My thoughts on Inception (the second time around) *cough*
And today is the day of the job interview.
Just how lucky am I?
I'm still in my pyjamas, because when I stand up I feel dizzy.
If the universe cuts me some slack, I might be able to get through the interview without passing out. (and this time, I'm not talking about being nervous)
*cough*
Yesterday turned out to be ... kinda weird. And it wasn't Inception's fault.
I spent two hours trying to put in my lenses, but since I'm not used to putting foreign things in my eyes, I just ended up poking myself over and over and over again.
What is the secret?
How do lens-people do that everyday?
Anyway, since I can't quite stand up yet, and I'm not making much sense with whatever it is I'm talking about.. I guess I can go ahead and tell you about my second viewing of Inception.
OK!
Look, I don't even know if what I'm about to say will make sense. My brain is already similar to scrambled eggs.. But this is what I think:
Everything is a dream after Cobb gets sedated in that weird underground place surrounded by lots and lots of sad old men.
Some things point to everything being a dream (like the fact that Cobb's borrowed totem is actually completely worthless), but the scene where he speaks to his children on the phone makes me think that he was in fact in reality during the first half. Remember, the actors who play his kids in that scene are different from the actors who play his children in his memories. He doesn't even recognize their voices.
But anyway, what makes me think that everything is a dream after the sedation scene?
Well, it's after that scene that everything stops making sense. You notice small faults in logic. ("It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange")
Like the fact that Fischer didn't recognize Saito. They saw each other on the plane, in the car and on the second and third levels of the dream. Both Saito and Fischer are two MAJOR businessmen in the US. They're obviously rivals too. Saito is rich enough to buy an entire airline on a whim, and important enough to be able to rid Cobb of his criminal record. And Fischer is the son of a man so powerful that his company could possibly take over the world. Why doesn't Fischer recognize Saito?
I suppose Fischer could've been clueless about all that stuff. I seriously doubt it though, seeing as he always tried to be like his father.
The uncle met Saito as well, and didn't recognize him at all. But that was only Fischer's projection of his uncle.. So I guess that makes sense, but it also strengthens the fact that Fischer has no idea who Saito is.
The kicks stop making sense as well. The kicks are supposed to take place in the level below the one the person in quesion is currently on. But when Cobb reaches limbo, Ariadne jumps off a building, which doesn't make sense. That would only kill her in limbo.. (although, according to Cobb, taking your life in limbo gets you back to reality.. which kind of defeats the purpose of fearing limbo. All Saito has to do once he's there is take his own life... apparently!)
No new information is revealed about the case or about any of the characters (except Cobb) after the sedation scene. The only new characters are Fischer, his uncle and father. These are new characters that no one has seen before. Cobb's mind could've made them up, or taken them from a memory. They aren't especially deep characters. Actually, the only thing that defines Fischer's character is his weird relationship to his father, which is an idea that Cobb got from Eames before the sedation scene.
And if you think about it, no matter what happens in the movie; ultimately it's all about Cobb and his family. In every single level there is a reminder of his past. Either it's the train, the broken glass, the children or Mal.
This makes me think it's always Cobb's dream. No one elses.
... The ending scene is obviously a dream. Not because the top keeps spinning.. But because the children haven't grown a bit. Their grandfather is suddenly back from France without reason.. and the woman who took care of the children, (was it their grandma?) she's gone.. like magic.
The top spinning doesn't mean a thing. Even if it stops spinning, it doesn't mean a thing.
That totem wasn't Cobb's to begin with. It was Mal's.
Cobb was the one who gave her the idea that: if it keeps spinning you're in a dream.
If that top stopped spinning, that just meant that Cobb didn't care anymore. He gave up trying to figure out what was real and what wasn't. He chose that level of dreaming (whichever level it was, it certainly wasn't limbo) as reality.
.... Now.... I have to stop thinking about this.
And I have to get ready.
*cough*
