Inception; a Beginner’s Breakdown
“Inception,” a science fiction film written and directed by ‘Christopher Nolan’, renowned for his Hollywood blockbusters characterized by their intricate and complex storylines, delivers yet another cinematic masterpiece.
In “Inception”, the protagonist Cobb and his team navigate through a multi-layered shared dream space, carefully planting an ‘idea’ (quite literally) inside a human mind.
Though given the inherent complexity of the film, it often leaves viewers confused. Below is a full breakdown of the film “Inception” for dummies.
(Note: Each Dream level is broken down individually for optimum understanding.)
What you need to know:
- The Architect :Designs the layout of the dream world and its elements.
- The Dreamer :Constructs and maintains a specific dream level.
- The Subject :Populates the dream space with elements from their subconscious.
- A Shared dream space :A space occupied by multiple individuals ( the above three) in a dream together.
The events depicted in “Inception” take place within a dream and are analogous to real dreams (such as the concept of time dilation; time passes slowly in dreams and kicks; a sudden jolt required to wake up).
- A dream within a dream :Represents different levels of psychological depth (layers of subconscious mind).
Introduction:
Dom Cobb, a thief who specializes in stealing ideas by invading a subject’s mind through their dreams, is now tasked with planting an idea in his client’s mind in exchange for a safe return to his kids.
The subject is “Maurice Fisher”, a direct competitor of “Mr Satio”. Satio wishes to perform inception—planting an idea in one’s mind—upon Fisher to break apart his father’s empire.
Now, this is an incredibly difficult task because a human mind is exceptionally intelligent at tracing back to the genesis of idea; its inspiration,it cannot just accept that an idea came from nothing, therefore, to plant the idea, the inspiration for it must be so precisely engineered that the mind accepts it as that of its own and lets its grow inside it like ‘a subtle art’.
Therefore, Ariadne, a dream architect, is hired who learns to architect dreams by creating false circumstances (specific to the subject) to manipulate the mind into being comfortable and accepting the artificial dream as its own. Since dream state is the most vulnerable state of the mind, the mind can now be used as desired.
Now upon hooking Cobb, his team and the subject to a special device and being sedated at the same time, they all enter the artificially architected ‘subject’s dream’ together.
Dream Level 1:
Scene: A raining city
The initial obstacle they encounter is armed gunmen, generated as a defense mechanism of the Fisher’s subconscious mind (Fisher is equipped with ‘dream defense training’) .This mechanism aggressively repels any external intrusion, safeguarding against unwanted interruptions.
Moreover, In this level, Fisher is manipulated into believing he is kidnapped, with the kidnappers demanding a ‘hidden safe’ as ransom. He is also ‘led’ to believe they are torturing Browning, his godfather, for the same purpose. However, the entire scenario is carefully set up to introduce him to the idea of a ‘secret will’ inside of a ‘safe’, of which he had been previously unaware. Nevertheless, all of this is fabricated, merely part of a greater ruse.
(Note: The idea of a ‘secret will’ is being implanted.)
Now, to integrate this idea so deep that he believes it’s his own, it needs to be placed in the furthest level of his mind, ensuring he never questions its origin (because he strongly believes it originated from him and not an external source).
Therefore, after executing the first part of the plan, the others, except the dreamer in this level; Yousef, who is left to maintain this dream level and drive around to prevent being killed by the gunmen, are sedated again to descend to a second dream level.
(Note: One must be sedated to proceed to deeper dream levels.)
Dream level 2:
Scene: A fancy hotel
Now, the second part of the plan is carried out where Cobb ‘leads’ Fisher to believe he is dreaming (this is done by bringing his attention to dream and it’s elements) and is currently in a shared dream space with his kidnappers and Browning. The events in level one are reality and that his kidnappers have sedated him to extract information from his brain. However, Cobb reassures Fisher not to worry as he is a 'security projection'—a projection from his subconscious to help him fight ‘external intrusion’ as a result of his dream defense training.
Moreover, he also helps Fisher to ‘figure out’ that the kidnappers are actually set up by Browning to obstruct his access to the ‘safe’, which holds the ‘will’, revealing his father’s desire to dismantle his empire. This is because he believed ‘Fisher should become his own man’.
Furthermore, Cobb suggests that in order to better understand Browning’s plot against him, they must find him inside the shared dream space ‘Fisher is currently in’ and forcefully enter his mind (a dream within a dream).Consequently, Fisher voluntarily offers to be sedated, and they proceed to enter dream level three, leaving behind the dreamer (Arthur for this level) to maintain the dream.
It’s important to note that Browning is not real; he is one of the team members impersonating him.
