INCEPTION and the Psychology of Dreams
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- Опубліковано 9 жов 2023
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How do the dream world and real world affect each other? What kinds of dreams have you experienced?
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are diving into the psychology of dreams in Inception. There’s so much to look at, from therapeutic concept of dreams to the incredible filmmaking. Jonathan talks about the psychology of dreams and what Inceptions gets right and wrong. Like time dilation and physical sensations in dreams. Alan talks about how Inception is just Christopher Nolan talking about making movies… you won’t be able to unthink it! He explains how Inception can be so complicated but keep the audience entertained and invested in the story. And they answer the big question... does the top fall?
This episode was filmed during the Writer’s Strike. This episode was uploaded before the WGA and the AMPTP reached a deal.
According to SAG-Aftra, independent film reviewers are welcome to discuss movies that have already come out. These films were produced under previous contracts and wouldn’t be affected by any changes resulting from the strike.
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Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Trevor Horton, tzhediting.com
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis
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I have good news for you (in about 4 months) but this is annoying. 😉 -alan
Alan. what are the chances of a It's Get me So Hard shirt c/o Cinema Therapy?
Not... great? lol
@@CinemaTherapyShow Alan when will you guys be able to do Spider-Man Across The Spider Verse and Josee the Tiger and the Fish?
If you ever do a part 2 on this film, or another film that deals with dreams and subconsciously processing emotions/issues, etc, I think it would be fantastic to get an EMDR specialist on the couch with you - assuming it's also not in Jono's existing wheelhouse.
I've had some this year and it's been a real game-changer for me and I don't think it's a very well known area - I've been in and out of therapy for 30 years and my social worker sister is retraining as a family therapist, and we only heard about it in 2019. She's hoping to become an EMDR therapist in the future, we're both so impressed by it.
I now rave about it to everyone I know, and explain how it can be really helpful for all sorts of things, not just PTSD cases. It's helped me to let go of some shame and negative, untrue core beliefs about myself that CBT, interpersonal and ACT courses hadn't. The other stuff helped me identify and intellectualise a lot of things, but this is the only thing that's enabled me to step back from the pain of specific experiences and let go of the unhelpful messages that came from them.
I think it could be really helpful for you to raise awareness of it too, if you think that's appropriate, obviously.
I hope you don't mind the suggestion, I'm just so fascinated by the process and the difference it has made for both of us, and I wish more people knew of/ understood the therapeutic options available, so were empowered to advocate for the best treatment for them/their loved ones. But maybe that's more fitting for (already on?! 🤷♀️) your mended light channel..?
Love you guys and the work you do here, long may it continue! ✊
Fun fact about the ending: you don't need to see if the top falls, because that's not Cobb's totem. It's Mal's. Cobb's totem is his wedding ring because "In my dreams we're still together." He's not wearing his ring in the end, meaning he's not dreaming. He really made it to his kids.
Also a great piece I love about the big orchestral music in the mountain scene. It's just the French song slowed down and dramatized. They play it in the dreamer's ears, and because their mind is acting faster it seems slower in the dream. A really nice Nolan detail.
Yes! Further proof is the kids themselves. The ones he sees in dreams throughout the movie are the memory of when he last saw them. When he sees them at the end, they are two years older (played by different actors, and the credits list them by their ages, showing two years have passed) and wearing slightly different clothing (notice the girl's sleeves)
Also Michael Cain has said that any scene he is in isn't a dream
Oh wow I have watched this film several times as I love all the actors.....but never noticed the wedding ring. Yea I thought the topper was Cobbs.....now I NEED to watch it again 😂
Wow, good spotting! I didn't notice that about the ring in multiple watches
NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIENNNNNN
The entire movie could been seen as a metaphor for filmmaking, which Christopher Nolan has supported in an interview. Cobb is the director, Arthur the producer and researcher, Saito is the funding producer, Ariadne the screenwriter and set designer, Eames the actor, Yusuf the cameraman, and the projections are the audience.
See, it works!
I've heard this explanation before too and it tracks!
@@CinemaTherapyShowAwesome movie hey can you guys please do Spider-Man Across The Spider Verse and Josee the Tiger and the Fish please! 🙏🙏🙏
@CinemaTharapyShow how does one go about dealing with nightmares that translate to extreme anxiety/fight or flight responses when they awake? I found the idea about external forces effecting dreams and vice versa interesting.
I would argue that Fischer could be interpreted as an audience member as well.
"Dreams can be cathartic." I literally just experienced this for myself last week.
My husband passed away last year. At the time of his passing, we were having a rough go in our marriage. One of my big grief factors is worrying that he died thinking I no longer loved him (which wasn't true at all).
Last week, I had a dream of him. He appeared to me, told me he couldn't stay, but that he needed me to know that he loved me and knew I loved him. He told me to let that bit of my grief go.
I woke up knowing full well this was likely nothing more than my own subconscious. But it still made me feel at peace. It's strange that a dream was able to alleviate so much of my guilt and grief, but it did.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad this dream gave you peace.
My family and I are a religious sort, and we believe that these sorts of dreams could possibly be the person's spirit visiting you. My parents have both had those dreams with their family members. I myself have been "visited" by my late dog.
Whether or not you believe this is up to you; I choose to believe it. Regardless, I think the catharsis is the same. I am glad that you've found such catharsis from such a "visit".
I cried in the midst of reading your comment. Subconscious, dream, or real - the message is perfect and important. Thank you for sharing and I wish you so much peace in your heart.
🧡🧡🧡
I am sorry for your loss. At least you were able to dream of him. Sadly, I can't dream at all so if someone who I care about dies I won't get that experience. I can't even close my eyes and visualize how someone looks. Your ability to dream makes you lucky for someone like me.
There is just so very much to love about Cinema Therapy- internet dads, men being vulnerable and emotionally available, immature jokes, and (possibly my favorite) HYSTERICAL EDITS. The editors of this show are me and I. AM. HERE FOR IT.
Definitely. They really do round out the edges and help us move forward on so many levels.
Its between here and Watts the Safe Word for my favorite random editing lol
It’s one of the most wholesome, comforting, healthy channels! And the edits in this one had me rolling 😂
Disabled veteran, former, and sometimes still, stay-at-home, that majored in psychology and philosophy here for it too. Vulnerable dads unit!
Cillian Murphy doesn't get enough credit for how great he is in this role. His character knows that nobody in his company cares about his grief and just expects him take care of the succession so he puts on this professional, calm facade but it's so powerful when he starts to break down.
Like the guys mentioned, people love to say Christopher Nolan's movies are cold and has no place for feelings, the first few times I've watched Inception I was, I suppose, too invetsed in "will they succeed in what they are trying to do", but in 2020, when there was a cinema re-run, I was hit hard (pun intended) by how heartbreaking the bedside scene actually is.
@@renata8979 Most of Nolan's films are pretty damn emotional. It's just the kind of emotion you feel when you're also masking it constantly. The problem is mostly that they're *all* like that: they're always men who feel it's important to put a brave and stoic face on things while they're dying inside. Which is fine if that's what you're up for, but sometimes you're not and that's okay too.
I don’t disagree but I think that this is not the entirety of it, I think that this maybe applies most of all to Dunkirk, but deliberately so. But if you make a quick mental recall of most of Nolan’s movies, there are plenty of emotional people and/or highly emotionally charged situations. IMO, “Nolan is cold” stems from his movies generally having a “cold” atmosphere as opposing to something as “warm” as, say, Paddington movies, but people kinda extrapolate this to the films as a whole.
