your alarm clock to 5 hours after you fall asleep.
After you wake up, stay up for an hour with your mind focused on lucidity and lucidity only.
Go back to sleep using the MILD technique.
6Try attempting the WILD (wake initiated lucid dream) technique. Basically what it means is that when you fall asleep you carry your awareness from when you were awake directly into REM sleep and you start out as a lucid dream.


The easiest way to attempt this technique is if you take an afternoon nap or you have only slept for 3-7 hours.
Try to meditate into a calm but focused state. You can try counting breaths, imaging ascending/descending stairs, dropping through the solar system, being in a quiet soundproof area, etc.
Listening to Theta binaural beats for an amount time will easily put you into a REM sleep.
See the warnings at the bottom, as these are very important.
7Another technique for overall "dream awareness" is the Diamond Method of meditation, which can shortcut the overall learning curve, of Lucid Dreaming.


When one meditates, try to visualize your life, both awake and dream-life as facets on a diamond. Some choose to call this "diamond" the Universe, others God, and even "your Spirit." The point here is to begin to recognize that life is happening all at once. It is only our "Perception" that arranges our dramas into linear or "timed" order. So just as a diamond just is, each facet if viewed as an individual experience, still is going on at the same time the "Dream Body" experiences as well. This method is also known by Remote Viewers. Remember it is just a slight shift in awareness that this exercise calls for.
8Immerse yourself in the subject of lucid dreaming. For example, you can look on lucid dreaming websites, watch movies with lucid dreaming (eg. Waking Life, Vanilla sky, Inception), read books about it, etc...9Try marking an "A" (which stands for "awake") on your palm. Every time you notice the "A" during your waking hours challenge whether you are awake or asleep. Eventually you may see the "A" in your sleep and become lucid.10 What time is it?Get into the habit of doing reality checks. Do at least three reality checks every time something seems out of the ordinary, strongly frustrating, or nonsensical, and that habit will carry on into your dreams. In a dream, these will tell you that you are sleeping, allowing you to become lucid. In order to remember to do reality checks in dreams, you need to establish a habit of doing reality checks in real life. One way to do a reality check is to look for "dream signs" (elements that frequently occur during your dreams, look for these in your dream journal), or things that would not normally exist in real life, and then conduct the reality checks. When these actions become habit, a person will begin to do them in her or his dreams, and can come to the conclusion that he/she is dreaming. Frequently doing reality checks can stabilize dreams. This is also known as DILD (Dream Induced Lucid Dreams). Some tactics include:
Looking at a digital clock to see if it stays constant;
Looking at a body of text, looking away, and then looking back to see if it has changed;
Flipping a light switch;
Looking in a mirror (your image will most often appear blurry or not appear at all in a dream). However, your figure can be horribly disfigured in a mirror, frightening you into nightmare or a dream.
Pinching your nose closed and trying to breathe;
Glancing at your hands, and asking yourself, "am I dreaming?" (when dreaming, you will most often see greater or fewer than five fingers on your hand);
jumping in the air; you are usually able to fly during dreams
Poking yourself; when dreaming, your "flesh" might be more elastic than in real life; a common reality check is pushing your finger through the palm of your hand;
Pinch/poke your arm. In a dream, you shouldn't be able to feel your pinch/bite. However, this may not work since in a dream, actions can still have affects on your body.
Try leaning against a wall. In dreams, you will often fall through walls.
11Prolong lucid dreams by spinning your body in the dream (suspected of prolonging REM), and rubbing your hands (prevents you from feeling the sensation of lying in bed). Take care while spinning. Remind yourself even as you spin that you are dreaming, as you will find yourself in a completely different location when you stop spinning and may lose lucidity otherwise. If you feel a dream 'shakes' or is about to fade out, look down to the ground and visualize your surroundings, reminding yourself you are dreaming.12Be Pro-active about your dream. Have a goal in mind and try to accomplish it.13Listen to Binaural Beats. Binaural Beats are often used to induce lucid dreams, and many assure this method dramatically improves success rate. Theoretically, listening to Binaural Beats lowers brain frequencies, triggering different effects such as relaxation and dream induction. Look for Theta binaural beats, as they use the same brainwave frequency used in dreams. You may also want to listen to Alpha and Delta binaural beats as they help you relax and fall into non-REM sleep.14"'Look through previous dreams in your Dream Journal"'. if you start to notice paterns in your dreams, you will notice dream-signs, or certain things that continue to reapear in your dreams. this may be as basic as all dreams are in your backyard, or all your dreams have fans in them. get into the habit of doing dream checks every time you see your dream sign, and eventually you'll see your dream sign IN a dream, do a check and realize you're dreaming.
edit Modified Look at Hand MethodA Modified Version of Castaneda's "Looking At Your Hands".

1As you prepare for sleep each night, sit in your bed and take a minute to relax. Softly look at the palms of your hands and repeat to yourself, "Tonight while I dream, I will see my hands and realize I'm dreaming."2Continue to repeat this affirmation, "Tonight while I dream, I will see my hands and realize I'm dreaming," as you look at your hands.3After five minutes, or once you feel too tired or sleepy, turn off the light and go to sleep.4When you wake during the night, gently recall your last dream. If you did not see your hands, remind yourself of your intent to see your hands in the next dream.5With consistent practice of this affirmation each night before sleep, you will suddenly see your hands pop up in front of you when dreaming, and consciously realize, "My hands!" This is a dream.

Inception Hierarchy - Mac OS

Inception Movie Plot Explained Through Mac OS X's Folder Hierarchy: "

Here's a piece of silliness that should definitely put a smile on your face, though we warn you that there are spoilers ahead.

If you've seen Inception, you know the ridiculousness that is idea of a meta dream world. But if you can't seem to wrap that concept around your head, then perhaps this explanation will lay it out for you in laymen's terms. Jonah Ray, host of the Web Soup, posted a nifty graphic in his Tumblr explaining the many levels of Inception's dream hierarchy using Mac OS X folders. It's a pretty clever way to unravel the mystery behind the movie. Check it out for yourself.





