Action movies rarely cause you to think. Sure, you may be on the edge of your seat wondering when the next explosion will light the screen but what was the last action movie that pulled at your heartstrings and challenged your intellect? What was the last movie that confused you—in a good way? “Inception” does all this and more.
“Inception” is as surreal as its premise. The film is original, intelligent, and face paced. “Inception” is a movie that acts before it explains. The viewers see an onslaught of brilliant action and events take place, left to wonder what they had just witnessed. After only after a spectacle occurs does the movie explain what was going on. This is what makes inception great.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) is a very relatable character; he’s been exiled from the United States, and all he wants is to see his children. Cobb also is involved in corporate espionage. Unlike a regular spy however, Cobb obtains classified information but going into people’s dreams. Cobb can easily extract info from even the most secure minds, but one day he’s given the exact opposite task. He’s hired by a billionaire businessman to implant an idea in someone’s mind: something the characters call inception. The businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) has selfish desires but is able to offer Cobb what he wants most. Although people say inception is impossible, Cobb is willing to do anything it takes to see his children again.
After taking on a seemingly impossible task, Cobb goes on to assemble a team. Typically of many action movies, “Inception” swiftly introduces its star-studded cast. First Cobb finds an “architect”—someone that’s able to create the physical constructions needed for entering someone’s dream world. Cobb tests and recruits a young prodigy named Ariadne (Ellen Page). Although she’s inexperienced in creating dream spaces, she quickly catches on. We learn some of the rules of “dream-architecture.” One should draw from things they know when creating a dream world but should never take entire places from memory. Doing so, we soon find out, can make you forgot what’s a dream and what’s reality.
The other members of the team include Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who we see working with Cobb in the beginning of the movie. Eames (Tom Hardy),a cunning man skilled in duplicity. And lastly, Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist with powerful sedatives needed to fuel people’s dream state.
The team’s target for inception is Saito’s business rival Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy). Fischer is the young heir to his father’s empire. Although Fischer is a billionaire heir and can have any material possessions he desires, he lacks many meaningful relationships. When I saw the movie for the first time, I was indifferent to Fischer’s character. After watching the movie for the second time, I felt sorry for Fischer—his mind is basically being altered for the sake of Saito and Cobb’s gain. Fischer isn’t really an antagonist but then again, “Inception” is a very ambiguous movie. Even though Fischer loses, in the end, he also wins in my opinion.
I could tell you how “Inception” ends but that would deny you the total experience of the movie. “Inception” is truly a work of art and deserves more than just to be seen once or twice. I think it deserves a permanent place in your movie collection. There’s an array of detail that gives this movie depth, too much detail to delve into in fact. The only caveat that I have for viewers is that the ending may disappoint. Because its not a clear-cut happily ever after ending, it may leave some people unhappy. Instead of complaining about the ambiguous ending, we should imagine the moving ending the way we wanted it to.
Christopher Nolan took 9 years to perfect his vision of “Inception.” What started as only an 80-page pitch evolved into a movie masterpiece. In fact, I’d say its as close to perfection as a movie can get. The movie is one of the most original films you’ll ever see. Nolan outdid himself with “Inception.” Despite being a violent action heist movie, “Inception” feels like a pleasant dream.
