INCEPTION
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A BOOK ABOUT A FILM |
INCEPTION: Implantation of another person’s idea into a target’s subconscious
DREAMS...
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CONTENT PAGE
RULES ABOUT THE FILM
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THE WORLD - 08 ASSEMBLE - 15
MARK - 52 DREAM TIME - 56
FICHSER
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EXTRACTOR - 16 TOTEM - 20 SHADE - 22 LIMBO - 26
EXTRACTION - 60
EVENT
COBB AND MAL
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RAINING CITY - 62 ROTATING HOTEL - 66 SNOW FORTRESS - 68
CONTEXT
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ARIADNE
CONTENT PAGE
DIRECTORY
ARTHUR AND ARIADNE
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POINT MAN - 28 PROJECTION - 32 ARCHITECT - 34 PENROSE STAIRCASE - 38
SHARED DREAM - 70
ARTHUR AND ARIADNE
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EAMES
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FORGER - 40 KICK - 44
TOURIST - 46 DREAM LEVEL 50
REALITY AND DREAMS - 74
EXPRESSION
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SAITO
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CONCLUDE - 76
JUDGEMENT
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T H E
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W O R L D
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ABOUT THE FILM
RULES
RULES ABOUT THE FILM
// Construct a false reality and manipulate it in order to confuse
So, the first thing to talk about are the rules of the dream world Nolan created for the film. With all the action that happened onscreen, it was easy to forget some of the finer details – but once the lights came up, and people had time to think, I know the question of who was dreaming and which dreams certainly came up. Like any con artists their job is to construct a false reality and manipulate it in order to confuse and/or fool a mark. Nolan takes the classic concept of a con man a step further by making the cast the team dream thieves, but in the end, the basic concept is still your classic con/heist movie. Cobb, a man who works with a team stealing corporate secrets
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from the minds of executives while they sleep. The 1984 film Dreamscape may come to mind, but things are much more complex here. In order to retrieve what Cobb’s clients want, he can’t just enter the dreamworld of the subject and poke around until he finds it – an “architect” is required to construct a world and settings that will lead the subject where Cobb wants him to go, and there is a backup man who also goes into the dream in case something goes wrong. The plan involves implanting a thought in the mind of one Robert Fischer Jr, the son of a competitor who is on his deathbed and whose death will make the rival corporation so powerful it will rival that of a government.
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// YOU CREATE THE WORLD OF THE DREAM. WE BRING THE SUBJECT INTO THAT DREAM AND FILL IT WITH THEIR SUBCONSCIOUS.
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EAMES Forger
COBB Extractor
ARTHUR Point Man
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YUSUF Chemist
SAITO ADIADNE
Tourist
Architect
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A S S E M B L E
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INTRODUCTION
TEAM
TEAM
// Exceedingly complex and multilayered process of not only building the world
As the film opens, we find that Cobb has failed in his mission for a client for the first time ever, and for this failure the corporation is out to kill him. Besides the obvious, Cobb has another problem: He is the father of two small children who he has not seen in quite a while yet both of whom he loves very much. Sadly for him, the last place he can go is back to the United States to be with them. However an opportunity to fix all that lies between him and his children presents itself in the form of Asian corporate mogul Saito. If Cobb does an almost impossible job for him, Saito is powerful enough to call the dogs off Cobb and to fix everything so he can return to his family. From there begins the exceedingly complex and multi-
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layered process of not only building the world in which they will place Fischer Jr, but the script they will have to follow in order to lead him to an initial seed of a subconscious thought that will eventually grow to a major, conscious decision that he would not otherwise make. The story is riveting and will take you through one level after another, until you’re not quite sure where, exactly, you are. The Team consists of the group assembled by Dominick Cobb when he is employed by Saito to perform an inception on Robert Fischer. The members of the group were chosen by Cobb for their exceptional ability, particularly given the difficult and almost unprecedented act of performing inception.
