Taylor

Here is a brief rundown of what, in my opinion, has possibly occurred.

Mal is real, and she is the one trying to wake Cobb. But feelings of regret, despair, and guilt stand in the way of his waking. I’m unsure, but thinking that they went through a nasty divorce and Cobb sees Mal as an antagonist.

Cobb is in a coma. This was the result of a car accident that [inconclusive] took the lives of his two children. He was initially awake at the time of the incident, before shock and injury slipped his body and mind into the coma. In that state of limited awareness, he believes that his children to be dead. Awaking from the dream will force him to face the reality and horror of the consequences suffered in the accident. He cannot bring himself to do this. By staying in the dream, he can always be with his kids.

There was a cool short film called World Builder that is a very interesting watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8

There are strong Jungian aspects to the film and lets suppose that these innermost characteristics exist within the collective unconscious (the deepest state within ourselves). The other characters in the film were just different segments of himself. Jung lists seven such archetypes:

1. The Persona is the image you present to the world in your waking life. It is your public mask. In the dream world, the persona is represented by the Self. The Self may or may not resemble you physically or may or may not behave as your would. For example, the persona can appear as a scarecrow or a beggar in your dream. However, you still know that this “person” in your dream is you.

2. The Shadow is the rejected and repressed aspects of yourself. It is the part of yourself that you do not want the world to see because it is ugly or unappealing. It symbolizes weakness, fear, or anger. In dreams, this figure is represented by a stalker, murderer, a bully, or pursuer. It can be a frightening figure or even a close friend or relative. Their appearance often makes you angry or leaves you scared. They force you to confront things that you don’t want to see or hear. You must learn to accept the shadow aspect of yourself for its messages are often for your own good, even though it may not be immediately apparent.

3. The Anima / Animus is the female and male aspects of yourself. Everyone possess both feminine and masculine qualities. In dreams, the anima appears as a highly feminized figure, while the animus appears as a hyper masculine form. Or you may dream that you are dressed in women’s clothing, if you are male or that you grow a beard, if you are female. These dream imageries appear depending on how well you are able to integrate the feminine and masculine qualities within yourself. They serve as a reminder that you must learn to acknowledge or express your masculine (be more assertive) or feminine side (be more emotional).

4. The Divine Child is your true self in its purest form. It not only symbolizes your innocence, your sense of vulnerability, and your helplessness, but it represents your aspirations and full potential. You are open to all possibilities. In the dreamscape, this figure is represented by a baby or young child.

5. The Wise Old Man /Woman is the helper in your dreams. Represented by a teacher, father, doctor, priest or some other unknown authority figure, they serve to offer guidance and words of wisdom. They appear in your dream to steer and guide you into the right direction.

6. The Great Mother is the nurturer. The Great Mother appears in your dreams as your own mother, grandmother, or other nurturing figure. She provides you with positive reassurance. Negatively, they may be depicted as a witch or old bag lady in which case they can be associated with seduction, dominance and death. This juxtaposition is rooted in the belief by some experts that the real mother who is the giver of life is also at the same time jealous of our growth away from her.

7. The Trickster, as the name implies, plays jokes to keep you from taking yourself too seriously. The trickster may appear in your dream when you have overreach or misjudge a situation. Or he could find himself in your dream when you are uncertain about a decision or about where you want to go in life. The trickster often makes you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, sometimes mocking you or exposing you to your vulnerabilities. He may take on subtle forms, sometimes even changing its shape.

Now the trick is trying to link the film characters to these archetypes.

Here is another link that delved into this very subject:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/What-If-Inception-Were-Analyzed-By-Dream-Experts-19638.html

Highlights from the article:

Mal/The Shade as The Shadow Archetype

One of Jung’s most prominent archetypes is the shadow, which is mostly the darker side of oneself projected into an entity. This archetype can be represented as many different figures, from people to animals that might have haunted you in your childhood. The way archetypes work is like this: they aren’t really the shape that you see but more a feeling or emotion that is transformed into an entity that we can relate to, and the shadow archetype represents the worst parts of ourselves and the evil that lurks within us. So, if you’re still following me here, then you’ll know that Mal is certainly the evil that lurks within Dom. I mean, it’s even in her name, (Mal in Latin means evil, after all).

But let’s look even deeper. As we know, Mal is already dead by the first time we see her in Saito’s dream on the Shinkansen. She killed herself after she thought that limbo was still reality and that the world she lived in was all a lie. As we know, she only thinks this because Dom Cobb performed Inception on her and he feels that he is the cause of her death, so his dark side is manifested in Mal, who might as well just be a literal shadow because she follows him everywhere he goes, much like a shadow would. This leads to disastrous results, like in the form of a freight train through the streets or as an assassin in the snow. Mal in every way is the darker side of Cobb that he can’t contain, and that’s what makes her such a threat, because deep down, he knows that she’s really the worst side of himself, and everything she does affects the rest of his innermost archetypes.

