INCEPTIONGroup: Elijah CArter, Julio Rosales, Kevin Wang, stephen huang,

victor hsiao

meaning Emotional:

Puzzlement and confusion, yet clarity at the end for those that pay attention

References: Dreamscape: movie about a man who can

project himself into dreamsMatrix: dream world that everyone lives in

and thinks is real

meaning Explicit:

Dreams vs Reality○ Totems - an object that you can use to see if

you are in a dream Implicit

Anything can happen in a dream○ Ariadne and Arthur create various paradoxes○ Van in slow motion while rain in normal speed○ Instantaneous production of an object○ Gravity relation to each sublevel. ○ Law of Physics broken constantly

Is it a good story Unified story

Revolves around Cobb’s internal conflict and want to get home to children

Credible/Plausible: Yes and NoShared Dreaming“Kick” aka Hypnic Jerk

Externally Observable Truths“Kick”

Is it a good story Human Nature

Obsession:○ Mal’s belief of fake reality

Guilt/Sorrow:○ Cobb’s guilt and sorrow for Mal’s death

Love:○ Cobb’s internal conflict with Mal and want to

be with children○ Fischer’s internal love of Fischer Sr.

Handles Emotional Material w/ RestraintYes

Themes/tropes It’s difficult to distinguish between what’s

real and what’s not. Obsession Love Guilt and Sorrow

Intent/message Belief

“Take a leap of faith” Human nature

Some things that can’t be controlled Consequences of Miscommunication

Cobb’s subconscious

Metaphor The film is a metaphor for the way

Nolan works as a director, and he’s ultimately saying is that the catharsis found in a dream is as real as the catharsis found in a movie is as real as the catharsis found in life. Inception is about the making of movies, and cinema is the shared dream that truly interests the director

Symbolism Mazes & Labyrinths

Cobb lost in maze of guilt Ariadne

Guide; based on Greek story of leading Theseus through a maze to kill the Minotaur

Symbolism continued

Pinwheel - Fischer & His Fatherchanges Fischer’s perspective of his

relationship with his father Water (passing between worlds)

Intro, ‘the Kick’, Rain, Drinks, The bridge, Limbo

Freight train - (Mal)Burdens and troubles

Subplots Cobb & Mal Cobb & His Children Fischer, Browning, & Fischer’s Father Saito & Fischer’s father

Title/opening credits Inception

Incept – means commence from latin incipere

Opening Credits:Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, Syncopy

○ Syncopy logo in a maze like format

Story Cobb and Mal experimented with dreaming

and ended up in limbo, killed themselves to get out, used inception on Mal to convince her that their world wasn’t real, leading to her suicide and Cobb’s departure from America and his children

Still feels guilty, hence Mal’s projection, tries to get back home, by doing illegal jobs.

Does job for Saito to get back home and reconciles his guilt with Mal.

plot Cobb wakes up on a beach and is taken

to a house of an old man, who reveals that they have met before.

*Flashback* At some other time, Cobb and Arthur try

to perform corporate espionage on Mr. Saito, but are thwarted by Mal.

They try to interrogate Saito again, but is revealed that they were in another dream

plot Cobb is approached by Saito with a job

offer to perform “inception” to convince the heir of a company rival, Fischer, to break up the empire.

He accepts the job and goes to recruit his team.

In France, a discussion reveals that Cobb can’t go home legally for reasons unknown

plot Team:

Ariadne – architect that creates labyrinths for the dreams

Eames – identity forgerYusuf – chemist that formulates the sedative

used for the jobSaito – joining to make sure the job is done

correctly During planning the inception, Ariadne

finds out the conflict inside of Cobb with his wife, Mal.

plot The plan starts when Fischer Sr. dies

and Fischer Jr. goes along to see over the funeral.

Entering Yusuf’s dream, they ‘kidnap’ Fischer but their plan has a wrench thrown into it via freight train and armed henchmen who fatally wound Saito.

