INCEPTION BREAKDOWN: Hidden Details & Secret Subplot Revealed | Deep Dive
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2023
- Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) film analysis and visual investigation by Erik Voss! Get PayPal Honey for FREE today ▸ joinhoney.com/DeepDive
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Inception remains one of the most ambitious and most analyzed films of all time, a labyrinth of dream levels disguising a deeper metaphor of the anxieties of the filmmaking process itself. But one lingering mystery has always been... what exactly does Mal represent in this allegory? Erik Voss finally reveals this secret in a scene by scene investigation into the film's visual details and hidden meaning!
Welcome to The Deep Dive, a new channel in the New Rockstars Digital Network. Hosted by Erik Voss, The Deep Dive is the destination for more pointed media investigations. From full seasons of Marvel streaming shows to cult classic films, Erik will dig to the roots of the hidden agendas beneath every title.
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This film along with interstellar, the dark knight and Dunkirk is why I’m confident in Nolan’s direction and vision going into Oppenheimer. Can’t wait for it.
Tenet is so slept on tho
@ ras lo. I haven’t seen tenet yet so I can’t really comment on it. Same with memento and the prestige.
@@ThemePark0blivionYou’re missing out big time.
They’re all excellent movies, also so many forget about Insomnia which is a huge mistake.
Very atmospheric.
Can't forget "Memento", "Tenet" or "The Prestige" my friend!
@@DeepDiveNR p as qfl
0
No
34:00 As the crew wakes up from the dream in their plane seats, it reminds me of movie goers in their theatre seats as the film ends and the lights go on
A key line to this story that gets overlooked is when Weems says that the incepted idea has to be positive rather than negative. He thought positive ideas take root better, but I think incepting negative ideas is dangerous. For example, Cobb incepted a negative idea into Mal, that her world *ISN'T* real. It was this negation that ended up defining her. She couldn't see past the need to negate the falseness of her world. And Cobb himself couldn't get past the notion that he had caused the death of his wife. That guilt trapped him, isolated him from his reality, his children. He had to accept her death. The time they had together was all he was ever going to get, so it was going to have to be enough. By accepting that, he replaced "I killed her" with "We had our time together." And that allowed his projection of her to rest. After all, the Mal we see in this film IS his idea of her, defined by his guilt. By changing his mind, he changed her.
What's so interesting about this movie is that there is no objective reality. That was literally its point. We're always dreaming a reality based on our best guess of what is real. We only have two choices, engage with the reality in front of us, or don't. We have to just hope that the reality in front of us is the one we share with our loved ones. And this gets back to the key line from Weems, that a positive idea is better than a negative one. When we define our reality through, "I want to stick it to my heartless father" or some other such negative, that's not a reality worth living in. I think we see the results of people defining their reality through negatives all the time. It makes people insane and horrible. But if we define it with something positive, "My father wanted me to be my own man and live for my own happiness," that's a path to a reality worth living in. We can't know if it's "true." But it doesn't matter.
Get this guy signed up👏
Good little read this. Thank you!
Really interesting explanation and take on the movie (a small detail of it bear in mind). Well done!
The ending never seemed all that mysterious or ambiguous to me. They mention early on, that in his dreams he can never see the kids faces. At the end, he finally can. Plus that top is absolutely wobbling.
They say he choses not to.
The kids are also different/older and wearing different clothes in the ending scene.
Exactly.
@@jddang3738 I mentioned this before, when he was on the phone with his daughter earlier in the movie she sounded to be in her 20's. When he reunites with the kids at the end they are very young children.
Cobb's totem is his wedding ring. Mal's totem is the spinning top.
In the movie, it's established that Dom planted the spinning top in Mal's memories to get them back to reality.
He does use her totem though because he doesn't trust his own totem the wedding ring. He believes that he's still married to her and that she's still alive in his dreams (which is why he wears the ring while dreaming), but Mal is correct that he doesn't really believe in one reality anymore, which is why he chooses to not wear his wedding ring when he's awake (because he knows that his wife is dead). However, he doesn't truly know if his reality is real, so he spins her top while awake to confirm it so he doesn't simply go looking for his wedding ring or something, which would defeat the purpose of having a totem in the first place (because it represents something impossible in reality that is totally possible in the dream world). Unless he sold his wedding ring when Mal died, he probably still has it somewhere. He doesn't wear it when he's awake because of the memory of her death (which he kinda caused because he planted the belief in her via inception that what she believed to be reality wasn't real), but his guilt over her death causes him to question his reality, leading him to possibly put his wedding ring on while awake because Mal always shows up in his dreams when he is wearing it. Ergo, why he also uses her top to confirm that he truly is awake. Maybe his wedding ring really did become his totem after Mal's death, but it simply wasn't good enough to truly convince him that he wasn't still dreaming due to the massive guilt he developed.
