Inception (2010)

In writer/director Christopher Nolan's mind-bending, non-linear, smart and very complex sci-fi action-heist thriller and fantasy film - the ambitious movie told about a world where the subconscious could be infiltrated through dreams, and entire worlds could be created and altered with the mind. The film's tagline made sense after viewing: "Your mind is the scene of the crime." Due to the nature of the film, it was open to interpretation that the whole film might have been the dream of either the main protagonist, or someone else.

The film's unusual main plot involved recently-developed, experimental dream-sharing technology in order to infiltrate into the subsconscious dream state of targeted individuals and learn and/or steal ("extract") business secrets. In the case of "inception," however, the process was reversed in order to invasively plant an idea or concept INTO a targeted person's mind-state.

The film's revealing plot twist was that the professional 'extractor' had initially tried "inception" on his troubled wife who refused to return to the real-world and preferred the dream-world. He implanted the idea in her that her world wasn't real. However, upon their return to the waking world, she continued to believe that the real world was not real and that "death was the only escape" - the very reason she killed herself by jumping from a hotel window. After his wife's death, he found himself confronting his own guilt feelings and regret about her death, and how his dream was to finally return home to his children after being exiled.

The underlying themes of the film included the after-effects of grief following a death, dream-infiltration as a way to find catharsis, and a path to a new beginning (the literal meaning of the title 'INCEPTION') - a return to reality and a way to positively move forward. By the film's conclusion, the lives of two of the central characters, extractor-inception thief "Dom"/Cobb and his target Robert Fisher, were revitalized after long periods of grief, pain, woe, regret, self-hate and guilt. During the film's major heist, Dom's team was on a mission within a deep-level dreamscape to plant an idea in Robert Fisher's head at the time of his father's death - to convince him to not rely on his deceased father's legacy, and to dissolve his father's company after inheriting it. Both characters came to the realization that they could let their past doubts go, find absolution, and freely pursue their lives.

Out of its eight Academy Award nominations, it won four Oscars: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. On a whopping budget of $160 million, the film grossed $292.6 million (domestic) and $839 million (worldwide).

• the film opened with an ambiguous scene revisited much later in the film - Dominick "Dom" Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled corporate espionage spy and professional international thief ("extractor"), was lying on a beach where he was found delirious
• Cobb envisioned his young children playing in the sand near him, but they were oblivious to his presence:
  • Phillipa (3 Years Old) (Claire Geare)
  • James (20 Months Old) (Magnus Nolan)
• the delirious Cobb was nudged by the butt of a rifle and taken by an armed guard to a beachside castle-fortress; Cobb found himself face-to-face with wealthy, elderly Japanese corporate executive Saito (Ken Watanabe) - who had aged considerably after being in Limbo (see later); Cobb was discovered with two items: a hand-gun and a small, pewter spinning top; the spinning top was his specific totem symbol used to distinguish whether he was in a dream state or in the real-world; it would keep spinning around if he was in a dream world
• the film then seamlessly transitioned - via a flashback - to an earlier time in the same location, where Cobb and his point-man/partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a manager/researcher and expert 'extractor', were seated in front of the younger businessman Saito; Cobb and Arthur described their special skills - to perform psychic thefts (or mind-hacking extractions) of corporate secrets by invading into a person's subconscious (and dream state); Cobb clearly stated the film's thesis: "Once an idea has taken hold in the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks, right in there somewhere" - he gestured toward his forehead

Dominick "Dom" Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Younger Japanese Businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe)

Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

• Saito accepted Cobb's and Arthur's proposed pitch to demonstrate how they could conduct a successful extraction of embedded thoughts in a target's subsconscious, by entering into a person's dream-state
• at each stage along the way, one member of the team, who was creating the dream, remained behind while the others fell asleep to travel to the next level; to traverse levels, so-called "kicks" (created by the person generating the dream) would then propel the other dreamers out of the dream and back toward reality step by step
• during their initial mission to prove that they could 'extract' secrets from Saito's sub-conscious, a team associate named Nash (Lukas Haas), an inexperienced "architect" who had created the dreamscape for the dream-job, was asleep on a Japanese bullet-train - he was the initial dreamer; the other three sleeping figures of Saito, Arthur and Cobb were seated with him in the same compartment on the train; Nash remained behind while the other three entered into a second sleeping dream state of sedation in a hotel room via injection, using portable technology cases; they were connected by tubes in order to share the same lucid dream; Cobb and Arthur also entered a deeper third dream level to find Saito there, where Cobb sought to extract his corporate secrets that were being kept in an envelope in a safe within his castle-fortress
• on the outer perimeter of Saito's castle-fortress, Cobb was interrupted in the dream-world by the haunting, projected image and appearance of his late dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard); due to Mal's invasive presence in Cobb's 'extraction' job, she managed to sabotage his dream efforts
  [Note: Cobb had been unable to cleanse his subconscious of his own guilt, grief, and regret surrounding her death; he refused to accept the fact of her death, and his subconscious (that was missing her) needed to remember her and be with her through projected memories; actually, all he wanted was to see his children again; at this point, Arthur was the only one who knew about Cobb's troubled wife Mal.]
• the mission turned out to be a failure when Cobb was caught by Saito (with Mal at his side) after Cobb had opened the safe inside the castle; after Mal wounded Arthur in the leg with a gunshot, Cobb killed Arthur in order to liberate him and bring him back safely to the lower dream-state within the hotel room; Cobb also had to be brought back (or "kicked") into the hotel room by being plunged into a watery bathtub, where he then was forced to shoot and kill Saito; the "kick" to return to reality and awaken all the dreamers simultaneously was set off by the playing of an auditory cue - Edith Piaf's song: "Non, je ne regrette rien" on headphones set on Nash's ears (to awaken him on the bullet train); everyone ended up awake and back safely in the bullet train compartment
• but Cobb felt that he had failed the mission; in the real-world in a Tokyo hotel room, he briefly spoke on the phone to his two young children (being taken care of by their Grandma) in the US, obviously missing them; he was forced to tell his daughter: "Mommy's not here anymore"; Cobb had become a fugitive from the law due to being charged as the prime suspect in the death of his wife Mal; as Cobb was about to flee to Buenos Aires, he learned that the treacherous Nash had tried to sell him out with Saito: ("He sold you out. Thought to come to me and bargain for his life"), but the Japanese businessman had refused; Nash was dragged off
• and then to the extractors' surprise, Saito revealed that the initial mission had only been an audition or test, and he was nonetheless impressed after realizing he had been in "a dream within a dream"; he suggested hiring Cobb and his team for further dream manipulation; he proposed and promised that Cobb would be able to return to the US and see his children if he successfully carried out another task; he would be redeemed - his criminal record as a fugitive after being charged as a suspect in the death of his suicidal wife Mal - would be erased, and his family life with his children would be restored: ("So do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?"); the new task or mission would be far more complicated, difficult and seemingly-impossible - known as an "inception" - this time the mission was not to steal an idea, but to plant one into an individual's subconscious mind
• to prepare for their next job with Saito, "Dom" had to grow his team of experts beyond just Arthur - his manager/researcher and Cobb's "extraction" point-man and partner; he flew with Arthur to Paris to hire a new "architect" to replace Nash; although he was an excellent architect himself, Cobb feared that his own projections of his menacing wife Mal would cause too much interference
• in a French school of architecture, Cobb met with his mentor and father-in-law Professor-Dr. Stephen Miles (Michael Caine), and explained that he had found a way to return to his family if he completed another 'navigational' mission within the human mind, but first he needed to recruit a talented 'architect'; Miles introduced Cobb to one of his best graduate school architectural students Ariadne (Ellen Page) - a gifted maze-building architect who would be tasked to create massive, labyrinthine fantasy-dream landscapes; evidently, she was an amazing prodigy who could manufacture whole buildings and worlds

Ariadne (Ellen Page) - Talented Graduate School Student of Architecture

At an Outdoor Paris Cafe - Things Exploded and Fragmented Around Cobb and Ariadne

Cobb Revealed That They Were in a Dream-Sharing Landscape

• during their discussion at an outdoor Parisian cafe, it was revealed that with the help of Arthur, both Cobb and Ariadne had been sedated as he took her into his own dream-sharing state or world; everything exploded, imploded and whirled around them (the cafe furniture, the buildings, the walls, etc.); Cobb's objective was to demonstrate how entering into dream-states worked, and to entice her with the idea of designing intricate dreamscapes
• during another second shorter visit inside the same dreamscape, Ariadne imagined the street bending in half and backwards upon itself: (she exclaimed: "It's something, isn't it?"); the dream venture ended in disaster just after Cobb had cautioned Ariadne about one important rule -- something that had always plagued him: "Never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places...Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what's real and what is a dream"; she asked pointedly: "Is that what happened to you?"; the 2nd dream experience ended badly as Mal suddenly appeared and attacked and stabbed Ariadne with a long knife; after waking up, Ariadne reacted: "That's some subconscious you've got on you, Cobb. She's a real charmer!"; Arthur explained that each of them had to carry a totem symbol - Arthur's totem was a "loaded die" (a red cube with white dots), an essential way to tell if he was in someone else's dream or not
• "Dom" had to hire two more experts for his team; first, he met up with Earnes (Tom Hardy), a con-man, an identity shape-shifter or forger, who was found in a gambling den in Mombasa; Cobb explained their "inception" job - "We need the heir of a major corporation to dissolve his father’s empire"; Eames cautioned that the most difficult part would be the subject's basic prejudice: ("The relationship with the father")
• their conversation was interrupted when Cobb was attacked by multiple assassins sent from Cobol Engineering and he fled through the streets; he was saved by Saito who cooly mentioned why he happened to be in Mombasa: "I have to protect my investment"
• meanwhile, Ariadne had reconsidered Cobb's job offer and returned to Arthur to accept the irresistible assignment; she agreed with Arthur's assessment: "There's nothing quite like it" with the response: "That's true. Pure creation"; he explained that she would need to create three complete dream levels or dreamscapes (dreams-within-dreams) with paradoxical "closed loops" to "disguise the boundaries of the dream you've created"; the size of the dreamscapes could be "anything from the floor of a building to an entire city. But they have to be complicated enough that we can hide from the projections...." - in other words, a deceptive maze
• Saito, Eames, and Cobb met in a dilapidated Mombasa pharmacy with Yusef (Dileep Rao), a sedative chemist or pharmacologist who would be preparing the strong sedative to induce the dream-states; he balked at the idea of entering into a third dream level: ("Not possible. That many dreams within dreams is too unstable"); Saito mentioned how he would be joining the group during the mission - as a 6th member; Yusef explained that entering deeply into dreams exponentially turned minutes into hours, into days, and even into years; a 3-4 hour dream in the real-world was equal to 40 hours of dream-time; there was a danger in confusing the dream state with reality - something Cobb feared was already happening to him
• on a Mombasa rooftop, Saito described the job with photos and documents; the entire team was to enter the multi-leveled psyche of the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy); Fischer was the son and heir of dying business empire tycoon Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite); Saito's rival energy corporation competitor - a potentially "new superpower" - was the Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate in Australia, that was on the verge of "total energy dominance"; to accomplish their objective of implanting the seed of an idea within the psyche of Robert Fischer - a very dangerous, complicated and daunting task, it was necessary to enter very deeply into Fischer's subconscious, possibly to a third dreamscape level
• as part of their plan, Eames suggested access to Maurice Fischer's right-hand man Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), Robert's godfather, so that he could impersonate him during the mission; as they strategized, it was suggested that they had to persuade son Robert - out of his own "self-generated" volition (as a "positive emotional" triggered response) - to choose the path of not following in his father's footsteps; instead, he would proceed to dissolve or break up the corporate energy empire (in other words, Robert would have to realize that he needed to create something for himself, and that Maurice had never wanted his son to be like him)

In Sydney, Australia
Peter Browning (Tom Berenger) - Maurice's Right-Hand Man, Robert's Godfather	Son Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy)	Father Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite) On His Deathbed in His Office