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INTRODUCTION EXTRACTOR
EXTRACTOR
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INTRODUCTION
EXTRACTOR
The pratice of entering dreams within dreams to plant an idea in someone mind
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INTRODUCTION EXTRACTOR
THE EXTRACTOR - Dominick Cobb Dominick Cobb, also known as Dom, is the main protagonist of the film, Inception. Cobb is well known in the black market because of his level of expertise in the field of extraction, which consists of stealing his mark’s ideas by infiltrating their dreams and stealing valuable information from them. Cobb was
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implicated by his wife Mal in her death in a letter she filed with their attorney; as a consequence he’s a wanted fugitive who can never return to his home. Cobb Totem is a spinning top which formerly belonged to his wife, Mallorie Cobb. This is separate from his wedding ring which is a dream based object and thus cannot be a totem.
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INTRODUCTION
EXTRACTOR
// Extracts people’s secrets through their dreams
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Extractor Is a person who extracts people’s secrets through their dreams. At the core, an extractor is a classic con man – he creates a false set of circumstances that manipulate the subject into revealing his or her secrets. The
difference is that those false sets of circumstances are created through dreams. Dom Cobb is the self-proclaimed “best Extractor out there”, as he is hired by corporations with the goal of stealing secrets to which they would otherwise never have access to.
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INTRODUCTION TOTEM
O B J E C T
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INTRODUCTION
TOTEM
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TOTEM
Totem it’s a small object, potentially heavy, something you can have on you all the time... - Authur
Totems are helpful objects that can determine whether or not one is dreaming and if one is in another person’s dream or their own. The idea of a totem was established by Mal, who had created her own spinning top that spun forever when in a dream. Cobb uses Mal’s spinning top as his own totem, and Arthur’s totem is a loaded die. Ariadne then stays up late one night, building her totem, which is seen as a shiny yellow bishop piece.
Spining Totem
Dom Cobb’s totem is a spinning tractricoid top that originally belonged to Mal. Should he spin the top and it topples over, he is awake; if it continues to spin, then he is still dreaming.
Hollow Chess Piece
Ariadne’s totem is a slightly hollowed-out golden bishop
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chess piece. She deliberately hollows it out to alter its weight and center of gravity, so that only she can know the exact weight and feel of her totem.
Loaded Dice
Arthur’s totem is a weighted red die. The purpose of the loaded die is to make one side heavier than the rest; therefore when rolled the heavy side will flip down and only the opposite side can face up. Should the upright side of the die be different than the original, he will know he is dreaming.
Poker Chip
Eames’ totem is implied to be a red casino poker chip. The use of the poker chip is not entirely clear in the movie; however, it is thought that the chip will multiply in a dream when he rubs his fingers against it.
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INTRODUCTION SHADE
SHADE
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INTRODUCTION
SHADE
You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?
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INTRODUCTION SHADE
YOU KEEP TELLING YOURSELF WHAT YOU KNOW. BUT WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? WHAT DO YOU FEEL?
THE SHADE - Mallorie Cobb Mallorie Cobb, also known as Mal, is Dominick Cobb’s wife, and his projection of her is the main antagonist of Inception. She is the daughter of Stephen Miles, and before the time period in which the movie is set, Mallorie killed herself. While Dom and Mal were trapped in Limbo, she eventually began
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to believe that Limbo was reality. In order to convince her to return to the real world, Dom planted the idea in her mind that her reality was, in fact, a dream. Unfortunately, this inception - the idea that her reality is a dream - affected her permanently, even after waking; she consequently committed suicide by jumping off a building in order to wake up, despite Dom’s pleas. She is frequently seen in Cobb’s dreams as a projection of his subconscious.
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INTRODUCTION
SHADE
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INTRODUCTION LIMBO
D R E A M
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R E A L I T Y
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INTRODUCTION
LIMBO
LIMBO
// Shared space where any mind can make drastic alterations of any.