Follow this article's author, Florence Ion, on Twitter.

"

'Inception' Infographic!

Check Out This Rather Awesome 'Inception' Infographic!: "WARNING: Do not look at the artwork below for more than a split-second if you're still trying to remain spoiler-free on Christopher Nolan's Inception. Everyone else, have a ball. (I want this as a big wall poster.) It's like M.C. Escher was a movie nerd!

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Continue reading Check Out This Rather Awesome 'Inception' Infographic!

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Leonardo gets $50 million

What a clever young man. According to Forbes, Leonardo DiCaprio looks set to make around $50 million for his role in Christopher Nolan's Inception - which is two and a half times his usual fee - purely because he decided to take an initial pay cut in order to receive 'first dollar gross points'.

For the industry unsavvy, that means DiCaprio will start to receive a percentage of the ticket sales after the movie has recouped its initial production costs - only the biggest movie stars can negotiate these kind of deals and it's helped DiCaprio's career greatly as it shows he's a credible star who can sell a film.

The 35-year-old actor will also help himself to a slice of the DVD revenues, although his percentage would possibly be less as studios hold on tightly to the home box office takings.

Costing $160 million to make, Inception has currently taken $620 million around the world, a figure which is expected to reach over $750 million before the theatrical run ends. Not bad for a film that has been hailed as a 'wildly ingenious chess game' and praised for making audiences actually think (a rare commodity in cinema these days, I'm sure you'll agree).

Although Inception is the second-highest grossing science fiction film ever (after Avatar, obviously), it still has a struggle to beat Nolan's previous film, The Dark knight. That particular superhero caper has taken over a whopping $1 billion since its release in 2008.

Watch it twice - Dicapiro

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Advice For A Second Viewing Of The Film
Published on July 23, 2010 by admin · 3 Comments
By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

How many times have you seen “Inception”? We hope your answer is, at the very least, “Twice! And it rocked both times!”

Christopher Nolan’s dream-bending thriller is simply a film that demands multiple viewings, not because it’s incomprehensible the first time around — it’s actually and remarkably coherent in exposition and storyline. Rather, a second trip to the theater will allow you to stop gawking at all the wondrous imagery — from a Parisian cityscape that folds in on itself to a zero-gravity fight scene unlike anything you’ve ever seen — and concentrate on the subtle intricacies of story and character.

“Obviously, this is a huge concept,” star Leonardo DiCaprio told MTV News. “But what [Nolan] does do, which is so clever, is he makes you, as an audience, engage in characters that are attempting something for the first time. So you understand the rules and the planning and all the pitfalls that may come with this idea of implanting an idea in someone’s mind.”

And once you know the rules and hit the multiplex again, you can suddenly notice various elements that passed you by the first time. If you follow DiCaprio’s advice, you’ll pay attention to each character’s arc during a second viewing.

“The sheer nature and the scope of the film and a lot of the action presents itself as something extremely surreal and infinite in possibility. But when you start to hone in on the character’s journey, it is four different states of going deep into one’s past,” he said.

Leo’s character, for example, is a dream thief named Dom Cobb, a guy who’s haunted by the menacing presence of his wife in the dreams he shares with the other members of his fantastical team of bandits. As Cobb’s crew sets about their main task — a job that requires them to create those four dream states — several of the characters confront issues that had been plaguing them for years.

“My character and a lot of the characters in this movie have a cathartic journey of while we’re going deeper into the dream state, we’re going closer and closer and closer to who we are. Certainly my character comes to terms with his own nightmares. That was what immediately intrigued me to the movie that I think [Nolan] pulled off incredibly well,” DiCaprio explained.

see the video at MTV

Dissecting 'Inception': Six Interpretations and Five Plot Holes

Dissecting 'Inception': Six Interpretations and Five Plot Holes
by Peter Hall Jul 19th 2010 // 10:02PM
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Fandom


If a film's quality is measured solely by its ability to generate audience member discussions about it after the credits roll, then Inception is without a doubt the most successful film of not only the summer but the entire year thus far. Regardless if you think Christopher Nolan's high-concept heist film is a masterpiece, a complete clustercuss or some shade of grey between the two, there's just no walking out of the theater without a desire to discuss it further. A host of adjectives have been thrown Inception's way recently, but forgettable just is not one of them.

So let's take a look at the various discussions surrounding the film. We'll start with a run down of interpretations as to what really happened, followed by an examination of any plot holes that may have gone unexplained by the various interpretations. It should go without saying, but everything below the jump is going to be positively riddled with Inception spoilers.





Interpretation 1: All of Inception is a dream.
(Note: This is the Inception theory to which I subscribe.)

We are never once shown reality. Every frame of Inception is a dream. Whose dream? My money is on Cobb, though it is conceivable that Cobb is simply the subject and that he is in someone else's dream (see Interpretation 3 and 4 below).

There are a number of key elements throughout the film - lines of dialog shared amongst the characters (Mal and Saito both tell Cobb to take a "leap of faith", Cobb predicts what Saito will say in limbo), acceptance of improbable events during segments of "reality" (Saito saving Cobb in Mombasa) - that support the notion that everything is a dream, but for me it all comes down to a simple question: What is our totem? We learn very early on that the one unimpeachable way to know whether or not you're in a dream world or the real world is to test your totem; an item whose behavior only a single individual can identify and predict. In the case of Cobb, it's his wife's spinning top. Arthur's is a single loaded dice. Ariadne's is a precisely weighted chess piece. But what is the audience's totem?

What event in Inception is the audience aware of that no one else can know? There isn't one. There's no point in which reality is clearly and unimpeachably established. The film opens in a dream sequence (Saito's limbo) before transitioning to another dream sequence (Saito's dinner party), which then slides into another dream (Saito's secret apartment). The characters supposedly awaken from that last dream sequence aboard a Japanese train, this presumably being our first glance at reality, but one must ask how the characters arrived from the apartment to the train. There's no visual transition; no shot of "tunneling" from one reality to another. One second we're one place, a second later we're somewhere else, but can you remember how we got there? No, because we're never shown it; we're never shown the awakening process that bridges the two. And not being able to identify specifically how you got from point A to point B is clearly established within the film as a sign that you are in a dream.