This is the movie where one Christmas everyone in my family got a copy of it from someone else. Some versions were full screen DVD, others were widescreen DVD, and one was even BluRay. It was wild.
So movieception?
who got VHS?
I like how Mal is the composer just like how the one thing that makes movies stand out than reality is a soundtrack that can manipulate emotion of a viewer
Amazing analysis. I think the time dilation in the filmmaking metaphor is meant to evoke how you can spend hours, days or even months creating what will only be a few seconds or minutes of the film (especially in today's vfx). If you don't choose to go home to your family you can get sucked into an endless pursuit of perfection.
Why is this me at work? 😭
Brilliant as this movie is, the one thing that bothers me about it is the layered time dilation. Things are sped up in a dream... but if you dream about having a dream, the speed increase does not "stack" and increase further; it's still your regular brain doing the dreaming, at the same increased speed. Of course you could dream about having a dream and it being sped up as well, but at that point some detail must get lost in interpolation, since your brain will not be able to keep up.
Anyone that blindly describes something like this as "Amazing" is in-need of reflection.
That term is used EVERYWHERE by so many between TV, films and Social Media.
It no longer means what ppl think it means.
My cats are Amazing.
My pizza was Amazing.
Spiderman is Amazing.
Research the word, and understand.
What is Amazing Grace???
U just described this rapidfire video and if ppl knew what it's actual intent is against viewers, they wouldn't believe it.
The music in Inception has always been half the movie to me. As important as any of the scenes and absolutely THE atmosphere. So I really really appreciate this vid.
I always thought it was still a dream because his kids are the same age as when he left.
This movie’s plot is on a whole another level from practically all other movies I can remember seeing, which makes it my favorite. Absolutely stunning and brilliant film-making. This is above than world class. This is Nolan’s Crown Jewel.
Damn Eric.... You have redefined the meaning of the word "deep".... I watched the entire 36 mins if this video and at the 35:06 you delivered the deepest freakin deep dive analysis truth of any film. This video in it of itself is a work of art.
Bravo sir 👏🏻
It didn't make sense to me because if the top kept spinning an he was in a dream then he didn't choose his family he chose the dream. Reality is when you wake up.
There’s one important scene you didn’t touch on that bolsters your idea that it doesn’t matter if he’s awake or not because his reality is his choice. It’s the scene with the dream shaman that Yusuf takes the group to and the shaman says a very important line that goes something like, “No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise? I think everything after the sedation here is a dream where Cobb came to ultimately be “woken up.” When he supposedly wakes up he goes to the bathroom panicked and spins mals totem but is interrupted and hits the top over on accident making it so he nor the audience can establish whether the rest of the movie is a dream or reality. But I think that one line the shaman says is really the point Nolan is trying to get at.
great point with the shaman, i never really thought that is where the dream started for Cobb. I think the entire movie is about trying to wake Cobb up and Mal was right. There are so many things that point to this, and the fact that he is spinning Mal's totem should tell you it can't be trusted. yes it was hers but that totem can't be trusted.
again great point, and you could be right. it makes sense with him saying that but i'm convinced the movie is a dream. such a mind twister, i love it.
If people got a family at home but they spend all their time in an opium den sleeping I can say it's not reality.
This was always my take. Cobb goes to test that heavy duty sedation juice and “wakes up” and never is able to check the totem in the bathroom. Everything after that point is a dream.
The quality of the Deep Dive videos just keeps getting better. Great job Voss!
I've been pretty busy with life lately, just now finding the time to sit down and catch up with everything I've missed here and at NR over the last two weeks. Thank you for keeping the Deep Dive going. Love the amount of passion you put into every episode, whether it's 12 minutes of 45.
Erik, I do not think that Mal is the composer. She is a female phantom foil for Cobb. I think she is the *Film Editor*, who is always looming in the background affecting the production and calling into question the director's ultimate creative vision. Specifically, I think Mal is a younger more physically beautiful representation of Nolan's [female] Momento film editor, Dody Dorn. Interestingly, Momento came out in 2000, right around the time Nolan started working on Inception: "Before Christopher Nolan started working with Lee Smith, it was Dody Dorn who shaped the editing rhythms of the filmmaker’s work. Dorn was tasked with cutting together the dueling narratives of Nolan’s breakthrough mystery “Memento,” which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing."
