On this period at which the final term is on its way, I watched a movie, in order to refresh stresses and present motivation for studying to me. It took quite a long time to select the appropriate movie. After several minutes wandering around the internet, a movie 'Inception(2010)' was brought up in my mind. In spite of its absolute popularity among people, I had not watched it yet, so I thought it would worth a lot to invest two hours on it. Like other people's reactions, I was not able to say less than AWESOME after watching it, and completely fascinated by it.
The movie's content is really intricate. It talks about stealing other people's minds and thoughts by sharing dreams with them, using an equipment called 'Dream Machine'. The main character of the movie and also an outstanding expert on this field, Cobb(Leonardo Dicaprio) receives a mission to commit 'inception', rather than 'extraction' that he has usually worked on. His duty is to implant thoughts on Fischer(Cillian Murphy)'s subconscious, to disintegrate his firm after finding his father's will. Cobb recruits a team for this project, and in order to solve this difficult task, he designs triple-layered dream, which means a dream within a dream within a dream.
While they are under the project, they face lots of difficulties due to attack of projections. However, the one that most significantly tackles their voyage is projection of Mal, Cobb's dead wife. Cobb spent fifty years with Mal in Limbo constructing a world from their shared memories while seemingly growing old together. Returning to the waking world, they found less than three hours has passed, but Mal, convinced she was still dreaming, committed suicide in order to go back to the reality that she believes. After this incident, Mal started to live in Cobb's subconscious as a sense of guilt, persuading Cobb to stay with her. Eventually, despite his team succeeds the project, Cobb remains in Limbo to save Saito(Ken Watanabe) from Mal, one of his teammates who falls into it. Cobb meets Saito after several years in Limbo, awakens him that he is still dream, and gets him back again to the airplane, in which they first slept. At last, Saito exculpates Cobb from his crime as compensation, and Cobb goes back home, finally meeting his children.
Although it was a bit hard to fully understand content of this movie, it was way much easier than its ending. In the last part of the movie, Cobb rotates his totem at home, and goes balcony to see his children. The totem keep spinning, and it does not stop even until the end of the movie. At first, I was really confused by it, because unstopping totem means that Cobb is still in dream, but of course I thought that Cobb successfully comes back to the reality. In order to get know what Christopher Nolan, the director of the movie, was intending to say, I made several analyses on this ambiguous ending by myself.
Initially, I thought that actually, Cobb himself is the target of the inception. In the front part of the movie, Cobb goes to France in order to meet his father-in-law, who is also an expert of the inception. Instead of giving direct help, his father-in-law introduces Ariadne(Elen Page), one of his students, as an architecture of the dream that Cobb tries to get Fischer in. During the project, Ariadne is exceptionally interested in Cobb's past. Only she meets Mal with Cobb, knows what makes Cobb distracted, and even sees Cobb's totem. After the project ended, and when they are all awake, Cobb finally goes to United States to meet his children, and the one who welcomes him is his father-in-law, who has to be in France. How can he go to United States on time, even without knowing unexpected funeral of Fischer's father? So it seems that Cobb's father-in-law committed the inception to Cobb by introducing Ariadne, in order to help him come back to normal life, and to be freed from guilt that he made Mal die.
Another ending that I thought was just a normal ending; Cobb succeeds his mission, and meets his children in the reality. Then, what about the totem that keeps spinning at the end? Cobb goes out to the balcony to meet his children right after he spins his totem. He does not check whether it stops spinning or not, and it is showed only to audiences. It looks like Cobb does care anymore whether he is still in a dream or he is awake; he is just satisfied with meeting his children that he thought that he would never meet again.
Among these two, it looks like the latter one is much more plausible, as Christopher Nolan also answered during the interview that Cobb comes back to the reality. As I mentioned above, at last, Cobb is not concerned with the place that he is in; he feels okay when he is in right situation that he desires to be in. Likewise, I believe that the movie 'Inception' was trying to give a message to audiences: try to enjoy one's life regardless of surrounding circumstances, and do one's best at every single moment.
Initially, I thought that actually, Cobb himself is the target of the inception. In the front part of the movie, Cobb goes to France in order to meet his father-in-law, who is also an expert of the inception. Instead of giving direct help, his father-in-law introduces Ariadne(Elen Page), one of his students, as an architecture of the dream that Cobb tries to get Fischer in. During the project, Ariadne is exceptionally interested in Cobb's past. Only she meets Mal with Cobb, knows what makes Cobb distracted, and even sees Cobb's totem. After the project ended, and when they are all awake, Cobb finally goes to United States to meet his children, and the one who welcomes him is his father-in-law, who has to be in France. How can he go to United States on time, even without knowing unexpected funeral of Fischer's father? So it seems that Cobb's father-in-law committed the inception to Cobb by introducing Ariadne, in order to help him come back to normal life, and to be freed from guilt that he made Mal die.Another ending that I thought was just a normal ending; Cobb succeeds his mission, and meets his children in the reality. Then, what about the totem that keeps spinning at the end? Cobb goes out to the balcony to meet his children right after he spins his totem. He does not check whether it stops spinning or not, and it is showed only to audiences. It looks like Cobb does care anymore whether he is still in a dream or he is awake; he is just satisfied with meeting his children that he thought that he would never meet again.Among these two, it looks like the latter one is much more plausible, as Christopher Nolan also answered during the interview that Cobb comes back to the reality. As I mentioned above, at last, Cobb is not concerned with the place that he is in; he feels okay when he is in right situation that he desires to be in. Likewise, I believe that the movie 'Inception' was trying to give a message to audiences: try to enjoy one's life regardless of surrounding circumstances, and do one's best at every single moment.
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