Well I had hoped that my second part of analyzing
Inception would be my story chart, but that has taken much longer than I hoped. So here are some closing thoughts.
Does Cobb incept Ariadne with the idea of working with them?
In a way he does, but she's willing. A person in a shared dream can learn and relate with others if they are ok with being in a dream. What Cobb and his team were doing was trying to convince a person long enough that they were in reality to steal some information from them. However if both people go into a dream together knowingly then they can communicate and learn. This is how Cobb teaches Ariadne about how to build and how dreams work.
Mr. Charles
An interesting moment in the second dream level in the third act is when the group tries a tactic called "Mr. Charles." This means telling the mark that's dreaming, that he is in a dream, but lies to him so that he agrees to help them. The danger in this is that if he realizes he's in a dream it could deconstruct the dream and they'd fail. The advantage is that now if he realizes he's in a dream then he will accept it as a dream.
This is a some great writing because it breaks one of its own rules and adds another level to the film.
Something I'm not sure about, but would be interested in hearing other perspectives from people on is Mal losing her grip on reality. Did she lose it because she built building and houses out of her memory? She at one point likes the dream world better than the real world. Maybe she was unhappy in real life and escaping was more attractive to her.
What does happen to her is that Cobb convinces her that where she is, is not reality. Which worked in the dream world, but in reality she still believes, this world is not real. It drove her crazy and she killed herself.
Recovering Saito
It is important for Cobb to save Saito in Limbo because if Saito is lost and his mind is gone, then he can't help Cobb with his legal problems. Cobb will go to jail if Saito doesn't make the call at the end to some customs connection he has.
The Inception
Mostly Cobb and Arthur have used shared dreaming to steal ideas. It's not exactly a noble pursuit. Audiences can get behind a good caper film (Ocean's 11), but in the end it's stealing. What's a great twist in the writing is that they are trying to give the mark an idea. The idea is something that will cost him money, but ultimately its for his own good and the good of the world. If he keeps the company together it's bad for business and a monopoly that is not good for consumers. What's good for the younger Fischer is that he also heals his relationship with his father. Even though it's a lie to him, it helps him feel better about his father. It will change the type of man he will become. It would have been easier to only do an extraction or have them incept an idea that is good for them. Another great level in the writing.
The Dream of Reality and Watching a Film
In the third act, the dream goes to four levels. The van in the rain, the hotel, the snow, and limbo. There are two more levels though. There are similarities between dreams and movies. A dream is a movie in your head and no matter how crazy it is, it makes emotional sense to the dreamer. While we are watching a film the audience is in a dream-like state. So even when we come up to reality in the film, the audience is still "dreaming" watching the film. Then after the film is over, the audience goes back to reality. The question is: Is this really reality?
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