In a sense, the film editor (who turns uncut footage from a film shoot into a finished, cohesive final product) is inherently a bit of a behind-the-scenes foil for a visionary director such as Nolan. Because no matter how well she cuts it, the end product of a film will always be at best an imperfect approximation of what Nolan imagined creating in his head before filming. That's another aspect of filmmaking that Nolan doesn't have control over (in addition to the musical composition). Therefore, the film will never be 100% perfectly portrayed as he envisaged (due to the limitations of time), which means Nolan has to accept the final edit that she had a stake in. And real 'waking' life at the finale of Inception, in which Mal doesn't appear anymore, represents the life/film as Cobb/Nolan always imagined it would look.
Would love to hear people's thoughts on this theory...
what a beautiful episode. Ive seen so many Inception explanation videos but this one breaks it down perfectly.
Love from Belgium 🇧🇪 ❤ Thank you so much for your dedication and all the hard work
Erik, I am thoroughly enjoying the content on this new channel. The Deep Dives are always interesting, entertaining, and well researched and thought-out. I look forward to seeing more videos!
That was an amazing video man. Keep up the good work
RIP Satoshi Kon, nice to hear a shoutout to him. Also recommend Tokyo Godfathers highly for those who haven't seen it.
AWESOME VIDEO ERIK!!!
Love it Erik! I think Inception is such a timeless film now and that was a solid dive! I also really dig how comfortable you are on these now compared to your first couple of DD's, huge support for you man! Keep em coming 🤘
As always...a great video brother.
Ngl I've been waiting for this one after watching your interstellar deep dive!
This is the best youtube vid about Inception i've seen! Thank you
It’s worth pointing out that the top can still stop as it has effectively lost its power as soon as Cobb accepts “reality”.
So good, Erik!
Will you be doing a Deep Dive for Memento? That was my first Nolan film and was just so imaginative and interesting - I’d love to learn more about it through your awesome analyses!
Thank you for doing this ! I was always confused and fascinated by inception lol!
That's a great deepdive 💯💯
The way you described the end made me cry from my soul and I thank you for that!!
It also reminded me of the original Solaris. Where the dream, though not reality, was preferable. Love and family, though a construct, was a deliberate choice
This is my favorite movie of all time … I remember seeing it in theatres and was so confused about what happened lol
Really interesting. Good job, Erik and the Deep Dive team.
I've always wanted a real break down of this movie . Thank you Voss !
I fall in love with nolan’s work starting from inception, and i do rewatch it almost thrice every year
I love this channel with all my heart, thanks for all the research and time you put in these vids! ❤
Oh I been waiting for this
This was an amazing video! Thank you
Great analysis Erik!
excellent analysis! makes me want to do another rewatch of this movie. 🎉
Love your passion Erik! I watch every Deep Dive (not if I haven't seen the analyzed content, though) and I can't wait to watch the next one! Love ya bud
I’ve been waiting for this one
I love your take on this, Erik, with Inception being the roles in the dreammaking / filmmaking process. A decade before Inception came out, I took a screenwriting class, and one of things that came up in that class was that you are intentionally trying to induce a dream state in the viewer. A lot of filmmaking techniques, jump cuts in particular, are to put you in the dream state so that you suspend disbelief. I kind of felt this about the movie (it's obviously intentional), but hadn't put it together myself.
However, I was really hoping you'd touch on the fact that just like Cobb is an unreliable narrator, Cobb himself cannot trust the one thing he should be able to trust - his totem. Because it's not his totem, it's Mal's. Cobb systematically sets up all the rules of this world, only to be the one breaking all those rules. You showed where they mention this, but not about the totem, specifically. Cobb says you can't trust a totem anyone else has touched, so Cobb using a totem that is not his own is a really odd rule to break, almost a tacit admission that he would prefer to stay in the dream, a dream where he's allowed to break the rules. I think this is really why he shakes his head there ... because he can't be sure, but also because he prefers the dream.
Very good point about the totem. You can see Cobb being torn between the idea of staying with Mal in the dream vs staying in reality and reuniting with his children. He desires both and that is a huge flaw of his
I didn’t necessarily receive it as him breaking his own rule, but a way to display his obsession with his wife, since he was already wearing wedding ring. In the beginning of the movie after the failed inception, he spins it without his wedding ring. I know we can’t know for sure but it just looks like an obsession of his mixed together with the guilt of incepting his wife to believe that every level is a dream(sort of a play on postmodern films where she no longer believes in objective truths).
do you think that our dreams influenced how we made movies or do movies influence how we see in dreams now?