• before the "inception" task commenced, Ariadne let her curiosity with Cobb's interior struggles with Mal entice her to enter into his dream-state, to learn more about him; after hooking into him, he caught her watching him with his wife Mal and became upset - he told her: "You can't be in here...These are my dreams," and then explained how it was the only way for him to exist: "It's the only way I can still dream"; Ariadne reminded him: "These aren't just dreams. These are memories, and you said never to use memories...You're keeping her alive. You can't let her go"; he agreed that there were more things buried even deeper; he took Ariadne with him into his home, where his two young children were playing on the outdoor lawn; as he was about to call out to them, they ran away with their faces unseen: "If I'm ever gonna see their faces again, I've gotta get back home - to the real world"
• in the 'basement' of Cobb's troubled mind, in a hotel suite-room, Ariadne was confronted by a threatening Mal who asked her what she was doing there; the bed was disheveled, a window was open, and there was evidence of a physical struggle with broken champagne glasses on the floor; it was the location where Cobb and Mal had celebrated their anniversaries together; Mal shouted angrily at Cobb: "How could you bring her here?"; she turned animalistic: "You promised! You said we'd be together! You said we'd grow old together!"; he promised he would come back for her later; as the dream concluded, Ariadne realized that Cobb had metaphorically constructed "a prison of memories" to lock Mal in
• the 'inception' mission was set into motion by the death of Robert's father Maurice in Sydney, Australia; Robert was accompanying his father's body during transport on a commercial 747 airplane flying from Sydney to Los Angeles - a 10-hour flight; Saito and Cobb's team of six entered the first class cabin of a 747 in Sydney, to accompany Fischer
• the various dream levels or stages were:
  • Level Zero - after take-off, Saito and Cobb's entire team of extractors were prepared and heavily-sedated into a shared, multi-layered dream with Robert on the 747 airplane (in the first class cabin); the 10-hour flight equaled a week in dream-time
  • Level One - Yusuf's Dream (on the Plane) Commenced During a Rainy Los Angeles Day; in Heavy Traffic During the Abduction of Robert Fisher from a Cab, He Unexpectedly and Defensively Fought Back During the Ambush With Armed Protectors - Projections From His Subconscious, the Team Was Able to Succeed, Although Saito was Shot in the Chest and Seriously Wounded During the Kidnap Attempt; They Fled to a Warehouse to Take Cover
  • LIMBO - It was explained that if a person died in a dream level, they entered into LIMBO (a space of raw infinite sub-consciousness)
  • Level One (continued) - Eames Impersonated Robert's Godfather, Peter Browning, to Suggest to Robert that Inside Maurice's Locked Safe By His Deathbed was an Alternate Will (a "Precious Gift" to Robert) to Dissolve the Company ("The end of the entire empire as we know it")
• [Between Levels One and Two: Ariadne told Cobb that she was concerned about Limbo, and Its Effect Upon the Mission: "The truth that Mal is bursting through your subconscious. And the truth that as we go deeper into Fischer, we're also going deeper into you, and I'm not sure that I like what we find"; Cobb explained to Ariadne that he and Mal had explored and entered Limbo together during their previous experiments with dream technology; he confessed: "We lost sight of what was real"; in Limbo space, they had created a world for themselves - their deep Limbo space included Cobb's memories of the city that he and Mal had built for themselves and had presumably lived in for 50 years as they grew older, but "the problem was, none of it was real"; after waking up, Mal felt that being in Limbo was better than reality, and refused to live in reality with him: ("Limbo became her reality"); he realized: "I knew something was wrong with her. She just wouldn't admit it"; she became "possessed with one very simple idea that changed everything - that our world wasn't real"; she believed that to wake up and come back to reality, and to get back home to the real world, "we had to kill ourselves"; she believed that their children were only projections, and that their real-children were somewhere else; in the waking real-world (although Mal thought it wasn't real), Mal came up with a plan on their anniversary to leap together from their elegant, but disheveled hotel suite window and commit suicide; Cobb disagreed with her and warned: "If you jump, you're not gonna wake up, remember? You're gonna die"; she jumped anyway, leaving behind a letter to their attorney to refute any of his claims that she wasn't sane; Cobb felt responsible for causing her deadly suicide and blamed himself: ("It was impossible for me to explain the nature of her madness..."); he was charged with her murder in the real world and had become a fugitive outside the US: ("I left my children behind and I have been trying to buy my way back ever since"); Ariadne wisely explained Cobb's problem, and its risk to the team: "Your guilt defines her. It's what powers her. You are not responsible for the idea that destroyed her. If we're gonna succeed in this, you have to forgive yourself. You're gonna have to confront her."]
  • Level Two - Yusef Drove the Team Away from the Warehouse in the Van; As They Drove and Were Still Under Attack, Arthur (Inside the Van) Was Set up to Be the Dreamer as the Others Were Sedated; He and the Team Were Now in a Corporate Hotel with Fischer; There, Cobb posed as "Mr. Charles" (The Head of His "Subconscious Security") - a Gambit Designed to Turn Fischer Against his Own Subconscious; the Idea was to Trick Fischer Into Trusting "Mr. Charles" and Believing That He Had Been Kidnapped by His Father's Right-Hand Man Peter Browning, Who Allegedly Wanted to Extract His Father's Safe Combination from Fischer and Stop the Dissolution of the Empire, in a Hotel Room, Fischer was set up to Dream (on Level 2) as the Others Entered a Third Deeper Level - into Robert's Subconscious
  • Level Three - With Eames (as the Dreamer), the Rest of the Team Attacked a Fortified Snowy Mountain Hospital, But Had a Reduced Amount of Time; Fischer Thought They Were in Browning's Subconscious, but They Were Really Deep Inside His Own Mind; Inside the Fortress, Mal Appeared (Cobb's Projection of Her) and Shot Fischer to Death in Level 3 before the Inception Was Completed; Fischer was Transferred into Limbo; At the Same Time, Cobb shot back at Mal, and Saito Was Dying of his Wounds; both Mal and Saito Would Soon End Up in Limbo

