My take on Inception

I’m sure there are lots of people with lots of theories for the movie Inception.. I haven’t read any and just saw the movie 30 minutes ago. I’m sure my quotes aren’t verbatim, but heres my take:

*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***

Theory:

The entire “real world” in the movie is a dream. We’ll call it Layer 0 (Since they go 3 layers deep in the movie). Cobb represents himself, all others are projections of his subconscious which, as he says, he cannot control. The entire movie is a battle between his conscious and subconscious. Overall theme = is ignorance bliss?

Key Roles:

Cobb = His conscious self

- All rules are “set” by him.
- Only he “breaks” the rules.
- He’s the top Extractor in his world.
- Its ALWAYS about him.
- Cobb’s totem is a top, representing him spinning himself around within a false reality, and he never stops spinning.

Ariadne = a free version of him

- Can do what Cobb won’t let himself do
- Inner child/innocence.
- Cobb brings her into his path, helps him control/own himself. Professor states this before introducing him to her. He has to own her role to progress.

Saito = Aspect of Himself from a higher layer (call it layer -1 / true reality)

- The only person within the world that has control over Cobb.
- He sets the original test and determines worthiness, which Cobb fails (foreshadowing)
- He has the power to give Cobb what he wants, or force him to fail in his path.
- Old man in Limbo, almost forced to “die alone”
- Has to fulfill his agreement to Cobb.

Fischer = The battle between his conscious and subconscious

- Fights against himself
- Cobb has to play him to get hat he wants i.e. Cobb has to convince himself to believe what he wants to believe.

Mal = His active subconscious, the “messenger” between conscious and subconscious

- Represents the knowledge that Cobb deep down knows but wants to bury and forget, that his world is a dream.
- Is buried and stated “locked in” by false memories
- Its stated that Mal is his inseparable other half.

Plot:

Movie starts with Cobb failing due to Mal intercepting in dream. Mal is protecting Saito which represents a wise, real Cobb in a higher level who knows. Saito considers Cobb’s proposal and states this was all a test and Cobb failed (forshadowing). Cobb is forced into a situation where he must face Saito’s presented dilemma. Most of the main part of the movie is Cobb fighting with his subconscious, to determine what will ultimately become of him. Fischer represents the same thing Cobb is doing to himself, and just like it is stated that catharsis is most powerful in changing Fischer, catharsis for Cobb is moving beyond Mal and ultimately seeing his children.. It allows both Fisher and Cobb to live a life based on a false premise. Saito is injured as he is then incapable of choosing for Cobb, and beyond presenting the dilemma of choice, only plays a contributing role at the end. Cobb also plants the “inception” in Mal shows that the real Cobb knows the truth, and has to fight himself to an extreme to bury it, as inceptions are powerful, grow and can “come to define or destroy a man”. Everything happening to each character represents the issues Cobb has with himself, such as Mal locking away a truth = him locking away the same truth. In the end, despite Mal trying to convey the message that his reality is a dream and convince him, Cobb fights so hard and chooses to stay in a world thats a bit too perfect. His desire to remain ignorant and denial is so strong and he fights what he otherwise knows “deep inside” that he may be happier that way. Cobb can’t make a leap of faith, and so his chosen ignorance is his bliss. And so at the end, when he looks at the spinning top about to go awry, it seems about to fall until he looks at his “too perfect” children. Then when he looks away, it’s spinning perfectly in the center (away from where it was before), signifying he is still in a dream but he has decided what he wants to believe after being given the choice.

Hmm, that’s my theory at least. If you assume the theory and the key roles, I think you’ll see that all the key details within the movie fall into place to support it. To me the whole movie is a macro look at the process someone goes through when they choose ignorance as bliss and fight what they know to deny something they aren’t happy with or to avoid facing uncertainty and make a leap of faith. The only uncertain gap I see is what type of reality would drive Cobb to bury himself in a false one to determinedly? Well perhaps its what Saito says in the beginning and in the end to convince Cobb to make a choice: He doesn’t want to be fated to become “old and die alone, waiting for something that will never come.” The same fear we all have, on some level, and the same fear that often drives us to accept lives that are often not what we dreamed, yet convince ourselves is best.