That transition, if it existed, would be the audience's totem; it would be the one thing we can cling to, whose behavior we can understand intimately and always predict. By not giving the audience a totem of their own, Nolan has flat out made it impossible to ever anchor any portion of the film as being real versus being a dream.

Now, that's not to say that the movie is ruined if everything is a dream. It doesn't negate the emotional breakthrough that Cobb goes through, which is ultimately what the film is about. In fact, everything being a dream is the ace up Inception'ssleeve: if it's all a fantasy, then there can be no plot holes; the lack of deep characterizations for anyone other than Cobb can be chalked up to the fact that they are all his projections and thus do not require rich histories or distinguishable character arcs. It's basically a catch-all safety net for any complaints registered against Inception's narrative.



Interpretation 2: Everything after Cobb's sedation test is a dream.

If you do not require an "audience totem" to prove that the Japanese train sequence is our first glimpse of reality, then the first moment in the film that begins to shred the line between the dream world and the real world is Cobb's test of Yusuf's custom-made sedation chemicals. After hearing tale of how potent of a mix it is, Cobb goes under to see for himself. After "waking up" we see Cobb in the bathroom, splashing his face with cold water and then spinning his totem. However, he's interrupted before he/us can see whether or not the top falls over.

He then sees Mal through curtains reflected in the mirror. It's presumed that this is one of the early signs that Cobb is losing his grip on what's real and what isn't, but if you combine his impossible vision with the lack of confirmation that the totem behaved as it should and it is conceivable that everything that follows his sedation test is a dream.

If that's the case though, what's the benefit of such a "twist" from Nolan's standpoint? It has no real bearing on the overall story and is thus a less-logical intent than if Nolan had scripted that the entirety of the film is a dream.



Interpretation 3: Saito is the architect, pulls a Mr. Charles on Cobb.

Much has been discussed of deciphering what actually happened in Inception by identifying the layers of reality, but little has been said toward identifying character motivation. Ultimately there are only two characters who have objective-based motivations, Cobb and Saito. Everyone else is either in it for the money or the experience. From this viewpoint alone, everything is either based on Cobb's reality or on Saito's.

Cobb is under the impression that Saito hires him and his team to plant an idea into the mind of a rival corporation, and in turn Saito will arrange for his legal troubles to be cleared away and that he'll once again be able to live happily with his children. We are then under the assumption that the inception being performed is on Cobb's target, Fischer. However, it's not entirely illogical that everything that happens in the film is actually Saito's doing.

It makes some sense if you look at the first three dreams (Saito's limbo, dinner party and apartment) as being orchestrated not by Cobb, but by Saito. He's aware that the Cobol corporation has hired Cobb to steal the information regarding a new plant's opening, so half-way through their attempt to do so, Saito actually pulls a variant of Mr. Charles on Cobb by telling them that he knew about their plans all along, that he knows he is dreaming, and that it was all really just an audition for them to work for him instead. Informing them that they failed the audition plants the initial seed of inception in Cobb's mind; that there is a surefire way he can get home to his children. It is that belief that comes to define Cobb for the rest of the film.

Remember, Cobb believes that inception can work if the idea is born out of a desire for reconciliation. In his case, it's his desire to reconcile with his children that motivates him to accept Saito's challenge of planting the company-dissolving idea in Fischer's subconscious. We can assume that Saito really does want to break up this potential energy superpower, but, other than honor, what reason does he have to make Cobb a free man again? Instead of paying to have Cobb's record completely erased from government records, wouldn't it be cheaper to just create a course of action that leaves Cobb in limbo until his brain scrambles?

It's a stretch, no doubt, and I don't personally think that's what Nolan intended, but there is select evidence causing people to believe this is the case. The most crucial support for this theory being Cobb's trip to Mombasa, which is when A) Saito improbably saves the day by pulling up in a car right when Cobb needs him the most (this last-minute save being a real world continuation of the Saito-Mr. Charles gambit) and B) where Saito interrupts Cobb's post-sedation bathroom trip, where his appearance coincides with Cobb's hallucination/aborted confirmation that he has returned to reality, thus planting the seeds that will eventually lead to Cobb's decision to stay in limbo.



Interpretation 4: Ariadne is the architect/Cobb's therapist.

Hal Phillips' theory that Ariadne is Cobb's therapist and that the real objective of the film isn't to give Fischer an emotional breakthrough, it's to subvert Cobb's deep, deep layers of guilt over causing Mal's death, is even flimsier than Saito as the architect, but it is an intriguing one. I'd recommend reading the full theory right here, but I've extracted the two key paragraphs below to explain generally what is at play:
Ariadne presents her dream-self to Cobb as someone who will become his confidant. Because she is a neophyte, he can trust her. Because she relies on his guidance, he is not threatened by her. Because she is a prodigy, she can swiftly "learn" everything she needs to know without contradicting the above. And she is recommended to Cobb by Cobb's mentor and father figure; we are told later that someone's relationship with their father informs the path to their subconscious.

...

On level 5, Mal shoots Fischer. The film portrays this as a huge problem that can potentially strand everybody in limbo. Not true! It was all part of the plan. Cobb had to believe that his irrational refusal to accept his wife's death had led to disaster, making his problem as urgent as possible. This is achieved when his refusal to shoot Mal, even though he knows she's not real, leads to her shooting Fischer and endangering everybody. The stakes are finally high enough so that Cobb has both a reason to go one level deeper and a reason to sort his problems out, once and for all. (At the very start of level 5, Cobb wonders what's there for Fischer, and Ariadne says "what's there for you?")
It's an interesting proposal, that's for sure, but I don't think there's any evidence that this is Nolan's intention; that Ariadne is monitoring Cobb's dreams (everything before she arrives) and then selectively inserts herself at all the key moments to usher him toward the idea that he is capable of letting go of Mal. Also, Cobb being inmate #528491 in an insane asylum is just too much of a stretch (though it is pretty funny).



