Inception

[ElPandaRoyal]

I was listening to an a/v podcast on this movie and they brought up an interesting point, that as fun/frustrating as it might be to debate the ending, ultimately it doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem to matter for Cobb. Remember he spins the totem but walks away and never looks back.

This is the main thing that I picked up on when watching it.  I was surprised that the camera even shows the totem again, because I thought the real ending was that Cobb's obsessive checking of reality didn't matter anymore; he was finally with his kids.

Yes. This is what I wanted to say when I commented upon the ending but didn't. Despite my problems with Inception, that final shot really worked for me.

[Fernando]

SPOILS OF COURSE


This is fantastic on IMAX, so glad I could wait.

First of all I love Nolan's film craft, along with Fincher right now he's the best at merging real awesome sets and cgi, all his shots are flawless.

Cobb’s children did not age when they reunite, which hints to the possibility that we remain in a dream.  Cobb repeatedly asserts the notion of planting the seed of an idea deep into the subconscious to take root for its purpose to take effect.  If this is all a dream, imagine how deep Cobb has descended.

more than the lack of aging, they are wearing the same clothes, and to me when he entered that room and looked exactly like he remembered that meant he was still dreaming, even the day light was the same.

To me is crystal clear that the final scene is a dream, since he once said in the film that he needed to reconstruct that image of him seeing his kids, and by having seen their faces a huge weight will be lift off him and all that regret of not seeing them at moment will be gone, this imo will lead to a path of waking up.

I was listening to an a/v podcast on this movie and they brought up an interesting point, that as fun/frustrating as it might be to debate the ending, ultimately it doesn't really matter because it doesn't seem to matter for Cobb. Remember he spins the totem but walks away and never looks back.

But he doesn't have a chance to wait and see for himself as he is timely interrupted by his father, so he directs his attention to him and finally seeing the faces of his children.


In conclusion, Nolan's dreams are better than mine (so far). btw, I dreamt that after the final shot there was another scene, Cobb was trying to escape and he was on a building that started to separate from the city ( it was going up), cars that were parked around it started to fall, then the damn alarm clock went off.

[Alexandro]

Saw it on IMAX. So far the best IMAX experience i've had. Enjoyed the hell out of it, maybe it's too soon to say masterpiece, but it's amazing for sure. i don't care to endlessly discuss the possibilities or theories regarding the story and ending. I like that they are there, and that people are discussing it, but I don't really care that much about it. What I loved is that the film carefully incepts the viewers with the very same idea that the main characters are probably incepted with. So we as an audience share this experience with them in a kind of metaphysic way.

In any case, the film is beautifully executed from start to finish and demands, just like Memento, that the audience really makes an effort and gets involved to follow just the basic story of what's going on. I didn't find the ending insulting at all, or empty, it's the perfect ending for the world the film has created and an inspired act of showmanship from Nolan. Literally the entire theatre roared with complicity when the screen went to black. Great move. great film.

[Gold Trumpet]

This made me chuckle,

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1939332

[Pubrick]

cobb's therapist, that's a good one.

[Alexandro]

that video is funny and it illustrates better than anything how skillful Nolan and everyone involved were to make that industrial amount of total nonsense into an exciting, coherent, logical and emotionally involving experience in the cinema. This is why I don't care about what's a dream or not, or the different sets of rules or whatever. It's frustratingly futile. More than anything, I'm pretty sure it all makes perfect sense in the end.

[RegularKarate]

I know the whole pixar trailer mash-up is played out, but I still enjoyed this.

[pete]

http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?s=date&loc=D2002-033

[polkablues]

http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?s=date&loc=D2002-033

You just blew my mind.  Thank you.

[Pubrick]

http://disneycomics.free.fr/Ducks/Rosa/show.php?s=date&loc=D2002-033

holy fuck.

that was seriously great.

*spoilers for that Scrooge McDuck comic*

i'm sure there are lots of stories that somehow echo the concepts in Inception but this has to be one of the best. there are so many similarities i wonder not that Nolan got some ideas from it but that there must be an original source (intuition? common sense?) from which both stories derived some of their rules. especially mind blowing is the use of THE KICK, and the fulfilment of scrooge's lifelong desire to be with that broad (in a setting so similar i almost feel it MUST be an influence).

the fact that the ending is so similar justifies the ending of Inception by showing it from a different angle, this time from the perspective of us, the participant/observers. not that the ending needs any further justification, but the way that Donald and crew walk away from the dreamer (scrooge) is essentially similar to the way Cobb leaves behind the spinning totem and the way that WE as viewers leave the cinema/totem as well. the image of the totem in the final shot is no longer to function as the way the film itself has described but rather as a visualisation of the process of dreaming, made explicit by Cobb's illustration to Ariadne when explaining the basics, which is about to end. the common dream shared by us and cobb, as well as us and the co-viewers, dissolves AND continues.

*END SPOILERS*

for anyone wanting any context. the comic precedes Inception by about 8 years. it was written by Don Rosa, whose long contribution to disney comics can be seen in the directory from which this comic is taken. wikipedia tells us that his story is kind of tragic (so far), in that he has had to retire from writing and illustrating comics due to increasing vision impairment, and that he has never got any money from Disney's redistribution of his work and use of his name to promote their wares. such a shame, i've never heard of the guy before now but if this thing goes viral (i'm thinking that if it's being posted here it already has), then it could just be the final bittersweet tribute/insult to this unheralded living legend.

[polkablues]

I can't imagine Chris Nolan spent a lot of time in the early 2000s reading Scrooge McDuck comics, but he and Rosa were clearly filling their cups from the same faucet of the collective unconscious.  Of all the cool things that have sprung up of and about Inception since it came out, this to me is the coolest.

[Alexandro]

donald duck has a mom?
she died young or something?
damn.

[Just Withnail]

Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa

Forgive the hyperbole, please.

I grew up with this, but reread it a couple of years ago and it's wonderfully moving. Rosa tells the story of Mcduck as a Kane and places him in a hilariously detailed environment, peopled like an Altman or a Tati (gags are allowed to develop in the background, enriching the world and without distracting from the plot, like the Jessie James gun-gag in the one posted above).

It's got a Proustian thing going with Scrooges intense yearning for his childhood, and how he only lives for his memories because no one really knows him.

A recommended read for everyone who liked the excerpt linked to above.



admin edit: fixed link

[Myxo]

I haven't seen this yet and it's killin me! I'm one of those horrible "can't go to a movie alone" types. Missed my opportunity at a midnight showing with close friends when it was first released. But based on the peeking through one eye approach to this thead, looks like I need to get out and see it anyway.

[polkablues]

☼ Random IMAGES thread ☼ did it.