'The Girl in Question'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
I'm thinking I need to see this movie again and pay closer attention to the worldbuilding. Right now I don't remember it in enough detail to either nitpick or defend things like that.
(DH and I had a long discussion over why the van going over the rails was able to start an avalanche in the snow level, but the snow level didn't experience any weird gravity while the van was in midair.)
I'm very impressed that Gris knows the names of all the characters! I forgot most of them except for Cobb and Ariadne (and I only remember the latter because of the labyrinth connection, which, really??)
As far as the various "inconsistencies", I'm willing to accept that the rules are not set in stone but are only guidelines. e.g., if such and such happens, you are very *likely* to wake up... but you might not!
Gris, your explanation was the one I thought of after I posted my comment, and I also thought that Arthur should have woken up. So I don't know.
As for your other one, Mal and the kids are both Cobb's projections, so I don't see the inconsistency.
The FIRST time they were in limbo, though, they were completely alone for fifty years.
Bidunno. I'm pretty much with Jon B right now - guidelines only!
Also, if the whole movie is actually all one big Cobb dream, then whatever.
I haven't read this yet, but it looks pretty good. Spoilers for the movie, obviously: Inception’s Dileep Rao Answers All Your Questions About Inception
Gris, I don't subscribe to that theory at all. If so, why did the top fall several times in the course of the movie to confirm that he WASN'T in a dream? Oh, because everything was lies and bullshit, of course. No, the only IT WAS ALL A DREAM theory I'm willing to entertain is the more obvious one in the last five minutes. But I'm not actually willing because THE TOP FUCKING FELL GODDAMMIT.
But the only reason we believe the top has any significance at all is because Cobb says it does. And if he's not a reliable narrator, then the top reality-test is just one more lie he's telling himself.
PC: FWIW, Rao (who has spicy brains) agrees with you.
10K!
I like this Rao character! I don't remember him in Avatar, but I did like him in Drag Me to Hell.
And, Jessica, I agree with you that if it's all a dream, the top-signifier doesn't mean anything. But I don't see enough evidence that the WHOLE thing was a dream. Like Rao says, in that viewing, we never see the real Cobb, the actual reality, the final layer. There aren't any hints that the reality layer in the film is a dream, as far as I can tell. Besides the very on-the-nose names. Also, if the other characters are just projections, how do they go deeper into the dream layers with him? You basically don't have to believe anything said in the movie at ALL if it's all a dream. Personally, I don't find that interpretation satisfying. But if people do, that's cool, and it's to Nolan's credit that he made a movie where IT'S ALL A DREAM does work. (Also, ha, if the top-signifier doesn't mean anything, that final shot is meaningless and signifies nothing! You can't have it both ways!)