Inception

Last Saturday I made a semi-conscious decision to skip my beloved Pumas´ game against Monterrey and go to the movies. I said semi-conscious because I didn´t have the guts to tell my girlfriend we should stay and watch the game. Now, just to be clear, I am not that whipped (even though it does sound like it), she likes football and loves Pumas too, but I´m certain the last couple of months have been a little bit too much for her. Let´s just say I was a little bit distracted with the World Cup and Manchester United´s visit to Mexico so I completely understand it was just too much football in too little time. Since the game was not going to be televised (it was going to be broadcasted over the internet); I figured the prudent thing to do was giving her a break from football and do something else for a change (time proved me right since Pumas lost 5-2… and yes, I don´t want to talk about it).

The consensus among all three of us (her brother tagged along) was to watch Inception, the latest Christopher Nolan movie that has people raving all over the world. It would be our third attempt at it and thankfully a successful one. Screening times and the movie´s buzz didn´t help in our previous attempts.

Before I continue I want you to know that there will be spoilers in the rest of this column so if you want to avoid them I seriously recommend you go see the movie first and then read this column. If you continue reading it will definitely spoil a great movie and you´ll hate me forever or at least a while. Here´s the trailer if you haven´t seen it.

I quickly realized why everybody was making such a big fuss about it. It was a movie I enjoyed right from the beginning. I liked the fact that it takes you right to it, no long intros, no excruciating flashbacks, no big explanations; it is as if you start at the middle of the story and catch the basics pretty quick. In my opinion movies nowadays take too much time to expose the argument/context at hand. Either they are badly written or they are way too complex and you end up sitting and watching for 3 1/2 hours but end up feeling like it was 6. I am not a cinema expert or professional movie critic but Christopher Nolan sure knows how to tell a story. Just because of that, in my opinion, he is the best director/writer today.

Now, there’s something you need to know about me, I am what some people might call “special” regarding movies. I truly hate being told things/parts/ending of movies I haven’t seen. It doesn´t matter if I was planning on watching them or not, it doesn’t matter if it is a great movie which would be totally ruined if I knew bits and parts beforehand like the Sixth Sense or if it is the latest direct-to-video Olsen twins movie. If I haven’t seen it, I don’t want to know anything about it except for the title, the actors, and director. Sometimes not even the latter. Even if the comment couldn’t be less important, I don’t want to hear it. On that subject, I love movie trailers but even they sometimes reveal way too much. For example, before Star Wars Episode I was released, I already knew Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul were going to die just by watching the trailer a couple dozen times. That kind of things really screws up the experience. That’s why I don’t read spoilers and whenever anyone talks about a movie or TV episode that I haven’t seen I quickly cover my ears and start humming/singing/making noises (you know, just in case only covering my ears isn’t enough).

Before actually seeing Inception I made the mistake of reading an article that mentioned the premise farther down than I would’ve liked and I was really worried that would mess up the movie for me. I already knew the movie was about dreams but with that article I learned beforehand that a key factor was the concept of a dream within a dream… I stopped reading at that point but kept wondering if that was the key to the ending of the movie. The big surprise that would catch most of the viewers off guard. If it was, I was going to be really pissed at myself.

The movie starts a little confusing but by the first ten minutes I knew already it was exactly what I read, a dream within a dream. Needless to say it was a momentary let down but the good thing was that I realized soon after that, that the premise I already knew was the center of the whole story, not the missing piece in the puzzle. The dreams within dreams were not only explained but talked about during the entire movie. It was then that I stopped worrying, sat back and enjoyed the film. It´s such a great movie. It has everything you might want; a great story, great fighting scenes (the zero gravity one was amazing), good FX (that make sense with the plot), decent acting, and a well written script. I am not going to write a play-by-play with every single detail of the movie, you have to see it for yourself in case you haven´t already (and made the mistake of continuing reading up to this point).

I have to admit that even though there were a couple of concepts that I didn´t fully grasp (I guess I´ll have to see it again), I can honestly say I figured out the movie and it´s ending when Ariadne (Ellen Page´s character) walks into Cobb´s (Leonardo DiCaprio´s character) dream. That whole dialog pretty much explained everything.

Regardless of the success or failure of the mission, it was pretty clear to me that the whole point was that Cobb´s reality and pretty much everything we had been watching, was actually a dream. What? Farfetched? I know, I know; we will never know if he was dreaming or not because that´s exactly what the writer (Nolan) wanted. Keep us wondering of all the could´ve beens. It is kind of the same thing that made The Matrix such a big hit (I am talking about the first one only, not the ensuing sequels which were a disgrace): tell a story that will make people question their reality. Make the premise strong enough that it might actually be possible today if you choose to believe it. Even though I think Nolan´s argument was far more complex and more difficult to explain than The Matrix´s, he successfully achieves his goals and I mean all of them not only making a ton of money (which he will, again).

That being said, I think I have the whole thing figured out. After discussing it for a while with my girlfriend and her brother, I am convinced I am right. This is my theory, maybe you´ll think it´s a stretch but hear me out (or in this case, read me out).

• Cobb was in a dream and everything we saw in the movie (the mission, the characters, etc.) was part of a really elaborate dream. Which means that the underlying story is taking place on the first dream level, not the real life.
• Mal (Cobb´s wife) was right, “reality” was actually another dream and she woke up when she killed herself. Notice how the clues that convinced her of that were never told because they would, of course, ruin the whole movie… because they are true!
• As Cobb said he successfully planted an idea in Mal´s head but now in the real life (which is actually a dream, I know it gets very confusing) she is the one trying to plant one on him so he can wake up.
• Saito is actually Mal creating this elaborate scenario so she/he can convince Cobb nothing is real. Not convinced? There are some subtle clues like the fact that the position Mal is when she wakes up is exactly the same as the position Saito is when he wakes up in the airplane. Maybe? How about the fact that Saito is, right from the beginning, as good as Cobb in the “dreamland”. If Cobb is the best there is why wasn´t he able to get the information he wanted from Saito´s dream? One more? Ok. How about the fact that Saito was able to change/fix (however you want to see it) Cobb´s legal problem with just a phone call 10 minutes before landing? That to me says that what was changed was the dream (reality) itself. Last one. Why did Fischer (Cillian Murphy´s character) not recognize everybody from his dream after waking up?

Of course there are some holes in my theory, along with a couple of questions I haven´t been able to answer. For instance, if everything was a dream and Saito is actually Mal in character, why not just kill Cobb and get it over with? Or why is that Cobb´s totem always fall when he is not dreaming? It´s not perfect, I know but you have to accept those are convincing ideas.

All in all, I definitely prefer to believe what I just explained rather than believing that Cobb was actually right and he, in some way, gets a happy ending. There are many reasons but a simple one stands out, if he really has a happy ending then what´s the point of finishing the movie with his totem spinning? If all the conflicts were actually solved then I don’t see the point of seeding doubt in the mind of the viewers. Just for fun? Nah. Nolan is way too smart and sneaky to do that just because.

You think I am crazy? Do you have a different opinion? Let me know… there´s nothing better than a healthy debate.

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