The Subconscious 'Inception' Inside Inception

A man with some things on/in his mind. Photo: Warner Bros.

This piece originally ran in 2010. We are republishing it on the occasion of the movie'southward tenth anniversary , alee of the expected release of Christopher Nolan'due south latest tale of corporate espionage, Tenet.

As pretty much anybody knows past at present,Inception'south titular concept is the placement of an idea into a character's subconscious — a notion that the picture presents as being more or less unprecedented. And the plot mostly concerns the efforts of our heroes, led past chief dream extractor Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) to somehow convince Fischer (Cillian Tater), the heir to a major energy titan, to split up his father's empire, without realizing that the idea came from them. Simply since this is a Christopher Nolan picture, we're not convinced information technology's all that simple; the director'due south films almost always turn in on themselves. We remember there might be another inception going on inInception. Needless to say, in that location are spoilers hither, and so yous should probably not read this if y'all oasis't seen the film. (Though if y'all haven't seen the film, y'all probably won't know what the hell we're talking about anyway.)

The process of inception works, we're told, by placing the simplest form of an idea deep into a character's hidden every bit they're dreaming, through a series of suggestions that finer lead the character to "give himself the idea" (in the words of Tom Hardy'south main forger Eames). And the subconscious, nosotros're told, is motivated by emotion, not reason, and that a positive emotion trumps a negative ane. The very deepest level of the hidden is represented by a safe or a vault, inside which the listen keeps its nearly private thoughts and/or memories.

"Do you want to go an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?" These words (or something close to them) are uttered iii times in the pic. The first time, the words are those of Saito (Ken Watanabe), in his helicopter in Kyoto, when he first approaches Cobb nigh the possibility of inception. The second time, information technology'due south in the offset level of Fischer'southward dream, later on Saito has been shot, and Cobb tries to tell him that he'south non going to dice: "You're gonna become an old man," Cobb says, and Saito replies, "Filled with regret." Cobb completes the idea: "Waiting to dice lone." Already, information technology'southward clear that this dialogue has to do with more than this detail moment in the film. It'south also significant that this happens just equally Eames (Tom Hardy), pretending to be Browning (Tom Berenger) is trying to constitute the thought ("incept"?) into Fischer's head that his begetter may accept wanted to separate upward his company. Fischer'south and Cobb'due south fates seem strangely intertwined through the motion-picture show. ("The deeper we get into Fischer, the deeper nosotros go into you," Ariadne says to Cobb.)

The final utterance happens near the end of the film, in Limbo, as Cobb finds the aging Saito. This time, Saito begins the exchange: "I'm an one-time human," he says. "Filled with regret," Cobb replies. At that place's something peculiarly poignant most this scene, coming equally it does on the heels of Cobb having told the shadow of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) that they did abound former together in their dream together on Limbo, many years ago, and that he has to let her go.

This may well be the real "inception." Cobb'due south character has been consumed by regret — regret at what he'southward done to his wife, regret at having abased his children, regret at not being able to render home. In his dreams he's built an elevator (literally!) that stops at floors, each divers by a moment he regrets and that (as Cobb himself explains to Ariadne) he has to "change." This elevator, and its forbidden Basement flooring, which opens to the hotel room where his wife leaped to her expiry, could exist seen as the vault in which Cobb keeps his innermost thoughts, much like the infirmary/hangar where Fischer imagines his father'due south deathbed, or the rubber in Saito's dream-fortress from the before scenes of the film. Interestingly, in Nolan's first movie, Following, ane of the characters is a thief named Cobb who breaks into people's homes and likes to say, "Everybody has their box," referring to a box into which people always identify seemingly random objects that are of sentimental value to them. In Inception, too, everybody has their box — be information technology a safe, a fortified hangar surrounded by armed guards on skis, or a cease on an elevator on which no ane is allowed. In other words, the hotel room where Cobb last saw his wife, which is the forbidden floor on his Dream Elevator of Regret, is his "box."

Regret is the idea that defines Cobb (which makes his recurrent use of the Edith Piaf vocal "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" as a musical countdown to the end of a given dream rather ironic and touching), and in social club for him to be free, he has to defeat information technology. The second office of the message that Cobb and Saito exchange in their terminal scene in Limbo — "Accept a leap of religion. Come up back, so nosotros tin be young men together once more" — is in direct contrast to Mal's want to pull him farther into his dream so that they can grow one-time together. Cobb defeats his regret by finally telling Mal that the two of them did abound erstwhile together in their shared dream. In other words, he fulfilled his wedding hope to her. This is, perhaps, the thing that Cobb once knew simply had forgotten; it's likewise a positive thought that trumps the negative feeling that he betrayed his wife. It seems like a realization on his function when he really says it to her; only it's been basically suggested to him through Saito's repetition of the "old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone" meme.

Then, is Cobb being pulled dorsum to reality by this thought, or is he being prodded further into his dream? That depends, perhaps, on how you view the very finish of the film: At this bespeak, Cobb seems to be finally freed of his regret and of his memory of Mal, and has been reunited with his children. The final shot seems to indicate that he may be yet dreaming (considering his totem keeps spinning). If so, so he has either lost himself in Limbo entirely, or Mal was correct all along, and his world was always a dream.

But whether he's still dreaming may ultimately be irrelevant: The important thing is that Cobb has been freed of his demons, and can now exist reunited with what to him appear to be his real children — be they a projection or reality. Or, as the one-time man in Mombassa puts it, referring to the opium den of dreamers in Yusuf'southward basement: "They come here to be woken up. Their dream has become their reality. Who are you lot to say otherwise?"

The Subconscious 'Inception' Near the End of Inception