@@scottcortez1313 That’s a bit of a chicken and egg question. But I think dreams influenced the way we make movies. The visual language of film evolved over time, and it took dozens of years for that language to develop as filmmakers learned what worked for audiences and what didn’t. And that’s not to say that every movie uses these dream state techniques, but the more you want people to suspend disbelieve, the more it behooves them to do that. That’s not to say that what we see in films doesn’t unconsciously make it into our dreams, but I think this is a case of the dreams coming first,,and filmmakers learning how to mimic that feeling.
@@RobStevens64 yes, I believe our dream architecture strata came first and then our films have emulated that.
great analysis!
I love your work Erik! It really inspiring
Excellent analysis. Thanks!!
Isn't it mentioned in the dialogue that it's been 5 years since Cobb has been with his children? And at the end of the movie, they've not aged one bit. That always stuck with me.
This is a good point actually. I didn't realize that they mentioned it's been five years. The kids would be older
If you look at the credits there are two sets of kids casted, both sets are several years apart in age. Another thing is that you never see the kids faces until the end so it’s impossible to say that they’re the same age. All you see is the back of their hair.
Although they resemble each other, the kids did age. Different actors playing his kids.
Although they resemble each other, the kids did age. Different actors playing his kids.
And the kids on the phone sound much older.
I can remember the first time I seen this movie, I was totally blown away . The concept was was so fascinating to me . I probably watched it 10 times. Still one of my all time favourites !
Love your work!
34:02
The looks they give each other on the plane, reminds of Ocean's 11: for completing the heist
I’ve just rewatched the movie not too long ago, perfect timing!
Thank you, Eric!!!!!!
excellent analysis. truly gives me a much deeper appreciation for the movie and for Nolan. thank you!
love ur vids
I love this deep dive, Inception is one of my all-time favorite movies 😊 Thank you again for another amazing video👍🏻
I love it! I’d love to see a deep dive of Tenet!
I’ll never forget seeing this in the theater and the audible reaction when they panned to the still spinning top, then again when it wobbled and the movie suddenly ended. Amazing way to end the movie.
Paprika is going to be at the Alamo Drafthouse in SF. It's a great trippy film
Nice can''t wait to watch
Hey!!! I suggested this and remembered asking to be part of the breakdown
One interesting thing I noticed occurs as the top is set spinning in the safe. Quantum mechanics indicates that, since no one can observe the top, until that safe was opened, the top both was and was not still spinning. Therefore, in theory, what they were experiencing both was and was not reality.
Ooh…now you’ve got my brain working 🤯
Schrödinger's top
That’s not what quantum mechanics indicates. Schrödingers cat was a thought experiment to show the absurdity of such an interpretation. The top is absolutely either spinning or not. And it doesn’t need to be observed by someone. Only interact with something. Plus it’s not even a quantum system.
Absolutely brilliant! 😎
Say what you want about Nolan and some of the logic of his movies, again he’s making movies, dreams, escapes that aren’t real but use some of our real world to create a fantasy world where we can dream and escape. He’s talented, smart and I enjoy the risks and challenges he takes on.
Completely agree. He is a legit master at what he does. Would love to talk to him about his movies
Loved this movie, didn’t think I needed such a deep dive for it. I need a quick rewatch it’s been a few years since I saw it.
new favorite channel
A big heartfelt thankyou ❤
Great job.
If you assume what we start with in the movie was actually the real world and not another dream layer. I still think you got it wrong. First, how long was he in exile?...Years. And young kids grow really fast. During the entire movie he keeps having flashbacks on how he remembers them from when he last saw them. And they're of identical ages of when he did finally see them at the end of the movie. They haven't aged... That is because him going back home and reuniting with his kids is all still in his mind as him still being in a dream.
The "meta" layer of the movie is that dreams and movies are the same thing. So if that's the case, the movie itself is Cobb's dream, through which he incepts the idea into himself that ends up being the movie's own thesis.
love it thank you erik!
I remember seeing Inception when i was 15, 13 years ago. It did in fact change my life quite a lot.
Great video
Inception breakdown again?!? YAY
Now this is a 'Deep Dive', love it!
That last second burn on Cobb as the video ends was vicious.
Great video Voss!
I love your energy! 💥
Brilliant film! Another watch always uncovers another layer and another great experience!
Idk if you believe in spiritual coincidences or not but only a few moments before this video i was having an emotional breakdown bc of "past regrets" and was feeling emotionally overwhelmed. Switched to this video to get my mind off of it and then you spoke abt the edith pioff song i have no regrets. Which i love how this lil piece of sentiment connects and eerie timing of it. Thankyou for these deep dive. Much of art reflects life and vice versa and i love analysis love from India ❤
Haven't started the vid yet, I just have to say, I watched inception yesterday after years. If you mentioned in a previous vid you'd be doing this, I TOTALLY forgot, but you definitely got into my subconscious and had me wanting to watch this!!
