Might have done the same for me, which is difficult coz memento is probably my favorite movie ever. or it used to be.
i noticed something else strange which isn’t really spoiler and may not be relevant:
The kids call HIM through his hotel in Japan from USA
Just shat brix.
There is alot going on this movie, but it seems everyone has failed to understand the most important thing about a Nolan movie. Its the title.
What was the Memento?
What was the Prestige?
What was the Inception?
Just rewatched it…my perspective on the ending is now:
[spoiler=]I don’t think there is any ambiguity in whether he is dreaming or not, and I don’t think that was Nolan’s intention. The spinning top scene at the end wasn’t to make you wonder if it was a dream or not, but to show that Cobb didn’t really care for the result. He had overcome the guilt of seeing his children and goes to see them without caring about whether the top falls or not. But, it looks obvious that it was going to fall, hence he’s in reality.
Someone brought up an interesting point about whether Cobb’s father had hired Cobb’s team to use inception on him in an attempt to remove his guilt. It’s an interesting theory and makes some sense, except for the fact that Cobb wasn’t really the subject…but why exactly would Cobb’s father be waiting at the airport at the very end, unless he already knew about this? Cobb’s details to his father about what he was planning to do to clear his name in the US weren’t specific.
[/spoiler]
Great Movie. Great Music. Need to watch again, soon.
Great movie 9/10
Handful of plotholes is the only thing keeping it from being a 10, but it doesn’t matter.
Such as?
alsjfaf
Spoiler
The totem is probably one the bigger ones for me. Especially Cobb’s totem. The point of the totem is something that you can feel yourself, knowing what it feels like without seeing it, and has properties that only YOU know about. Arthur’s totem makes the most sense since it’s a weighted die. Only ARTHUR knows which side it’s going to land on every time so if he rolls it like 5 times it should land on that one side each and every time. Thus, if you you’re in somebody else’s dream, it should land on different sides since the dreamer doesn’t know which side is weighted. However, Cobb’s totem makes no sense on a mechanical view. If you’re dreaming and somebody spins a top, then it’s NORMAL for the top to fall over and you will dream that it falls over. So having it spin infinitely made no sense to me
going to watch this tomorrow on an imax screen. can’t wait.
You’ve pretty much summed up my opinion on the ending. Something I’d like to add: the spinning top at the end was, like you said, a red herring, such that the final outcome of the top’s activity was irrelevant to the point of the film and the true progression of events. It’s true importance, i believe, is to convey a message that Cobb’s character states early in the film. He discusses how the most resilient parasite in the world is an idea, and goes on to describe the magnitude of an idea’s possible impact in the world. On a smaller scale, what Nolan does at the end of the film with the spinning top is plant an idea in our own heads. If the top had fallen over, the film would have complete closure with no necessary reflection on the legitimacy of Cobb’s reality throughout the film. But from that 5 second clip at the end of the film, Nolan forces the audience to contemplate the entire course of events, considering the many possibilities that could well have been true. The idea that Cobb’s reality might not bear the same truth which we have been assuming throughout the film causes the audience to go back and find supporting evidence for every possible claim, not necessarily to argue one view over another, but to be able to percieve the many potential situations that could have existed. This idea has proven to be a powerful one, even judging merely by the ongoing discussion since the film’s release by everyone who has seen and wishes to understand it, something that few movies are really capable of doing. By Nolan planting this idea in our heads, he adds numerous layers to “Inception”, making it a true masterpiece in style, complexity, artistic talent, and direction.
A big problem with your entire post is you’re talking to me like I’m stupid but you didn’t, or can’t, understand why people like myself, angry liberal, and others came to the conclusion I did. The issue got even more muddled when you started arguing points I never brought up. I get that you want to know answers that have some sort of absolute or finality. I don’t think you’re going to get them, and you stated yourself that character development isn’t a big thing for you. You’re missing out on a lot more cerebral parts of many works out there. Sitting back and really marinating on motivations and actions in a movie or piece of literature can really enrich the overall scope and weight of a lot of things. Provided they’re done correctly. Which the matrix wasn’t. But that’s another story.
Character development reveals details that are deeper than whether or not he’s dreaming. That’s one of the reasons I praised Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in this and Shutter Island. It almost seemed like a black cloud was following this guy. Simple things like how he walked, eyes low, shoulders pulled in, etc. show the weight of his guilt. His interactions aren’t done with some care free attitude. He has a goal, and he’ll do anything to achieve it. However, along with that goal comes a personal wall he has to get over, and that wall is his wife. Those mannerisms and Cobb’s overall character development turn this film from a good one into a great one. II would gather from your posts that you’re talking about concrete closure, such as if he’s still dreaming, when the film from the ground up was about Cobb’s character moving from one point to another. Everything he does is for the purposes I discussed previously. I get you want to know some solid answers, but you’re not going to get them. I’m sure there are people on here who will discuss it till the end of time with you, so feel free.
Out of curiosity, how much do you know about film making?
