Group: 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 dreams
 Matrix: 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 No
 Shared 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/ Restraint
 Yes
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 Father
 changes 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 forger
 Yusuf – chemist that formulates the sedative
used for the job
 Saito – 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.

Characterization
main Characters

Cobb
 Job: Extractor
 Meaning: Thief- Cobb was the name of
Christopher Nolan’s first film character who
was a thief
 Untrustworthy character
 Not as skilled in the real world as he is in the
dream world
Characterization
Main CHaracters

Ariadne
 Job: Architect
 Meaning: Women who helped guide
 Person who audience identifies with
 Asks all the questions that the audience
wants to know
 Curious to search the world
Characterization
main Characters

Mal
 Job: “The Shade”
 Meaning: in Spanish: Bad, demon of
darkness/ hostile
 Key noir reference character
Characterization
main 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
Characterization
Minor 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 memory
like normal humans who
try 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

 Top
 Wedding 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 levels
 Other 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 movie
 References 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 restricted
 Ariadne 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?