I wish I had my memory erased, so I could experience this masterpiece again. What I like about Nolan is that he creates movies that makes the audience think, analyze and admire. Which means he respects the audience.
This! So many movies don't trust their audience to understand or follow, they either over explain or skip the matter
My brain erased most of this movie for some reason. I could totally watch it again and almost completely reexperience it.
Agreed! And just like they said in the video, it’s not pretentious so it’s a good balance of being thought provoking while still being action packed when it needs to be.
I kinda wish that too but it wouldn’t have had the same impression of awe in me. I saw it in my early teens for the first time and back then I saw movies very casually unlike today now that I actively try to pay attention to detail and have more experience with clever movies. I’d be interesting to have both first experiences
If there was ever any question about Nolan respecting the audience it's been answered by Oppenheimer. I saw it in IMAX and when people asked what I thought I said it was an excellent film, but not an easy watch. When asked to elaborate I say: Oppenheimer is 3 hrs of non-linear story consisting of a large cast mostly talking in rooms. Oh and the perspective shifts...
I remember watching this movie when I was really tired and sleepy so I was half asleep throughout most of it. Somehow, I fell asleep with my eyes open and started dreaming that I was in the film with them. Woke up after the credits thinking I missed the movie by sleeping through it. But when I told my friends what I dreamed, it was exactly what happened in the film. My brain somehow took what I was seeing and turned it into a dream in real time. Trippiest film experience I've ever had. Literally had the dream experience of a film about dreaming.
dude...
My memories shortly after my traumatic brain injury are like that. I remember it as a dream; I dreamed I was sleeping and couldn't wake up. Whenever I tried to wake up, "They" would tell me I couldn't and "push me under" again. I presume "They" were the doctors, nurses, neurosurgeons, my parents, and whoever was around, and I presume that "pushing me under" is a metaphor for my brain accepting "Their" message that I couldn't wake up. Finally, my mind decided that "They" had no say in the matter, so I dreamed that I fought to wake up. My family says that my dream fairly well mirrors the really at that time, though truly I don't think it matters. The dream got me through something that really wasn't going to help with-- the brain finds a way!
That's not a rare experience for me when I fall asleep listening to the radio. I also used to listen to a TV station audio channel over radio, and to this day there are Stargate: SG-1 episodes that I've never seen, but I've visually directed based on my knowledge of the show, and I get confused when I finally see the real video. I was so into SG-1 when I did that, that often I don't realize until quite a way in that it's one I've only ever listened to, because I got so many things disturbingly right. Case in point is the orbital defense satellite Daniel invents in the Harsesis episode. When I saw the wireframe computer image, it was spookily like the real visual. Probably because the concept designers for that show really knew how to give the different alien technologies distinct and consistent visual identities!
You didn't wake up after that movie, you're still dreaming. In fact that movie never existed we made you think of it so you can write it when you wake up.
As a blind person who has been asked the question if I dream, and seen other blind people answering it many times, I really appreciate how this movie speaks of dreams definitely not only being visual.
I am not blind at all, and I actually have a very good eyesight, but I SO much don't rely on my (good) vision IRL, hardly noticing or paying attention to anything visual (without looking at, myself I won't be able to describe what I'm wearing) that I hardly ever actually SEE anything in my dreams. I more, like, KNOW I'm with such and such people, etc. Or get only fragmented poorly detailed 'screenshots'. So I can very easily imagine what the dreams of blind people are like.
And the only moments I actually see something clearly and remember it afterwards is right before the dream is going to turn into this bad looped sequence (like, I'm trying to get home and can never get there). And these visuals are strangely always either a lot of intertwined railways, or rainbows, or the sky filled with patterned moons or halos. No idea why. But if I see them, that's it, the dream is going to go into that pattern.
Though I have fairly decent vision now, my vision was very poor when I was a child. I am a mostly non-visual thinker. My dreams contain almost no visual content. It’s all sound, touch, sometimes even smell, with a lot of emotional content. Yes, it’s mostly about feelings.
This reminds me of discussions I've heard of non-white people discussing racism, and one where I heard a woman who came from Africa to the US was explaining how weird it is to hear how white people identify others. Like, "the woman with red hair" or "with olive skin". She said that where she came from, people described each other more by their personalities, their mannerisms, things like that. "The woman with bright eyes who smiles a lot" or "the man with the deep voice that always complains."
I think that visual people are curious since it's different, but it is goofy to assume that people who experience the world a bit differently aren't still human, who experience similar things to each other.
I learned ASL for 2 years and one of the things our hearing teacher taught us was that yes, deaf people do have a voice in their minds, that they sort of sign. I've noticed when I think in my mind, it's not a voice actually in my brain; we hear our voices reverberate through our skulls so we picture it reverberating. I notice that I am also picturing the muscle movements to move my tongue and my mouth. And when I think in ASL sometimes, I realize I am sort of picturing the muscle movements of how my hands, my body, and my face are all moving, and kind of picturing the visual as well.
I love this comment @@honeyb.981
it must've taken some doing to type this for a visually impaired person...
For me, the psychologically interesting part of this movie was how a person can implant an idea into another's mind. And that idea might be well intentioned but still cause devastating damage.
Agree, that was also the part that stuck with ne. Because that is just how societys are built and why it is somehow so difficult to understand the thinling prozess of another society. So interessting!
This happens all the time. Specifically from parents and spouses.
It’s a great metaphor for how even well intended people, often times parents, can cause profound damage to their children, without ever meaning to. And sometimes its not even something a parent directly said to their child, it can be an incorrect inference the child made based on their own feelings (which are heavily skewed at a young age), and a lack of clarification.
Or the idea can be a casual comment they don’t even remember making but, you know, the ax forgets but the tree remembers.
@@anjelica948 It goes even deeper than that. Children are information sponges who are observing everything all the time, and one of the things they observe most are the expressions of the adults in their life. Most of the cues that children respond to are non-verbal and most of the time, the parents/teachers/authority figures don't even know they're reacting.
One example that is particularly harmful: Say a teacher assumes a young child will behave poorly because of, say, their ethnicity. When that child does something improper, the teacher will then feel a sense of satisfaction that their bias was confirmed, and that will signal to the child that that improper thing was what was wanted from them, so they will continue doing things like that as they seek further validation from the teacher. THAT is how most biases are passed on to kids, with neither adult nor child even being aware that it's happening.
I have an anecdotal dream story about grief as well. But it was also a shared dream . When I was 12, my best friend (boy) died in a drowning accident. He had moved away the previous year but we grew up on the same street, had known each other 10 years, his grandparents lived down the road. A few weeks after he died, I had a dream that we were standing in the yard, near the Church by our school. We had just finished playing a game of Baseball. All our friends were standing there. Each of us giving him a hug and telling him we missed him. He turned to me and said, I'm sorry I have to leave. But I'll come back and see you soon. Take care of each other. Then he turned toward the church and a light swallowed his form. When I woke up, I felt a little lighter than I had in weeks. So, I decided to ride my bike up to our school, but I had to get air in my tires first. So I walked to the gas station up the road and was filling my tires, when my other best friend (girl), came running up a few minutes later. She said, "I've been looking for you. I just went to your house and your mom said you came here. I had the wildest dream last night and had to tell you." As she matched the description of my dream, down to the colour shirt he was wearing, we were both getting goosebumps. I'd also like to note that I'm not religious. I didn't attend this church outside of the occasional wedding or funeral my parents attended. And I don't remember my friend ever attending this church with his parents either. But, it's been almost 30 years and I still remember this dream and the feelings it gave when I woke up.
