Inception: Difference between revisions

*** There seems to be a wide variety of sedatives that can be used for various purposes. The sedative mentioned here, that leaves inner-ear function intact, is but one example. Another is the sedative used when Cobb and Arthur {{spoiler|enter Saito's dreamed dream at the start of the film}}, that leaves the dreamers able to feel water. The sedative used on the train does not appear to have any sensory gaps, aside from a vague sense of hearing.

** In the movie it is mentioned that the technology was first created for military applications as a training simulation.

* [[Arc Number]]: 528-491. Amusingly, it means absolutely ''nothing'', being just the first six numbers Fischer thought of. As they go deeper and deeper into the dreams, though, Fischer's subconscious starts giving them importance, because hey, he was thinking about those six numbers.

* [[Arc Words]]:

** Ariadne. At least she gives off the vibe. Plus she designs all the dream levels, complex enough that if Mal hadn't showed up to screw everything up, the mission most likely would have gone smoothly.

* [[Badass Crew]]: The Inception team. ''Especially'' Arthur and Eames.

* [[Batman Gambit]]:

** "Mr. Charles" -- {{spoiler|In the second layer of the dream, Cobb tricks Fischer Jr. into participating in the inception plan by convincing him that his godfather Browning is the one that's really invading his dream}}. This plan would only attract attention from the hostile projections once they become aware they're in a dream, thus increasing the danger for everyone involved. Indeed, it's actually shown that last time this was tried, it backfired ''horribly'' for Cobb, Arthur, and their crew.

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: The French song used as a signal to wake up is about letting go of the past. Due to the language's love of double negatives, it could be literally translated to "I regret nothing of nothing:" how can one regret something that only took place in a dream? Also, although that part may not be audible in the film, the song famously goes on to say "(I don't regret) any of the evil/hurt inflicted to me" with the word for "evil/hurt" being... ''[[Meaningful Name|mal]]''. [[It Gets Better]]: Marion Cotillard, playing Mal in Inception, impersonated Edith Piaf (singer of the aforementioned French song) in ''La Vie en rose'', the movie that gave her an Oscar (and thus made her known to American audiences).

** Regarding the "double negative" above: repeating a word (especially an adjective or an adverb) in the "X de X" construction is commonly used as an intensifier. While "I regret nothing of nothing" is a possible (if unlikely) translation for "rien de rien", it's really closer to "I ''really'' don't regret anything."

* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: The further down into the dream world you go, the more bizarre it gets.

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: No major character is perfectly morally upstanding in these movies. The "good guys" are very manipulative, deceptive, and arguably even downright [[Good Is Not Nice|cruel]] at times in pursuit of their goals. Then there are the good guys' targets (or "bad guys" if you think they are bad enough to be distinguished from the "good" ones) who are considering maintaining a dangerous corporate monopoly, which is part of what drives the other side to resort to such ethically questionable methods in the first place.

* [[Come With Me If You Want to Live]]: Saito does this to Dom. In a subversion, Dom (as Mr. Charles) does it to Fischer, albeit it's "if you want your secrets kept safe."

* [[The Constant]]: Played straight with the "totems." Inverted with everything else in the world around them. Furthermore, if you believe the entire film was a dream {{spoiler|the totems have no meaning, and everything is nonconstant.}}

* [[The Con Within a Con]]: Well, if you view "incepting" and "extracting" as cons then Fischer is basically conned by being tricked into attempting to extract information from Browning.

* [[Cool Car]]: The Hummer with treads used by the guards of the snow fortress.

* [[Enemy Within]]: Mal, or more accurately Cobb's projection of his guilt from {{spoiler|injecting an idea into Mal's mind that ended up driving her to kill herself over and over; once in each level of dreaming and finally, as she didn't realize it when she woke up in what Cobb believes is reality, in actuality.}}

* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: If [http://roman-numerals.tumblr.com/post/3559671571/this-story-has-no-proof-of-course-only-the-word this] is to be believed.

* [[Epic Movie]]: An all-star cast. Years and years in the making. Large nonuple-digit budget. From the director of ''[[The Dark Knight]]''. This fits the trope to a T.

