Inception

Vladmir: Tomorrow when I wake, or think I do, what will I say of today. That with Estragon my friend I waited for Godot… but in all that, what truth will there be?

So speaks a main character of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

The discussion of how we perceive our reality is fascinating, and Inception gives us much to ponder.

Our dreams often feel as real as reality. "Dreams feel real while we are in them," says DiCaprio's character. "It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." How often have I awoken from a dream and had to remind myself that it was only a dream. I have been told that the Native Americans believed that the dream world was the real world; this was the illusion.

In Christopher Nolan’s Inception, much is said and shown about dreams. In fact the world of the film moves from layer to layer as dreams unfold within dreams within dreams—challenging the viewer every moment into questioning what is real and what is dream. Mind blowing images test the viewer's sense of perception constantly: A city literally blows up section by section, the same city folds up onto itself, mirrors suddenly reflect the world the characters move in, people in freefall float through corridors as the viewer loses their sense of what is up. At one point three different realities of time build to an ultimate climax.

The premise is anything but simple. Says the main character: “There’s something you should know about me. I specialize in a very specific type of security… subconscious security.” “You’re talking about dreams,” responds his victim. The main characters’ assignment [which some critics compare to Mission Impossible] is not to steal something from the victim’s subconscious, but rather to plant an idea that he will assume is his own. That’s inception. Going into the dream requires three levels of dreams and in each level the victim’s subconscious phantom security attack the invaders who are distorting his dreams.

The film has been compared to The Matrix, and there are many similiarities. Unlike the world of the Matrix, however, where if one dies in the imaginary world, one dies forever, Inception operates on the idea that killing oneself in the dream world would allow the ultimate jolt needed for one to wake up—but when they get within the dream they realize that if one dies, they would instead end up in a limbo that would trap them and could allow them to age endlessly.

The film is built on suspense. For the whole final quarter of this film, a woman seated near me sat literally on the edge of her chair totally into the film.

I saw it on a large screen with great sound. Now I’m ready to see it at an IMAX.

This was a great experience, and one I want to repeat.



Visit the Inception website here.