LIMBO
Limbo, as it is referred to in the dream realm, is an expanse of infinite raw subconscious. Limbo exists as a space that is not dreamt by any one individual, but is a shared space where any mind can make drastic alterations of any kind.
DEATH
It is to be understood that death within a heavily sedated sleep will send the sleeper’s mind to Limbo, but as shown by Fischer in the Mountain dream, when one dies and goes to Limbo, the sleeper’s body actually behaves more like a sleeping body.
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TIME
The time scale in limbo is stretched out to a much higher extent than in dreams since it is not a dream level, but a separate plane. Very few people have experimented and gone into limbo due to its risks. As a result of the extreme time dilation in the plane, people in limbo can experience years in a minimal amount of time. The resulting effect on the mental state can be difficult to overcome upon waking, as the years experienced in limbo can result in the dreamer believing that what they have experienced is actual reality.
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INTRODUCTION POINT MAN
POINTMAN
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INTRODUCTION
POINT MAN
With the slightest disturbance, the dream’s going to collapse.
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INTRODUCTION POINT MAN
POINT MAN - ARTHUR Arthur is Dominick Cobb’s right-hand man. Arthur is the organized one, the one making sure everything is in its right place. The way I see it, Cobb is the artist and Arthur is the producer. He’s the one saying, ‘Okay, you have your vision; now I’m going to figure out how to make all the nuts and bolts work so you can do your thing.’
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Arthur is the most logical and skeptical individual of the group. As such, he often deals with the details of missions, leaving the grand schemes to the others. He does tap into his creative side occasionally, evidenced by his solution to the problem of creating a kick in a zero-gravity environment.
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INTRODUCTION
POINT MAN
// Cobb is the artist and Arthur is the producer of the team
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His mind is so organized and stable, Arthur is often used as the dreamer for secondary dream levels. Arthur is very knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the World of
the Dream and is readily able to explain it to others in very simple terms. He is also very capable at hand-to-hand combat, defeating several guards in the hallways of the hotel.
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INTRODUCTION PROJECTION
M I L I T A R I Z E D
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INTRODUCTION
PROJECTION
PROJECTIONS
// Extraction is the art of infiltrating the mind of any person to steal their secrets.
Projections, also known as Sub Cons, are the images of people or objects in a dream that are “projected” by the sleepers’ subconscious minds. While any sleeper can project these images, part of the subject’s role in a shared dream is to populate a dream space with projections. A lucid sleeper can consciously affect the existence of their projections, but the actions of those projections are still always controlled by the subconscious. It is possible to train one’s subconscious to defend itself from invasion. In these cases, certain projections will become militarized and more difficult to defeat. Such projections will be
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more heavily armed, intelligent, and aggressive, capable of surrounding targets and coordinating assaults upon them. Projections become stronger, more coordinated, and more heavily-armed the more levels down the subject is in the dream. A common defense against projections is to have an Architect construct a dream world in the shape of a maze, so as to confuse and delay the projections. However, the only ones who can know the maze are the dreamer and the architect; if anyone else is aware of the dream’s structure, then their projections are aware of it as well and can use it against them.
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INTRODUCTION ARCHITECT
ARCHITECT
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INTRODUCTION
ARCHITECT
How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that it’s reality?
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INTRODUCTION ARCHITECT
THE ARCHITECT - ARIADNE Ariadne is a graduate student at the Ecole D’Architecture in Paris. She was contacted by Dom Cobb for a specific job: to design three complete dream layer mazes on the Fischer inception job. Ariadne is a naturally curious and creative person. After Dom first showed her the dreams, she refused to work with him and left. She returned soon after, however, as dreams allowed her to satisfy her
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curiosity and create things that would be impossible in reality. She entered Dom’s dreams to discover why the Mal projection appears, and voiced concern about the possibilities of mission success and the safety of the team after she realized the extent of the problem. In addition to being intelligent and creative, she is also very perceptive, especially regarding Cobb’s personal issues. When she notices these things about Cobb, she immedieately takes it upon herself to psychologically analyize him and point out his faults.