Arthur/The Point Man as The Hero Archetype

Let’s face it, even though Dom Cobb is the star of the show, he’s hardly the hero. He’s more like a broken down sad sack dealing with shameful emotional issues caused by his dominant shadow (See above). But Arthur, who is willing to take on an onslaught of bad guys in a constantly shifting hallway so his friends can enter into a deeper dream state, is pure hero material, especially when he runs the risk of being “killed” and sent to limbo in such a heavily sedated state.

Arthur is everything Dom wishes he could be but can’t because he has so many ghosts following him around. He gets to kiss the girl, save the day (Notice that he’s one of the first ones to wake up in the submerged car and pull the others to safety), and doesn’t fail in his mission to lead the bad guys away from his friends. While Dom, on the other hand, fails in every way, even allowing his shadow/Mal to “kill” Fischer Jr. from behind, which compromises the entire mission. So, if we’re keeping track of our Archetype discussion, that would mean that Arthur is also Dom, but the part of him that is brave and courageous and willing to put his life on the line for his friends. He doesn’t have any excess baggage. He’s just all business, and all kickass.

Saito/The Tourist as the Father Archetype

The father archetype is a very strong figure in the human psyche, as it’s one that gets what it wants and has a great deal of control in the person he inhabits. And in every way, that’s what Saito is, acting almost as a dues ex machina by the end of the film with his ability to literally overturn the law so that Dom can return to America. Saito would be the side of Dom’s character that would be authoritative and demanding. In other words, he would be the boss when it got right down to things. We already see that Dom’s not the boss of his own team as his second architect doesn’t even follow his instructions when he tells her not to go deeper into his mind. She does just that and sees what Mal is really capable of doing within him. So in that way, Dom has very little control over his circumstances, while Saito is exactly the opposite—he gets what he wants and knows how to get it.

Note that not only did he convince Dom to plant inception in a business competitor’s mind, but he also got to tag along with the others as a tourist, which is highly dangerous and a definite risk factor in a mission like this. Saito gets whatever he wants. So is it any wonder why he gets shot so early in the mission? Dom can’t deal with a figure like that right now within himself, as he has his own problems to deal with. If anything, he needs a strongly based mother archetype, one who will take care of him and not demand too much out of him. Unfortunately, there isn’t one to be found in this movie, making his catharsis that much harder.

Eames/The Forger as The Trickster Archetype

The Trickster Archetype is deceptive and shady, and Eames is the shadiest of them all. Working as a forger in reality and as a shape shifter in the dream world (even switching genders at one point to lead the target off-guard, which is VERY Trickster-esque), Eames is the side of Dom that can still laugh at itself and crack a smile, but also the great deceiver that can’t tell reality from a dream. The Trickster is very prominent in the film in that Dom lies to not only his team but also himself, believing that he has everything under control when he knows deep down that he’s a complete and utter mess.

It’s in Eames’ dream in the snow fortress that Dom is truly confronted with his shadow, and it’s at that point that he knows that he can’t lie to himself anymore. The Trickster proves it to him by putting his shadow front and center there for him. And with his shadow “killing” Fischer, she is also killing the child within him (More on that in a second).

Robert Fischer Jr./The Mark as The Child Archetype

Robert Fischer Jr. just wants acceptance from his father, and like the child archetype, he is the side of Dom who desires to be innocent again. Note that when Fischer’s safe opens, he pulls out the pinwheel that he had in the picture with his dad. This side of Dom is very tricky to discuss as Dom actually deceives the child within him by lying to Fischer at the bar and claiming that the images he sees are really trying to kill him when their purpose is to actually save him from dream thieves, Dom being one of them.

This leads me to believe that Dom is trying to move on from the helpless side of himself by this part in the movie and doesn’t want that innocence to hold back. He wants to be more like the father archetype and have control. But Dom can’t reach catharsis by subduing his archetypes, and by bringing Fischer back from the dead in the end, it allows him to open his safe, which I definitely think is tantamount to Dom’s rebirth, which is a part of what the child archetype represents within the dreamer, a new beginning. So yeah, it’s some pretty heady stuff.

Ariadne/The Architect as The Anima Archetype

The Anima is the feminine side within a male (Whereas, the animus, would be the male side within a female) and she represents who a male truly is rather than who he presents himself as in reality, and in many ways, what that’s what Ariadne represents for Dom. Out of all the other characters in the movie, she’s the closest to being who he really is—note, all of the details he tells her are basically the same details he’s telling us, too, with the audience being a part of who he is, as well, being that we’re living inside his head while we watch the movie—and she’s also an architect, which Dom once was too before his shadow became overbearing.

Think about it, it’s Ariadne who goes with him into limbo when everyone else has to stay behind. She’s the one who tries to pull him away from his darker side and get him to move on so he can be himself again. She’s basically a young Cobb with a vagina. I don’t know how else to explain it.

