If you didn’t watch Inception just yet, do yourself a favor an do it!

I’m making this post to share my own conclusions about it, so please be advised, it’s almost pure SPOILERS.
And even if you don’t mind it, I’d suggest you don’t read it and try first to reach your own conclusions before reading this.
But if you already watched the movie, I do recommend reading the post to compare your conclusions with mine, correct me if I’m wrong, or just try to analyze the movie deeper… it’s what I liked the most about the whole movie.

Posting some of the trailers before I start rambling.

And one more.

Spoilers start here, you’ve been warned!
First of all, let me begin by saying that I usually don’t write movie reviews, but there’s a reason I decided to make this one.
I might be completely wrong on this one, but here’s my reason: I believe most people won’t be able to fully understand the plot complexity or the whole idea which made me admire Christopher Nolan and put this movie among the best of all times in my list.

I already had high expectations about this movie before watching it. The stunningly beautiful and atmospheric soundtrack by one of my favorite composers (Hans Zimmer), a very nice choice for trailer music (, photography from previous Nolan movies, and great actors were enough to make me guess it would be a good movie. But I really wasn’t prepared for the dimension of it!

At first, after watching it I thought it was an awesome movie – costumization, scenarios, crossreferences (M.C. Escher) – but as I was still thinking about the movie, it was only after a bathroom break that it hit me like a train… it was like HOLY F*CK! Most people won’t realize how big the story truly is!

I avoided spoilers like the plague, and I don’t know if other people reached the same conclusions as me (didn’t find anyone else who did, including people who watched it with me), but here goes.

Naturally, after getting home I started reading Wikipedia entries, searching for stuff about the movie. There are nice images out there for those who got confused about the dream levels and characters, such as this one:

(source: http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/film/5-levels-inception-infographic.html )
And this one:

(source: http://dehahs.deviantart.com/#/d2unnlj )

I heard people comparing it to The Matrix, heard and read lots of people discussing the open end, and the fact that Nolan left the spinning totem in the end for viewers to decide it’s end.

But here’s my opinion: There’s only one ending. And even more: Cobb’s totem isn’t something decisive to it… it’s only a tip Nolan left there for people to realise how further down the rabbit’s hole the movie’s plot goes!

One might think this way: But if Cobb’s totem stops spinning, like it almost seemed to do, then it’s proof that he’s not dreaming at all… and that’s the end of that.
What I’m thinking is: If Cobb is still dreaming, it doesn’t matter if his totem stops spinning or not since the whole idea of the totem theory was created into the dream.

The whole movie is a dream. There are few, very well mixed up, and subtle tips there… I’ll have to watch the movie all over again to “fish” some more, but from what I remember:
- Cobb is THE MAN, he’s the best, he travels around the world, everything he does works out, etc;
- Ending is perfect, just as planned, for Cobb and for his almost impossible job;

Now, let’s talk about the plot development. More specifically the climax.
When Cobb reaches the 5th level (Limbo) there are two main things he accomplishes there: The final step to convince Robert Fisher (the Target) that the inception (that his father wanted him to dismantle the company) is real (saving the whole team during that), and coming to terms with Mal’s (his wife) death. This second accomplishment is key to understanding.

Now, to the characters: First, let’s talk about Miles (Cobb’s father in law, mentor and foster parent to Cobb’s children).
He taught everything Cobb knows about dreams, and in the final scenes it seems he knows what’s happening… calling the kids and getting Cobb’s attention.
Miles could be the one behind Cobb’s dream, which some will think as reality.
He has a reason: To make Cobb come in terms with his wife’s death, which in turn will make Cobb overcome his fear of looking his children’s face again. We still can’t know what’s the situation on reality (or I couldn’t grasp it), but it could be a completely different story.
It could be that Miles don’t even know why Cobb can’t look at his children faces, which is why he has to go so far.
But it’s a huge trauma, and an almost impossible task to accomplish.
For that, Miles needs to plant an idea on Cobb’s mind (inception), which leads us to… Ariadne – Miles’ inception to Cobb.

Ariadne, the architect who Miles points out as “better than Cobb”, looks like kind of a nosy student who tries to go after Cobb’s most deep and dark secrets – at one point (Limbo), justified as trying to protect the crew.
On Ariadne’s first test, she goes on a rampage changing the whole dream scene and calling a lot of attention to herself (despite Cobb’s warnings) – which could be interpreted as naiveness… or that Ariadne wanted to do that in the first place to get Mal to show up.
She is the only one who could do that, and it works as a perfect excuse to bring Mal up (and learning more about Cobb’s story), for her to keep warning and giving advices to Cobb about it, leading to Cobb’s confrontation.

So that’s it, though I’m shure I’ll have more to say after watching the movie again.
This is the reason why I admire the movie so much. It’s very rare nowadays for a movie plot to continue after it’s end, to make you want to watch it again not because you didn’t understand, but because maybe there’s more to it you’ll only be able to get on a second look.

And maybe I’m just looking too much into it, and completely wrong. I dunno. Guess only Nolan will be able to tell after all… or if someone finds something that voids my view, I’d be pleased to know about it!

Hope you enjoyed the read and the movie! And please, if you come to agree with me after reading the post, give me credit for it – remember I reached this on my own!
- Renato Murakami