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INTRODUCTION
ARCHITECT
// Designer of the dream space into which a dreamer brings a subject
The Architect is the designer of the dream space into which a dreamer brings a subject. An architect is similar in this regard to a video game designer, with the dream representing different levels within the game, complete with all the aesthetic and tactile details. The subject is brought into that dream space and fills it with details from their own subconscious and memories. The architect does not have to design using real world architecture and physics, allowing them to create paradoxes like an endless staircase.
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When bringing a mark into the dream, a skilled architect is essential to help the dreamer make the dream feel real. Furthermore, an architect can help design mazes or other secure locations in which the mark hides his or her secrets. The mark subconsciously hides his or her secrets in a secure location, and the deeper or more important the secret, the better or more secure the location must be in order to lure the mark into populating it with their secrets. The architect often fulfills the role of the dreamer during a heist, but the architect can also teach their designs to another to dream.
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INTRODCUTION
PENROSE STAIRCASE
P A R A D O X I C A L
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INTRODUCTION
PENROSE STAIRCASE
PENROSE STAIRCASE
// A blueprint for the structure and form of the film and ultimately for its depth and meaning.
An optical illusion that is brought to the screen in the form of an ever-ascending staircase. It is introduced by Arthur to Ariadne as a way to construct a never-ending dreamscape within an otherwise finite world. The moment plays out quickly, and, as with many of director Christopher Nolan’s scenes, it is assumed that the audience will keep up. If it was not clear what exactly was going on, then allow me to reintroduce you to the notion of the Penrose Staircase. The illusion takes its name from a father and son duo of mathematicians, Lionel and Roger Penrose, who introduced the impossible object in a 1958 paper. The Staircase cannot be constructed in three dimensional reality due to its property that the steps forever carry the traveler upward in a loop.
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The same steps are traversed, but, impossibly, after the first time around one ends up back at the beginning, and the whole journey starts again. One can turn around on the stairs and descend, as well, with the same effect—continually treading the same ground, over and over. While impossible to build in our real world, that has not stopped mathematicians and artists from depicting the Penrose Staircase as an optical illusion. And, of course, through clever camerawork Christopher Nolan is able to put a Penrose Staircase on the big screen. The illusion appears twice in the film, but the second time is probably overlooked even more often then when it is first explained.
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INTRODUCTION FORGER
FORGER
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INTRODUCTION
FORGER
You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
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INTRODUCTION FORGER
THE FORGER - EMAES Eames can project the image of anyone, essentially forging an identity as a literal physical manifestation. The transformation process seems to involve the use of a mirror. This skill comes in handy, and can help convince another person that he’s whomever the team needs him to be in order to aid their deception. Eames’ personality is much akin to that of James Bond, coming off as quite the suave, smooth talking
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flirt. He is also somewhat of a prankster and has a penchant for dry humor, evidenced by his constant one-upmanship and incessant teasing of Arthur. Aside from his friendly rivalry with Arthur, he is somewhat of a loner, choosing to work apart from the rest of the group for the majority of the mission. Unlike Arthur, who seems to enjoy the technical aspects of the dream world, Eames appreciates the creative capabilities it allows. He also loves to find out what people keep locked up in the innermost confines of their mind.
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INTRODUCTION
FORGER
// If you’re gonna perform Inception, all you need is just imagination.
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FORGER A Forger is a social con person, able to make others think the forger is something other than they are. A skilled forger is a master of imitating people’s mannerisms – and in the dream world, even their very appearance.
They are able to manipulate their appearance because in the dream world a sleeper’s body is a projection of their mind. With enough skill a forger can take a wide variety of appearances, unrestricted by age, sex, or mass. The act of changing appearances seems to involve a mirror.
