Inception is a mind bender. At the same time, when followed intently from beginning to end, the expedition of dreams that the movie is, kindles the mind and encourages it to explore the topic. Which is what it has set off in my case.
The movie is based on the concept of complex dreams with deep interpretations, blended with stunning set pieces, visuals, locales and racy action. A great package that ensures your focus doesn’t stray – it is an experience that draws you in.
A team headed by Leo Di Caprio sets out to plant an idea in the subject’s (son of a wealthy millionaire) mind. They find that he’s going on a 10 hour flight. They get onto that flight (the man who hires him buys that flight – but now let me not drift into the main story – I want to talk about all the dreaming) and sedate him by slipping a sedative into his drinking water. Now I will not talk about the idea – I want to focus on the process.
The team connects the subject and themselves to a device, go into sleep and have a shared dream. The dream is complex – it has three whole layers – and while planting their idea, they have to convince the subject that it has not come from an outside source, but has been generated by himself – and in the third stage he is convinced of that and the idea is finally planted.
There is a dream architect (played by Ellen Page – Juno fame) who constructs the subject’s dreams while sharing the dream. Thanks to this fascinating fictitious (is it or is it not? I sooo want to believe it!) concept, the director gets the chance to include some brilliant set pieces and have them crumble in mind blowing sequences symbolizing the end of a shared dream.
There are some rules to inception of an idea – one must not build dreams or dream architecture on past memories – but Di Caprio’s past memories keep slipping in – his wife keeps appearing in his dreams and messing up things by shooting characters (the reasons I shall not elaborate on – I want to get to the ideas I derived). Also if one dies during a dream he/she may move into limbo – a permanent dream state.
During the second level of the dream, the millionaire’s son is shot by the wife and is very close to death. The team tries to save the mission by reviving him through defibrillation –risking going further into his dream and making things more complex - but succeeds. He proceeds to the next level. And all ends well.
The director, Christopher Nolan has beautifully expressed the concept of a dream within a dream and the end of each dream, layer by layer and how the conditions of the surroundings in the first dream affect the second dream – fascinating ideas and mind blowing interpretations.
Inception inspired me to read about shared dreaming and other concepts. Shared dreaming exists and there are a lot to learn about dreams. There is a treatment called hypnotherapy – which cures people of depression and other such problems by putting them into a hypnotic state, helping them discover their past life – and apparently the events in the past life are linked to those in the present.
Apparently you can have control over your dreams – if you are aware that you are dreaming – I think it happened to me too. I have slept, dreamt, been woken up for a few seconds, then gone back to the dream and this time, what I thought for a second was what continued in that dream – at least that was the way it began – and I want it to happen again.
I want to give the profession of dream architecture a shot (wink). I want to try and be the architect of my mind – in the sense that I want to organise my mind, create space to stow away memories and retrieve them – am I getting too carried away? I don’t know. I am also being inspired by the famous character Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), who, according to Thomas Harris’ book ‘Hannibal Rising’ has a ‘memory palace’ which he was taught to create, by his tutor – where he stores away memories in innumerable chambers and retrieves them when he wants. Well, is it possible for me to create something like that? Or a percentage of something as complex as that? I sure want to explore.
Inception is a near-masterpiece that sets off deep thoughts, the thirst to explore them. We’re discovering the power of dreams more and more & this is a fantastic theme that has emerged at the right time. Inception has been the start to my deeper journey into dreams and I hope to discover a lot more. I also hope to catch every movie as brilliant as Inception in its genre.
1 comment:
yes, it definitely is a mind blowing concept. i loved the movie for that, for trying something as complex as dreams, although i felt in few places that the movie is far from perfect. it did not give me the wholesome feeling that the dark knight gave.
Good luck with dream architecture :)
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