My Inception Theory
In my Creative Writing 2 class for the screen writing unit we got to watch Inception for inspiration. Even though this was the first time I’ve ever seen this movie, it instantly became a favorite. For those of you who have never heard of or seen Inception, it is about Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a criminal with a rare ability to enter people's minds, more specifically their dreams, and take their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a target and a reliable source in the world of corporate sabotage, but has in return ruined everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered an impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind, otherwise known as inception (roll-credits). If he succeeds, he will be able to return home to his kids, but his dangerous ex-wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), anticipates Cobb's every move. This movie is extremely complex and can get confusing at times (as there is a state where it is a dream inside a dream inside a dream inside a dream inside a dream), but overall it is one of the best films of the century so far.
I do not know if the theory already exists on the internet, I also do not want to check because then I will second guess writing this, but if you have yet to see this movie I would do so before hand because there will be major spoilers ahead.
Here is my theory: The entire movie takes place in limbo.
I know that seems crazy, but hear me out because I think my evidence supports this claim.
Number 1: There are parts in the movie where the audience doesn’t know how we got there and the editing quickly jumps back and forth from place to place.
When Cobb explains to Ariadne (Ellen Page) that it doesn’t matter how the dream starts it just matters where you end up, because it is near impossible to remember how you got there. This got me thinking throughout the rest of the movie because there was certain parts where the editing jumped from place to place (i.e. Cobb meeting Ariadne for the first time to when she draws the mazes on the roof) even in reality. This made more sense later, when we found out Cobb had gone to limbo before and limbo can make your brain mush, which leads me to my next piece of evidence.
Number 2: Cobb’s limbo was built by himself, but he doesn’t want to be the architecture for anything else past his trip to limbo with Mal, yet every single time he enters a new dream he knows the maze Ariadne has built.
This could be just mere coincidence or just pure movie magic, but I find it odd that he knew where to go even though he requested at the beginning of the film that Ariadne never tell him the map, because then his projections might show up. Yet every single dream he goes into Cobb knows where he is at and knows what to do, even if he doesn’t want to and tries to avoid it, plus his projections always show up, proving that he is in his own subconscious.
Number 3: How everything works out for Cobb. Every. Single. Time.
Yes, we do see that he is unsuccessful in certain situations, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING turns out for him after Mal’s death, to the point where it doesn’t seem like a coincidence. It is almost like his own subconscious is trying to redeem himself from what happened to Mal, from saving everyone from limbo (and more importantly how Saito was able to remember his deal at the end), having a successful inception with Robert, being able to defeat his projection of Mal, and finally being able to see his kids again.
Number 4: How inception works
Inception is the process of placing an idea into someone’s mind through their dreams, which is what Saito assigns Cobb to do. We later find out in the movie that the reason Cobb knows how to do it is because he did it to Mal, causing her death. My theory is is that while he was placing the inception into Mal he also was simultaneously doing it to himself because when you’re trying to get someone else to think of something, you have to think of it yourself, and therefore making inception happen for him and leaving him stuck in limbo. (This is the most far fetched of all my evidence and I don’t know how much I believe it)
Number 5: Mal’s totem
Yes, we do see that Mal’s totem continue to spin in the final shot of the movie, hinting at the fact that Cobb is not out of limbo, but when we are first introduced to the concept of totems, Arthur explains that nobody can touch it because it would ruin how he can tell if he is in a dream or not, based on how it falls, or if it falls. Yet, Cobb takes Mal’s totem before her death so he could maybe bring her back to reality, but this ruins the whole purpose of the totem. Cobb also touches the totem before Mal kills herself, which proves that the process of someone else touching your totem could ruin it’s sense of reality. Also, in the first scene of the movie, the guard touches Mal’s totem and hands it to Saito, again ruining the whole purpose and exposition behind the totem. Because Cobb may not be able to understand Mal’s totem and its mechanism, plus the multiple people getting a hold of it, he could be guessing where he is at and subconsciously controlling it to do certain things throughout the movie.
I know that this theory is very far fetched and that there is a lot of counter arguments that could be made out of my pieces of evidence, but this is just a theory.
A FILM THEORY! (sorry MatPat)