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INTRODUCTION KICK
A W A K E N I N G
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INTRODUCTION
KICK
KICK
// One method used to awaken from a dream within a dream is called a “kick”, which is the sensation of falling,
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One method used to awaken from a dream within a dream is called a “kick”, which is the sensation of falling, hitting water, or a sharp jolt that can startle the sleeper awake. It startles the dreamer out of their sleep. A kick is usually performed on one’s sleeping body, not one’s body in the dream within the dream; however, in order to wake a sleeper when using a sedative that allows shared dreaming within multiple-level dreams, only synchronized kicks can create enough impact to wake a sleeper. When dreaming three or four levels deep, synchronized kicks require the sleeper to experience a kick on their bodies within the innermost dream, and on all dream levels where their body is sleeping. Thus it becomes increasingly difficult to synchronize kicks and requires significant planning. Although,
due to the time-dilation caused by dreaming multiple levels deep, a kick that occurs instantaneously in a higher level will last longer in a lower level, thereby making it easier to synchronize a kick. I was amused by the concept of The Kick required to wake the dreamers from their shared dream scenario. In reality, this feeling of falling that wakes us up is called a hypnic jerk - an involuntary muscle twitch used by the brain to test if the body is awake or asleep. It most often occurs during the onset of dreaming, and bizarrely the subconscious simultaneously incorporates this sensation into the dream scenario. For me personally, hypnic jerks always occur as I’m walking down the street in a dream, and suddenly fall off the kerb...
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INTRODUCTION TOURIST
TOURIST
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INTRODUCTION
TOURIST
If you can steal an idea, why can’t you plant one there instead?
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INTRODUCTION FORGER
// I’VE COME BACK FOR YOU, TO REMIND YOU OF SOMETHING. SOMETHING YOU ONCE KNEW.
THE TOURIST - SAITO Saito is an immensely powerful and wealthy business magnate, and is the head of Proclus Global. He offers Cobb a job with a very valuable reward, to clear him of his charges and to allow him to return home to America. Saito is known as “The Tourist” because he has no specific expertise but yet is still able to use his financial influence to join Cobb’s extraction team.
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The film’s subsequent events are left ambiguous to the audience. Both Cobb and Saito awake from Limbo, presumably having shot themselves, and Saito immediately honors his agreement to Cobb, allowing him to return to his family with a single phone call. However, when Cobb returns, he is distracted from his spinning top totem by his children, leaving it unclear if he and Saito really did leave Limbo for reality or if they are still in the dream world.
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INTRODUCTION LEVEL
W I T H I N
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D R E A M S
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INTRODUCTION
DREAM LEVEL
DREAM LEVEL
// The deeper you go, the further removed your mind that is from reality.
Nolan throws a lot of fancy math at you but it’s all really inconsequential. All you need to really know are the basic concepts:
knowing that they are DreamSharing. One method for checking the artificiality of a dream is through the use of a totem.
The dream within a dream process puts you into a deeper state of dreaming. The deeper you go, the further removed your mind is from reality. We all know what that’s like: the deeper you sleep, the harder it is to be woken up and the more vivid and real-feeling a dream becomes.
While lucid dreaming in a normal dream it is possible to control the dream. A Dreamer can control a dream while Dream Sharing even they are lucid or not, but being in lucid allows them to control their dream consciously.
LUCID DREAMING “Lucid Dreaming” is when a sleeper realizes that they are in a dream. It is possible for a sleeper to attain lucidity within a dream by having their attention drawn to the strangeness of the dream or already
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It is also possible for one to lose their lucidity by becoming “lost” within a dream. This can happen through several methods including by dying within a dream and waking in Limbo with no bearing for reality, or by inserting memories into one’s dream, and mistaking them for reality.
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INTRODUCTION MARK
MARK
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INTRODUCTION
MARK
At the end, he called me to his deathbed. He could barely speak; but he took the trouble to tell me one last thing.