As I stated before, there are countless amounts of movies, literature, and situations in real life that give no closure. You stressing those things misses the point that others and myself have stated, which is ironic, because the movie does provide closure in those ways. If I were to go a step further I’d say what happens to Cobb goes back to the begining of the film where they talk about what an idea is, and what it can become. If you wanted to look at it in that sense, Cobb’s desire for his own closure (letting go of his wife, the stuff with the kids, etc) then what his character goes thru re-enforces what I’ve stated. Cobb changed entirely because of the idea that he had a way out. He didn’t have that before. That’s a pretty big chunk of closure, but it doesn’t tell you if the top stops spinning, and I gather that’s all you really care about.
the ending was contrived i thought. It was like Nolan couldnt resist putting this running theme through the film beating on the idea that reality itself is/may be the dream (at least that was my reaction). That idea is implicit in the concept anyways, so it was unneccesary to overtly bring attention to it so many times. It is terribly cliche and I found it among other things contributing to an unintentional sense of camp about the picture that made me cringe. When I saw the 1st matrix it actually made me angry, I hated that movie for a no. of reasons. I really liked this one overall though. I think for the most part it was subtle in just the right places, and appropriately forceful at others. Plus very well presented/paced i thought. A lesser director would have probably yielded an impenetrable mess of a film from such a stroy with this chronological depth/overlay.
and i like dreams and sh*t
I really don’t believe that was the sole purpose of the ending man. to use the ending as a suggestion that our own perception of reality may be false would be a little obvious imo. It may be the case, but I believe there was so much more to the ending than that, pertaining more to the actual film than as an analogy to real life
I was confused about this as well but that’s not really a plothole.
[spoiler=]You missed the point. The ending wasn’t really supposed to make you question if it was real or not, I think it’s pretty obvious, based on the events that occurred in the movie, that he was in reality. It is much deeper, as Teez said. For one, the fact that Cobb didn’t care to see the result, and his overcoming of the guilt that had plagued him, which makes me wonder if the whole purpose of all this was to actually implant an inception in Cobb himself.[/details]
Accidental double post.
^ I agree with Emil.
Great, great film. Thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot reccomend it highly enough.
I need to see it again on IMAX.
This movie is quickly becoming one of the most overrated movies of all time. It’s coming to point where I am not sure If I watched the same movie as the rest of world. It also doesn’t help where fans of the movie SHOVE the apparent ‘genius’ of the film down naysayers throats, stating “you just don’t get it.”
I understand the movie and the plot. It is not confusing to me whatsoever; however, what is confusing to me is hearing people say it was ‘intense’ the entire time, or how they were on the edge of there seat for the whole movie. The movie definitely had some slow and seemingly unnecessary down points and the action, excluding the hotel scene, was not exciting nor climatic. The whole snow scene was really awful. Not once in the entire movie I felt the characters where at any great risk and the only character who was in any type danger was not crucial nor had emotional ties to the others character and the audience.
When I left the theater, all I could think about was how the movie could have been better and if I leave a movie with that impression–it’s just not that great. I didn’t leave Memento with that impression. I didn’t leave The Prestige with that impression. I didn’t leave The Dark Knight with that impression.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the film, but one the greatest of time? Nope. Classic? Not even. Good movie? Sure.
Just got back from a late showing.
Easily the best movie I have seen all year. It’s close to three hours long and I never felt like it dragged one bit.
IMO DiCaprio should, at least, get a best actor nomination for this movie. The way he reacted to the situations, the way he articulated his mannerisms, body language; all amazing.
Will be going to see it again.
[quote=“Emil, post:215, topic:105057”]
]You missed the point. The ending wasn’t really supposed to make you question if it was real or not, I think it’s pretty obvious, based on the events that occurred in the movie, that he was in reality. It is much deeper, as Teez said. For one, the fact that Cobb didn’t care to see the result, and his overcoming of the guilt that had plagued him, which makes me wonder if the whole purpose of all this was to actually implant an inception in Cobb himself.[/spoiler
[details=Spoiler]
[quote=“Emil, post:215, topic:105057”]
[spoiler=]No I dont think it is obvious. I dont like your tone. Throughout th ewhole movie Nolan was dropping references to the fact that reality is but a dream itself:
“They dont come here to dream, they come here to be woken up…who are you to say any different?”
"Why would you want to wake up?"
been done to death since Descartes
…man the whole movie is wrapped up in intellectual uncertainty (which, in turn, is wrapped up and twisted upon itself) on numerous levels how can you say your conclusion which discards this is the ‘obvious’ one?
all the cheap paradox peices (which continually revealed themselves to not really be paradoxes themselves in the film -rather free-floating Escher-esque designs forced into the cinematography; believing and not believing at the same time [which I have personally always thought was a prerequisite to balance the lucid dreaming state -keeping the consciouness from taking over] is quite paradoxical -maybe)
the whole movie Mol is talking about this is the real reality like some manson fam playing with the audience.
Also, to take what you are obsessed with in this movie; his guilt over Mol’s death: Leo be talking he cant dream anymore because of it. At the denoument of this movie he has, as you have said, overcome this guilt. Well I guess that means he can dream now, doesnt it? Another layer, huh?
shit is not obvious. It was left ambiguously gay intentionally.
This type of discussion will go on for decades generating a star wars caliber nerddom and sequels and cominc books for decades to come, Im not falling for this ,I am getting out of it right now-
it was good though
and dreams in and of themselves remain to be crazy[/details]
This sentence is false.