Inception Explained

[Luigi197]

For a school assignment, I chose to research the theory of Inception. This is what I came up with. I can guarantee that all of this is my own words. If you find any errors or flaws, feel free to comment. Its long I warn you, but an interesting read never-the-less. This should explain it all. Oh, and good news; if you haven't seen the movie, its OK because there are NO spoilers.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Inception. When I mention Inception, you think of yourself dreaming, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juno. Why is this? Because Inception is of course the name of a movie directed by Christopher Nolan that features Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page from the movie, Juno. But I am not here to talk about the movie; I am here to talk about how Inception is done and the explanation of the theory behind it. In a dictionary, the definition of Inception would look something like this. “Verb; the action of entering someone else’s mind when they are asleep, and planting an idea into their mind to act upon when they wake up.” 


Now, Inception is done, by having all the dreamers hold a string each that comes out of a machine called the Dream Machine. Out of that machine comes another string, but this string connects to the subject whose dreams are being infiltrated by the dreamers. There is one more string, which goes to the architect, who creates the dream world for the other dreamers to go into, and for the subject to fill with its subconscious. The string that runs out of the machine brings you into the subject’s mind once you fall asleep.

There can be one or many dreamers. The dreamers can be trained people who just go in there with no special purpose, or there can be others who specialise in different parts of the dream aimed to do something specific. There is always an architect who designs the dream in reality and then explains it to the fellow dreamers, and there can be a Forger who can make himself look and act like someone else in a dream by studying them in real life. Now all the dreamers are in the subject’s mind, and are there to work together to try and successfully plant an idea into someone’s mind therefore undertaking Inception.

What you could do is, as soon as you enter the subject’s subconscious, you could literally tell the subject what you want them to undertake, such as “punch a brick wall.” But the difficulty in doing this is that, if you do weird things that can’t be done as easily in real life too often, things called projections start to stare at you, then attack you, the dreamer. Projections are people created by the subject’s subconscious to fill the dream.

Another difficult thing to deal with when telling the subject straight out what to do, is that the subject may realise that he or she is dreaming simply by doubting how he got to his current location. But having the Subject realise that it is dreaming is not the difficult part to deal with for the dreamers, but having the subject over-react to his current situation. See, if you can remember any of your dreams, you may feel like they come to an end too soon, such as jumping off a cliff, but having the dream end before you hit the ground. You wake up because, even though you may realise that you are dreaming, it is the emotions that are felt in both reality and the dream. So if you are falling off a cliff, you will wake up because of not only the adrenaline rush and fear through you, but also having you smashing into the ground which hurts a lot in real life. Therefore, if a dreamer is in a normal conversation with the subject, but all of a sudden the subject realises that he is talking to a complete stranger, it will start panicking, running and even screaming, which, maybe not right away, but soon enough, will result in him waking up because of either the fear or the physical state of the subject. So, it is up to the dreamer to make sure that he keeps the subject in a good mental and physical state.

But all these problems do not have to occur so easily, if they went further into the subject’s subconscious. See, because no matter what layer of subconscious the dreamers are in, the subject will always be there, because it is his mind after all. But what the dreamers can choose to do, is to produce another Dream Machine, and go into another layer of the subject’s subconscious, but this time not needing a string to go into the subject, because they are already in his mind, but instead, another team member will have to be the dreamer, therefore controlling what the dream will look like from the start, but still having the subject fill it with its subconscious. Going another layer deep has its benefits and costs. The benefits are that the subject will take longer and will be worse at realising that he is in a dream, and the idea to be planted will have more of an effect. The planted idea will have more of an effect because instead of telling them straight out what you want them to act upon, you can tell them little hints and things to think about, trying to affect different emotions and slowly build up to the main idea. But the downsides are that the projections are more sensitive to weird actions therefore attacking sooner. Also, a main point in going multiple layers deep is that you have more time. And the way to figure out how much time you have depends on the sedative used, if one was used at all. A sedative is a drink that can be drunk before entering the dreams, but further effects of using a sedative will be explained later. Without a sedative, you multiply the amount of time taken in the previous level by 12 to get how much time you have in the current layer. With a sedative, you multiply the amount of time taken in the previous level by 20, instead of 12. Therefore, if you spend 1 hour sleeping in reality, under the sedative, you will be able to fit 20 hours in the first layer. Then in the second layer, you will have 400 hours there still in the space of 1 hour in reality.