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INTRODUCTION MARK
THE MARK - ROBERT FISCHER Robert Michael Fischer is the target of the job offered to Cobb and his team by Saito. His father, Maurice Fischer, is on his death bed, leaving Robert as the heir to his multi-billion dollar empire. Despite his vast wealth, Robert is riddled with all sorts of insecurities, as one might expect of someone who has lived his entire life in the shadow of a hugely powerful individual. Key among those insecurities is the fear of not living up to his father’s standards,
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an insecurity which allows Dom the opportunity for creating Inception. Fischer is rich, and he knows it. He reacts surprisingly calmly during his capture on the first level of dreaming, which may imply a level of selfcontrol. It is apparent from the beginning that his sole desire is to make his father proud of him, but this has slowly developed into a closeted hatred for his father.
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INTRODUCTION
MARK
// Inception is the allegedly impossible task of implanting an idea in someone’s
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A Mark is the target of a con, and in a dream the mark acts as the subject. If someone is trying to perform Extraction or Inception on the mark, they can enter the mind of the mark through the process of dream-sharing. Once inside the mark’s mind, a dreamer can create a dream
space where the mark is the subject, filling the space with details and secrets from their own subconscious. An extractor can then either steal these secrets or perform inception by planting an idea and making the mark think it is their own.
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INTRODUCTION DREAM TIME
S U B C O N S C I O U S
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INTRODUCTION
DREAM TIME
DREAM TIME
// The deeper you go, the further removed your mind that is from reality.
Dreams are an integral part of the World of the Dream. They are the sensory representations of an individuals’ subconscious, and are present in every living person. Through Dream-Sharing, dreams can be manufactured within other individuals’ minds.
when people are sleeping. When we are dreaming, we create and percieve our world simultaneously. Our mind makes it so well that we are not aware of the change. That allows the Extractors to get right in the middle of that process.
THE DREAMER The Dreamer creates and maintains the dream space.
Time is the other factor. The deeper you go into a dream state, the faster your mind is able to imagine and perceive things within that dream state. We’re told the increase is exponential, so going deeper into dreams turns minutes into hours, into days, into years. This is why Cobb and his team are able to pull off the Fischer job while the van is still falling through the air, before the soldiers break into the snow fortress, before Arthur rigs the elevator, and all within the span of a flight from Sydney Australia to LA.
THE SUBJECT The Subject populates the dream space with projections of his or her subconscious. OTHER SLEEPER Sleepers can manipulate reality within dreams, but not the fundamental structure deep within the dream. The Extraction process is possible thanks to how the mind works
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// DON’T YOU WANT TO TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH? OR BECOME AN OLD MAN, FILLED WITH REGRET, WAITING TO DIE ALONE!
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E X T R A C T I O N
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INTRODUCTION
EXTRACTION
RAINING CITY The New York dream was the first dream level in the heist on Robert Fischer’s mind. It was dreamt by Yusuf. When the sleepers first enter the New York dream, Arthur, Eames, and Saito kidnap Fischer. Fischer hands Eames his wallet, telling him to take it and leave. The moment Eames takes the wallet Fischer’s projections begin to attack Cobb’s team.
SNOW FORTRESS The Snow-Covered Mountains dream was the third dream level in the inception on Fischer’s mind. It was dreamt by Eames.
ROTATING HOTEL The Hotel was the second dream level in the heist on Fischer’s mind. It was dreamt by Arthur.
In this dream, Cobb has tricked Fischer into working with the team to break into his own subconscious (using the Mr. Charles tactic) to perform Inception. Eames, as the one who knows the dream and can navigate the maze, leads Fischer’s projections on a chase as Fischer and Saito make their way to the hospital.
Eames enters The Hotel dream disguised as a blonde woman speaking to Fischer at the bar. As Cobb approaches, Eames pickpockets Fischer’s wallet and leaves, drawing the attention of Fischer’s security projections and buying Cobb time to attempt a risky con. Cobb pretends to be a projection of Fischer’s subconscious Mr. Charles.
