Film reviews

Inception

"the establishment or starting point of an institution or activity"

A cosmic horror film in disguise

Review by Nicholas Tyler Hartless

Inception is a word that lives in the past, it's a very abstract word as the creation of something has many interpretations. Some say a thing is created in an instant while others believe it's a long drawn out process but all interpretations are inherently a logical fallacy. For an example I'll use Mcdonalds, when do you think it was created? You may point to the moment the restaurant opened while others will point to when it became what it is today. Some will point out the leadings up to its creation or even the birth of its creator but what of the things and people that inspired the restaurant in that man's head are they included? If mcdonalds rebranded completely and was still popular under a different name in 50 years would that restaurant have its inception in the rebrand or in the mcdonalds past?

People are ever evolving, though we hold the memories of the past the me of 5 years ago wouldn't recognize the me of today and same with the me of the future. When do you become the person you are? Today I got a compliment on my writing and as such I'm confident, even if just a little since I have changed since this morning and the human brain isn't fully formed until 25 so is that when I truly hit my inception? If my inception is at 25 and I live to be a 90 year old man with different politics, relationships, memories, and hobbies, when was the inception of that version of me? The logical fallacy in the concept of inception is that things change and grow into new things every second bit by bit until it's unrecognizable allows us to take this extreme all the way to defining something's inception as its moment before death. I won't be the fully realized complete version of myself until I take my last breath just as the concept of inception won't die until the universe itself ends. The point is this; inception is a word that lives in the past with no recognizable presence in the present but is forced to have a future as more things in the unknown abstraction of time unravel. This cosmic horror is reflected in Dom Cobb, the main character of inception.

Dom is, in every definable way a man stuck in the past, these thoughts consume not only his conscious but his subconscious. All the way down to the parts of your brain that controls your breathing and blinking he's thinking of his past like a silent addiction you can't stop such as biting your fingernails. This manifests in two ways, on a conscious level he wants to see his kids again and it's his only real goal driving him. On a subconscious level He's being eaten away by guilt for the death of his wife. In dreams Mal appears as a vengeful spirit hell bent on ruining Dom's plans to force him to give up and go deep into a dream forever.

Mal isn't real anymore, she's only a figment of Dom's imagination and her wanting to bring Dom back into the dreamscape isn't her want at all, it's his. Dom has severe trauma from his wife's suicide which has manifested in the subconscious belief he's still dreaming, perhaps it came from a want to commit suicide because it would relieve him of his guilt while giving him a reason that didn't feel like giving up or maybe it just is a paranoia. Regardless he watched his wife kill herself because of this exact belief, a thought he incepted into her mind made it's back into him. Early in the movie Ariadne goes into Dom's dreams and messes with Mal, when Dom wakes up he begins to freak out and spin his top to confirm he's not dreaming. This reinforces his character trait of having anxiety about whether he's dreaming.

In the end of the movie when Dom finally makes it home to his kids he spins his top once more but before we see whether he's still dreaming or not it cuts to black just as Dom stops looking. Many have labeled this as a pointless but cool plot twist similar to Nolans plot twist in the Dark Knight Rises where the helpful cop turned out to be Robin but in my opinion this scene is the most important for Dom's development. Whether intentional or not on Nolans behalf I see this movie as a character study on Dom Cobb and this ending shows that it doesn't matter whether he's dreaming or awake or even alive or dead. Dom being uncaring about the tops spinning shows that he's freed from his paranoia and as an extension free from his guilt.

Nolan is an amazing director in that, through flashy bombastic movies he delivers classic tales but he also incorporates worldbuilding that reinforces the main idea. These background details that are at first simply part of the world but upon analysis contribute to the film in a three dimensional way are not only amazing to realize but incredibly hard to write. While yes this movie is about loss, grief, and guilt, it is more importantly about the ability to forgive oneself even when the person you hurt won't or can't. Every person makes mistakes, it's a part of being human and sometimes we are unable to acquire forgiveness and closure. This can lead to the cosmic horror paradox of inception, a sort of abstract loss of the present reality in which we are defined by the past, by our mistakes. A reality where you stop growing and your inception becomes the moment you made that mistake. A reality where all you are is your mistake. Inception teaches you that thou it's so easy to get trapped in this, even when you're at your absolute lowest you can always climb out, and while you might not get to give a climatic apology like Dom does, if u look towards the future and learn to change and grow again you will be free of your guilt and the abstract inception of yourself will revert to being undefined and grow right alongside you.