While Eames talks to Fischer, Cobb reveals to Ariadne that Mal committed suicide

plot After “interrogating” Fischer, they enter

dream layer two. Using the “Mr. Charles” trick, Cobb

manages to convince Fischer that they are on the same side.

Fischer’s projects an image of Browning that is betraying him.

They go under again, leaving Arthur behind.

plot Yusuf is having trouble with the henchmen

on level one, meanwhile, Arthur is dealing with various security of the hotel.

Dream level three is a mountain security outpost with a vault of Fischer’s secrets (key to inception).

First ‘kick’ is missed, setting up for second Fischer is killed by Mal, goes to limbo. Cobb and Ariadne go to limbo to retrieve

him

Plot Cobb explains what they did in limbo Eames and Arthur set up for second

‘kick’ in their dream levels Ariadne and Cobb find Mal and Fischer,

Cobb talks to Mal, reveals that Cobb was responsible for idea.

Saito dies. Ariadne gives Fischer the ‘kick’, shoots

Mal

plot Fischer talks to his projection father Breaks down and cries ‘Kicks’ occur, leaving Saito and Cobb in

limbo Revealed that Cobb and Mal lived for

decades in limbo Fischer decides to break up company Cobb reminds Saito about their

agreement, return to reality.

Plot Saito makes phone call, Cobb makes it

through security Cobb gets home and spins top to check

for reality, sees kids, looks away from top as it continues to spin.

Characterizationmain Characters Cobb

Job: ExtractorMeaning: Thief- Cobb was the name of

Christopher Nolan’s first film character who was a thief

Untrustworthy characterNot as skilled in the real world as he is in the

dream world

CharacterizationMain CHaracters Ariadne

Job: ArchitectMeaning: Women who helped guidePerson who audience identifies withAsks all the questions that the audience

wants to knowCurious to search the world

Characterizationmain Characters Mal

Job: “The Shade”Meaning: in Spanish: Bad, demon of

darkness/ hostileKey noir reference character

Characterizationmain Characters Arthur

Manages and does research on the mark Eames

“forger”; can become people in dreams once mannerisms are learned

Yusuf“chemist”; supplies sedative for the dream

within a dream state Saito

Businessman who employs Cobb

CharacterizationMinor Characters Cobb’s Children

Wore different clothes and were different children in the beginning and in the end

Kids are a combination of Dream and memorylike normal humans whotry to visualize things

Cobb’s Children Difference

Motivation Cobb is presented with an extraction mission

that he first turns down. Yet, when he is offered the chance to reunite with his children he quickly changes his mind and accepts the offer. This motivating factor drives Cobb to remain focused on creating and executing the mission. Later, Cobb is motivated by the fact that he has no other choice but to finish this mission, if he wants to be reunited with his children and to resolve his conflict with Mal.

motif Time changing

Ex: 5 minutes = 1 hour, top spinning. All dreams start spontaneously with no

sense of beginning. Totem

TopWedding ring

Penrose Steps Music

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien

setting Mombasa

Similar to the dreams; labyrinth Rain, hotel, and snow are used to

differentiate dream levelsOther than that, we don’t know where the

dreams are taking place.City = general, Hotel = smaller, more

specific, Mountain security outpost = precise and specific

Dialogue/Quotes “Take a leap of faith”

The idea is related to real life and how you really don’t know what comes next

Ending refers to how you need to take a leap of faith and chose whether it was reality or a dream

“I built a house”Cobb’s son saying this last line of movieReferences to how the movie is about

architects and everybody is building

Point of View Entire movie is mostly from the point of

view of Cobb, albeit restrictedAriadne helps us see the entire story

Ariadne aims many questions at Cobb, thus representing the audience and helps provide narration via Cobb.

Important Scene Final scene where Cobb comes to terms

with his reality and finally confronts the death of his wife

See’s his children finally Cobb doesn’t care anymore about

whether it was reality or not

Questions?