Interpretation 5: We do see reality during the film, but Cobb is still in a dream at the end of the film.

I suspect this is one of the most common interpretations of Inception: That the moments that are most likely reality are, in fact, reality (the train ride, Cobb's time in Paris/Mombasa, the plane ride), but at the end of the film Cobb's totem keeps spinning forever, meaning that after he freed himself of Mal's guilt he was finally able to live happily in a dream state where he could be with his family once again.

The biggest piece of evidence supporting this theory is that Cobb's children do not have appeared to have aged a single day since he last saw them. They may even be wearing the exact same clothes, though I'd have to see the film again to confirm this myself (can anyone recall?). We're never told how long Cobb is on the run, but presumably it's for a long-enough period of time that he has exhausted all possible ways of re-entering the country or convincing his children's grandmother-turned-guardian to bring them out of the United States. At their young age, even a year or two of Cobb's absence should bring noticeable growth when he finally sees them "up there", but the change just isn't apparent enough.





Interpretation 6: We do see reality during the film and Cobb is in reality at the end of the film.

If we ignore never being shown how we transition from dream to reality and back again (the audience's totem), then we can accept that the implied moments of reality are indeed reality. What evidence do we have, then, to suggest that the top falls over moments after Nolan cuts to black? Ultimately very little, unfortunately.

The only evidence we're really given is the slight wobble the top develops right before the cut. But until a physicist whose expertise is calculating torque and rotational momentum examines the footage shown and calculates whether it's about to topple over, that's not solid-enough evidence. We can ignore the curious lack of aging in his children, though, simply because Nolan never establishes a time frame between Cobb's departure and return. It's not likely, but it's also not impossible that it's been only a matter of months.

So, really, we have to take this particular interpretation all on a leap of faith...


As for Inception plot holes...

I don't think there are any. But that's because I think everything is a dream and thus any inconsistencies can be chalked up to everything being an imperfect impersonation of reality. However, if you don't subscribe to that theory, there are a few nagging questions I've seen being tossed around as plot holes.



If the dreamer's body's sense of gravity changes and it alters the gravity in their dream, why then does the van's free fall only alter Arthur's gravity in the hotel? Shouldn't the rest of the team suddenly become weightless in the snow covered mountainside (and below)?

You'd think this would be a plot hole, a rather large stretch of the film where Nolan breaks his own established set of rules. However, I don't think he's broken any rule. Yusuf explains that his sedative is capable of keeping the mind's perception of its inner-ear function active, but something Cobb says implies that this may only be true of the first level of dreaming (the one with the falling van). Cobb states that Saito will feel less pain the farther he descends into the dream world. Presumably perception of physical sensation is harder to accomplish realistically within dreams within a dream, so by the time they are three levels down, the imagined weightlessness of level one has no measurable effect on them.

Why is Saito such an old man in limbo, whereas Cobb is still young?

Cobb obviously enters limbo after Saito, thus giving the latter more time to age. Without Nolan establishing an exact span of time between when each enters, it's impossible to say whether Saito is "too old", but a drastic difference is consistent with the events of the film.

How did Mal and Cobb end up in limbo the first time?

A simple question, really. Entering limbo is clearly not the normal threat when in a dream (or even a dream within a dream), but it is a threat to Cobb and his team during their Fischer Inception because they're 'too far under'. One can simply assume that Cobb and Mal took a sedative and entered a shared dream from their living room (kind of like the next evolution of smoking a joint and laying down to listen to music) wherein they, for unknown reasons, died together, thus entering limbo.



How does one wake up from limbo?

We know you enter limbo by dying while in a sedated dream, but it seems like it's really not that big of a deal to actually get out of limbo; you just have to die again. If it's that simple, why is limbo such a threat? How can it ever cause someone's brain to scramble?

The movie doesn't fully explain this point. We just have to assume that one's grip on reality (their awareness that they're in a dream) has to survive long enough for the sedative to wear off. At that point, death will have the same "awakening" effect that it has in a normal dream. However, one may lose their grip while waiting for the sedative to happen, which is the real threat.

What happens if you die in limbo before the sedative wear's off? I have no idea...

If portions of the film are real and Saito is really a key player in the same energy industry as Fischer, shouldn't Fischer have recognized Saito?

It's rather unbelievable that two people could become titans of the same industry and not know who one another are, so conceivably Fischer should have recognized Saito first aboard the plane, and secondly in the hotel within dream level 2 (the appearance of a corporate rival would presumably have shattered the illusion of the Mr. Charles gambit). I suppose the only plausible explanation is that Fischer was so uninvolved in his father's company that he wouldn't know what his competition looks like.

Though, for someone who is rich enough to brag on multiple occasions about how expensive his wallet is, you can assume that Fischer lives in an upper echelon of life inhabited by equally extravagant individuals and thus would be aware of a man like Saito, who is powerful enough and rich enough to buy the airline he always flies. For me, this is just further evidence that everything is Cobb's dream, otherwise this is actually a plot hole.


That's all I've come up with as far as possible Inception interpretations and plot holes go. If you know of any others, please share them below and down the line we can update this post as more concerns roll in. And if I got any details wrong - and I'm sure I did - please correct me below.

Inception Explained

Inception Explained: Unraveling The Dream Within The Dream

By Josh, Perri, Eric, Katey, and You: 2010-07-16 12:46:06


Inception crashed into theaters last night at midnight and if you haven’t seen it, we hope you will soon. When you do, it’s sure to be the only thing you’ll want to talk about for at least the next week. Internally here at Cinema Blend it’s pretty much the only thing we’ve been able to think about and walking out of the movie left us and pretty much everyone whose seen it with a lot of questions. Inception is the kind of movie that gets you thinking and the film’s complex plot is the sort of thing that almost demands unraveling.

