Questioning the Reality in Christopher Nolan’s Inception

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One of the most phenomenal film that ever produced by Christopher Nolan is Inception. It was released in 2010 and nominated in the 2011 Oscars in eight different categories, including art direction, cinematography, music (original score), best picture, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, and writing (original screenplay). From all those nominations, the film won four of them which are cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects. As someone who has watched Nolan’s films, apart from Inception, such as Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Prestige (2006), Interstellar (2014), and the latest film Dunkirk (2017), I would say Inception is my second most favorite among Nolan’s films after The Dark Knight Rises.

Inception offers new wonderful ideas that made me interested in my first watching; dream within a dream, controlling dreams, planting ideas, stealing ideas, and sharing dreams. I have never thought of these ideas or concepts before, so this film leaves very good impression for me. These ideas, I believe, were one of several factors that made Inception got the nominations, even won in some of them. Dream, as in my understanding, is supposed to be imaginary events happen in one’s mind during sleep and, which according to Inception, is a part of subconscious mind. Subconscious refers to the part of consciousness which the person is unaware of. It is information that the person known, heard, seen, or met without their knowing. This is where the film takes place; subconscious mind, with the proposed concept that the person is able to control the dream. The purpose for the characters in Inception is, as the definition of the word itself, planting idea to one’s mind within his subconscious which later might subconsciously change his thinking of a certain idea. Cobb, the main character, also said that this idea would likely to define the person and it might change everything about him.

Now that I have wider knowledge than when I was in my first watching, I begin to be more interested in questioning the reality pictured in Inception. Throughout the movie, Cobb constantly has problems in deciding what is real, especially if he meets Mal, his dead wife. Cobb has a ‘totem’, an item that only he knows exactly about, which tells him whether he is in the dream world or in the real world. His totem is a top which spins forever in the dream world but eventually stops in the real world. Cobb was once experienced living in the dream world with Mal for fifty years; they built their own world, spent their whole lifetime there because the dream world offers things that the real world does not. In reality, we cannot build home without having money, we cannot do this or that because they are prohibited. However, in the dream world, everything becomes possible. In Cobb and Mal’s case, they spent their time there happily only with their little family, until the point where Mal began to recognize the dream world as her reality. I believe, this is the real value or intention that the film is trying to say to the audience; what is your reality?

For me, Inception feels deeper than only film with amazing cinematography and well done visual effects—of course, the film possesses great technique in the producing aspect. Inception tries to make the readers question themselves of what are their reality. For Mal, her reality is the dream world he built with Cobb. However, for Cobb, he slowly started to realize that his (or their) reality was out there; not the dream world. No matter how beautiful the dream world was, or how every single thing became possible there, that was not the reality. He became to step out into his reality where his real children were waiting for him in his (or their) real home in the real world. Now if we think about it, for the people like Cobb and Mal who can control their dream, the dream world is perhaps so much better than the real world. They can get everything they want, they do not suffer from the pain they can get in the real world. It can be concluded that leaving the dream world is very hard to do, but Cobb did it. Why? That is what the film is trying to suggest. The reality is out there; no matter how painful it is, no matter how chaotic the world is, that is the beauty of reality. Imperfect, but real.

For such film with very deep messages for the audiences, I strongly believe that Inception deserved to be concluded in the nominations. It is actually a bit disappointing for me to find out that the film did not win in the writing (original screenplay) category. I think the ideas offered, the plot line and the messages are very great. Of course, they still deserved to be the winner in visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing categories. Technique wise, the film does not disappoint at all. The most unforgettable one for me is the hallway fight scene, the zero gravity scene done by the character Arthur—played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This scene is very iconic I cannot even think about how the crew could pull it off. I do not exactly know how the scene was done, but it was greatly done. Arthur really seemed like floating in the air, walked on the wall and the roof, and most importantly, during a fight! Arthur was in the fight with Fischer’s subconscious projections and he did fight while floating. I praised the crew who worked and thought hard of this scene, but I really admired the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt who really pulled off the scene. For the additional information, he also played in The Dark Knight Rises which is also produced by Nolan.

Throughout the film, the audiences are served with great visual effects and cinematography which of course are accompanied by well done sound mixing and editing. Because the setting of the film is in the dream world which makes anything becomes possible, it is expected to prove the idea—which makes it harder to be done. Many of great scenes are served in the film. Therefore, I believe Inception unquestionably deserved the awards.

One more thing I want to highlight is the ending. What is up with the ending?

Inception ends happily with the team succeed in planting the idea in Fischer’s subconscious mind. The team soon leaves the airport and goes back to their own lives without talking or greeting as if they do not know each other. Then Cobb successfully came back home to meet his children. The most controversial scene was, while waiting for his children to show up, Cobb span his totem on the table. However, before he knew whether his totem stopped or not, he got distracted because his children came and called him. After that, the shoot moved closer to the totem which was still spinning, then it all turned black. The audience left hanging in the thought of did the totem stop or not. Many theories arose from this ending scene which some of them said that the totem stopped because Cobb came back to the real world, but some others argued that the totem was still spinning because actually Cobb was still in the dream world. For me, this is the beauty of having a hanging ending scene; the audiences are welcomed to have their own interpretations toward how the film ended. Personally, I would like to believe that Cobb came back to the real world because that is the whole film is about; for Cobb to finally came back to his reality.

Looking from the ideas and concepts brought by the film and from technique wise, Inception really deserved to be nominated and be the winners of the 2011 Oscars. It proposes amazing and wonderful ideas which are accompanied by great qualities of technique.