* [[Epiphany Therapy]]: {{spoiler|At the climax of the film, Cobb finally summons up the courage to confront his projection of Mal and accept the fact that she is dead.}}

** Possibly the single most awesome fight scene ever to appear in anything ever, when Arthur takes on the man in the spinning ''corridor''. Made even cooler with little CG necessary for said fight. The hallway was a giant rotating set, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did all of his own stunts in the sequence.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: If you meddle with someone's dream too much, all the nice not-real people (and architecture) start getting feral. And they always know who's doing it. And sometimes, {{spoiler|what's effectively [[Silent Hill|Pyramid Head]] finds her way in.}}

* [[The Faceless]]: Cobb's kids. Justified, since they are the projection of Cobb's memory -- specifically, his last memory of them, when they didn't turn around to look at him. He vehemently refuses to make them turn around in the dreams, because when he sees his children again he wants it to be for real. {{spoiler|In the end, Cobb finally sees his children's faces. [[Mind Screw|Or does he?]]}}

* [[Fake Nationality]]: [[Cillian Murphy]], an Irishman, playing the Australian (judging by his passport) or American (judging by his accent; he could well be of mixed heritage) Robert Fischer. Presumably this applies to English actor Pete Postlethwaite (who plays Fischer's father) and [[Ellen Page]] as well, but their characters don't have their nationalities stated outright. Another possible example is Indian American Dileep Rao, who plays a vaguely Arab character called Yusuf.

{{quote| '''Ariadne:''' They're still looking at us.<br />

'''Arthur:''' [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|Yeah, it was worth a shot]]. }}

* [[Meaningful Echo]]:

** Dom's repetition of Saito's words about dying alone as an old man, filled with regret.

* [[Meaningful Name]]:

** "Cobb" means "dream" in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. It was also the name of a gentleman thief in ''[[Following]]'', Nolan's first feature film.

** "Mal" is a word in French, Spanish, Portuguese and other Romance languages, which can be used in different contexts to mean "bad", "evil", "hurt", "pain" or "sick".

** Yusuf is the Arabic variant of Joseph (the one who famously interpreted Pharaoh's dreams in [[The Bible]]).

** Fischer's name may be a reference to the Arthurian legend of the [[Fisher King]], whose kingdom physically changes to parallel his wounds and suffering; this is appropriate given that much of the film takes place within his troubled mental landscape. Also, "Robert Fischer" was the name of the famous chess player.

** '''D'''om, '''R'''obert, '''E'''ames, '''A'''rthur, '''M'''al, '''S'''aito.

** The trailer made the movie look like a lot more of a [[Mind Screw]] than it actually was.

* [[NGO Superpower]]: The protagonists are trying to stop Fischer's company from becoming this.

* [[Noodle Incident]]:

** Every aspect of the dream sharing technology is kept purposefully vague. There are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEItJLwvsF0 a few interviews online] that [[All There in the Manual|set up the plot]]. Cobb's father-in-law is noted as the inventor of the technology. Apparently, the technology was outlawed or regulated some time ago because of some unspecified incident.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Cobb's expression in the 2nd dream-state when he hears broken glass {{spoiler|which brings to his mind the night Mal killed herself}} which results in {{spoiler|the projection of his children showing up}} during the Mr. Charles gambit.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: {{spoiler|Both Cobb and Mal were in Limbo for around 50 years, making them mentally in their late 70s to early 80s. Saito too. And, depending on how long Cobb was in Limbo hunting him, he may be north of a hundred by now.}}

* [[One Last Job]]: Cobb tells Miles that Saito's job will be his last, and that he's only taking it on so that he can see his children again.

* [[One-Man Army]]: Although the entire crew is [[Badass Crew|extremely badass]], the gold medal of badassery goes to Eames. {{spoiler|In the snow level, Eames distracts an entire scout team so that Saito and Fischer can infiltrate the stronghold. He then beats the scout team consisting of several snowmobiles and skiing mooks all by himself, steals one of their snowmobiles, and proceeds to destroy an entire convoy of a snow-Humvee and several skiing mooks by cutting the rope between the Humvee and the mooks with his snowmobile and blowing up the Humvee by throwing up a C4 into the turret-guy's hand. Moreover, when he told the injured Saito to look after Fischer, Eames went outside to the perimeter of the base, defended the base from a ton of Mooks while planting C4 in every pillars.}}

* [[Orphean Rescue]]: For those trapped in limbo.