To help make sense of some of the movie’s more twisty details the entire Cinema Blend team got together and tried to ask some of the more common questions people are asking about the film. It’s our attempt to explain Inception and make sense of Christopher Nolan’s fantastically detailed dream world.

But we don’t have all the answers. It’s our hope that you’ll help us make sense of things by contributing your own theories and questions to our detailed list below. Tell us where we were wrong, help us fill in the gaps, pose new questions we haven’t thought of yet, in the comments section below. This list of questions and answers will be updated with your contributions and new contributions from us as we work in second and third viewings of the film over the weekend, so keep checking back to see the latest updates.

Ready? Enter the dream and try to understand it.

SPOILER WARNING: What follows should only be viewed by people who have already seen Inception. It contains heavy, critical spoilers which will impact your viewing of the film. If you haven’t seen Inception yet, stop reading and don’t come back until you do.



How did Mal get involved in all the dream invasion stuff to begin with?
A: It’s seems pretty clear from the context of the movie that Mal and Cobb were married and engaged in legitimate dream exploration together before Mal’s death. After her death, Cobb was forced to use his knowledge of dreams to become a thief.

How do the never-ending staircases work, and how was Arthur able to use one without Ariadne, as the architect, there to alter the architecture?
A: The never-ending staircases are paradoxes (logical fallacies that can’t exist in reality). Though Ariadne designed the levels and probably designed the staircase, in the level where Arthur uses it he's the dreamer. Similar shortcuts were worked in, in advance, to the snow dream by Eams. Ariadne tells Cobb about them when they need a faster route to the fortress.

What causes the loss of gravity in the hotel dream world?
A: As it is in real life, the dreamer's dream can be affected by things happening outside the dream. If it gets cold while you’re sleeping, sometimes people dream of ice or snow. If a person falls out of bed, sometimes they’ll dream of skydiving or falling in their dream. So when the van in the dream level above the hotel falls off the bridge, the motion of those inside the van is thrown off, and that feeling of falling carries over into the dream, making it as though there’s no gravity in the hotel level below the van. This effect does not, however, seem to extend any further than one level in a dream within a dream within a dream.

Arthur blows up an elevator to create a Kick in anti-gravity. How does that work?
A: Since there is no gravity, Arthur disconnects the elevator from the cables and then uses an explosion to propel it, as it would be propelled if there were gravity. When it hits the bottom they're shaken around, creating a Kick. Arthur uses the elevator because he needs a way to insure that the Kick occurs quickly and to everyone at once so he doesn't have to do them one at a time, in much the same way the falling van drops them together.

After he’s shot and killed, they resuscitate Fisher Jr. Why couldn’t they save Saito in the same way?
A: This one had us stumped but Max Miller offers this explanation in the comments below: "Saito is shot on the first level of the dream, but doesn't die until the third. If they resuscitated him on the third level, it would only bring him back to the second where he was still dying, and if he survived that, then it would only bring him back to the first where he was dying the fastest anyway. Meanwhile, since Fischer was shot on the third level and sent to Limbo, his "bodies" on the other two levels were totally fine. The kick from the defibrillator timed correctly with the falling sensation he experienced after Ariadne pushed him off the building was enough to bring him back to normal level 3 so he could complete the mission. If she had just shot him again down in Limbo, he probably would have woken up for real and the mission would have failed."

Aren’t you supposed to be alone in limbo? Why are Cobb’s projections of his wife and kids there?
A: Our understanding is that limbo only contains things you’ve built in it, which could explain why Cobb’s limbo has so few projections. The projection of his wife is something he tells Mal at the end that he’s tried to recreate over time, so it could be that she’s more than a projection and is actually an intentional creation of his. Similarly, Saito could have created the guards which populate his limbo.

If the world with crumbling buildings is Cobb’s limbo, what is the place he ends up in with Saito?
A: Two different theories possible, let’s break them down one at a time:

Theory 1 The simplest answer here would be that this world isn’t actually limbo but a deeper level which perhaps Cobb has mistaken for limbo or misrepresented as limbo. You have to die to go to limbo and neither Cobb nor Ariadne dies in the ice fortress, they merely go to sleep again and enter Cobb's dream, which only resembles the world he and Mal built in limbo because Cobb has created it. (Their kids weren't with them in their original limbo, so if this were limbo again, why would they magically be there with them to live happily ever after?) Also, Cobb could have deliberately been planning how the whole level worked out - he used it to detach himself from Mal, create a projection of Fischer to compel Ariadne to get out and not go into limbo and stayed as the whole thing crumbled to get to the real limbo to help Saito. And maybe that's the reason Fischer can be revived. He wasn't really shot dead.

Theory 2 But since Ariadne tried to kill herself to escape it, and we know that killing yourself in any level but limbo will only send you to limbo, it seems as though Ariadne must have believed she was in limbo. If the crumbling city level really is a form of limbo, could that mean both Cobb and Saito in limbo, but in different limbos? If dreams are the machinations of the subconscious, and limbo is the subconscious that Cobb has built, the locations are one in the same. It’s the same reason why Cobb can no longer work as an architect. Perhaps Cobb and Saito’s final locations are the same place. If so, how does Cobb find Saito’s fortress? How does he end up on that beach? We’re full of questions on this one, but given the context of the movie this theory seems like the most likely of the two.

Why is Saito so much older than Cobb in the final dream level?
A: It's likely that Cobb and Saito are in limbo for the same amount of time, however Cobb knows he's in limbo, so perhaps this keeps him from aging visibly. Saito on the other hand seems to have forgotten where he is, and so the passage of time (which could have been decades since time runs faster the deeper you go) has more of an affect on him. Similarly, the first time Cobb and Mal end up in limbo they aged because they've forgotten where they really are and accepted it as their reality.