The team of dreamers can choose to go another level deep if they want, but another complication arises, and this complication has endless possibilities and limitations. It is known that at a certain layer deep in a person’s subconscious lays a place known as Limbo, but the number of the level is unknown and the level it lays at is most likely unique to each person’s mind anyway. However, going deep into the mind isn’t the only way to go to Limbo. See, before undertaking the Inception, it needs to be decided if the dreamers will plan to go at least one more layer after the first dream. If they do decide that they will venture to further levels, they must drink something called a Sedative in order for them to successfully dream within a dream. Drinking the sedative will have the wanted affects of being able to dream within a dream, but it will also have its unwanted affect. See without the sedative and in only the first dream, if you die, you wake up, but after drinking the sedative, on any level after the first, you will go to Limbo if you die. In Limbo, there is nothing but the remains of what someone else has built there previously. This is so because Limbo is a shared place of every dreamer ever. In Limbo, you can build anything you want, just by using you mind. However, while in Limbo, you can easily lose sense of reality and will probably want to stay there longer as they are creating everything they have ever wished for by just using their mind. But again, they do not know they are using their mind because they might have lost sense of reality. However, once someone in Limbo is smart or strong enough to realise that they are not in reality, which can take a long time depending on their mental strength, they can kill themselves in Limbo. After killing themselves in Limbo, they will go to a place termed “the shore of their subconscious” which is really them being washed up on a beach based in the first original dream, where then they can then be killed if they wish to get out of the dream.

So you may now think that the only way to get out of a dream after going through another layer is by going to Limbo, dying there, and then dying in the first level; but thankfully, there is a natural way. Whether the idea was successfully or unsuccessfully planted, there will always have to be someone from the original team awake in each layer so a kick can be done to the people sleeping. A kick is done to wake someone out of Inception. It is when something causes there to be an un-balance of forces or something makes them feel an adrenaline rush to their sleeping bodies which was stimulated from the events in the dream, in order to go back a layer. So if a dreamer is only in the first layer (the original dream); someone needs to have their sleeping body feel an adrenaline rush in to get them back to reality. Here they have gone back one layer. When two layers deep, someone needs to make their sleeping bodies in the first layer feel an adrenaline rush, to awaken them in the first layer, so then they can have the person in reality awaken them from that first layer and back into reality.

Now a few of you may be debating or confused over reality verses the Dream world. Well there is an answer to that question. Dreamers can choose to bring a Totem with them from reality and into the dream. A totem is an object made by the person in reality, planning to enter a dream, to bring with them. Only they know its exact feel, weight and composition. When brought into a dream, the totem helps the person verify that they are not in reality, based upon their totem. One of the most understandable examples of a totem is a spinning top. A dreamer can choose to bring that into the dream. The dreamer would then spin that top while in a dream to find that it never stops spinning. This would be because its weight and physical composition have been altered after being brought into a dream world. Therefore, the dreamer, the owner of the totem, known they are in a dream. This would be compared to while in reality, where, just like with a normal spinning top, it will eventually stop spinning therefore having the person realising that they are in reality.

So back to the initial goal of attempting to plant an idea into someone’s mind. If successfully done, the person will act upon it in reality. So using the example “punch a brick wall”, it doesn’t matter if you wanted them to do it in reality or in the dream world, but the fact is that they will do it in both if possible because the idea will spread like a virus that slowly takes over their body. So if they are in a dream and have the opportunity to punch a brick wall, they will punch it. Then when they wake up and are in reality, they will most likely punch the first brick wall they find. But the idea will also expand in reality. So after an unknown amount of time, the subject, still in reality, might choose to knock down his own brick house, and re-build it made of anything but bricks. However, this idea could still spread and expand more, so the person then might choose to demolish every single building made of bricks.

So the dreamers planting the idea must be very careful, and consider the side effects in reality that may happen, and make sure that the idea can not be taken too broadly.

So that is what Inception is and how it is done including the factors of consideration. Thank you for reading, and I am sure that you will be staying up all night tonight dwelling upon this idea of Inception. But I can guarantee that this is only a science fiction theme as the most obvious flaw in the theories originates at the very beginning, with a string that magically connects you to someone’s subconscious, which really can’t be explained.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Luigi :)

[Luigi197]

Anyone seen the movie?

[Cookie Monster]

Anyone seen the movie?

yes, i got it, so i didn't read it :)

[ossie85]

Indeed :) Inception was a clever movie.... but not nearly as clever as it thinks it is (see the South Park rip off "Insheeption" for a funny laugh)

A better and smarter "dream" movie IMO is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Own both though :) And enjoy both!

[Luigi197]

I studied it cause i have just gotten interested in Psychology, and plan to study that in VCE.

[ossie85]

The ideas behind Inception are fantastic :) Love the plot! Mind-screwy movies are always my favourites :)  Dollhouse (TV series) is also good

[Ziplock]

Anyone seen the movie?

yes, i got it, so i didn't read it :)

Pretty much lol, I found it really self explanatory, I still don't get what the mindflower is everyone was talking about. Good movie though.

Indeed :) Inception was a clever movie.... but not nearly as clever as it thinks it is (see the South Park rip off "Insheeption" for a funny laugh)

A better and smarter "dream" movie IMO is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Own both though :) And enjoy both!

lololololol at insheeption

The ideas behind Inception are fantastic :) Love the plot! Mind-screwy movies are always my favourites :)  Dollhouse (TV series) is also good

dollhouse by wheadon aye? I've been meaning on looking it up... so it is worth it?

[ossie85]

Not as good as his other shows, but yeah. Particularly the season finals when they go off in completely different directions.