In the Fortress, Cobb's Projection of Mal Shot Fischer Dead in Level 3

Mal Shot Dead by Cobb, Sending Her to Limbo

Saito Dying From His Wounds Earlier, Also Sent to Limbo

• Limbo (continued) - hooked up together to enter Limbo (a vast city of created skyscrapers and other remembered structures), Cobb and Ariadne were there to save and rescue Robert Fischer and to find Saito; in this last phase of the "inception" mission within Limbo, Cobb had a final encounter with his wife Mal, where he kept telling her: "I KNOW WHAT'S REAL"; she kept insisting for him to remain with her in Limbo: ("Choose to be here. Choose me"); Cobb told her that he couldn't keep coming back to her because she was in an unreal world, and falsely believed that she was still with their children; he told her: "I want to see them up above"; she challenged him: "What if you're wrong? What if I'm what's real?"
• Limbo (continued) - Cobb presented the film's major revelation - that when they were in Limbo together, and Mal refused to return to reality, he had to convince her that it was only a dream; he deliberately performed "inception" on her - he instilled the belief in her that the real world was still a dream: ("I knew we needed to escape. She wouldn't accept it"); Cobb admitted that he finally found a way to break into the secret recesses of her mind to implant an idea "that her world wasn't real"; then, he had them put their heads down on the rails of a train - and commit suicide together after convincing her that they would be together; however, the implanted idea had grown from a small seed into a kind of "cancer," and even after she awoke and came back to reality, she continued to believe that the real world was not real and that "death was the only escape" - the very reason she had killed herself by jumping from the hotel window

A Suicide Pact Together - Laying Their Heads on Train Tracks - To Trick Mal Into Believing That The World Wasn't Real

• Limbo (continued) - Mal bargained with Cobb; if he agreed to stay with her, she would release the captive Fischer (bound and gagged) from her porch; Fischer had become her bargaining chip, as a way to keep Cobb with her in Limbo; Cobb told Ariadne that he refused to remain there with Mal: ("I can't stay with her anymore because she doesn't exist") - he admitted that she was merely his projection of her from memory: "You're just a shade of my real wife. You were the best that I could do, but I'm sorry, you're just not good enough"; she reached for a long butcher knife and savagely stabbed Cobb in the chest; to rid Cobb of his projection, Ariadne "improvised" and shot and killed Mal; Ariadne and Fischer tumbled off the building as their "kick" to get out of Limbo; after Ariadne left Limbo to return to Level 3, Cobb recovered from his guilt about Mal - and as she died in his arms, he told her: "We had our time together, and I have to let you go"
• Level Three - Fischer was also sent back to Level Three, where he was resuscitated; he opened up a huge locked entrance to walk into the death-bed presence of his dying father; Robert mentioned: "I know you were disappointed that I couldn't be you," but his father disagreed and corrected him: "No, no. I was disappointed that you tried"; Robert opened the safe next to the bed with the combination (528491) to find the will and his childhood pinwheel, just at the moment that his father died; meanwhile, Cobb briefly remained in Limbo to find and save Saito;

