MovieChat Forums > Inception (2010) Discussion > A few questions.

A few questions.

posted 8 years ago by macgeek2004
5 replies | jump to latest

Firstly, after watching the film I found this "Inception dream diagram" online that says that the "truly real world" is one in which Mal is by Cobb's bedside praying that he'll wake up from a dream? Did I completely miss this??

My impression was that the real world in the film, the one where they end up on the plane with Fischer, is the truly real world, and at the end Cobb wakes back up into that world and is really with his children again, because his totem starts to fall over right before the credits start. So when I read about the notion that Mal is actually alive in the "truly real world" I was completely thrown off, if that's the case I did not pick up on that at all while watching it.

Anyways, my questions are these:

1. When Fischer is shot in the third dream level, why does bringing him to a fourth level and then kicking him back make him suddenly okay again and able to walk into the safe?

2. How does Cobb choose to remain in the fourth level when Ariadne gets kicked back by the explosions on the third level? When he stays with Mal, in order to then go looking for Saito.... how can he choose to stay? The kick happened, right? It would have happened to him too.

[–] realbullet 8 years ago

Firstly, after watching the film I found this "Inception dream diagram" online that says that the "truly real world" is one in which Mal is by Cobb's bedside praying that he'll wake up from a dream? Did I completely miss this??

This is a fan theory which is not supported by the information in the movie.

My impression was that the real world in the film, the one where they end up on the plane with Fischer, is the truly real world, and at the end Cobb wakes back up into that world and is really with his children again, because his totem starts to fall over right before the credits start. So when I read about the notion that Mal is actually alive in the "truly real world" I was completely thrown off, if that's the case I did not pick up on that at all while watching it.

For me, the story which makes the most sense is that Cobb is home with his kids in the end. As far as the totem is concerned -- a lot of people have pointed out that the totem does not work the way it should (and consider this a bad movie because of it) -- however, this is nonsense. The key to the totem has nothing to do with whether it falls or not. The key is that Cobb is not watching it until it falls. At the beginning, he holds a gun to his head waiting for the top to fall. In the end, he is no longer obsessed with it.

1. When Fischer is shot in the third dream level, why does bringing him to a fourth level and then kicking him back make him suddenly okay again and able to walk into the safe?

This is not really explained -- it's just a theory of the characters in the movie which works. My take is that the dreamer (Eames) can make the bullet disappear, and Limbo is "one layer" below the hospital layer. Remember the dreamer can alter the physics of the dream-world. The dreamer's goal is to make sure the subject cannot detect the nature of the dream.

2. How does Cobb choose to remain in the fourth level when Ariadne gets kicked back by the explosions on the third level? When he stays with Mal, in order to then go looking for Saito.... how can he choose to stay? The kick happened, right? It would have happened to him too.

With the heavy sedative, you need two synchronous kicks to rise up a level. For instance, Fischer had the defibrillator and the fall. Ariadne jumped from the building at the same time as the explosion in the hospital layer. Alternatively, Cobb died in the van and returned to Limbo anyway.

👿 I know something you don't know ... I am ambidextrous!

[–] macgeek2004 8 years ago

I keep reading that Cobb died in the van and went to limbo. How does he end up still waking up on the plane then?

[–] realbullet 8 years ago

I keep reading that Cobb died in the van and went to limbo. How does he end up still waking up on the plane then?

He wakes up on the plane when the sedative wears off. Of course he's going to wake up -- the question is whether or not he realized that he woke up.

Cobb and Saito talk each other into realizing that they are in Limbo. Without that, they may have woken up insane.

👿 I know something you don't know ... I am ambidextrous!

[–] macgeek2004 8 years ago

I thought when you get trapped in limbo you're trapped forever or something. Or does it only feel like forever when you're in limbo because of how much longer time feels at each successive dream level?

[–] realbullet 8 years ago

I thought when you get trapped in limbo you're trapped forever or something. Or does it only feel like forever when you're in limbo because of how much longer time feels at each successive dream level?

The risk of Limbo is that it seems so long that you run the risk of losing track of reality -- effectively, you are insane.

They don't state the time dilation in Limbo, because they don't really know. (When referring to Limbo's time, Yusuf says, "I don't know. It could be infinite.")

When you die in the dream, you usually wake up. However, with the heavy sedative, when you die in the dream, you fall to Limbo. This includes when you are in Limbo -- so, if you die in Limbo, you simply return to Limbo. This is one theory as to why the opening scene and ending scene are different. It is being repeated over and over until the sedative wears off (with Saito and Cobb pulling each other out of Limbo.)

Either way -- you cannot die from starvation in the dream, unless you are starving in real life.

Bear in mind that this movie is not really about dreams. Dreams are being used as a symbolic representation of the architecture of the mind. This is what is meant when Ariadne says, "The deeper we go into the dreams, the deeper we go into you, and I'm not sure we'll like what we find." (or something like that.) Limbo is the deepest layer of the unconscious mind, where the root cause of emotional problems originate. That's why there is discussion about insanity.

👿 I know something you don't know ... I am ambidextrous!