My dad has had a few dreams of family members who had died--but before he learned of their deaths--who came to him in dreams and said goodbye. And then days later, he learned that they died.
Anyway, there is no way to prove it scientifically or anything, but I firmly believe there is something beyond what we can perceive consciously that we can sometimes get adjacent to when we dream or in a hypnotic state.
Incredible! What a gift.
My aunt passed away about 5 years of terminal cancer. And several months after her death I would have dreams of her where we just sit and talk. One specific one that I remember still is her and I sitting on my college dorm bed talking about nothing at all but enjoying each other’s company. She’d never been to my college before, seen my then current bedroom in college but it felt good to see her again and talk like old times. Though it never happened like it was all in a dream. It always felt good when I woke up that I got see and talk to her again. 😊
When I had my first miscarriage I was obviously devastated, I had so many dreams with my girl before hand it felt like I had lost a 5 year old. About a month afterwards I had a dream where she came to visit me to let me know that she was okay, and taken care of, that I could move on and heal. All of the dreams were all so real, I've never experienced anything like it.
I had a similar experience. My uncle was dying of covid, alone in the hospital. His son lived internationally, and I was trying to hook him up through the nurses, over facetime, to say goodbye. Understandably this was horribly stressful. We were successful, thanks the beautiful heart of a nurse who used his own social media to help make it happen (against the rules). That night I had a dream that my uncle came to me, and talked to me super gently. Said he knew I'd tried contacting him, that he was going now, and that he loved me. Called me honey, which he was the only person in my family to ever call me that. Which made me feel really special. And I found out that he'd passed at the same time I was asleep. I'm happy to believe he came to say goodbye.
Brilliant episode! Also, quite possibly the first time I’ve laughed out loud in over a month-
“The love story in this movie gets me so hard.”
“I would phrase that differently.” 20:17
The calm response. xD the editing.
You guys are awesome. Thank you. :)
I had YT playing in the background while I work and the opening "Does the top fall?" made me think of bikinis.
That's probably just my own head 🤣
the ad placement as well hahaha
The editor is the hero we didn’t deserve, but the one we all needed
Since it’s spooky season they should do an episode on Over the Garden Wall. It may be a mini series but it’s the length of a movie and it’s SO GOOD. There would be so much for them both to talk about what with all the artistry that went into it as well as Wirt’s struggles with self worth, anxiety, and pessimism, and the themes of existential dread, and hopelessness present in the setting of the unknown itself. I really really really hope they cover it one day
My favorite part of this episode, Jono goes high by not teasing Alan that he has frequent flying dreams, but Alan goes low and repetitively edits in Jono's misspeak of "hits me hard". That's how we know you two are close, like brothers, even as friends and co-hosts.
If you liked Inception, I highly recommend Paprika, which Nolan was influenced by. Paprika is a detective thriller rather than a heist film, but the main protagonist is a therapist using the shared dream technology.
Yeeesss! I've actually watched Paprika way before Inception. I didn't know Nolan acknowledged the influence of Paprika on his work, but I remember seeing Inception for the first time and thought, "Heeey, this is just like Paprika! Awesome!"
Another movie i love too, i just didn't like the part when reality blended with dreams but everything before it specially the detective's Trauma had very strong writting.
@Amantducafe Blurring reality in his work is one of Kon's specialties. I do think Paprika was probably his weakest writing, though it was probably his most visually-stunning film.
He used it better in his other 3 movies and 1 short film. Tokyo Godfathers used it the least, but I think Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Magnetic Rose used that element of his style better.
@@sxeptomaniactbf it was based on Tsutsui's book from the 80s, and follows it pretty close (having read it). Yes, Kon's other films are GREAT, but I don't think it's any small feat to follow the novel as close as he (and Madhouse) did.
Paprika is uproarious, my cousin loves it.
I remember having dreams (more like nightmares) that have left me physically sick. In one instance I dreamt about a very traumatic incident that I have not even come close to experiencing irl. Still, when I woke up ut felt real and it took days to fully recover. The first day after I felt physically sick and kinda disgusted with myself. I experienced something close to a panic attack and I had like flashbacks from things that happened in the dream. Those symptoms faded after a few days, though there's a person I know irl - even though we never really talked much - who in this dream played a big role in causing that trauma I dreamt about. I still feel very uncomfortable around this person. They've never done anything to me irl, but I simply can't help it. It's crazy what our own subconcious can do to us.
In the end Cobb had dealt with his trauma (even if not completely) and found acceptance which means he no longer doubted his perception of reality. He wanted to be sure he was going to his real kids but when he saw them he didn't need the totem's confirmation to know they were real. Having learned the same lessons we are in turn left to come to the same conclusion on our own. The top wobbling is in line with this as it should .
What’s strange is my sister disowned my family with no warning. I decided to just not think about it, however, I started having dreams in which I would yell at her for hurting me and I turned her into a snake in one. It felt very therapeutic to tell her how she made me feel even though it was in my dreams.
It's completely normal to dream of things that are bothering us and we can't resolve... I always have these type of dreams... But I hope you can have a real talk to your sister.
Hi! Daughter of a Hypnotherapist here! My dad and i watched this film together back in the day and a lot of the reasoning they use for dream stuff comes from hypnotherapy! (Stuff like always working in positives, your brain doesn’t think in negatives, you have to think of a pink elephant before you can think of the absence of a pink elephant) Love your videos guys!
@VampireAntics - Nightmares are plenty negative.
Yes, but when giving a post-hypnotic suggestion you wouldn’t say “you DON’T feel pain” you would say “you feel _____ in place of pain”. And nightmares are, as Johnathon said, your brain telling you you’re ignoring a problem. It has to work in images that will invoke a certain feeling.
@@MossyMozartIn psychology, a "positive" means "a thing that is present" and "negative" means "a thing that is absent."
I really needed this video today. I ran away from my abusive family earlier this year to move to another state and start over. Ever since I’ve been having night after night of nightmares. It’s not every night but often enough there are nights I don’t want to go to bed in case I have a nightmare. Most of the time it ends with me waking up and I have a panic attack that leaves me feeling anxious for hours. Last night was a bad one. All I remember is I was at my fiancé’s house and we were just cuddling and talking and there was a knock at the door and my mother comes in in this bright pink track suit trying to get me “back home.” My fiancé was the one opening the door so he put himself between us but she pushed past and came closer and then he was gone and she started going on and on about how I abandoned them and I was a terrible child and that I would never make it in the real world and would have to come back when he left me. I started crying and he came back with this cartoonish policeman in orange who lifted her by the armpits and took her away. I ended up having a panic attack in the dream and he just held me. The funny thing is the dream just transitioned like all that didn’t happen. Some UA-camr I like was like “hey guys let’s go to the mall” I was still shaking and holding onto my fiancé like he was going to disappear and the dream was just so normal. He gave us a tour and even stopped at a restaurant but all I could think about was my mom finding me and trying to hurt me. I woke up and had one of the worst panic attacks I’ve ever had. I was originally going to go out and get errands done today but I just couldn’t I was emotionally drained and anxious. I know it would probably be good to get therapy and get the help I need but it’s expensive so I have the support of my Fiancé and I’ll be okay.