Dream level 3:
Scene: Snow Fortress Hospital
Immediately upon descending to this level, they are led in an intense chase by fisher’s projections (them being more alert than ever as the mind feels threatened).Nevertheless, Fisher reaches the hospital ready to meet his ‘dying father’ and inception can finally happen.
But an unexpected visitor, Mal; Cobb’s deceased wife—a projection driven by Cobb’s emotional turmoil and constant guilt—disrupts the entire plan and shoots Fisher.
Now dying in a dream would usually result in a human waking up, but since they are so heavily sedated, dying now means descending into limbo.
Therefore, Fisher has been sent to limbo, along with Satio who has died due to his gun wound (he had been shot by the gunmen on level one).
Limbo; Farthest level down:
Limbo is the deepest dream level of a shared dream space, consisting of physical manifestation of raw subconscious (fears, desires, memories and other physical subconscious manifestations).Therefore, when you enter limbo, you might find remnants of manifestations of someone you are sharing the dream with that previously had been trapped in there before (in this particular case, Cobb and Mal).
Moreover, Limbo feels exceptionally real and is almost indistinguishable from reality, with time dilation so extreme that mere moments in the real world translate to infinite hours within Limbo.
But to get the job done and Cobb safely returning to his kids, Saito and Fisher need to be rescued from limbo, therefore, Adriane and Cobb sedate themselves again and enter limbo.
Upon entering limbo, they find themselves amongst the physical world of the raw subconscious of Cobb and Mal.
They had previously constructed this elaborate dream world within the depths of their subconscious minds, essentially creating their own shared reality within the dream. However, over time, Mal had come to think of it as paradise and convinced herself that limbo was her reality. In an attempt to help, Cobb performed inception on her (their current world is a fake one), ultimately persuading her to kill themselves.
(Note: When in limbo, one must kill themselves to wake up in the real world.)
But now, even in the real world, the planted idea inside Mal’s mind continued to grow, gradually taking control of her meaning she still believed they were trapped inside limbo and had to ‘kill themselves’ to wake up. Consequently, she framed a plan, and to convince Cobb to do the same, she had consulted three different psychotherapists, all of whom deemed her 'sane’ and had already contacted the police, expressing her fear of ‘Cobb killing her’.
Therefore, Mal was now dead, and the only way he’d get back to his kids (as promised by Satio) was if he escapes Mal when he enters limbo, rescues Fisher and Satio and successfully performs inception on level three, where a fake scenario has already been set up for it to take place.
Now in Limbo, Adriane and Cobb reach the house Mal and Cobb had built together, this is because Cobb knows in an effort to get him to stay inside limbo’, she has kidnapped Fisher.
She cries and begs him to stay, manipulating him that ‘this is the only reality that exists’ where they’ll live happily ever after with their ‘real kids’.
Meanwhile, Adriane finds Fisher and gives him his kick; one kick to the dreaming self by killing him whilst simultaneously Eames-a team member- administers a kick to Fisher’s sleeping self back on level three.
But ,what are kicks?
It’s that feeling of falling you get that jolts you awake. It snaps you out of a dream-Cobb
To wake up from a basic dream, a simple kick; a jolt/push is required. This can either be administered to the sleeping body (jolting the person awake physically) or to the dreaming self (dying inside a dream).
However, things get complex when people are heavily sedated.
To wake up from a multi-dream level, two kicks, one to the dreaming self and one to the sleeping body, must be administered simultaneously in accordance with the time dilation specific to the level.
(The precise calculations for time dilation are quite complex, but here’s what you need to understand: Time moves more slowly as you go deeper into the levels.)
Now, Back on Level three:
Therefore, after Fisher rides his kick back to level three, he is all set to step into the final part of the ruse: to enter the hospital room.
Inside he ‘meets his father’, this is where Fisher opens the ‘safe’, holding the ‘will’, revealing his father’s desire for him to ‘become his own man’.
Inception has finally happened, he now believes the idea to be a real event from his past.
After the course of events, Fisher, Eames, and Adriane (who has synchronized a kick for herself from limbo) ride a series of kicks back to reality. They start by riding a kick to level two by blowing up the snow fortress hospital, then another one back to level one by blowing up everyone inside an elevator, and finally, the last one back to reality by drowning everyone inside the van.
Back in Limbo:
Back in the world of raw subconscious, Cobb sets off to find Satio, though this takes him years (mere moments translate to infinite hours).
Alas, Cobb finds him and reminds him of their agreement, and they both kill themselves.
And wake up to reality?
Back to reality?
Satio makes the phone call, which releases all charges held against Cobb, and he safely returns back to his kids.
Though, just as he reaches home, he spins his totem, an object that tells whether you’re inside a dream or in real life, but walks away without checking the result, as audience we do not find out whether the previous series of events occurred inside his dream or in real life, but he does not care anymore; he just wants to be with his kids.
THE END.
