Inception (2010)

In writer/director Christopher Nolan's mind-bending, non-linear, smart and very complex sci-fi heist thriller and fantasy film - it told about a world where the subconscious could be infiltrated through dreams, and entire worlds could be created and altered with the mind. The film's tagline made sense after viewing: "Your mind is the scene of the crime."

Due to the nature of the film, it was open to interpretation that the whole film might have been the dream of either the main protagonist, or someone else:

• Dominick "Dom" Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a skilled corporate espionage spy and professional thief, often performed psychic thefts (or mind-hacking extractions) of corporate secrets by invading people's dreams; however, "Dom" had become an international fugitive and had ruined his own personal life
• the film opened with a scene revisited much later in the film - Cobb was lying on a beach where he was found delirious - he envisioned his children playing near him

Dominick "Dom" Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) Awakening on Beach

Vision of Dom's Children Playing on Beach

• he was taken by an armed guard to a beachside fortress where he was faced by wealthy, aged Japanese corporate executive Saito (Ken Watanabe) - the businessman had been Cobb's latest employer
• during the mission, Saito was in "limbo" (a state he entered by dying while in a sedated dream) - he had received a lethal wound in a lower dream level while sedated (that extended over to deeper levels), requiring Cobb to liberate him - by killing him - to bring him safely back to reality
• it was revealed that this initial mission had been a test, to see whether Cobb would be capable of a much more difficult "extraction" - or "inception." Cobb had passed the test, and was readied for his next mission; as a dream manipulator, Cobb was tasked with one final, seemingly-impossible "inception" job - this time not to steal an idea ("an inception") but to plant one into an individual's subconscious mind
• [Note: The method of entering a dream state was by injection, using portable technology cases. One of the film's major premises was that each person was required to have a totem - to help identify if one was in the dream world or in the real world. Cobb's totem was his wife's spinning top, which would keep spinning around if he was in a dream world.]
• "Dom" (and his team) were then hired by Mr. Saito to enter the multi-leveled psyche of Saito's rival energy corporation competitor named Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy); Fischer was the son and heir of dying business empire tycoon Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite)
• the objective was to implant an idea to persuade Robert Fischer - out of his own self-generated volition - to choose to not follow in his father's footsteps and break up his corporate energy empire; (Cobb's mission was to successfully plant the seed of the idea that Maurice never wanted his son Robert to be like him)
• if Dom succeeded in the task, he would be redeemed; his criminal record as a fugitive for the murder of his suicidal wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) would be erased - and his family life with his children would be restored
• to accomplish their objective of planting seeds within Fischer, a very dangerous, complicated and daunting task, it was necessary to enter very deeply into Fischer's subconscious, possibly to a third dream level. Going deeper into dreams exponentially turned minutes into hours, into days, and even into years; they were required to create three dreams-within-dreams (or dreamscapes) described as mazes
• Dom assembled a team of experts, including:
  • Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a manager/researcher and Cobb's "extraction" (and "inception") partner
  • Ariadne (Ellen Page), a maze-building architect for dream landscapes, a gifted prodigy
  • Earnes (Tom Hardy), a con-man, an identity shape-shifter or forger
  • Yusef (Dileep Rao), a sedative chemist or pharmacologist
• at each stage, one member of the team who was creating the dream remained behind while the others fell asleep to travel to the next level; so-called "kicks" would propel the dreamers out of the dream and back toward reality step by step (for example: Yusuf driving the van off a bridge and hitting the water, Arthur detonating an elevator carrying the entire team to fall down the shaft and simulating free-fall, and the ice-fortress being detonated and collapsing)
• the various dream levels or stages were:
  • Level Zero - Cobb's entire team (with Robert Fisher) were on an airplane flying from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, and transporting Maurice Fisher's body after his death
  • Level One - Yusuf's Dream (on the Plane) of Driving the Team in a Van in Heavy Traffic in Rainy Los Angeles, and Attacked by Fischer's defensive projections
  • Level Two - Arthur's Dream (in the Van) of Being in a Corporate Hotel. Cobb posed as "Mr. Charles" to trick Fischer and Turn Him Against His Father's Right-Hand Man Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), impersonated by Eames
  • Level Three - Eames' Dream (in the Hotel Room) as the Others Attacked a Snowy Mountain Hospital Fortress. Inside was a safe next to Maurice Fischer's hospital deathbed, where Robert spoke to his father
  • Limbo - Cobb and Ariadne entered Limbo where they encountered Cobb's wife, Mal
• [Background: Guilt-ridden Cobb was continually seeing projected images of his late wife Mal during his dream-jobs. He refused to accept the fact of her death, and his subconscious (that was missing her) needed to remember her and be with her. She would invasively sabotage his dream efforts - all he wanted was to see his children again.
  
  In their previous experiments with dream technology, Mal and Cobb had entered Limbo together. In his subconscious mind, Mal would continue to entice Cobb to follow her toward deeper levels into Limbo to live with him as they grew old together. She felt that being in Limbo was better than reality, and refused to return to reality with him. The Limbo space included Cobb's memories of the city he and Mal had built for themselves and lived in for 50 years.

  In a past dream state with him, he disagreed with Mal about remaining in Limbo: "Your world is not real." He tricked her into awakening back into reality (he told her: "The idea that caused you to question your reality came from me"), but she thought that she was still dreaming. Mal committed suicide by leaping from a hotel suite window (where they always spent their anniversary), although he had warned her: "If you jump, you're not gonna wake up, remember? You're gonna die." He felt responsible for causing her deadly suicide and blamed himself. He was charged with her murder in the real world and had become a fugitive outside the US.]

• in the last phase of the current "inception," Mal agreed to give up Fischer on the porch if Cobb would remain with her in Limbo. Cobb told her that he couldn't keep coming back to her because it wasn't her - "You're just a shade of my real wife...I'm sorry, you're just not good enough." She was merely his projection of her from memory ("I can't stay with her anymore because she doesn't exist"). He had continually been plagued by her. When he refused her demands, Mal shot Fischer to death in Level Three. Then, Mal stabbed Cobb, and Ariadne shot her. She died in Cobb's arms as he told her: "I have to let you go." Ariadne and Fischer fell off the building as their "kick" to get back. Cobb woke up again on the shores of Saito's beach house - the film's opening scene
• for Cobb's successful efforts at inception with Fischer, Saito made a phone call to clear away Cobb's legal troubles with immigration at LAX, enter the US, be freed of his guilt, and be reunited with his children - at the film's conclusion
• in the ambiguous ending, Cobb tested out his totem (his wife's spinning top) to help identify if he was in the dream world or in the real world. If it kept spinning around, he was in a dream world. The film ended with an abrupt cut to black from the slightly-wobbly spinning top. Had he joined his children in the real world? What was clear was that Cobb walked away from the top in order to be with his children.