I would like to recommend EMDR to you. My therapist has used it to help me with nightmares about my family, and I have been healed of certain themes in just a single EMDR session! I was amazed!!
I’m also so sorry your family is like that. Mine is awful, too. 💔
Here's an interesting thing I learned from keeping a dream journal: Dreams are (in part) there to process long and short term memories, especially the latter. Therefore, I had a lot of dream content that appeared because I was thinking about certain things a lot that day. But when I didn't get enough sleep, I'd start dreaming about stuff from a couple days ago as well. So if you don't get enough sleep, your dreams play catch-up
This is my all-time favourite film. Much like Shawshank, I saw it during a particularly vulnerable time in my life mentally speaking. Cobb dealing with grief while also being haunted by his own dreams was something I related to all too well.
The film really helped me start to turn my life around.
Yes!! Top 3 movie of all time for me
You'll never dream the same again or even look at life the same again once you've watched Inception. Such a powerful movie!
I need to rewatch it, I saw it when it came out but that was at a time when I sort of just absorbed movies instead of engaging with them, so I barely remember it! I will probably appreciate it more now!
This movie led me to learning how to lucid dream.
@@Cats-2079 I've looked into lucid dreaming but part of me is paranoid of not being able to break out of the lucid dream when I'm ready.
I agree that it’s a powerful movie, and it certainly has affected my perception of life in some aspects, but I can’t say it ever changed the way I dream 🤷♂️
The movie that most changed my dreaming was Scarface.
For a few months after I would wake up with a jolt, imagining myself as the guy handcuffed in the shower when the chainsaw started up.
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I hated waking up like that.
one of my most visceral and potent memories of therapy is when i came to her, after receiving a medical diagnosis not long after recovering from a prior one. i asked my therapist, "WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!!?" and she very calmly and with a gentle smile replied, "What would you like it to mean?" wowwwza - it continues to change and challenge how i live my life.
I've had catharsis from a dream. My nephew died a few hours after being born... and when I fell asleep, I dreamed that he had lived, that my family got to meet him and I got to hold him and he was perfect. And I woke up with such a feeling of peace that it actually took me a while to remember that he hadn't made it. I don't think I'll ever forget that dream and how it made me feel.
Inception took heavy inspiration of Satoshi Kon's Anime movie "Paprika", and while Paprika was better at showing off the "surrealist" side of dreams, I think Inception went much more in depth into the true "fascination" of what dreams are, can be, can never be, symbolize (and so on) for people. Inception is to date one of my favourite movies ever, exactly because it does all of these aspects, the hopeful ones and the scary ones, so so well.
You should take a look at Satoshi Kon's final film Paprika. Inception was heavily influenced by it and the premise was a device invented to enter dreams for the purpose of psychiatric therapy. Also a mind#@%$ of a movie.
I’ve seen Perfect Blue (and was traumatized by it), so I’m looking forward to seeing Paprika (and also get mind#@%$ed by it)!
I'm honestly sad that people barely know paprika and it feels like it was overshadowed by inception because it's a hollywood. I don't know how should I feel about this movie.
@@crawllingchaos they are both excellent films and at least Nolan did not directly steal shots like Darren Aronosky did.
@sketchygetchey8299 OMG! Perfect Blue had me climbing the walls 😂
Was looking for the obligatory "You Cant Talk About Inception Without Talking About Paprika" post :p But for real, i would use "inspired" loosely, as he has absolutely been accused with direct (alleged) plagiarism as well. BUT that aside yes. If you enjoyed Inception you should absolutely watch Paprika. Personally I think it's a more fun movie. Also 'Girl From Byakkoya' is such a top tier theme song!
“My computer is my subconscious…”
That may have been deeper than you realized lol (now we need to go deeper)
Inception is one of the few movies I watched five times in theaters. I got a little burnt out on it at that point, but still an awesome movie. And yes! Please do an episode on The Prestige! And have you done one on Memento yet? If you haven’t, please do!
Love Inception, love you guys for taking it on this way. I absolutely agree with the “it’s a movie about making movies” interpretation, so good. Also, Jono is going to have that slip of the tongue haunt him for the rest of this channel’s existence. Alan, it is your duty as a friend to constantly remind him, and the editor, of it.
I kind of saw the debate about the top as a missing the point exercise. All through the movie, Cobb has been obsessively checking the totem to make sure he’s in reality, but in the final instance, it no longer matters to him. Either he’s home with his real children, or he’s slipped into a dream world where he can pretend to be with them forever, and in both cases, he doesn’t see if the top fell… so we the audience don’t get to know either. It is interesting to hear you say you need him to be in reality, however. Ambiguity is something hard to achieve in filmmaking and leaving the topic open to interpretation is not a path many filmmakers take, so I feel it should also be praised.
This is my favorite film of all time! The plot, the score, the filmography! I’m so glad you did a video on it! I can’t wait to watch this the second I get home from work! 👏🏼🤗
We hope you enjoy it!
@@CinemaTherapyShowI absolutely did; it was a highlight of my day! You never disappoint! Thank you! 😊
As an emetophobic, 5:08 gave me severe anxiety but 20:04 made me laugh so much. So thanks for the emotional rollercoaster this episode haha 😅
yeah i was really upset by that 😅 and didn’t see that it added much to the episode so i really wish they wouldn’t do that 😅
I definitely needed a warning. I don’t understand why so many movies have that. It’s not funny.
SAME. I can deal with it when I know it is coming, but the hard cuts are the WORST
yeah for sure.. also I was eating 5:08 guys come on ... rsrsrsrsrs
same here the first part made me annoyed because i have that emotophobic stuff but the second edited part was hilarious
Inception was the most immersive movie experience I’ve ever had. Thanks for doing this one!
The only time I've ever had a dream, it was an attempt by my body to get more sleep. I dreamed of getting out of bed in response to my alarm without shutting it off, getting dressed, and leaving to go to work.
When I opened the door, however, my brain couldn't render all of Manhattan at once. (I lived on 34th & 10th back then.) I noticed the pop-in as my brain was trying to render everything and woke up.
Since that failed, my body went with a different tactic later that week... Getting out of bed, shutting the alarm off, and getting back into bed, all without waking me up. My bed was above my kitchen and the alarm was on the kitchen counter, so this involved stairs, which is pretty impressive that my body managed to handle that without me.
fun fact: Inception was based on/inspired by Paprika by Satoshi Kon. Highly, HIGHLY, recommend!
There is also a game(not related to Inception) called 'To The Moon'(part of a series of games), which explores the concept of catharsis and healing through dreams and memories. Absolutely recommend that too for the gamers out there
This film is so good that I even try to watch it as less as possible, so I can forget some things and have a better experience watching it again in some years. This is the movie where my love for films began.
I've experienced real-life catharsis from a dream.
It's a wild experience to go to sleep. Have your subconscious untangle a knot in your life that you've been unable to resolve. Tell you a story that makes you understand in a way that not only enlightens you, but actually CHANGES the way you behave after that.
It was like waking up as a different person.
For me i had suddenly understood how to let go of regret and resentment.
And i had fought with those demons for so long...
All my life I’ve had dreams in which I was in a serious conflict with people I knew (mostly but not exclusively family). In those dreams I always felt helpless because I couldn’t express my own point of view. As I approached my 73rd birthday I had that dream but this time I stood up and screamed what I had always felt. I woke up feeling astonished - I had never expressed myself because I had never acknowledged what I was really feeling. That dream changed my self-image because it explained so much about my reactions and choices.
This was a masterpiece of a film, I remember my cousin had to breakdown everything that was happening in this movie while we saw it.
As someone that does not see pictures and does not dream in a visual sense either, it is fascinating to me when people talk about dreaming and having pictures play in their brain. I don't have that, never did. So this film feels very crazy to me because it is so far from my reality.
Dreams are never this visual and detailed though. I think dreaming reminds visually a bit same than when you are reading a book and "see" things happening. Maybe a bit more but mostly you just see what is important not the whole picture.
This film still holds the spot as my favourite movie. It is absolutely packed with some of my favourite actors. I absolutely fell for the trick of being made to feel smart for being able to follow the movie. I loved that it really felt like a dream that you get lost in and then wake up from when the movie ended. The performances were brilliant. The concept was awesome and I loved that it had many layers of themes and metaphors. It’s so good.
Something fascinating from my own experience: You can have cathartic nightmares and pleasant dreams which are the opposite of catharsis.
Like Jonathan said at the end, we can have dreams that can give us catharsis which would otherwise be nearly impossible to get in real life, or we can have dreams which are effectively our subconscious calling for us to face the things we refuse to face in real life.
I have a history of "nightmares" which never scare me and often involve me facing down monsters and various horror villains, things which would normally be nightmares for someone else, is just a standard dream to me which I might even draw catharsis from.
But this past year or so, I have had no "nightmares", instead I have reoccurring, pleasant dreams of the girl I'm in love with who was separated from me by her abusive family over a year ago, and whenever I have those dreams and wake from them, it's the most dreadful feeling ever, one that not even the worst nightmare can compare to, because it's my subconscious' way of motivating me to get my shit together and go help her to get the life I literally dream of every night but always wake up from.
I can say with certainty, that it's not the contents of a dream which determine if it's a good dream or bad dream, but the feel of it during and afterwards.
A face full of glass can be infinitely preferable to a dream that part of you genuinely doesn't want to wake up from. I've always been able to roll with the punches, and I've even faced monsters in my dreams in rematches, where I can lose dozens upon dozens of times, but I only need to win once for it to count.
But nothing compares to having that lucid dream, where I'm holding her, and we both know it's just a dream, and I tell her "I know this isn't real...but just let me hold you a little longer until I wake up..."
I love how when watching this movie and it can be a simple sci-fi adventure but then rewatching it is the most complicated thing you ever seen.
Similar to "Momento".
Love the video chaps! Personally, I think Memento is his best movie - "I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there?" - this is one of the most fascinating questions raised in his films and where Nolan really took off as a filmmaker & storyteller.
I love Memento and definitely think its a contender for top spot.
I'm a person who has very vivid and storied dreams. One of the hardest things for me is dreams that make me grieve. I dreamt I was married to an African chieftan once and when I woke up, I missed him so vividly all day. There was no reason for it, but the emotions in that dream had been so believable and strong that it felt like I had been ripped away from my home. And it is hard to get people to take that seriously, because it sounds so ridiculous, to get that worked up over a dream.
I had a similar theme of dream this morning. Someone I care about deeply had achieved great success in the dream and was moving on without me. I was trying to get my keys to the car back from them and all their followers kept getting in the way and increasing in numbers.
I think this is why I only thought this movie was okay when I saw it. It was never ahead of me, I totally followed it from beginning to end. I thought it over-explained itself if anything, and was surprised to find out how many other people were so confused by it and needed to watch it multiple times to understand what was going on.
You don't see the top fall over at the end because it doesn't matter whether it falls over or not. He's choosing to accept this as his reality, and who are you to tell him different? Even if he's dreaming, he's choosing to stay here in the dream and is no longer going to live his life in fear that he might be dreaming. He's choosing to be present and happy and enjoy these moments rather than always questioning them. Whether or not the top actually falls is intentionally ambiguous because it's irrelevant.
I had a like 5 year span of being extremely into dreams (I mean... within a lifetime of being a more manageable level of this) and loved learning about how dreams function in memory and in being basically internal free therapy. I've had wild vivid dreams most of my life. I remember looking at those "dream meaning' dictionaries as a teen and being like, this sounds like it's just a horoscope version of "you dream about what you're too afraid or limited to think about while awake". When I started looking to actual research years later I found that read was likely pretty correct. It's been great because I have now spent most of my life having a healthy relationship with my mind and with dreams even though I have mental disorders to work through in my day to day. If I have a disturbing dream I feel that unease when I first awaken but then immediately go "why did I have that dream... ohhh my buddy bill wasn't really Bill in that, he represents people from a time when I behaved poorly" or something and I quickly find what I was working through. If I have a dream about a traumatic experience like my dog dying I wake up upset but quickly think "my body is just trying to prepare me and let me walk through that before I have to face it" and often the healing takes place in the dream as well. It also means that I went from frequent nightmares and sleep paralysis to immediately recognizing SP and knowing that every character in my dreams is something I made up... all those lil monsters. I just ask them if I can help them now. And if I see a real person being scary in a dream I know that it's usually them (or maybe someone who feels like them even if the body is wrong) subconciously giving me bad vibes and I try to note in my day whether they are showing signs of not actually being great or if I am suffering from some paranoia or jealousy. Anyway... amazing all this is free less the price of evolution.
So interesting and awesome for you!
That's a beautiful reasoning process-- thank you for sharing it!
Most of the dreams I wake up remembering are my subconscious incorporating sounds in my bedroom into something other than what they are.
The most common are the overfull answering machine screaming for attention (the business across the street has a truck backing up to it) and "Why can't the band just play the whole danged song!?" (my alarm going off and stopping after thirty seconds, or the phone ringing for fifteen seconds) or the one about flying an experimental but noisy new jet (the upstairs neighbor running their vacuum)
I had a cathartic dream last week: in real life I am experiencing some issues with my family. Moved abroad a year ago and I'm still struggling to adapt to the new place. But that's my struggle, not theirs. So, two months ago my mother started saying I couldn't do it on my own, I didn't had the capacity. I called her attention that what she was saying was not emotionaly mature of her so I disconnected with her for a while. Then comes the dream: My parents showed up without being invited, here in the other country. My first thought in the dream was "lets talk this through and be comprehensive" but another part od me started shouting that they cannot control me anymore and expel them from my house. It was liberating, even now, one week after I still feel freed.
I had a dream with my child self. I was feeling immense guilt for enjoying anything in the present day, while my child self was trapped in the trauma (she was literally trapped in a dark basement in my dream, its amazing how the brain represents these things). She gave me permission to enjoy life, and reminded me that the defense mechanisms I used as a kid were for the sole purpose of surviving to adulthood. That dream gave me so much relief, and I'm now in a place where I can handle going back and holding the trauma with her
I absolutely did this went I was a nanny--I didn't 'give kids an idea, I let them have their own ideas. When I started in the home of "older" kids ( 7 and 9) who would often scream and get into fist fights, I didn't tell them what to do. Day 1, I asked them what the house rules were, if they were working, and how they thought the rules could be better / what they wanted the rules to be so that things could be fair and enjoyable for all. We discussed together, shared ideas, and the boys took ownership of the environment they wanted to live in. The boys spoke about their feelings, reactions, frustrations, etc. and we made a plan, something we could all support each other on. For the sake of legibility, I wrote our "new rules" on paper and we all "signed" our agreement by tracing our hands over the list. Did it work overnight? Of course not. But within a month their mom was thanking me and asking me wtf I did.