Miles/The Mentor as The Wise Old Man Archetype

Miles, Dom’s father-in-law, is the wise old man within himself, and believe it or not, this might be the most complex archetype of all to explain. This is almost a paradox of sorts really (Like those twisting stairs in the movie), in that he is both knowledge incarnate, but also the teacher within himself that is able to take in his anima as a student. I don’t know. I really can’t wrap my head around this one. Maybe you can do a better job.

Yusef/The Chemist as The Self

The self represents both the conscious and the unconscious worlds within oneself, and that’s what Yusef is in this mission for Dom. He is both the link to reality and the also harbinger into the dream world. By being the initial dream that his team enters within, believe it or not, I think Yusef might be the closest to who Dom really is as an individual by having all of these archetypes swimming inside himself. Remember, Yusef is the only other one who knows about Limbo on the onset, as Dom must have been dabbling with chemicals himself to get to that sort of state with his wife. So it is in Yusef that we have the whole to the other segmented sections of Dom, and by allowing his other archetypes to sink deep within him, he is allowing them to all come to grips with each other.

Anyways, some food for thought!

The top stopped spinning after Cobb gave Ariadne a “dream” tour. What does that tell you?

Anyone else have a copy they can check real fast? This rumor needs to be squelched rapidly. It makes no sense that Nolan would have done that at all…

I am posting again after a long time.

Hey Andy, I remember your posts from back in the day!! Welcome back my friend.

I have a question about the editing choice in the opening sequence. This thing pricks me each time I watch Inception. Why did Nolan not allow a punch when revealing that the riotous city was a dream as well?

You asked this question a long time ago and I never really understood it. I’d love for you to reask it another way – but let me take a stab at it anyway… and you tell me if I’m even in the right ballgame. I personally just think it was an editing choice by Nolan. He’d already revealed that it was a dream and he was teaching us something different about the rules of the dream world. He had just used a kick to bring Cobb from Layer two to one (my three to two) with the bath tub. So he taught us that rule already. But having Saito deduce he was dreaming from the weak replica of his apartment teaches us the importance of a good architect… and Ariadne’s role later on. Right? Sure, it lost some of its punch to have the layers bleed into each other, but it also taught us different rules about the dream layers Nolan was creating. (Am I even close to on track here?)

Feel free if I am missing it!! Again, welcome back Andy. Great to see people coming back occasionally. HEY!! If any of you are getting email updates from the early days of this post can you swing through and say hello? I’m just curious if there are still people getting these updates every day like I am, and reading them even if they haven’t posted in a while.

THANKS!
Taylor

If the whole story is Cobb’s dream, you pointed out that this would explain why Mal keeps showing up to try to get him back, which is fair for every other layer in the film except layer 2?

I am not sure if I’ve spoken to this point before or not. The comments on this post have become completely unwieldy, and next to impossible to wade through! But there are two distinct possibilities to this point. The first possibility (and least likely to me) is that Mal is a manifestation of his subconscious and just doesn’t filter all the way up to layer two. Right, I don’t really buy it either.

The other more plausible possibility would be that in layer 2 (the movie’s reality layer) Cobb believes her dead… and so she is. Let me put it another way. Cobb is dreaming – and in his main dream layer (layer 2) he watched his wife die after inceiving the idea within her they needed surface to the “top” … only they never made it all the way to the top. And in this dream layer – which Cobb believes is reality – he is certain she is dead. He watched it happen. So even if Mal materialized in front of him by dream jumping into Cobb’s reality his brain would explain her away in the dream. And I would argue, maybe she did try to phase into his layer 2 only to be rebuffed by Cobb’s subconscious. Ie – she never fully took shape… it was only in the form of memory that it resonates with Cobb. Not her actually physically manifesting herself in the dream.

Anyway, I’d love your thoughts on that idea Bea. Kinda makes sense to me, and I’ve thought this for a while now, but not sure if it completely holds up or not. Again, thanks for the quesiton!!

Taylor

I am posting again after a long time. I have a question about the editing choice in the opening sequence. This thing pricks me each time I watch Inception. Why did Nolan not allow a punch when revealing that the riotous city was a dream as well?

What I mean is this. In the opening sequence, when Saito says, “That you’re here to steal from me or that we are actually asleep?” a music follows. (We are thus told that this is an ongoing dream.) That is a great shot. Now when they come out of the dream in the riotous South American city we are told after sometime that this is a dream as well. They show the architect sleeping with his headphones on a train. This totally lacks any punch. And always seems like a missed opportunity to me wherein 2 back-to-back jolts could have been given to the audience by progressing something like this…

Saito falls on the carpet.
Delivers his dialogue. “Which means I’m not lying on my carpet, in my apartment. You have lived up to your reputation Mr. Cobb. I’m still dreaming”
Architect looks at Arthur.
Cut to Architect sleeping on the train with headphones on.

Now this could have been so much cooler. The edit is however of course the Director’s choice but I would like to know your views.
Thanks