Robert Fischer Approaching the Locked Entrance to His Father's Deathbed in Level 3

Robert: "I know you were disappointed that I couldn't be you"

Maurice: ""I was disappointed that you tried"

• examples of the "kicks" to change levels included the following - some of which occurred simultaneously (or synchronously) as the film climaxed:
• Yusuf hitting and crashing through a barrier that catapulted the van off a bridge, and a second "kick" as the van ultimately hit the water; because the first "kick" occurred too soon, it shortened execution times in the other two levels; the premature "kick" removed the gravity of Arthur's hotel dream-world in Level 2 and caused an avalanche in Eames' dream in Level 3
• Arthur was forced to improvise a new "kick," by detonating the hotel elevator and causing the entire team (strapped together) to go into a gravity free-fall "kick" down the shaft in Level 2
• the ice-fortress being detonated and collapsing in Level 3
• after recovering from the submerged van, Robert Fischer described to Browning/Eames his reaction to his father's last words and to the will in the safe - he confessed that he had accepted the 'planted' idea: "The will means that Dad wanted me to be my own man, not just to live for him. That's what I'm gonna do"
• after last being seen in Limbo attempting to find Saito, Cobb awoke up again on the shores of Saito's beach house in Limbo - the film's opening scene; Cobb was brought into the elderly Saito's presence (who had aged due to the effects of being in Limbo), to tell him: "I came back for you to remind you of something, something you once knew..." - he spun the totem symbol and it remained spinning (signifying a dream world) - and added: "This world is not real"; Cobb urged Saito to "take a leap of faith" -- and "Come back so we can be young men together again"; off-screen, presumably, the two used the hand-gun on the table to kill themselves in order to return to the 'real-world' of the mission on the airplane
• as the film concluded, all of the dreaming characters survived the submerged van, and also awakened on the 747 plane 20 minutes before landing at LAX; for Cobb's successful efforts with his team at "inception" with Robert Fischer, Saito made a phone call to clear away Cobb's legal troubles with immigration, due to charges against him related to the suicide-death of his wife Mal; Cobb was now finally able to enter the US without any recrimination from US Customs; he was also freed of his guilt and was able to be reunited with his children
• in the ambiguous ending, Cobb was welcomed at the airport by his father-in-law Prof. Stephen Miles, and they drove to Cobb's and Mal's house; Cobb was not wearing his wedding ring [Note: Consistently throughout the film, he was only wearing the ring during dream sequences. When he was in reality, the ring was always missing from his finger.]
• inside the house, Cobb wanted to test out his totem (his wife's pewter spinning top) to help identify if he was still in the dream world or back in the real world; if it kept spinning around, he was in a dream world and stuck in Limbo; if it fell, he was back in reality; after taking out the top and spinning it on the table, he saw his children playing outside in the yard - and they clearly looked at him (unlike before); Cobb walked away from the top toward the porch, turning his back on the top in order to greet and hug his slightly-older children (wearing almost the same outfits from earlier, but portrayed by different actors)
  • Phillipa (5 Years Old) (Taylor Geare)
  • James (3 Years Old) (Johnathan Geare)
• a slow tracking shot returned back to the table to observe the slightly-wobbly spinning top [Note: the top spun for a lengthy total of 49 seconds (the top's two previous spins were 21 seconds in the hotel, and 18 seconds after dream training with Ariadne)]; the film concluded with an abrupt cut to black and the end credits; the audience was not allowed to be able to tell whether it fell or not; had Cobb finally left his dream-world for good, and joined his children in the real world?