In regards to dream being cathartic, OMG yes, for me. I had a dream I searched for, found, and saved my inner child and began to mother her; as I slowly woke up my dream self realised the dream was ending and I said, "no no I'm not done being her mom." Upon being fully awake, I did feel sad the dream was over because it was filled with so much love and joy and sunshine, but I also knew I would always be my inner child's mom.
In another dream, I woke up face down on a soft earthy floor, in the middle of a circle of men in white robes and tan sandles. Naturally I was deeply concerned (every woman's worst nightmare, no?) but then I realised they were all whispering about the healing ceremony. I had some fabric wrap around my hips, but I could feel only a square napkin on my back...and the pointy feet of a scorpoin. Above the mumbles and whispers I heard, "only the sting of the scorpion can heal her." I laid there thinking, shit. This is not ideal. Then the scorpion began to walk down my back, do a little u-turn at the small of my back, and walk up the other side. Then it freakin stung me right in the back of the neck and I woke up in so much pain---actual pain in the spot where I was stung. It ached for a bit, but I felt a wave of emotional release. I let go of quite a few things I'd been working to let go of that morning.
Maybe my dreams sound a little... cray cray. But I always appreciate that they don't hide the ball. It's like my subconscious is being straight forward, like, Hey. We're healing some shit tonight, so buckle up buttercup!
Christopher Nolan, my favorite director. I don't think there's a single master piece from his portfolio that I don't absolutely adore. Amazing video!
I remember watching this movie alone when it came out in theatres. I was living on my own for post-secondary in a city I hated, and was still a decade or so away from truly starting to recover and grow after a rocky childhood. I can’t describe how hard this movie hit me, and how important it’s themes, characters, and messaging was to me, then and now. At the time that I first saw it, I loved all of it so much but I didn’t fully understand its implications in my own struggles, or understand why that final frame cutting away from the spinning top made me so viscerally furious and sad…
Looking back on it now, I’m humbled by how brilliant the storytelling was, and how important that movie has been for my own personal growth. That movie and ending were so powerful that it led my brain to being that angry at the idea of the catharsis not being “real”, not really counting somehow if it wasn’t for certain that that moment had happened in the real world… and I’m literally just now realizing that that was my own subconscious yelling at me, trying to make me see that all of my own little and big moments of internal catharsis have mattered. That I’m not as lost as I’ve thought, all these years.
I’m not stuck like I’ve wondered if I am since being abandoned and let down so severely by one person in particular, and I don’t need to wait for that person to give me “real” closure. I also don’t need to wait for some overt sign of permission or something for it to be okay to let go of the grief over the death of another person and be not monstrous or disrespectful of their memory for doing so…
I’m not stuck. I’ve grown so much, and healed so much, and the catharsis I’ve been looking for has been what I’ve been building for myself with the family of my own I’ve started. Bit by tiny bit, I am surpassing all the hurt, the trauma, the grief… I’ve done that. It’s real, because it is real to me.
Thanks “Inception”, for existing ❤ and thanks Cinema Therapy for prompting this decade-belated realization, and thanks to my brain for speaking up so often that it’s slowly but surely become possible for me to hear and understand ❤
…Though, psychological healing and growth completely aside, that top ABSOLUTELY did eventually fall. There 💯 was no wobble whenever it was in a dream. I will die on that hill lol because my heart and soul believes fully that Cobb and his kids get the happy ever after they freakin deserve.
You should ABSOLUTELY do an episode on The Prestige; Grief, Blame, Self-Destructive Obsession...
You could get a stage magician in, talk about the importance of secrets and belief
This was probably mentioned in the comments but in case it wasn't: Michael Caine said in an interview that he was having trouble following the script and "what is real". Apparently he asked Christopher Nolan and was told that his character never enters dreams, he's only in reality. I mention it to point out that he's in the final scene so it confirms Cobb is not dreaming when he is reunited with his kids (in other words the top will fall).
Great vid and commentary as always!
Amazing video guys, personally I'd love a Part 2 if y'all could justify it! I was with Jonathan, I'd never seen/caught the many different bits that Alan pointed out that reflect the movie making process! Also plenty of what Jono said - about catharsis, ownership of ideas, and so much more - resonated with me as well. I'd watch a 2-3 hour seminar with you both discussing all the things in this movie! ((PS - Michael Caine has confirmed that the ending is reality, not a dream. He said he asked a question, and was told that if he was present in a scene, it's reality. He's in the ending, therefore Cobb's awake. Just thought I'd share for anyone who hasn't heard that story/seen that clip. 😊))
Definitely do The Prestige. Just in general, do more movies that have been released a while back. I really appreciate that the UA-cam algorithm makes you do more relevant movies, but I can't watch a video by you guys if I haven't seen it yet and if a movie has only been out for a few weeks, or even a month or 2 -3 I haven't always been able to see it yet.
Love this movie!
When my grandmother was dying we knew the end was near. She had been fighting a failing battle with cancer and once it reached her brain it slowly began eating at everything that she was. Once she was nearing the end I got a call from family to let me give her my final fair wells. It was something I knew was coming but it was hard to accept that she was gone. That night though I had a dream of her. We were standing in an all white room, she was dressed in a soft white gown and she looked so happy. We exchaged a few special words and shared a hug so real I woke up feeling warm were she touched me. She had thanked me for my kind words and just wanted to say goodbye. When I woke up I cried hard, but it was so cathartic. It genuinely felt like she had been there with me. I didn't grieve her death the way I grieved other losses because I felt like I had my reconciliation. After the dream I was immediately at a space of acceptance and instead of saddness I only feel a nostalgic sense of warmth and joy at the thought of her memory.
Regarding shared dreams: my college roommate and I got along super well. Like a "they're on the same wavelength" type friendship. One night we both had a dream that involved a concert on campus. Hers was a matter of fact "oh we're going to this concert" background detail, mine was a very stressed "trying to get things done so I can go to the concert," with the concert being a major plot point. As far as we know, there wasn't anything irl that would have caused us to both think of concerts. I like to think that we were just that in tune, but maybe I was frantically talking in my sleep or both our brains somehow equated finals and concerts
I have learned so much from this channel since i started watching. And you guys have incepted me more than once. I hope it's not the false epiphany stuff but I've made more progress in this year than i have in the past 3. I hope your channel only succeeds because you are not only entertaining but you are helping people.
Thank you so much!
Yes!!! Another opportunity to talk about the top. My theory is that it’s shot that way because it doesn’t matter if the top falls because for Cobb, seeing his family means that I don’t care if the top falls or not (unlike it’s been the whole movie). I think for him, he’s fought so hard for this moment and wanted it so bad, that ultimately, he doesn’t want to face the possibility of it still being a dream. Hence he just rushes for the hug from his family. Whether it’s real or not, I need my family.
I will say, however, there is a definitive answer: Cobb’s totem, which is not the top like some people think. That’s Mal’s totem. His totem is his wedding ring, which he doesn’t wear in reality, but does wear throughout the dream sequences. He even comments on it, saying something like, “In the dreams, I’m still married to her.” And in that final scene, he’s not wearing the ring. Additionally, you can see that his kids are slightly older than they are whenever he dreams about them, showing he’s reunited with the kids he’s been apart from for the last two years, not the dream kids who will always be the same age of the last time he saw them.