Does Cobb’s totem keep spinning at the end or is it about to fall off the table?
A: The fact that the film cuts away before we know for certain suggests that they want us to keep guessing. But we think it kept spinning. Here’s our reasoning: Note that at the end of the film Cobb’s kids haven’t aged. They match exactly his memory of them. A memory which must almost surely by now be out of date, since he’s been away from them for many months. Though he finally sees their faces, otherwise they look exactly as he envisioned them. They're even wearing the same clothes. In reality, his kids would now be older and different than his memories of them. This could suggest that Cobb is still in the dream and the top does indeed keep spinning after the credits roll.

Alternate Theory Aaron points this out in our comments section: "In the opening moments you get a glimpse of Leo's hand. Specifically, he's wearing his wedding ring. Now, if you follow the rest of the movie keeping an eye out for this you will notice that he only has the ring on when he's in the dream world. At the end of the movie he isn't wearing the ring." If the ring only appears when he's in a dream and he's not wearing at the end of the film, that could be confirmation that in fact, the top does stop spinning after the credits and Cobb is at last in the real world.

New Information Even though Cobb's kids appear to be wearing the same clothes at the end of the film, according to Inception's costume designer here they are indeed wearing different clothes.

If the top really does keep spinning at the end and Cobb’s reality really is a dream, then why didn’t it keep spinning when he tried it earlier in the film?
A: Assuming for a moment that Cobb is still in the dream when the movie ends, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was in a dream for the entire film. The Cobb we see at the end could in fact be a man still trapped in limbo. This seems unlikely though since the film seems to indicate that Saito and Cobb killed themselves to escape it, right before waking up on the plane. See alternate theory.

Alternate Theory Ivan in the comments below suggests that it's still possible that the entire movie could be a dream because the totem may only work to ensure you're not in someone else's dream. "Think about it, YOU know your totem's trick exactly so if you were in your own host dream then you could replicate it perfectly. It is only when you are in someone else's dream that your totem does not behave in it's trick form since that host cannot architect it so. This is why nobody knows the trick functionality of anyone else's totem!"

How do Cobb and Saito survive limbo for such an extended period of time? Isn’t your mind supposed to burn out in there?
A: The film never actually says your mind will burn out there, merely suggest that you'll become lost there and be unable to find your way out. The real obstacle to getting out of limbo seems to be realizing that you're in limbo. At the end of the film, it takes an appearance by Cobb to remind Saito that the world he's in isn't real, and once he realizes Saito reaches for a gun and, presumably, shoots himself in order to escape. It could be that your brain only actually is damaged out if you stay in Limbo for the full term, or if you stay there after the machine connection powering the dream is disconnected.

If the dream they enter at the end of the film belongs to Fisher Jr., then why does Cobb enter the limbo he built with his wife? Shouldn’t it be Fisher Jr.’s limbo?
A: The snow fort dream is not Fisher's. That dream belongs to Eams. Each level is dreamt by a different member of Cobb's team, and then Fisher's subconcious is brought in to fill it. The first level is dreamed by Yusuf, who then stays behind to drive the van and initiate a kick to bring them back. The second level is dreamt by Arthur, who then stays behind to put them in the elevator and initiate another kick. The third level is dreamed by Eams, who again stays behind to plant explosives on the building, which drops them and initiates another Kick. The final level is Limbo. Limbo is a shared environment not limited to a single subconscious. Limbo contains nothing, excep the remnants of whatever might have been built by someone who has been there before. Cobb has been there before, so limbo contains the buildings he and his wife built over the 50 years they spent there.

If Mal and Cobb grew old together in Limbo, and we see them as an elderly couple, why are they young when at the end of the time in limbo they kill themselves on the railroad tracks?
A: The most likely explanation for this is that Cobb's memory of their youth was merely a fantasy of his, and in truth they aged together as we saw. This is supported by the film. The first time we see Cobb envisioning them killed by the train, they're young. A close up shot of their hands clasped reveals their hands to be young as well. Later when Cobb tells the real story of how they escaped limbo, we see their hands clasped on the railroad tracks and they're older and wrinkled, just as Cobb and Mal are when we see them walking through the city while Cobb talks about them growing old together. It seems likely this is the true version of the story and the version in which they're younger is part of the delusion Cobb constructed which was visited by Ariadne.

How did Cobb and Mal end up in Limbo in the first place?
A: The movie suggests it was an accident, caused by Cobb's desire to keep going deeper and deeper into the dream until he went too deep. Several different ways this could have been accomplished, perhaps they used the same type of sedation as Yusuf used and then intentionally killed themselves just to see what would happen.

Why did Cobb perform Inception on Mal?
A: Cobb and Mal were trapped in Limbo for 50 years, unaware that their world wasn't real. Cobb eventually discovered the truth, but Mal refused to accept it. In order to get Mal to kill herself and return to the real world, Cobb performed Inception on her, planting the idea that the world wasn't real in her mind. This worked, they killed themselves and escaped Limbo. Unfortunatley, the idea remained in Mal's mind and once they returned, she was unable to accept that the real world wasn't a dream.

Who were the dreamers for the different levels?
A: Level one, with the van, was dreamed by Yusuf (Dileep Rao). Level 2 in the hotel was dreamed by Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Level 3 with the snow fort was dreamed by Eams (Tom Hardy). The final level was Limbo and dreamed by no one, since it's a place of shared consciousness.

How does the Architect have control over someone else's dream?
A: The Architect designs the dream levels in the real world, and then teaches the level design to the dreamer.

How does the Forger work?
A: Eams is the Forger. This name has two meanings. In the real world he can forge identities using his contacts and his ability to fake documents. In the dream world, he can alter his appearance and take on the personality of someone else he's studied, probably using much the same methods used to construct buildings.

Was Ariadne somehow aware of the numbers Fischer would come up with or did she change the hotel's floor plan so that 491 would be below 528?
A: It seems impossible that they could have known in advance, they must have left a blank place in their design to be filled in with the numbers as they learned them. If anyone has any other theories on this, sound off in the comments!

Why did dying wake dreamers up early in the movie, but later in the movie it sent them to Limbo?
A: The film explains this as being due to the types of sedatives used on the dreamers during the final sequence. When normal sedatives are used, death wakes you up. But in order to go three dream levels deep, heavier sedatives must be used, causing this unwanted side-effect.

