Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie, we are shown that a person can be woken from a dream by giving them a "kick" OUTSIDE of their dream. This is demonstrated by Cobb being woken up from his Japanese temple dream by being dunked in the bathtub in the South America dream (Japan was dream level 2 and South America was dream level 1). However, the final "riding the kicks" sequence contradicts this by showing everyone getting a kick WITHIN a dream to wake up to the previous dream. Example: When Ariadne was inside Cobb's apartment (dream level 4), she jumped off the building which woke her up to the snow fortress (dream level 3). As she fell through the collapsing floor of the fortress, she woke up in the elevator (dream level 2), and she returned to the van (dream level 1) by falling inside the elevator. If the movie was consistent in its logic, Adriadne and the others should have been woken up from each internal dream by falling in the outer dream. The most likely reason why the writers couldn't keep this logic was because it would have prevented Cobb from staying in Limbo (i.e. the falling snow fortress would have woken him up).
Teru_Kage
15th May 2013
Inception (2010)
25th Jul 2013
Inception (2010)
Corrected entry: "The kick" is the feeling of falling that is supposed to jolt a person awake. As demonstrated by Yusuf, even with heavy sedation Arthur woke up every time he started falling from his chair. Yet at the start of the movie, Cobb fell all the way into the bathtub before waking up. And it wasn't the fall as much as the water that woke up Cobb (water began to spray inside the Japanese temple, meaning that Cobb was still dreaming when he hit the water and was incorporating the sensation of the water into his dream). In fact, why was the bathtub even needed if all it takes is a fall to wake someone up? Wouldn't it have been safer to place Cobb's chair on a padded carpet to soften his fall, rather than have him choke on water and risk drowning?
Correction: It is evident that the kick doesn't always work in the initial sensation. Like in the dream part towards the end when the van smacked against the bridge. That was supposed to be the kick, but it failed. It is also stated that the sedative they are using in the main part of the movie when on the jet is "a very powerful sedative". And the chemist even said he specially engineered it. So it is logical to assume that there are different types, powers, and effects of different sedatives. the one Cobb was on in the beginning was likely one that needed the water as insurance that a fall didn't work or was suppose to be lifted by water anyways.
26th Jun 2013
Inception (2010)
Corrected entry: Cobb says that he can't see the faces of his children in his dreams because the last image he saw of them in real life was from behind. This doesn't make sense because his mind could easily reproduce their faces from his numerous memories of them. If his dreams were limited to the last image he ever saw, then everyone he dreams about should only be represented exactly the way he last saw them, which would mean Mal should look dead in all his dreams.
Correction: Ah, if only sub-conscious minds worked that predictably. There are no strict rules like that when dealing with our dreaming minds. In Cobb's case, he's simply plagued by guilt, hence his sub-conscious won't let go of Mal, constantly inserting her into his dream and torturing him with a lost love that he can't stop blaming himself for. But that same sub-conscious self torture won't let him see the faces of his kids because that would provide him a comfort that deep down he doesn't feel he deserves. There are rules for our sub-conscious selves, but they're not as cut and dried as you're trying to make them.
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Correction: You've got it backward. Yes, Ariadne woke out of limbo by jumping off the building, but that's because she died within that dream, not because the fall gave her a kick. The elevator crashing woke the team out of the snow fortress, the van crashing woke the team out of the hotel, and the timer on the machine woke them out of the rainy city. Remember how they mentioned that the first attempted kick in the van must have failed (a fact they were aware of because they were still in the hotel) and so they'd have to wait for the van to hit the water to get the next kick?
Phixius ★
The sedatives.