Inception Discussion (spoilers)

[Shu]

I saw there is a trailer thread for this already, but I want folks to openly be able to talk about the movie without the fear of spoilers since we have seen it.

My opinion was this movie was pretty damn cool, due to the fact it was pretty deep on the departments of the subconscious and the fact it always kept you the viewer on your toes.

Now if the main part of inception is to put an idea into someone's head, but in the end we figured out that Fisher did an inception on his own wife and because of it, it spread like a disease and as soon as she woke up, she thought the real life was fake. There were also things about kick, and the different types of players as well as the rules (ie. Architecture should never mold around memories)

So I want to ask you folks, what would you do if you could form your own dream world, that if you choose to, you could never come out of it. A dream with in a dream, as long as you had no screwed up projections brought in like "Mal" the shadow. Also you have to remember that you at least need 4-5 people, unless you want to go strictly by memories which is a taboo (Fisher and Mal did).

I thought the Fisher's dream world was very HUGE, but bland due to the fact that he and Mal built it based off of memories more or less, and by the end of Mal's life it had turned into ruins.

The fact is I tie two movies together when I think of inception. 1) What dreams may come and 2) Matrix.

If you remember, Robin Williams pretty much sculpted his own Heaven in What Dreams May Come. In fact the dream world, if we could control it, it would be Heaven. Specifically if you could port in whoever else, as long as the projections realized you were real and not fake.

The Matrix is a program rather though. When ported into it, you could already be adept at whatever skill you wish to learn, though based off of innate skill, is how good you are at certain things. The matrix was built already by the "creator" so you could not alter the buildings but you could bring whatever material in to help you.

Inception was the most free thinking though, because you could design whatever and basically do whatever, as long as your subconscious thought it was real enough. So you couldn't jump off a building and survive, but you could build the largest of land/building or whatever other surrounding you wanted to for the folks you were with. Though if you died, you would wake up, unless of course you had a sedative, and then you would be stuck in a subconscious limbo, which could fry your brain by the time you came to.

So my heaven... haha.. how would I design it... meh, I'll tell you later.

 

[CassinoChips]

I thought the interesting aspect of the movie that they didn't really touch on a whole lot was that this basically was a gateway to a version of immortality, or a greatly extended life. When they kept adding layers and going deeper, it extended the timeframe they had in each dream. So 1 minute in the real world was 20 minutes in the first layer, 3 hours in the second, 4 days in the third, 6 months in the fourth, etc. or whatever it worked out to be. So you could spend years in a deep level of the dream, while only a handful of minutes passed in the real world.

That's what I would exploit. That way I could run through different scenarios and see how they could possibly play out. Though that probably violates the memory rule.

As to the movie itself, I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't overwhelmed by it, but it was definitely worth the money, which is becoming less and less common these days. And I agree that it definitely had a bit of a Matrix-y feel to it.

 

[Marshy]

I went to go see Inception on opening night and at the beginning i didn't really understand it, but as it went on it explained it a little bit more. And i love how the ending was really up the the viewers on what they think happens. Does the it keep spinning or does it stop? I don't think i've ever experienced a movie quite like this for awhile in the way of having to pay attention to each and every detail.

As for my "Dream World" i would most likely go only as far as a dream within a dreaming knowing that i could die and not get out of it if i went into to many levels. Like Shu said, it would be basically like what i would like my heaven to be like.

 

[Sultan]

I thought the interesting aspect of the movie that they didn't really touch on a whole lot was that this basically was a gateway to a version of immortality, or a greatly extended life. When they kept adding layers and going deeper, it extended the timeframe they had in each dream. So 1 minute in the real world was 20 minutes in the first layer, 3 hours in the second, 4 days in the third, 6 months in the fourth, etc. or whatever it worked out to be. So you could spend years in a deep level of the dream, while only a handful of minutes passed in the real world.

That's what I would exploit. That way I could run through different scenarios and see how they could possibly play out. Though that probably violates the memory rule.

As to the movie itself, I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't overwhelmed by it, but it was definitely worth the money, which is becoming less and less common these days. And I agree that it definitely had a bit of a Matrix-y feel to it.

It wouldn't exactly be a greatly extended life since the mind ages if you're in a collective dream. Perhaps the mind returns to its true youthful state if the dreamer spends a little more time after the dream in the real world? I don't know.

As much as I love this movie and Nolan's work, there are certain undeniable plot-holes. Nolan is the only filmmaker I know that makes these kinds of mistakes and I somehow end up forgiving them.

 

[CassinoChips]

It wouldn't exactly be a greatly extended life since the mind ages if you're in a collective dream. Perhaps the mind returns to its true youthful state if the dreamer spends a little more time after the dream in the real world? I don't know.

But remember, the promise made to Mol (Mal? Moll?) was that they would grow old together. Which they did, in their dream paradise. There was the one shot of their bodies having physically aged significantly. So it stands to reason they spent the equivalent of 40-50 years inside that level of the dream. Then he kicked out, and he was, ostensibly, the same physical age he was when he first went it, give or take a few hours. So while the mind may age while in a collective dream, the body, apparently does not. Meaning you can gain 40-50 years of knowledge in your mind, while the physical structures of your brain only age a few hours.

 

[Shu]

The only question most folks don't understand though in the movie was... Was he still dreaming at the end due to the fact the top was still spinning?

See I think there was something more than 3 levels down, aside from limbo. I think something was trying to be implied at the end, but I didn't really wrap my head around it because I really didn't think it was that import. The main thing about the movie was trying to plant the inception on the fella, and if he did great. Though the thing he admitted to the younger girl (juno) was the fact he could never see his kid's faces anymore due to being in the dream world.

So to me I'm not quite sure... I think it left the viewer to ask questions and create loop holes and twist. I think though he wasn't.. why would he be?

 

[Madaraki]

1: THAT THING WOBBLED AND STARTED TO FALL, DAMMIT.

At least that's my take because I want a happy ending


2: My favorite parts of this movie were the shots where the outside world/dream was affecting the inside dream (the zero gravity hotel scramble/fight was a jaw-dropper for me). I liked the fact that it was clearly out of whack and spinning, but not dizzyingly so.



Okay, as for the dreaming/time stuff, I'll be honest. It kinda scares me just because of how addictive it could possibly become. Missions and the like would be fine because of a specific goal/focus, but I'd be a bit scared of being an immortal god for years on end only to flash out and realize "aw crap". I'd get too much of a rush out of screwing around with physics and architecture and end up in sedative-man's basement in a week.

 

[SaShman]

The only question most folks don't understand though in the movie was... Was he still dreaming at the end due to the fact the top was still spinning?

My theory is that his kids became his new 'spinning top' in the sense that his kids became his tie to reality. In other words he can't see his kids faces in his dreams but he can in reality.

I really enjoyed the movie but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. I didn't really find it hard to follow but I may have if I wasn't paying attention. However it is a significant standout in comparison to other mainstream films.