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CONTEXT
RAINING CITY
E N C O U N T E R
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CONTEXT
RAINING CITY
RAINING CITY
// With the slightest disturbance, the dream’s going to collapse
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Cobb’s subconscious inserts a freight train into the middle of the street (the same freight train that Cobb and Mal committed suicide under while in Limbo), splitting up the team, and allowing Saito to be shot. Eventually, the team regroups in a warehouse and establishes that Fischer has trained his subconscious to defend itself from extraction and invasion. Certain security projections are militarized. Cobb’s team becomes concerned and learns that death within this dream cannot wake a sleeper
due to the strength of the sedative, only send the sleeper’s mind to Limbo. The team decides to continue the mission anyway. Eames forges the identity of Browning and tells Fischer of an alternate will that Fischer Sr. created to split up his company. The sleepers load into a van and all enter the Level 2 dream, with the exception of Yusuf, who drives the van, trying to avoid the militarize projections.
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CONTEXT
ROTATING HOTEL
D I S T U R B A N C E
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CONTEXT
ROTATING HOTEL
ROTATING HOTEL
// Extraction is the art of infiltrating the mind of any person to steal their secrets.
Cobb draws Fischer’s attention to the fact that he is dreaming and helps him remember that he has been kidnapped in The City. Cobb makes Fischer believe that his own true projections are in fact the kidnappers attempting to commit Extraction on Fischer’s. At one point of the conversation, a waiter accidentally breaks a glass, which interrupts Cobb and projections of his children appearing in the hotel. Meanwhile, Arthur and Ariadne set explosive charges in room 491, which is directly beneath room
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528, where the team intends to sleep. When given the cue by Yusuf in The City, Arthur intends to detonate the explosives, causing the floor of 528 to give out, dropping himself and the sleepers and creating a kick. Arthur says that it’s important that he is able to synchronize the kick with the van hitting the rail in The City, or else he will be forced to administer a different kick in zero gravity while the van is in free fall into the water.
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CONTEXT
SNOW FORTRESS
G R O W T H
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CONTEXT
SNOW FORTRESS
SNOW FORTRESS
// We’re trapped in Fischer’s mind battling his own private army
The musical cue warning that the van in Level 1 will hit the rail of the bridge begins to sound, but the sleepers in the Mountain fail to hear it. When the van does hit the rail, it causes an avalanche on the Mountain. Cobb realizes that the only other kick from Level 1 will come when the van hits the water, so the team needs to hurry. Ariadne tells Cobb of a shortcut, which allows Mal to enter the dream. Mal shoots Fischer and kills him, sending his mind to Limbo. Cobb then shoots Mal. With Fischer dead, the team is prepared to give up on the Inception attempt, but Ariadne suggests that she and Cobb rescue Fischer from within Limbo, administering a kick to sync with another kick in Level 3
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to wake him. Eames agrees and sedates Ariadne and Cobb. Eames then plants the charges that will trigger the mass kick later. After completing that, Eames uses a defibrillator on Fischer, which in unison with the kick administered in Limbo, wakes him. Meanwhile, Saito dies of the gunshot wound he received in Level 1. With Fischer, now awake and alive, enters the vault of the hospital which contains a projection of his dying father, who in turn tells Fischer that he was only ever disappointed that Fischer wanted to be like him, considering it an unworthy fate for his son. At this point, Inception has occurred and Ficher is convinced that he must split up his company.
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CONTEXT
SHARED DREAM
C O N S C I O U S N E S S
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SHARED DREAM
SHARED DREAM
// Come back to reality, Dom
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The Palace is a large castle constructed by Saito in Limbo some point after his death in the Snow-Covered Mountains dream from a gunshot wound. It just above the shore of a large beach and seemingly is populated by projections of Japanese soldiers. Saito himself is seen in a large dining chamber, where the soldiers bring Dominic Cobb, his totem, and a gun, after he washes up on the shore. It is here Saito remembers that Limbo is not his reality and Cobb convinces him to “come back, so they can be
young men together again”. Saito and Cobb then presumably kill themselves with Cobb’s gun, and they then wake up again on the flight to Los Angeles with Robert Fischer and the rest of the team members. This castle is virtually identical to the one constructed by Arthur for The Saito Extraction Job. Unlike Arthur’s castle, the limbo version is filled with Japanese millitarylike guards instead of party-goers and suited security guards.
