The Redcoat Life: Is this a dream?

Friday, March 18, 2011

Is this a dream?

Tonight I hung out with some friends, both new and old. We watched the movie Inception. Yes, this was the second time I have seen this movie, but it had the same effect on me this time as it did the last in that I have a headache, again. However, I think I may have figured this puzzle of a movie out! Now, if you have not seen Inception, you should go see it before reading the rest of this post as it will spoil the plot!

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Alrighty, here we go!

(This theory is based on the assumption that the top continued to spin after the movie ended)

Ok, lets start with reality. Reality is where the top stops spinning. The top was Cobb's way of proving to himself (and us) that what we are seeing is reality. Alrighty, then why did the top not stop at the end of the movie where we returned to reality? The simple answer is that we are in a different reality, or reality 2 as I will call it in the rest of this post.

Reality 1 is a dream created by Cobb. This explains why the top stops. He knows the physics of the top, so in a dream created by himself, the top would stop because his mind houses both the concept of physics and the physical structure of the top. Reality 2 is a dream created by someone else, possibly his father, but I am not too sure about this. I will eventually watch the movie again to get a better idea.

So now we have a concept for the true reality (reality 3). This reality is not shown in the movie, but based on evidence in the movie it must exist.

Here is a map of the realities/dreams in the movie. (Ignoring the first part of the movie.)

1) Reality 3, aka the true reality
2) Reality 2, the dream created by someone else, where we end the movie
3) Reality 1, the dream created by Cobb within reality 2, where we begin the movie
4) Dream level 1, the van
5) Dream level 2, the hotel
6) Dream level 3, the snowy fort thingy
7) Limbo

Here is my plausible series of events.
Cobb's wife dies in reality 3, he gets arrested and is put into a dream by an extractor that has been hired by the government to find out what happened. I think this extractor could be his father. Anyways, the dream is very much like reality and Cobb puts himself in another dream to escape the pain of reality, which is funny because he actually is not in reality. He gets stuck in this dream because his proof of reality gives a false positive due to the fact that the creator of the dream (Cobb) knows the physics of the top, thus causing it to act in the same fashion as Cobb expects it to. This is where we start the movie (again ignoring the first bit of the movie).

So, how do we end up in reality 2 at the end of the movie when Cobb expects it to be reality 1? The kick he received in limbo was strong enough to catapult him through all three dream levels and reality 1. The sedative that the extractor has Cobb under must be very strong, even stronger than the one used by Cobb to enter the dream levels. Also, if Cobb is stuck in his dream, he may appear dead in reality, so if he ever does wake up from his dream and the one he has unwillingly entered, he would probably be in a coffin.

In summary, we never see the true reality in Inception. All we see is six levels of dreams.

I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else or if it is just my mind working in strange ways after seeing a head-trip of a movie and contemplating it after 1:00 am. I hope you enjoyed this little trip into my head!

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