Loved this voss
Loved this breakdown to utter pieces
I just don't get why people say they still don't understand the movie this many years later. I figured it out but was unsure than finally completely understood it by I'd say 2nd or 3rd time rewatching. Great movie amazing actors and Nolan is just genius with his direction. But let's not negate the cinematography just a gorgeous movie. And those props! The whole rotating hallway was just genius!
Notice how the reflection of the right picture on the wall at 16:38 looks similar to a 5 as well.
Excellent work on this! Did you happen to touch on the naming of Mal? It’s interesting that one of the prominent lyrics in Piaf’s song is “Ni le mal” meaning “not the bad.” And her name Mal also sounds like Maul. Also, Mal is probably a nickname for Mallory. Which would make sense because Mallory means “the unlucky one.”
I Said this so many years ago but Mal is Heath Ledger. The director wrote a role in the joker so depressing that it made Heath Ledger (accidentally) kill himself. The whole movie is about Nolan getting rid of his guilt and returning back to what he loves.
@@VonJay oh wow! That’s deep. ❤️🩹
I got a minute into this deep dive, then was like, “I haven’t watched Inception in over a decade, let me go watch it again, and then come back.” Lol. I love these videos!
The duality of the notes played in the opening and the ending... time slowed many layers deep. Still asleep? Watch the wedding ring...
Erik made me re-watch this whole movie just to watch this video. Not complaining though at least I got to understand this masterpiece even more😁
His rant at the end about the bomb always makes me break out in laughter.
This movie was one of my most memorable theater experiences of all time.
Thank you for mentioning the influence of Kon’s “Paprika” on this film. I truly see this as a love letter to that movie with Nolan’s signature all over it.
Perhaps your BEST video ever
I absolutely LOVE your channel! I am hooked. Thank you for all of your incredible content. I have never paid attention to how many likes I contribute to a video but this is the first time I have and it put it at 10k! Keep on going my dude, these videos are very special. I love how much you tie your father into these. They really are moving and it helps me reflect on my own relationship with my dad. Thank you.
Damn man. Just found you. Interstellar and now this. Subscribed.
Wow Bert Kreicher's brother really did a good job explaining Inception
The moment I die, and the part where the white light shows up, I really hope Nolan would be there to explain his plots. He's my go to director when it comes to mind fucks.
The opening scene being Cobb washing up in the ocean reminds me a lot of the book The Lathe of Heaven. The opening of the book talks about a jellyfish in the ocean before it is tossed coldly onto the shore, as a comparison of our consciousness in dreams vs. awake. The whole book reminds me of inception too, since it’s all about a man who finds out that he is able to change reality with his dreams (whenever he dreams of something, the real world changes to that when he awakes).
Here’s the biggest mystery of this movie for me - Is the ultimate goal to wake Cobb up from a dream he is trapped in or not? If not, then there are parts of the movie that are set in reality and other parts that are not. But if the goal is to wake Cobb up then every level (scene) in the movie is a dream, even the levels where the team is planning Fischer’s inception. So many clues point towards Cobb being the mark. Which means that things that create confusion (like the role of Cobol Corp, and the ability of Siato to make the legal issues all go away magically, which Erik acknowledges later in the video) are irrelevant since they too are just aspects of the top most dream (Caine, “Come back to reality, Dom”). Cobol is the ultimate dream antagonist and Saito is the ultimate dream rescuer.
On the other hand, so many clues (the presence or disappearance of Cobb’s wedding ring, Michael Caine’s appearances, etc) also point towards Fischer being the actual mark and Cobb’s issues with Mal’s death and his legal troubles keeping him from being with his children are genuine dilemmas he must deal with in real life.
Huge questions in all of this are, is the top totem trustworthy or not since it originally was NOT Cobb’s? If it’s not trustworthy, then whether it falls or not proves nothing. It could fall while Cobb is still in a dream (he should have stuck with his original totem - his wedding ring). And the scenes in Mombassa (meeting Eames, the chase through the ever narrowing streets, the unlikely appearance of Saito at the last moment to rescue Cobb) real or a dream? Notice the views at the end of the narrowing alley - it alternates between bustling street scene and solid grey (limbo?). If Mombasa is a dream, when did it begin? Or is it a part of a wider dream that has already been in progress this whole time?
Love the show! Great channel! (Greetings from NE Ohio)
I never understood the ending as a talking point of contention. He’s not in an inception world, because earlier dialogue states that if he were in an inception-like world, the top would continue to spin unhindered. The totem wobbling is an indication that he is in the real world.
Absolutely incredible movie, I pick up something new every time I rewatch it