Questions tagged [inception]
A 2010 British-American science fiction heist thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
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What exactly did Cobb do to Mal's totem?
I recently re-watched Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' and found myself puzzled over a specific plot detail involving Cobb and Mal's totem. In the movie, it's implied that Cobb did something to Mal's ...
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How many inceptions actually happened in 'Inception'?
In Christopher Nolan's Inception, the core concept revolves around the team's mission to implant a specific idea into Robert Fischer's mind, ultimately influencing him to dismantle his father's empire....
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Why does Mal insist on communal suicide?
Why does Mal insist on communal suicide in Inception? If they were really still dreaming, she could just die alone and kick Cobb on the level above (if death would wake them up, it means there are no ...
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Why would the characters in Inception reveal what their totems are?
In Inception, many of the main characters reveal what their totems are (not necessarily how they work) to their associates. For example, Ariadne is shown to have a weighted bishop and Arthur is shown ...
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How do Cobb and Ariadne enter Limbo without having to die?
After Saito dies on the third dream level, he enters limbo. Ariadne then convinces Cobb that it is necessary for them to enter limbo to go after Saito, in order to pull him out. They do so by hooking ...
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Are such movies meant to be understood after multiple viewing?
I just watched Tenet and didn't get it. That's not a problem as I'm not a native English speaker so I rely on subtitles. Even though I understood the English (I switch to Hindi audio wherever ...
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Why did Cobb administer the sedative? [duplicate]
The plane scene leading up to the inception of Fischer proceeds as follows:
Eames swipes Fischer's passport
Cobb returns the passport to Fischer and chats him up about his father
The flight attendant ...
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Did Yoga Vasistha influence Inception?
Yoga Vasistha is a scripture of sanathan dharma, aka. Hinduism.
It has a vast explanation of the relativity of space and time, and also talks about dreams, reality, illusion, and other aspects in ...
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Why doesn't Eames impersonate Robert Fischer's father to plant the idea in his mind?
In the third level of the dream in Inception, why doesn't Eames impersonate Robert Fischer's father to plant the idea in Robert's mind?
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Why couldn't Cobb show the totem to Mal? [duplicate]
In Inception, why didn't Cobb just spin the totem in the real world to show Mal that she is finally back to reality so she wouldn't have killed herself?
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How did Cobb recognize he was dreaming the first time he and Mal went to Limbo?
In the movie Inception, we know it's not posible to know what was Cobb's totem (by this question). However, we know that he planted in Mal's mind the idea that the Limbo was not real, and that's why ...
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What kind of maze was Dom looking for in Inception?
In Inception, Dom gives Ariadne two minutes to make a maze that takes one minute to solve. Why was the maze with concentric circles "more like it". What was Dom looking for exactly? Why were the other ...
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Who impersonated the Father in death bed in the movie Inception?
There were seven people on the plane in Inception: Cobb, Arthur, Saito, Ariadne, Eames, Yusuf and Robert Fischer. They all went into a road rage in the first level of the dream, and on the second ...
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Why the difference in Cobb's reaction to limbo?
In the movie Inception, at the end, when Cobb goes to limbo to rescue Saito he starts to forget "reality" and he has only been there for like 10 - 15 minutes. However, he spends decades with Mal in ...
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Why does Ariadne's totem work?
In Inception, Cobb's totem was a spinning top, that in reality would stop spinning eventually.
Arthur's totem was a special dice, that in reality would roll a particular number more often.
Ariadne's ...
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Why was it necessary to rescue Saito from limbo?
In Inception, one of the last scenes (and actually the very beginning scene) is Saito being approached by Cobb to both retrieve him and remind him about their arrangement.
But did that action really ...
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How does Eames get access to Fischer's office?
In the movie Inception, Cobb employs Eames for his Inception task as a forger. As a part of the task, Eames observes Browning and his behavior and mannerisms so he can forge his identity seamlessly ...
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Why do we never see the faces of Cobb's children? And why don't they age?
One thing that makes me feel that Cobb dreamed the end of Inception is that the faces of his children were never revealed.
And weirdly, they don't seem to have grown up either. Children of that age ...
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Does everyone experience the same Limbo?
When both Cobb and Ariadne go down to Limbo near the end of Inception, it's essentially the same as Cobb had left it. But if Ariadne went herself and hadn't heard about Cobb's limbo (so her ...
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On which level does Cobb die?
We see Cobb being stabbed by Mal in 4th level of dream (which is presumably limbo); does that give him a shock to rise up to the third, then to the second, and ultimately to the first level (where he ...
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Why were they trying to get that letter from a locker in Inception?
I have watched Inception a few times but I can't understand why they all are crazy about that letter which was in that locker? Why were they struggling to get that letter?
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Esoteric quote that inspired Nolan's 'Inception'
I remember once reading a very esoteric, borderline nonsensical quote somewhere on the old IMDb boards which was apparently one of Nolan's inspirations for the film Inception. It had very few ...
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How did Cobb’s crew know about Saito’s apartment?
In the first part of Inception, Cobb’s crew leave the dream where they attempted to extract Saito’s secrets in the castle, and return to a dream (though this is unknown to Saito at this point) in ...
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What was the purpose of Saito's presence during the inception job?
In Inception, Saito hires the extraction team to plant an idea or achieve "inception" into the mind of a CEO.
The team consists of trained specialists who each perform a particular task. Saito is ...
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What techniques were used to film Ariadne entering the dream world for the first time
I am having trouble finding techniques that Nolan had used in the filming of this scene.
