GUEST POST BY KELSEY DAYTON
Current School: Montgomery High School
Favorite food: Blueberry muffins
Favorite place: Howarth Park
Fun activity: Playing basketball and long-distance running
This article was first released on Sept. 22, 2010. The movie has recently been released on DVD.
Inception
Film release date: July 2010
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
“That is how movies should be,” said one of my fellow movie-goers as we exited the theatre after raptly watching “Inception,” the latest from director Christopher Nolan. I have to agree; judging from my classmates’ intense discussions, the exponential rise in Google searches, and my own inability to stop thinking about it, “Inception” perplexed and captivated millions — just what a movie should do.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobb, whose job title is “Extractor”- someone who penetrates another’s dreams to steal information, or “extract,” from the subconscious mind. A wealthy businessman, Saito (Ken Watanabe), asks Cobb to do just the opposite: plant an idea in another’s mind, so deep that the subject wakes up believing it is his own. Saito wants the heir to his corporate rival’s empire to do something unthinkable, something he would only do if he thought of it himself — or believed that he thought of it himself.
This implantation is known as “inception,” and the majority of those involved in the sleep-infiltration business — a select few — doubt that it is even possible. However, Cobb is convinced, due to a secret past the viewers try to decipher along with Cobb’s new protégé Ariadne (Ellen Page at her “Juno” best). In infiltrating dreams and putting their own consciousness at risk, everyone’s own thoughts impact the team’s success and survival.
“Inception” succeeds at thrilling the audience without horrifying them; it combines corporate battle with science fiction and fantasy, bending the viewer’s mind in the process. The team designs its own logic-defying worlds in which to operate, creating an aesthetically imaginative film and the greatest action movie to ever incorporate so much napping. If Cobb and the other dream-invaders cannot advance to the surface at the precise moment, their minds will be stuck in the dream for decades — since time passes much slower in unconsciousness.
“Inception” forces viewers to question their reality. Are we in a dream right now? The unanswerable question involves the ending, which you cannot resist discussing once you see the film. The movie leaves us on the brink of the real and the dream, wondering where to go.
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