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T L EV
EAM E S T H E CH E M IS
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3 EL
R ME A E DR
UNCONSTRUCTED DREAM SPACE
LIMBO
REAL TIME
ART HU RT HE C HE M
IS L VE E TL
3 2 1
MER A E R 2D
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T LEVEL 1 DREA CHEMIS MER THE SUF YU
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YUSUF THE CHEMIST LEVEL 1 DREAMER SAITO THE TOURIST EAMES THE FORGER LEVEL 3 DREAMER
COBB THE EXTRACTOR
FISCHER THE MARK
WHO IS DREAMING?
INCEPTION
ARIADNE THE ARCHITECT
ENTERING DREAM
ARTHUR THE POINT-MAN LEVEL 2 DREAMER
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I’LL TELL YOU A RIDDLE. YOU’RE WAITING FOR A TRAIN, A TRAIN THAT WILL TAKE YOU FAR AWAY. YOU KNOW WHERE YOU HOPE THIS TRAIN WILL TAKE YOU, BUT YOU DON’T KNOW FOR SURE. BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER. HOW CAN IT NOT MATTER TO YOU WHERE THAT TRAIN WILL TAKE YOU? - BECAUSE YOU’LL BE TOGETHER.
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CONCLUDE
REALITY AND DREAMS
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CONCLUDE
REALITY AND DREAMS
“We are asleep. Our life is a dream. But we wake up, sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.”
“ If the brain perceives something with great clarity or intensity, it will believe that it is real, even when asleep.”
LUCID DREAM A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. The phenomenon had also been referred to by Greek philosopher Aristotle who had observed: “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream”. One of the earliest references to personal experiences with lucid dreaming was by Marie-JeanLéon, Marquis d’Hervey de Saint Denys. The person most widely acknowledged as having coined the term is Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden (1860–1932). In a lucid dream, the dreamer has greater chances to exert some degree of control over their participation within the dream or be able to manipulate their imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be realistic and vivid. It is shown that there are higher amounts of beta-1 frequency band experienced by lucid dreamers, hence there is an increased amount of activity in the parietal lobes making lucid dreaming a conscious process. Skeptics of the phenomenon suggest that it is not a state of sleep, but of brief wakefulness. Others point out that there is no way to prove the truth of lucid dreaming other than to ask the dreamer. Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, with test subjects performing pre-determined physical responses while experiencing a lucid dream.
| INCEPTION
During most dreams, sleepers are not aware that they are dreaming, no matter how absurd or eccentric the dream is. The reason for this has not been determined, and does not appear to have an obvious answer. There have been attempts by various fields of psychology to provide an explanation. For example, some proponents of depth psychology suggest that mental processes inhibit the critical evaluation of reality within dreams. Certain physiology studies suggest that “seeing is believing” to the brain during any mental state. If the brain perceives something with great clarity or intensity, it will believe that it is real, even when asleep. Dream consciousness is similar to that of a hallucinating awake subject. Dreams or hallucinatory images triggered by the brain stem are considered to be real, even if fantasy. The impulse to accept the experience as real is so strong the dreamer will often invent a memory or a story to cover up an incongruous or unrealistic event in the dream. For example, “That man has two heads!” is not usually followed with “I must be dreaming!” but with something like “Yes, I read in the paper about these famous conjoined twins.” Other times there will be an explanation that, in the dream, makes sense and seems very logical. However, when the dreamer awakes, he/she will realize that it is rather far-fetched or even completely absurd.
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CONCLUDE QUESTION
... ARE THEY REAL? OR AM I STILL DREAMING?
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