By Robert Bouffard
If you’ve ever listened to me speak on one of a number of podcasts, you probably heard me say, if The Lord of the Rings didn’t exist, Inception would be my favorite movie. It is largely the reason I became interested in Christopher Nolan (my favorite director), mind-bending thrillers, and frankly, film in general.
Inception came out the summer before I turned 13. I was still at the age when I had to get my parents’ permission before seeing most movies in a theater. I don’t remember exactly what it was about seeing the first trailer that hooked me – at the time my movie tastes began and ended with franchises – but there was no stopping my desire to see this movie.
My dad, who didn’t want to waste money on a ticket for a movie I wouldn’t understand, warned me of this very thing. He said when he was a kid, The Sting was at one point the movie all the kids were talking about. But when he finally saw it, he didn’t understand it and his father gave him grief for it. Fortunately, he took me to see Inception anyway, and we both understood it – its basics at least. And I’ve still never seen The Sting.
My interest in Inception was derived from trying to understand the ending and, by extension, how the whole world of the movie works. Was Cobb still dreaming? Was he awake? Was he dreaming the whole time? Does it actually matter whether he was dreaming? Am I actually dreaming right now?
It took me a good number of subsequent years and rewatches to mature into the movie watcher who could understand a filmmaker’s themes and intended messages. So like with anything, my feelings and opinions have evolved over the course of 10 years and dozens of viewings.
My perspective on the ending of the movie has always been that Cobb is awake at the end and he has finally reunited with his family in their home. At first, the theory was simply based on seeing the top wiggle the tiniest bit before it cuts to black, but it’s now so much more:
The driving ideas behind Cobb as a character are his guilt and grief. He feels responsible for the death of Mal, his wife, since he planted the idea in her head that the world she was living in was not real and to wake up, she needed to kill herself. Cobb never planted the idea out of malice. Rather, he wanted to remind Mal of how they needed to wake up from their shared dream in which they had aged decades and return to reality, to their children. For Cobb, his whole character is intricately tied to his wife.
So I completely ascribe to the idea that Cobb’s totem, the item which lets him know whether he is dreaming or in reality, is actually his wedding ring. Through my rewatches, I’ve paid close attention to when Cobb has his wedding ring on his hand: each time he is in a dream, the ring is on his finger (“In my dreams we’re still together”), and each time he is in reality, there is no wedding ring. Even though he effectively uses the spinning top, that item was actually previously Mal’s totem. Cobb has just adopted it for himself in an attempt to stay connected to his wife in whatever way possible. It’s a simple answer which tracks all the way through the movie.
While many people argue the point of the movie is that Cobb doesn’t care whether or not he’s in reality at the end, I disagree. He has moved on from his guilt and experienced beautiful catharsis by facing down his projection of Mal. But taking it one step further to allow Cobb to eschew his guilt and accept seeing the smiling faces of his real life children makes his character arc all the more meaningful. It helps move the idea away from simply him achieving catharsis, and shows the rewards of doing so.
This has always been Nolan’s strength. He takes huge, heady concepts like a Batman trilogy or a movie about a man traveling through a black hole and the outer reaches of space, and keeps them grounded in personal character struggles. His critics like to pick on the big ideas and how he can get too lost in them, but for me, it has always come back to the compelling characters he creates.
But Inception takes things a step further and works on multiple levels. It creates a totally unique world, has intriguing characters with excellent performances behind them, includes some of the best musical work Hans Zimmer has done when teaming up with Nolan, is visually arresting, and dives deep into the human psyche, both literally and figuratively.
Most impressively though, it works on a meta level. Inception is a movie about moviemaking. With Saito functioning as the studio, Arthur as a movie producer, Yusuf as the writer, Ariadne as the production designer, Cobb as the director, Eames as the actor, and Fischer as the audience, you have all of the essential ingredients for making an effective movie.
In this scenario, Fischer is the important character to focus on. As the stand-in for the audience, he is the one who learns something new about himself and makes changes in his life because of the story that the film crew told him.
If you’re a movie fan, part of the reason is probably because of how a certain film, or perhaps a number of films, have had a profound impact on your life, going as far as to change the way you think about a subject. This is certainly the case with me, so it is why I appreciate movies about the power of movies so much. It’s also why I appreciate the character of Fischer as well as the movie itself so much. It double dips by creating a human story about Cobb where the audience can learn something about grief and guilt, while telling you how it is sending you this message.
It’s now been 10 years since the original release of Inception. Since then, Nolan has carved himself a niche where he can make wholly original films and still rake in hundreds of millions of dollars. His films have been nominated for all kinds of awards, and have even won some, and he has fanboys (myself included) who love his work just because they are Christopher Nolan films. Unless he pulls a late-career Shyamalan and flubs his next six movies, Nolan has himself in a position to be in the conversation of the best directors of all time. A Shyamalan-level implosion may not even do much to derail his legacy, with 10 great films already under his belt and Tenet coming in hot with hype.
But among all these accolades and accomplishments, Inception still stands out as his best work. It’s a microcosm of everything that he aims to do with each of his films – something huge and heady which will make you think while also shaping a deep and compelling character whose psyche he and the audience can dive into. 10 years after its release, all of Inception’s aforementioned achievements and then some are still being endlessly discussed because of what Nolan was able to create. In 50 years, The Dark Knight will still be talked about as one of the greatest comic book films ever, but Inception will be discussed as one of the greatest films ever, full stop.