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How can Cobb use Mal's totem for a reality check [duplicate]
How can Cobb use Mal's totem for a reality check?
Isn't this defeating the whole idea of totems.
That totem belongs to Mal so how can Cobb use that to check for reality. Wouldn't that give ...
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Why can't Mal give a kick to Cobb from the "real" world if she actually escaped
If Mal was right that it was all fake, and she jumped and got out of the dream, Then upon waking up why can't she give some sort of kick to Cobb in the "real" world? (Just like Arthur gave the kick to ...
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How is the spinning top a totem?
The purpose of a totem in Inception is to behave abnormally in the reality. So only you know how it is not normal. In someone else's dream, that person won't know the abnormality of your object, so it ...
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Explanation of the opening scene of Inception
Can someone explain the opening scene of Inception where Cobb is shown on the sea shore? He looks weak and is taken by the men of the old guy, who then shares food with Cobb. This old guy looks like ...
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Why was the movie titled Inception?
Inception means:
An event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events.
But the movie talks about humans dreaming & lucid dreaming etc.
So, why is the movie titled ...
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How does Saito eliminate Cobb's murder charge?
In the final scenes of Inception, Saito is seen making a phone call after the completion of the job. Though we don't hear any conversation, we can assume that he is taking care of Cobb being able to ...
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How do Cobb's children know which hotel he's staying at in Kyoto in Inception
After the failed extraction of information from Saito, Cobb claims that he's "getting off at Kyoto" and we later see him in a hotel room. He spins his totem--the top--to make sure he isn't dreaming, ...
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Why is Saito, a multi-billionaire, travelling all alone in a public train in Inception?
In Inception, Saito is supposedly a multi-billionaire who controls a big chunk of world's energy business, is able to buy entire airlines at a moment's notice and usually seen traveling in helicopters ...
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Why didn't the characters wake up when the van went off the bridge in Inception? [duplicate]
In one of the early scenes it shows Cobb being pushed backwards off a chair to be woken up out of the dream.
Considering the van crashing through a barrier and falling through the air (never mind the ...
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Why was Saito old in Limbo?
The only thing that I'm missing in Inception is why was Saito old in the opening and closing scenes of this great movie?
Both Cobb and Saito land in Limbo in (presumably) the same moment and Cobb ...
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Why doesn't Fischer recognize Arthur, Saito and Eames as kidnappers?
In Inception, Robert Fischer was kidnapped by Cobb's team who had him in Taxi with Eames, Arthur and Saito. Robert must have known that they are kidnappers as they kidnapped him anyway. But, in later ...
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How many layers does the movie Inception involve?
In the third layer, there is a mountain and they ski down it and all, but after that, do they enter the fourth layer of dreaming or do they enter limbo? Is Cobb the only to enter and does he/do they ...
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Why is everyone's limbo space the same in Inception?
Cobb, Ariadne, Fischer, Saito all die in the dream and end up in the same Limbo world, which is the world Cobb and Mal built.
Does this have any logical explanation according to the rules set up by ...
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Shooting of the gravity free scene in Inception
How was the gravity free scene in the hotel in Inception shot? Was zero gravity created?
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Robert Fischer took the plane with Cobb's team?
Why did Robert Fischer take the plane with Cobb's team in Inception (2010), and how did he get sedated on the plane?
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Why should one not share his or her totem?
In the movie Inception, why didn't Arthur allow Ariadne to see his totem, which was a loaded die?
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What is Arthur's specialty?
In Inception, when Cobb is trying to recruit Eames in Mombasa, Eames expresses surprise that Cobb is still working with Arthur. Cobb replies "Well, he's good at what he does", to which Eames replies "...
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What subject is partial to post-war British painters?
In Inception, in the beginning dream scene, Mal remarks that a painting looks like Arthur's taste. Cobb replies that, "Actually, the subject is partial to post-war British painters."
What subject ...
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How did Cobb and Mal commit suicide while young in limbo if they lived decades there?
We can see the scene in Inception where Cobb and Mal commit suicide on the train tracks at a young age, but in the end of the movie Cobb reminds Mal that they lived to a very old age in their dream. ...
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Do they ever really wake up from the sedative test?
I distinctly remember a scene in Inception when Cobb is testing Yusuf's custom made super sedative. He then abruptly wakes up and goes to the bathroom where he proceeds to splash his face with water ...
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Can a person die of starvation in an Inception-like dream?
Is it possible that a person, dreaming at 2nd or 3rd level, can die of hunger?
And, will that person wake up to reality?
In case, the person is heavily sedated, will he wake up or go in a limbo?
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Why didn't Mal use her totem (spinning top) before she actually died?
In Inception, it was told that the totem's concept was invented by Mal.
Then why didn't Mal use her spinning top to find out if she is in a dream or not before jumping off the window?
Is it the case ...
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Why didn't Saito kill himself when he was stuck in limbo?
In Inception Cobb tells Ariadne that he was stuck in limbo with Mal for 50 years. Then they killed themselves by lying on the railway track.
So, it is possible to commit suicide even if you are in ...
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Why was Mal's projection in limbo?
In Inception, how did Cobb know Mal would be in limbo?
She was a projection, not a real person. When Arthur explains the rules for limbo, or anywhere else in the movie, there is nothing to indicate ...
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Did Nolan leave the ending of Inception up to the audience? [duplicate]
I know that a lot of discussion about this one has taken place already. But as you know its "INCEPTION"! every time you see it, it blows your mind...
So if you see closely you can see that in ...
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