Why didn't Arthur wake up when the van drove off the bridge?
A: When the van drives off the bridge, Cobb says they missed the first Kick. This is understandable since Cobb, Eams, Ariadne, and Fisher Jr. are two levels below it and can only be awakened by a kick in the level above them, where Arthur is. But Arthur is in the level directly below the vans, and the rules of the movie do seem to suggest that he should have awakened by that Kick. Perhaps experienced dreamers have some control over whether a Kick wakes them up? We're a little baffled by this one, let us know if you have a better theory.

Alternate Theory CB reader Jordan offers this possible explanation: Ealier in the movie Arthur tells Ariadne that if Yusuf kicks too early then they won't wake up. While normally in order to wake up you must recieve a Kick in the level above, this isn't true when using the special sedative. Instead with the sedative it takes two synchronized Kicks. In order to be Kicked when under the sedative you had to be kicked in both levels simultaneously. Arthur didn't have the second Kick ready when the van drove off the bridge, so he wasn't awakened by the van falling off the bridge.

Why did Ariadne jump off the building in Cobb's limbo if Eames was going to wake her up with his Kick in the level above?
A: Ariadne may not have been certain Eames' Kick would work, so she was attempting to kill herself by jumping off the building. Even though we'd been told killing yourself inside the dream would only push you into limbo, Cobb has just told her that once he got to limbo with Mal they escaped by killing themselves so Ariadne knows that death is a way to escape, even though in this case it wasn't necessary.

Alternate Theory Because of the sedative it may require two, synchronized Kicks in two levels to wake someone, instead of the single Kick normally used.

When Arthur plans his Kick, why is it important for everyone to wake up at the same time?
A: We're not entirely sure it is. It's more important that he wake them up quickly when it comes time for the Kick, to time it to occur at the same time as the Kick in the level above. By putting them in the elevator he can give them a Kick all at once, and synchronize it with the other Kicks.

What did Cobb putting a spinning top inside the safe mean?
A: The safe is a creation of the subconscious that Cobb exploits, in this case Mal. The safes are constructed so that the dreamer believes that it is a safe place for them to store their secrets. The top is Mal's totem, which she uses to determine whether she's in a dream. If it never stops spinning, that tells Mal that she's in a dream. By placing a constantly spinning totem in the safe, Cobb is placing an idea (and a very simple one) inside her subconscious. It's not that she saw the totem spinning, but that it was always spinning in her subconcious mind. This is why she thought she was trapped in the dream world.

Why did Cobb need to use Inception on Mal to convince her to kill herself? Couldn't he have simply snuck up on her and shot her?
A: Concievably. But perhaps Cobb, madly in love with Mal, simply couldn't bring himself to do it. Remember, he was barely able to shoot a projection of her. It might be all but impossible to kill the real Mal, no matter how important he thought it was to do so.


Updated 7/16 At 7:52PM PST

A Kick: By upsetting the equilibrium of a dreamer you can wake them from a dream and return them to reality. If you’re dreaming a dream within a dream, each level of the dream has to have its own Kick in order for the one on the higher level to work. So Arthur blew up the elevator to wake them up from the snow fortress dream so they could then be woken up by the car hitting the water.

Limbo: A place where dreamers may end up if they go too deeply. It’s a place where time runs quickly and people seem to forget reality. We’re told a person flung there might burn out their mind, though somehow Saito, Cobb, and Mal all survive it and escape. Because of the drugs used in the dreamers in Inceptions final mission, we learn a dreamer can in this one instance also be flung into limbo if they’re killed in the dream.

Inception: The practice of entering dreams and planting an idea in someone’s head. Normally Cobb and his team only invade dreams to steal secrets and they aren’t sure if Inception is really possible.

The Architect: The person who constructs the dream world inside the mind of the Dreamer. In the final dream of Inception, Ariadne (as played by Ellen Page) is the architect.

The Dreamer: The person whose dream you're actually in. When creating a dream within a dream, each level must have a different dreamer. In the final sequence, Yusuf dreams the first level, Arthur dreams the second one, and Eams dreams the third level with the snow fort.

The Subject: The person whose subconcious is actually brought into the dream, usually for the purpose of extracting information from them or on rare occasions in order to plant an idea in their mind. In the final sequence, Fisher Jr. is the subject.

Totem: An object constructed by someone who plans to invade a dream, whose exact weight and composition only they know. This object can be used to help verify whether you’re in the real world, or the dream world. Cobb uses a top which, when spun inside a dream never stops spinning. Ariadne constructs a chess piece, which she plans to use as her totem.

Projection: A person created by the subconcious mind of the subject. Projections are not real. They function like white blood cells and should the subject begin to realize that the dream he's in isn't his, Projections respond violently and attempt to seek out the Dreamer and destroy him.

Wake Up! Let’s Talk about ‘Inception’

Wake Up! Let’s Talk about ‘Inception’ – Here’s My Interpretation: "

Okay, so let’s talk Inception and let’s talk about the Inception ending and let’s talk spoilers. Yes, SPOILERS, this post is a SPOILER!

Obviously, if you haven’t seen the movie yet you aren’t going to want to engage in this conversation, but considering it’s been such a long while since we had a movie to discuss I felt it was only best to open a forum. Especially considering there is quite a bit to talk about outside of whether or not you liked the film, which we all want to know as well…

Outside of liking the film, I think the biggest question here is whether or not you believe the movie ended with Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) dreaming or in reality? The great thing about this one question is it leads you to question everything else about the movie in order to come up with your answer.

After seeing the movie twice and putting all my thoughts down in digital ink I have come to a personal conclusion, which I will detail shortly. First, I have put together a list of seven things I think can be used to spin your final decision one way or another. Some aren’t as important as others, but a collection of two or three may cause you to doubt your ultimate determination. Let’s dive in…

1) The children (of which I can’t find a single frame of online) at the end of the movie are in virtually the same position on the lawn as they were in Dom’s visions. They also seem to be wearing the same clothes.