Definitely!! My family got kicked out of the house I grew up in due to “traditional” culture things. I had so much anger towards my family and so much attachment to that house. It was always really hard for me to let go of that house even after my uncle decided to sell it. I always felt like every house we lived in after was just a house but never home. But one night I had a dream about that house. There was a plum tree that we had planted when I was really young. I remember growing up with that plum tree and it had always had a lot of meaning to me. I used to tell my younger sister that if you wrote a wish and tied it to the tree that your wish will come true. I was obviously lying but it made us feel better and it gave us something to believe in. In my dream, that plum tree had called to me. The tree told me that it was time for us to say goodbye and that it would no longer be there waiting for our return. I was really sad in the dream, but I knew we had to say goodbye. Every since that dream, all angry feelings and longing attachments to that house went away. I feel at peace with it all. And I can finally call my parents new house “home”
THE GIVING TREE book.
I have been DYING for you guys to do this movie!! Not only is it in my top 5 favorite movies of all time, it was super therapeutic for me. My dog died in January and it absolutely broke me. I was trying to get my mind off of it so I watched Inception and I got to the part where Cobb is in Limbo with Mal where he says, “We had our time together but now I have to let you go.” I kept dreaming about my dog and I would wake up absolutely devastated but it’s still cathartic in a lot of ways. This movie is just so good and I’m so happy you talked about it!!!
Oh yeah, Inception. One of my most favorite movies. But I was too young to experience this in theaters. I wish I could see this in the cinema.
I've only been pregnant once and it was an ectopic pregnancy. I grieved for a long time and for the next 9 months I kept having dreams in which things were going on and all of a sudden I'd find out I was like 8 months pregnant (since the ectopic pregnancy was also a surprise). Around the "due date" I had a dream like the others where all of a sudden I'm in labor after not even knowing I was pregnant, but this time I delivered it, held it in my arms, and it was a boy. In the dream, I even said "I can't believe this is the first time we're seeing him" when they did the ultrasound because in real life they were never able to find it either, they were gauging it based on my blood tests. I saw his face and named him. I think it helped give me some closure.
That's beautiful. And I am sorry for your loss.
The comment at the end about catharsis in dreams: when my dad died, the night after his memorial service, I had a dream where he was sitting in his favorite spot on the couch and asked me "So how was it?" He and I joked about his service, laughed, I cried, and I told him he would've liked it. He smiled and told me that he thinks he would've too. When I woke up, I was still sad, I still missed him. But that dream--it felt so real. It was almost like all the love my dad and I had for each other, all the good memories he gave me and all that he let me know about him and him about me--my brain served that back to me. It gave me my dad when I needed him, it pulled from my real true memories and emotions and knowledge of my dad. It was a pale comparison to the man, but it was what I needed and when I woke up it comforted me that I knew him so well that my brain could give me a little piece of him back.
Inception really is kind of a window into how Christopher Nolan's mind works, specifically how he dreams.
It also made me realize I kind of do the same.
Every Nolan film is by definition a must re-watch, and this is one of my favorites. Glad to see a video from you guys on this!
One of the last things you say about reoccuring nightmares hit home for me. I realized a little while back I would often have the same kind of nightmare, a situation where I was being chased by a beast, usually a werewolf, but no matter how much I ran or moved my body, I would never move an inch. Like I was stuck in place. I realized that the werewolf was my trauma that I have been fleeing from my whole life. Now that I have started therapy to face and address all that trauma, the nightmare has gone away. Amazing how the subconscious works.
Awesome to see you guys discuss this iconic movie! Would LOVE to see you do The Prestige. Not sure what the therapy angle would be, but I'm ready to hear the Internet Dads discuss it nonetheless. :D
Yes please! The Prestige is one of my favorite movies, it would be awesome to see your angle! *___*
@@NanaNushka8it’s one of my favourites too!
We also dream in emotions
I have full retrograde amnesia from CPTSD and my dreams will always be environments but they all come with emotions. Which is what I got from the scene where she didn’t know it was a dream. The coffee started shaking and the explosions went off because she was having an emotional reaction to it. At least that’s what it’s like in my world
This was a masterpiece. I was a Christopher Nolan fan after this. The visuals and intriguing story had me hooked from beginning to end. It won best film of that year for me. I never thought about it that it was about making movies but now I see it. Like the responsibility and relationship the filmmaker has to the audiance. I always saw it a story of grief and facing reality when tragedy falls on you. Thanks for yet another great episode fellas!
YES you should do an episode on The Prestige! Grief, ambition, obsession, reasons for and consequences of living a double life, David Bowie... MANY reasons to do an episode on The Prestige!
I agree.
Loved the point about good therapy guiding with questions rather than answers; that's exactly how my experience with therapy was and it was very healing.
I also popped off so hard when Alan complimented The Prestige; it's one of my all-time favorite movies
The first time I saw Inception was with a group of friends at a drive-in theater and there was a thunderstorm happening 5mi away. We couldn't hear half the exposition lines, so we assigned two people per dream level to keep track of what was going on 😂
Thank you for not deadnaming Eliot Page, even though this movie was made before he transitioned. 😊
It honestly didn't surprise me that they got it right, but it did make me very happy! Then again, watching these guys always makes me happy! They remind me all the time that there are good men out there.
@@Fyreflight1998 - same. It doesn't surprise me that they got it right, but I like to make sure to bring positive attention to people who make sure they're being respectful. I'm agender, so it's a big deal to me to see cis straight men making the effort to respect trans folk.
Trans people are people. We do our best to respect everyone and their identities!
Except Nazis. We punch Nazis.
-alan, jonathan, & captain america
@@CinemaTherapyShow you’re the best!
as someone who mostly has nightmares and the rest is at least 50% mundane, could be a day in my life sort of dreams that screw with my perception of reality, the vast majority of which I feel (in excruciating detail) and regularly wakes up in a terrible panic...this video is so lovely and makes me feel better. Thank you.
"As you know, that's bad exposition." Also, Jonathan talking about dreaming of his mother after she'd passed reminds me of a dream I had about my paternal grandfather shortly after his death. In the dream, I was aware that he was dead, but there was no sense of grief or shock. My reaction to seeing him was more like, "Oh, hey, you're back; nice to see you." I don't know if the dream helped me in a therapeutic way, but I've always thought of it as a nice dream.
I thought the limbo level of the dream demonstrated depression quite well. The real world flies by while someone is stuck in their own mind, in an empty world alone.
And the real Mal's behaviour.
it was so damn good to see how excited Alan was throughout the whole episode! he was like a kid enjoying this fav superhero show!! my hearrrrrtttttt!!!!
I knew someone once who had reccuring dreams of being in a sci-fi war, and he would die and become other soldiers throughout the night. He said each dream could last anywhere from a day to years worth of time dilation.
It was also interesting because these dreams started after he had a traumatic experience and ended after he made a new emotional connection with someone, so he got that catharsis. Definitely an interesting case, I'd never heard of anyone having that happen before! Glad he's doing better now
YES! Inception has been my number one favorite movie to this day. I love a big concept world, psychology, and dreams.
My interpretation of the movie is that the entire movie is essentially a dream DiCaprio's character has on the flight. He's an ordinary traveling businessman who fell asleep on the plane, and the movie is his dream. It fits with the shifting logic of the story, the in media res beginning, the dream being primarily populated by people he knows (like Michael Caine being in France but also waiting for him at the airport at the end) and other people on the plane. The story of Cillian Murphy's character's resentment towards his father mirrors his own anxiety towards what his children might think of him due to him constantly being on business trips instead of with them. The drops are basically his body registering the turbulence of the plane. None of the other characters on the plane talk to him after the flight ends. There isn't anything that happened in the ending that requires the rest of the movie to be real.
rtddles tn the dark🤕
I’m so glad you mentioned what dreams may come and Inception - love dream analysis.