* [[Painting the Medium]]: Cobb offers Ariadne a job, and they discuss it while walking through Paris, cutting between several locations. He then asks her how they got to the café they're sitting at. {{spoiler|She can't remember what's been happening during the "cuts" and realizes they're in a dream.}}

* [[Perma Stubble]]: Maybe it's Cobb's [[The Matrix|residual self-image?]]

* [[Perpetual Tourist]]: Eames appears to be playing this role at the beginning of the film.

* [[Pretty Little Headshots]]: When Cobb shoots Arthur in the head at the start of the film so the latter can escape from the dream.

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: All dream extractors keep a special "totem" with them that's supposed to help them determine whether they are in someone else's dream or not.

* [[Queer People Are Funny]]

* [[Race Against the Clock]]: Played with; it's a race alright, but it's different clocks for different characters. Essentially, clocks within clocks within clocks: the "kicks" that wake people one stage closer to reality, but don't work more than one level deep.<br /><br />As each dream level has a timed kick, and time slows down further with each level downward, the twist is that if you don't make one kick, you're stuck having to possibly wait what feels like years in the lower level. Stuck there while [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everyone is trying to kill you]], as someone the level above you arranges another kick -- if they can do it before being taken by a higher kick themselves. Therefore, the reward the characters get for beating one clock? Beating several more clocks.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: Paris exploding near the beginning and the dream city collapsing into the sea near the end.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Near on everywhere. Tokyo, Paris, the snow fortress, the final dream city...

* [[Schrodinger's Butterfly]]: The characters take great pains to avert this. The ending takes great pains to leave it ambiguous.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Apparently, Saito is rich/powerful enough to {{spoiler|clear Cobb of his murder charge with a single phone call.}} And then there was this priceless moment when the team is discussing how to be left alone with Fischer for ten hours during a flight...

* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Saito figures out that the [[Action Prologue]] is a [[Dream Within a Dream]] -- ''not'' because of the explosions happening everywhere, but because ''the shag carpet on the floor of his girlfriend's apartment is polyester, not genuine wool''. Saito is definitely earning his salary as [[The Chessmaster]].

* [[Shoot the Money]]: Did they ever. Filming took place in six different countries, and the filmmakers made sure to make creative use of the exotic scenery. They don't just show you downtown Paris -- ''they fold it on top of itself''. They don't just set a few scenes in an ancient Japanese castle -- ''they flood it, and then blow it up''. And so on.

** On a positive note, his is one of only three actors names to appear on the Netflix envelope for the movie.

* [[Sixth Ranger]]: Saito, as well as Ariadne. {{spoiler|And, in one of the best [[Batman Gambit|Batman Gambits]] ever, Fischer himself.}}

* [[Waistcoat of Style]]: Arthur.

* [[The Walrus Was Paul]]: Christopher Nolan provides enough conflicting evidence to keep everyone arguing over the ending (or even the whole film); anyone looking for a theory that satisfactorily addresses every point is going to have a rough go.

* [[The Watson]]: Ariadne.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Fischer Jr., [[Flaw Exploitation|which Cobb and the team use to their advantage]].

* [[A Wizard Did It]]: As with having all the enemy [[Mooks]] [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|consistently miss]] when they fire at the heroes, the unique premise of the movie allows Nolan to employ a normally cheesy element of Hollywood blockbusters -- in this case, action sequences that would be [[Hollywood Science|physically]] [[You Fail Physics Forever|impossible]] in real life -- in a way that not only makes sense, but ''actually enhances the story's believability''.

* [[Word of God]]: It would seem that the costume designer (of all people) may have inadvertently revealed Nolan's intended ending. Here be spoilers: [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/08/inception_costume_designer_rev.html\]

** Michael Caine as well.