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Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

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Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#91

Post by georgieporgie »

callmeed wrote: post #88

So does the top stop spinning or not!?

Yes. The closing shot shows the top growing unstable and, in the instant before the screen cuts to black, you hear the grinding sound of the top beginning to topple. At every non-reality point in the film where the top is spinning, it does so with no destabilization. Of course, it's possible that someone replaced his top (he wasn't very careful about concealing it and, let's face it, it's not rocket science to realize that it just needs to topple to indicate reality), but that's a different story.

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#92

Post by kstenerud »

pi3832 wrote: post #53
evincarofautumn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not alone. If you want a movie with actual complexity, watch Primer. Oh, you’ll probably think you get it the first time through, because the writing is great. Then you’ll rewatch it a couple times and see just how much you missed, because the writing is brilliant .

They're not up to Primer's level of complexity, but for bending your brain a little, try: eXistenZ ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/ ) Naked Lunch ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/ ) (And other David Cronenberg movies. While I'm at it, although it's completely linear, I'm going to plug: "Crash" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115964/ ).) Jacob's Ladder ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099871/ ) is almost a gre…

All great movies. Some others (with varying degrees of sophistication):

The 13th Floor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/)

A Scanner Darkly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/)

Brazil (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/)

Time Bandits (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081633/)

Dark City (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/) - A little disappointing at the end though =/

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#93

Post by enneff »

irishcoffee wrote: post #8

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people think inception was some stupid-deep, hard-to-understand movie? It was (I thought) very straight-forward. The bigger problems with the movie come from the plot holes pointed out by Pewpewarrows. Do those holes perhaps contribute to the confusion?

I agree.

I recently re-watched David Lynch's Lost Highway. That is a wonderful and complex film that on the surface seems nonsensical and surreal, but - once you make certain revelations - reveals its beautiful and elegant construction.

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#94

Post by evincarofautumn »

kstenerud wrote: post #92
pi3832 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not up to Primer's level of complexity, but for bending your brain a little, try: eXistenZ ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/ ) Naked Lunch ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/ ) (And other David Cronenberg movies. While I'm at it, although it's completely linear, I'm going to plug: "Crash" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115964/ ).) Jacob's Ladder ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099871/ ) is almost a gre…

All great movies. Some others (with varying degrees of sophistication): The 13th Floor ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/ ) A Scanner Darkly ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/ ) Brazil ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/ ) Time Bandits ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081633/ ) Dark City ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/ ) - A little disappointing at the end though =/

I really enjoyed Dark City. The directors cut is best, though, because it doesn’t give away the twist at the beginning like the theatrical cut did.

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#95

Post by psykotic »

kstenerud wrote: post #92
pi3832 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not up to Primer's level of complexity, but for bending your brain a little, try: eXistenZ ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/ ) Naked Lunch ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102511/ ) (And other David Cronenberg movies. While I'm at it, although it's completely linear, I'm going to plug: "Crash" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115964/ ).) Jacob's Ladder ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099871/ ) is almost a gre…

All great movies. Some others (with varying degrees of sophistication): The 13th Floor ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/ ) A Scanner Darkly ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/ ) Brazil ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/ ) Time Bandits ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081633/ ) Dark City ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/ ) - A little disappointing at the end though =/

> A Scanner Darkly (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/)

It's worth watching for many reasons, but it'd be worth watching for this scene alone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2HP25bKztE

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#96

Post by trafficlight »

maaku wrote: post #37
evincarofautumn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go so far as to say it’s my favourite film bar none, and I don’t say such a thing lightly. It has its flaws, but it speaks to me. What’s more stunning still is that most of the $7,000 budget was film stock. Because it was filmed. On film . Ain’t nothing like the 16mm look, truly.

> What’s more stunning still is that most of the $7,000 budget was film stock. Because it was filmed. On film. Ain’t nothing like the 16mm look, truly. And what's even more stunning is that most of it was done in one take because, well, they only had $7,000 to budget on film stock.

Shane Caruth also starred in the movie, wrote it, directed it, edited, and wrote the soundtrack all on his own dime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#97

Post by [deleted] »

sounds wrote: post #59
instakill wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3) Which kind of proves that the plane was reality. If Fisher dies in limbo he'd wake up in real life (the level above the plane), not on the plane.

3) Though the plane _is_ reality (in my opinion) Fisher could only have entered a dream without realizing it if: He was dreaming ever since Yusuf demoed the sedatives the first time, showing lots of people who dreamed all day (the "no, they come here to wake up" scene). Fisher tries to check his totem at that time but can't do it because he's trembling so bad. Thus, if he were under sedation, dying would not wake him…

[deleted]

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#98

Post by parfe »

callmeed wrote: post #88

So does the top stop spinning or not!?

Mal either died or kicked up a level. She used the top as a totem, not Cobb, and multiple people knew the properties of it. The top could not measure dream or reality while in Cobb's possession. His own dreams would render that totem useless.

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#99

Post by muhammadatt »

jerf wrote: post #63
3pt14159 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is something that most people missed: Reality was a dream the whole time. There are hints throughout the movie, but the entire thing was a dream. Most people point to the wedding ring theory as evidence that it wasn't, but that just shows the lead's state of mind, not reality.

Word of God is that this is not true and that the top level of reality was indeed reality. The camera panning away from the spinning top before it fell down was supposed to represent that Cobb is now dedicated to his children and no longer worried about whether it's reality, not a low-class cheap mindscrew about whether it's all a dream or not. Note that having the whole thing be a dream completely drains it of all i…

This seems to be an overly simplified take. If Nolan had intended to make it clear that the final scene was indeed reality then he could have just as well shown the totem falling while Cobb walked away. It seems pretty clear that Nolan explicitly intended to leave it up to the viewer to decide what was "real" and what as not. This ambiguity between dream and reality is one of the most important themes in the film - Cobb spends the entire movie preoccupied with keeping track of reality, to the point that one could argue that Cobb's had been incepted to remain obsessed with identifying reality to the same degree that Mal had been incepted to perpetually believe that she was dreaming. When Cobb sees Mal in limbo at the end, she also makes point explicit - pointing out that Cobb has simply chosen to believe that his children "up there" are what is real and that Mal "down there" is not.

The final scene preserves this ambiguity, while underscoring the fact that the obsession with reality is no longer important to Cobb - he is finally at peace with where he is - real or not.

Re: Inception Explained: a really cool scrolling animation of the plot

#100

Post by obilgic »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #70
pharrington wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be sure, you're getting downvoted because you're claiming non-programmers can't easily understand the concept of an activity having -multiple layers-. An execution stack is but one example of this. The construction of a cake, for example, is another.

It's nice for someone to actually say so, thanks. I'm getting tired of all the reflexive, unexplained downvotes. HN is an unfriendly and cold place, these days. Meanwhile, sure, it's easy to understand that Inception is a cake. I'll concede that. But: it's not so easy to frost all three layers of the cake at the same time. The part where Inception gets tricky for me is where they start intercutting from layer to laye…

It is actuLly interesting, may be the demographics of hn users is changing gradually, meaning that programmers(people with cs degree) are becomming the minority? So people get offended when you talk about cs education...
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