Would love a review of “what dreams may come”. You must have so many movie requests. I am here for them all!
OMG PLEASE DO AN EPISODE ON THE PRESIGE!!! It's literally my favorite movie and it doesn't get enough attention 😅 I'm so glad yall like it too!
Dude I literally watched this a couple of days ago. One of the best films I’ve ever seen! So compelling, so visually appealing, so thoughtful. Among my top 50.
I've recently had a dream based off one of my real life fears. In it, my sister was suspicious of me wanting to spend time with her daughter, my niece. My greatest fear is being a creepy relative or in some way putting my newborn niece in danger sometime in the future. Living with OCD can be hard because I have the kind that makes me think I am sexually attracted to anything when the last thing I'd do is m0lest a child. Also, I'm trans and my sister's transphobic, so she could very well see me that way and try to paint me in that way when she talks about me with her.
wow! Lots to unpack here. A couple of things. In re: to dreaming, the mind can dream about something as an exercise of what NOT TO DO. Many ppl in recovery (AA & or NA) have dreams where they use and break abstinence and that is the LAST thing they would do IRL. The dream is basically your brain saying "remember to not do this."
OCD intrusive thoughts are so hard to deal with. OC you are probably aware of it, but if someone doesn't know, intrusive thoughts are not suppressed desires but the opposite of it, they challenge our values and morals. I know someone who has very graphic intrusive thoughts about harming people and I know they would never do such things
Wait a minute. Going off the film being a metaphor for filmmaking, Cobb having a problem of injecting his subconscious into other people’s dream and him having his own catharsis is a metaphor about how directors inject aspects of themselves and their stories into films and how the process can also be sense of catharsis for them. In trying to make the audience feel something, they feel something. Love it!!!
Also the projections being hostile towards foreign dreamers is related to the uncomfortableness directors/creatives have with someone else coming in and taking their ideas and changing it up too much.
I love how this video seems to be more 50/50 therapy and film making
I'm so glad I found your channel, as I absolutely love cinema. It has seriously helped me realize some things about myself and my loved ones. You guys are the best! 🥺🙏
So excited you guys did this one! It blew my family and I's minds when we watched it and it's probably one of the best movies I've ever seen. Can never watch it again for the first time, unfortunately, but I'm certain there are so many details to notice on a repeat viewing. I think the psychology of dreams is really fascinating and I loved seeing you analyze it!
On a side note, are you planning/would you consider doing a Psychology of a Hero on Cobb analyzing his journey of grief over his wife and his transition from guilt to acceptance? You touched on it here, but I think it deserves to be talked about in more depth and I'd love to see your take on it.
I did feel a sense of healing when i had dreams with my late husband in them. I felt his warmth, his hands on my face, the weight of his arms.....
Yes!!! You've finally done my favorite film ever! It's so awesome to hear both of your therapeutic takes on this and *absolutely* do an episode on the Prestige (as well as literally ever other Christopher Nolan movie).
You guys really knocked it out of the park with this one 👏 amazing episode guys and girls!
Thanks for watching!
YES to an episode on The Prestige. It's probably my favorite Nolan film, even after everything else he's done.
I 100% agree that dreams can be cathartic. A friend of mine was killed when I was 15, and I had a panic attack at the funeral; I felt awful, like I was letting him down by not being there. A few nights later I had a dream that we were talking together about life, super casually and relaxed, I think we were sitting on a bunk bed and he was on the top and I was on the bottom looking up. I don't remember what he said to me, but there was a deep sense of forgiveness. I woke up and cried for hours, but after that I never cried for him again. That might sound callous but I believe he was forgiving me and telling me to let go. It's been almost 10 years and it is still one of my most powerful dream experiences.
It was shared because it was real. Only you two got to semi-consciousness and so experienced its reality as "dream", cf C G Jung's RED BOOK. I'd bet all the other friends felt good that day. Jung called it the collective unconscious. Theory. Only anecdotal evidence.
Hey guys! This was an amazing episode, Inception is literally one of my favorite movies and I'm so happy you guys did an episode on it! I have a recommendation for Apple TV's "Severance" , it's honestly one of the craziest shows I have ever watched and it's so cool. I think you guys would like it :)) Again, love you guys and continue being great!!
😮 Wow! That drowning dream thing just happened to me this weekend! Same thing with the nasal congestion and the gasping for air when waking up.
25:08 - I’m a psychologist also speaking from personal dream experience and YES.
I once had a dream about having a heated argument with my friend who was careless towards me in real life and when I woke up I had the most amazing feeling of relief/catharsis and didn’t really have a need to have a heated argument with her in real life.
I finally talked to her so it got sorted in real life, but thanks for reminding me of this event. It was truly healing and empowering.
Fun Fact - I found out from this movie that I am a lucid dreamer. I went to see it with my friends when I was 20 years old. I remember walking out thinking the movie was stupid and made no sense because they were working so hard to change their dreams and they didn’t know they were dreaming. I was confused the entire movie. My friends then told me that people don’t know they are dreaming when they are in a dream and they can’t change it. I was shocked lol. I’ve never had a non-lucid dream and I’ve always been able to change them. I thought everyone dreamt the same way up until I saw this movie lol. Enlightening to say the least.
That's fascinating! I, on the other hand, have never had a lucid dream even once! I didn't even know that was a thing for the longest time! It's funny how we assume our own experiences are universal until we meet someone who has experienced the opposite. Did you enjoy the movie more on rewatch with this new information, or is it still difficult for you to relate?
@@rbrainsop1 Yes, very true! And it’s not something I would have been aware of before because people very rarely talk about the mechanics of their dreams. I just assumed how I dreamt was the same way other people dreamt too until I was presented with an entire movie that told me otherwise. The question or topic had never come up beforehand because it never needed to. I do remember as a child my mom would scream in her sleep sometimes and I asked her why she didn’t just change her dream if she was scared. She told me she didn’t know she was dreaming. But, my mom is a weird person so I just thought “that’s just my mom, she’s weird” lolol. Turns out, I was the weird one lol. My siblings never had weird dream experiences so I never talked to them about it. I’ve since done research on lucid dreaming and I’m still shocked that it’s something people can’t do or have to practice doing. For me, it’s the only type of dream state that I know. I’ve actually never rewatched the movie, although this video is making me want to. I doubt I’ll be able to relate to much in it but it will be interesting to rewatch it now knowing that it actually makes sense for most of the world lol.
Always love seeing new episodes come up.
Had an idea for a show, and it ties into something Alan said about music.
Would love a show on Soundtracks. Songs that really do a great job of hitting the feels for the beat of the film or that are a bit of therapy on their own.
You know, the thing that I find most interesting about the movie is that as much fun as it is trying to figure out if the top fell or not, it ultimately does not matter to the resolution of the story. The core of the emotional conflict in the movie is Cobb's inability to process the loss of his wife - something that is truly wrapped up at the end of the movie. If the last scene is a dream, it shows that he's ready to reconnect with the rest of his family - if not, it means is HAS reconnected with the rest of his family. Either way, we have our catharsis and the story ends on an emotionally satisfying note.