 It all really started from just an interest in dreams and the relationship with films and portrayal of dreams in films and what I felt I'd never seen was the portrayal of a dream that you could believe in its reality. Inception relies on one central principle to work. Movies look and feel very much like dreams. According to Sergei Eisenstein's montage theory, cinema is a reflection of our subconscious. Editing expresses how our everyday thought process happens. And director Christopher Nolan uses this principle to mask reality and the dream world, making it impossible to know which is which. Pay attention to how Cobb defines a dream in this scene. Let me ask you a question. You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on. The same principle applies to editing. All that a scene transition requires is an establishing shot, and then we're in the next scene. For example, let's take a completely different film, The Silence of the Lambs. We have no idea how Clarice got here if she drove, was driven, or took a bus, but we don't need to. All that we care about is that she is here. To quote Hitchcock, drama is life with all the dull bits cut out, and that applies to both our dreams and cinema. Nolan makes sure to include no visual differentiation between the dream world and the real world. We're told what's real and we're told what's in a dream, but ultimately if we're in someone's subconscious, it would be impossible to know that we are. We are manipulated much like Cobb is. Movies are one of the great ways in which you can open up a world for the audience and really take their mind someplace that might not otherwise go. I think that this is left intentionally ambiguous. There are scenes from the real world which feel very real, and others that feel very dream-like. Take, for example, the chase scene in Mombasa. First, we don't know how Cobb got there. The scene cuts, and he's there. Next, pay attention to how the agent seemed to come out of everywhere. Again, very much like a dream. Finally, look at the aerial shots. It resembles a maze. We have two minutes to design a maze and it takes one minute to solve. This is the same criteria that we will later learn to find a dream, yet this scene is supposed to be in reality. There is ambiguity in every scene regarding whether it's a dream or in real life. Much of the discussion surrounding the film focuses solely on this one issue, and in turn leaves out some of the most interesting aspects of the film that it has to offer in terms of discussion. The reason that there is so much ambiguity and that nobody in the audience can decide for what's a dream and what's reality is that the film takes Cobb's perspective and he himself is unable to know what is real. But let's take a step backwards and examine the fundamentals of Inception's story. Central to the film is an exploration of loss. We know that Mal died and that Cobb has been removed from his children. The one thing that he wants is to be reunited with him and will risk everything tangible in order to see them again. I think I found a way home. This one thing he may not be able to separate from is Mal. He is still in love with her and his love turns into an obsession and ultimately a dangerous one. Everything that Cobb does is based on his former loss. On a physical level he chooses to risk his own life and even his team's life for a chance at redemption, pulling off the heights. Do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man filled with regret? On a subconscious level he is a literal wreck, unable to be with himself or even think without the constant reminder of the trauma that he caused or at the very least he thinks he caused. It's worth mentioning that the story within Inception takes a backseat to the overarching narrative. Early on we see it as the reason for Cobb to take the heist and in the end he is rewarded with seeing his children and a little bit more in that later, but it's hardly mentioned other than that. I think that this is intentional, because the film is about so much more. It's a heist film but has a psychological driving force with which everyone in the audience can connect. The film leaves Cobb's desire to be with his children very vague. Save for this shot we never really see them. This achieves two things. First and foremost, it allows us as the audience to project our own desires onto the children. These kids can be the stand-in for our own family. Another side note here, this is exactly how it works within Dreams, a projection of our subconscious. Who are the people? Projections of my subconscious. Cobb has been away from his children for so long that they become nonspecific. He remembers their face but doesn't remember who they are and what ultimately defines them. He and Mal became so obsessed with dreaming that they disregard what is real and what is tangible. They tried too hard to feel something real that they lost what they really had. One interpretation of the film that I find fascinating is that dreaming is a stand-in or a parallel for drug use. It's an obsession for Cobb, one that costs his wife her life and separates him from his children. Listen to how it's described in this scene. Regardless if this is the message of the film or not, the movie operates in much of the same way as many drug movies, where Cobb makes the subconscious decision to live in reality. He wants to leave the fantastic behind and live in something that is real. The only way for him to get there is through limbo, the one place that for him is so seductive to stay, a world where he can live with his subconscious projections of his wife and his children and spend an eternity living an idealistic life, a life that is great in every way except for one, that it's not real. This is the temptation that Cobb needs to fight through. His internal conflict, the film's aforementioned two storylines finally converge here. He makes the choice for something real. He chooses to make his dreams come true. Through this the film tells us the importance of living in reality. We all have our ambitions and we all have our wishes but more important than either of those is feeling something real, making our wishes turn into a completed goal. If you take anything away from inception or this video for that matter, please let it be this. Make something out of yourself but make it real. Pursue your ambitions without getting wrapped up with the intangible. Live in the present to make your future the best that it can be. Don't think about what you want, think about how to get it. This is what Cobb does in the end. He stops living in his dreams and starts living in the present and in the end he is rewarded with finally seeing his children. He gets his wish. And was it real? Well, I believe that it was. His top wobbles before the film cuts to black. He is finally able to appreciate what he earned. The idea that has always fascinated me about dreams is the realization that everything within that dream is created by your own mind. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy it. I'm going to make it as clear as possible. I know Inception isn't a perfect movie. I know that there is a fair bit of backlash out there and quite frankly I don't care. The fact that a movie this large in scale, this big of a budget and this mainstream is able to explore so many different ideas and start a conversation that everyone is going to have an opinion on is remarkable in and of itself. There certainly are flaws in this movie but it also does so much right which is why I feel like it does deserve the discussion that it gets. I want them to be able to just sit back and relax and enjoy the film and then hopefully they'll find there are certain things or ideas about it that afterwards they might rattle around their brains. But I am interested in your thoughts, especially with all the ambiguity to it. I don't think there is a right answer. I think everyone's going to have their own opinion based on their own experiences but I'm definitely interested in hearing what you have to say. So please drop a comment and let me know. I did want to let you know that this video is made possible because of Patreon. Patreon has allowed me to make my videos much better. And if you'd like to support the channel, that's the best way to do so. There's a link on screen. There's also a link to another video which I feel is relevant which is my video on La La Land. Explore some similar ideas with dreaming and the conflict between dreaming and reality. So check that out if you're interested and thank you for watching.