Inception Explained by Understanding the Rules
Inception Rules Help to Understand the Inception Movie
Christopher Nolan, who made Inception, is known for his ambiguous movie endings. He has done it before in both "Memento" and "The Prestige". Mr. Nolan wants his audiences to think. He certainly achieved that in Inception and many explanations are flying across the web today.
In attempting to explain Inception you have to understand the rules of the dream state:
Inception Explained Rule #1
In the dream only one person controls the dream, it is their subconscious driving the events. So in the Inception deep dream sequence the first level was owned by Yusuf, driving the van. The second level was Arthurs as he tried to set explosives on the elevator. The third was Eams at the snow fort. The final level was limbo.
Inception Explained Rule #2
In Limbo in Inception, no one owns the dream. It is a place of shared consciousness by all dreamers or a shared dream state. We saw this near the end of the dream sequence when Ariande and Cobb go into Limbo and Mal is there and she has Fischer Jr. on the porch. He was sent to Limbo when he died on level 3 of dream.
Inception Explained Rule #3
Each Inception dreamer needs to have a totem to let them know when they are dreaming and when they are in reality. Cobb's totem was a small spinning top that would spin eternally in the dream state, but topple in reality.
Inception Explained Rule #4
In Inception there are dream architects that construct the dream structure. In Inception this was Ariande, a very gifted student, played by Ellen Page.
Inception Explained Rule #5
Time passage is much different in each layer of the Inception dream sequence. The deeper the dream layer the longer the amount of time passes respectively. So five minutes at Level 1 could be fifty years at Level 4, as witnessed by the age of Saito in the ending of the deep dream sequence. But you only age is you don't realize that you are in a dream.
Inception Explained Rule #6
Once an idea is implanted in a subject's mind in the dream state it remains there and it grows, like a disease. Cobb and his wife Mal were trapped in Limbo and they didn't know it wasn't real. Cobb finally figured it out but he couldn't convince Mal. So he had to perform Inception on her to plant the idea that she had to die to get back to reality. But this idea came back with her to reality and she committed suicide.
Hopefully these rules will help you to understand Inception. It is a complicated movie with many interpretations about the Inception ending. The best one that I have read so far comes from a Cinema Blend post: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Inception-Explained- Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html "In the opening moments you get a glimpse of Leo's hand. Specifically, he's wearing his wedding ring. ....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." This could mean that the top does stop spinning and Cobb is truly in the real world.
But there is another Inception observation that his children in the final scene are in the same clothing as all the other times he has seen them while in dream state. Thus leading the audience to believe that he is still in dream state. The explanations for Inception will continue.
Source:
"Inception", 2010, Warner Brothers
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Inception-Explained-Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html
Published by Mary Zeiher
Mary is a Certified Project Manager (PMP) and Freelance Writer for the Web. I have over twenty four years of IT experience and twelve years as a Project Manager. I have a passion for writing and continue t... View profile
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13 Comments
Post a CommentTechnically the entire movie could have been cobbs limbo. It is conceivable that when cobbs wife killed her self, she did in fact come back to reality just as it is possible that cobb was right. What it really comes down to is the movie is made to force you to ask questions, which i believe is the point. virtually all reasonable possibility's could be correct. I think that there really is no answer, just questions that make you think. its brilliant.
@ Nina and Julia
It shows at the end of the movie how he walks away before he sees it falls or keeps on spinning cuz he doesnt care anymore he just wants to see his kids. and the totem starts to wobble at the end so you get to pick whether it falls or spins
actually your rule number is incorrect, the subconscious was always Fischer Jr's because his was trained to protect him.
But what did the Totem symoblize at the end of the movie? Because it kept spinning..does that mean that the dreams where reality and the reality (and the end) was a dream? We did not get it!
Can someone help me to understand that why a person dying in the 3rd level dream (As shot by Mal) was alive in Limbo? and how did his death in Limbo made him alive again at 3rd level
Mary, your rule #1 is incorrect (me thinks!). They do "ride" on one person's dream, but it was never Yusef's...he was the watcher to make sure nothing happens to the dreamers. Just like Arthur was the watcher in level 2. They were riding on Fischer's dream on the first level (at least that's what we were told)....but then again...a giveaway to the real reality is why Cobb's train crept into the scene on the level 1 dream.
Keith: i think because she was "dead" in cobb's actual reality that it wouldnt matter if she had touched it.
I'm not sure I agree with the small spinning top being Cobb's totem. It is revealed near the end that it was his wife's. So either he had the same one, or took hers as his own after she died. I don't really know the significance, but their were statements in the movie, that if someone else touched your totem, you could no longer use it to tell reality.
Mellisa: Saito was running the same type of company that Fishers dad was running. He didn't want the enterprise wiping him out. He hired Cobb to break the enterprise. In return, Cobb could go back to America and see is family
I'm trying to figue out how the collopse of Fishers dad's enterprize played into it. And what was the motivation for all the team players to go under to help Cobb . Were they paid?