2) The ages of the children are also noteworthy. Not only do they appear not to have aged from the last time Dom saw them, but there’s a moment when he’s on the phone with them and Phillipa sounds much older than she appears in these visions and at the end of the film. Of course, there is never a moment we’re told how much time has passed since Dom had to leave them, but this creates a seed of doubt (or should I say a seed of “inception”).

4) The chase in Mombasa and Saito’s (Ken Watanabe) timing. Here’s a scenario that seems directly out of a dream – an impossible chase, a tight squeeze and an improbable rescue.

5) Saito’s interruption of Dom as he tries to spin the top in the bathroom. This was the one thing I kept going back to in my discussions about the movie and trying to convince others it was a dream. Dom never gets a chance to confirm he’s in reality as the top falls to the floor and never tries again after that. Are we in a dream or reality at this moment? We assume reality, but based on the rules set up by Nolan we don’t know for sure.

6) Can you adopt someone else’s totem? The importance of totems is made quite clear and it’s also clear your totem should be kept to yourself and not shared. This makes me question Dom’s use of Mal’s (Marion Cotillard) throughout the entire movie. Saito spins it while the two are in shared limbo and it just keeps on spinning while falling elsewhere, but it’s not his totem. Can he get a false read from it? Or is it simply a matter of understanding a totem’s dream space design that gives the user an accurate read? This theory also opens the door to the final spin of the top… Does it spin forever? Does it fall? Does it matter?

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7) Ariadne’s (Ellen Page) immediate acceptance of shared dreaming can be looked at one of three ways – 1) a plot device you don’t get too upset about; 2) a plot hole meaning she accepts it quickly to save time; or 3) another example proving this is all a dream and the dreamer simply overlooks exposition and projects onto people the qualities necessary for the dream to continue.

Now, the portion of the movie that will most likely have everyone arguing one way or another comes just before the very end. The jump to level four where Mal has kidnapped Fischer (Cillian Murphy) and Dom and Ariadne follow. Let me see if I can coherently describe my take on this and tell me if you agree, disagree or have a different interpretation altogether…

First off, there are a few things to consider I find particularly important. The first thing is that limbo is not a “place” but a state of mind. The second is to always realize our group of dream thieves is heavily sedated and all sharing the same state of mind and can follow each other through it. These two things, in my opinion, are key to figuring out the final sequence of the film…

To begin, Fischer “dies” in level three when shot by Mal therefore sending him into the limbo of this shared dreaming experience. At this point we learn Mal (which represents Dom’s guilty subconscious) has kidnapped Fischer (the dream world equivalent of his subconscious) and she can be followed/found in the limbo Dom and Mal constructed. This explains why Ariadne and Dom can then enter Dom’s subconscious, which is where Mal and Fischer’s kidnapped subconscious now reside. After all, it was Dom’s subconscious projection that killed Fischer.

Next, Dom confronts his guilt as suggested by Ariadne throughout the movie. His guilty conscience (Mal) weakens and allows Ariadne to get Fischer. The weather begins shifting as the dream world begins to collapse. Ariadne throws Fischer from the window allowing him to kick back up to level three at the same time Eames (Tom Hardy) uses the defibrillator. Ariadne then follows with a leap kicking herself back up to level three with Eames and now Fischer, who rides the kick up to a level where he wasn’t already dead.

From here the kicks all happen simultaneously – the van hitting the water, the elevator drop and explosion and the destruction of the fortress. Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne, Eames and Fischer all ride this kick back up and join Yusef (Dileep Rao) whose dream is level one. They then sit on the shore and wait for the sedation to wear off so they can wake up back on the plane.

Meanwhile, Saito dies in level three and was sent to limbo. Dom dies in level one by drowning in the sinking van, which is when he joins Saito in the shared limbo and explains why Saito has aged and Dom has not. This also explains why the shared limbo is populated with Saito’s memories when Dom arrives.

When they meet they aren’t quite sure what to make of the situation, but the memory of a shared real experience causes them to remember and realize they are dreaming and is why they “take a leap of faith.” Saito shoots and kills Dom sending him back to reality and then shoots himself. The two wake on the plane, Saito makes a phone call and the movie goes on from there…

As for my take on all this, based on the progression of the movie it insinuates Dom is in reality when he wakes on the plane. However, everything that happens after they land in Los Angeles implies it’s a dream. This sounds confusing but it actually works given all the information we know…

Dom tells Ariadne the only way he can dream is to use the dream machine. This is when we watch the elevator sequence and we see the memories Dom has locked away in his subconscious. Later in the film Ariadne tells him he needs to confront his guilt and relieve himself of it, something he does in the fourth level when we learn the extent of his guilt. This would imply Dom has reached a new level of consciousness and he is now free to dream once again without torment.

This tells me when Dom and Saito awake from limbo it is in fact reality, and Saito then makes a call clearing Dom’s name. From here what we see is a dream. Dom can now dream again without the dream machine and he’s dreaming of seeing his kids once again with the last memory of them he has. Perhaps it happens on the plane or is simply a dream his mind goes back to now and again, but it is a dream.

NOW, WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea.

There are, of course, several different ways to interpret this whole thing. Some believe Saito is manipulating the whole thing. Some believe Mal was actually right and Dom needs to kill himself in order to join reality. The movie is all about what you choose to believe is real and what is a dream. As Yusef says at one point when Ariadne asks, “Who would want to stay in a dream that long?” He answers, “Depends on the dream.” This could easily relate to everything that happens considering it all works out for Dom in the end.

With the final shot of the movie Christopher Nolan has attempted his own measure of inception. The question is whether or not the seed he planted was strong enough to convince you the movie was one thing or another. Do you realize it’s an idea he planted? Are you convinced it’s a dream? Are you jumping from the balcony with Mal, or sticking with Dom in whatever reality it is he’s chosen to believe?

(via RopeofSilicon.com)

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