A Report on The Film "Inception"

Inception is a 2010 film made by Christopher Nolan and produced by Emma Thomas. The main character is one of the most popular film stars – Leonardo Dicaprio. In the story he acted as a professional thief who steals the information by infiltrating the targets subconscious. The main character – Dom, is offered a deal which he is not able to refuse. It is a chance to work for people who are able to erase his criminal history. In exchange he has to implant an idea into a targeted mind. The job is very risky but that may be the only way for him to get back to his family.

Christopher Nolan actually came up with the idea in 2000. Later on, he wrote 80-page treatment of the film that was presented to Warner Bros after the completion of “Insomnia”. The treatment that was presented was based on lucid dreaming. It means that the person who is dreaming is aware about it and understands that it is not real. During it the dreamer is able to control everything inside it to some degree. The idea was complicated and to visualize it to the audience is no easy job. For the sake of the film Christopher Nolan decided that he needed more time and experience before making the production this complex. Nolan retired the production and instead worked on his other projects like Batman and The Prestige. Fortunately the treatment was revised and purchased in 2009 by Warner Bros after the huge success of “The Dark Knight” which made $1 billion worldwide.

The film was shot in six countries, from Tokyo to Canada. The budget was around 160 million $ and split between Legendary and Warner Bros. After the premiere in London on 2010, July 8 it became the fourth highest-grossing film of 2010. Even the critics praised the film to have outstanding screenplay, cast, effects, sound and cinematography. Inception won four Academy Awards and gained great popularity which it certainly deserved. The film made over 800$ million worldwide.

Inside the plot, the main character – Dom Cobb is an “extractor”. He and his partner Arthur are using experimental military technology to infiltrate the targeted subconscious and extract valuable information that they possess through the shared dream world. Unfortunately on his last job, his wife, Mal, betrays them and eventually they fail the mission. When they wake up, they also wake up the second time. That is explained later on in the story that the dream they were in was actually a dream within a dream. And Dom with Arthur was trying to extract the information from the target – Saito. Of course what Dom and Arthur were doing with the shared dream world wasn’t legal and the company that they worked for are not the type to easily forgive for failing the mission. In the story as Saito appears again, he explains that the whole thing was only a test and Cobb passed it. Saito offers him a deal – if Dom is able to do the job he might be able to come back to his family back home. The job is not easy, but it’s worth the risk for his family. The deal is – if Cobb is able to make an inception, his criminal records would be gone. The idea of it is to plant an idea into a targeted mind and make them think that the idea is their own. The conversation between Saito and Cobb ends with a quote that is also seen later in the film “So… do you want to take a leap of fate or become an old man filled with regret, waiting to die alone?” Of course Cobb has to accept the deal as there is no other way to go back home. After gathering the right people they still needed a plan. Of course no idea is simple when you’re doing an inception, so preparing for anything unexpected was vital. Cobb and his team want to subconsciously repair the relationship of a targeted son and father to break his Empire. While the plan is in motion and they enter the dream within a dream the only way to proceed with the targeted son – Fischer is to make him fight against his own subconscious by making him realize it’s a dream. Unfortunately they are short on time and have to proceed to the third level of dream. Cobb convinces Fischer to do so and jumps right in to the deeper level. However there, Mal appears as Cobb’s projection of his wife and betrays him once again. She shoots Fischer and makes the mission even more complicated for the crew. Eventually they succeed on bringing the Fischer to his father’s projection and so Cobb full fills his part of the deal. But unfortunately, while doing the job, Saito dies within the third level of the dream and so ends up in Limbo. Cobb stays in the deepest level of dream – to save Saito. In the end Cobb meets Saito as an old man, waiting to die alone, and uses the same quote to remind him that he is still dreaming within Limbo. They all wake up in the airplane and as Saito makes a call – Cobb is finally able to meet his children back home. Or is it still a dream?

In the project each character is representing a filming industry role. For example Leonardo Dicaprio (Dom Cobb) is a director that gives him parallels to Christopher Nolan. Arthur is the producer. Ariadne is the production designer. Eames represents actor and the main target Fischer is the audience.

Nolan himself says “It’s rare that you can identify yourself so clearly in a film. This film is very clear for me”.

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