The ending is the best part of about this movie. I normally have mixed feelings about vague endings, but this time it was in a fairly positive sense. The reason for this is due to the fact that the entire movie builds up to the end, and throughout the entire movie you, as the viewer, are constantly pondering on what is real and what is a dream. Assuming that this is the original intention of the director, I would have to say that Inception's ending was flawless, and there was no other way it could have ended.
Granted at first, I was disappointed that there was no concrete ending – was Cobb still in his dreamworld or did he finally get out and reunite with his family? All we are left with is the spinning top on the table of his house, and then the screen turns black instantly before we are able to figure it out.
A large part of this film deals with distinguishing dreams from reality, fantasy from fact, and to a certain extent, Surrealism. Not only does the movie make you ponder if Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns home or not, but it also raises the question: How does he know if he is still dreaming or not?
This brings me to philosopher Descartes, who, in his studies, claimed that we will never be able to know if we are dreaming or not. Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that when you woke up, you felt disoriented from what was 'real' and what was a dream? How do you know you are not dreaming as you're reading this?
We never know when we are in a dream because we are not consciously aware of it. It is impossible for us to determine a dream from reality, so for all you know, we could all be dreaming right now. Similar to The Matrix, the world we know about right now may not even be 'real'. We could all be living in the Matrix this very moment, and because of this (and Descartes' philosophy), it is impossible for us to know 100% that we live in reality, and that everything we know is right – the conclusion being that our knowledge is virtually useless because it is uncertain.
To Descartes, the solution to knowing what is real and a dream was for a person to acknowledge the fact that they are dreaming. However, this only occurs when you are awake, naturally.
But Inception counters Descartes' idea because several times during the movie, Cobb and his companions are fully aware that they are dreaming. When Mal holds a gun towards Arthur, Cobb states that there is no use threatening them since “I'm in a dream, right Mal?'. He is aware that there is a possibility that he might be dreaming, and since he knows this, Descartes' idea that you need to be awake to declare yourself dreaming is nullified.
This brings the end of Inception back in as the subject. Since Cobb cannot distinguish what is real and dream, or when he is dreaming and when he isn't, it is perfectly plausible for is to think that at the end, he is still in his dream-like state. It is therefore impossible for us to determine what is a dream and what isn't for the entire movie.
What I enjoyed the most was the last scene: the spinning top. It is the answer to the movie's basic question: Is Cobb back in reality?
The question definitely seems easier than the answer. It is impossible to know the ending because Nolan decided not to show his audience whether or not the spinning top falls, however, if you watched the film again as I did, you will come to your own conclusions.
Dream and reality clash in Inception, yes, but at the end of the scene, Cobb places the spinning top on the table, but is ultimately sidetracked by his children. He walks away from it without watching it fall as he usually does in the other scenes. But as the audience, we are left wondering: Does it drop? Is he still in a dream?
The spinning top, if you watch carefully, begins to topple, implying that it will eventually fall and Cobb is in reality. But do we know for sure? More importantly, the idea that the spinning top will end is powerful because it implies that even dreams come to an end – we wake up eventually. This is Nihilistic, in a sense, because everything will end eventually, but it is also simultaneously Existential because Cobb leaves his totem (the spinning top) behind to enjoy time with his children, and in a sense enjoy his time in this 'reality', which is ironic for any Existentialist to do.
Just as Descartes deemed that knowledge as we know it is useless due to the fact that we cannot determine what is real and what is not, it is also useless for us to ponder on the existence of our reality because we are struggling for a lost cause – we will never be able to know for sure about anything, let alone whether we are in a dream or not.
The ending of Inception can therefore be construed as rather Nihilistic, and even anti-Christian because from a Christian perspective, there is a ultimate realm where 'reality' does not end – I'm referring to heaven and hell, of course. But this idea sets us up to live our current lives in preparation for this ultimate reality, which will either result in us living with the ultimate Creator in a Utopia, or living in reality that will make us angsty due to our self-awareness and consciousness.
Ultimately though, what I gathered from Inception was that Cobb no longer cared; it no longer matters if we are in a dream world or not. Enjoy where you are right now - make the most of it because in the end, it doesn’t really matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment