One method used to awaken from a dream within a dream is called a "kick", which is the sensation of falling, hitting water, or a sharp jolt that can startle the sleeper awake. It startles the dreamer out of their sleep.~The Inception Wiki
No, I Regret Nothing . . .
Inside joke: The song Non, je ne regrette rien is performed by Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard who plays Mal in Inception won the oscar for Best Actress playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en rose. She beat out Ellen Page, who was nominated with her that same year (2007) for Juno. Ellen Page plays Ariadne in Inception.
"To Making It Count"
(Ordo ab Chao)
The Kick
( . . . what's the catch?)
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| The Mask of God |
Catwoman: You think this can last? There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches cause when it hits you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.
Bateman: I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.
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| Born with a weak heart |
. . .
Inception: It's the dead wife again. Like her mythological forebear, Ereshkigal, Mal wants to trap her husband Dom Cobb (Osiris, the Corn God of the Underworld, played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in the dream world of the unconscious. Only Ariadne (Ellen Page, Juno) can heal the King.
Cobb's wife "died" when he implanted the thought that reality was not real. In other words, it was the seed of Doubt that made them question the Garden State and drew them into the Underworld. (And beware--this is the "inception" that is performed on the audience.) But now that he's there there's no turning back; he has to Finish the Work.
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| Setting the Daughter on the throne of the Mother |
"Whether Page or Princess/Prince, these particular face cards always represent someone who is young and fresh. In Tarot, a Page can be either male or female but are usually correlated to the Princess rather than the Prince."
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| The Kick |
Dom's wife, i.e. his own subconscious, is convinced of this Maya, which is why she is trying to pull him back into Limbo, the real source of all things (the outer reflecting the inner); but he needs to come back to the surface. Only, he can't do that while the memory of the Dead Syzygy still haunts his landscape. At the end (after Ariadne-Juno kills her underworld Shadow) there is still the question about what is real (he being but a character in a movie), but the real point, Nolan says, is that he no longer cares; he has his children (homunculi).
And in watching Inception, I think I definitely saw something of Jungian archetypes in all of the characters who interact with Leonardo DiCaprio's, Dom Cobb, in the movie. So much so, in fact, that I actually think ::Spoiler alert:: that the entire film might actually just be Dom Cobb's dream and that all of the main characters in it were just different segments of himself that had to concoct an elaborate mission just so he could reach some level of catharsis within himself. When the mission was completed, he was finally able to confront his demons and he was granted the clarity to finally see his children's faces in the end because his guilt had finally been resolved amongst his archetypes. . . .
Ariadne/The Architect as The Anima Archetype
The Anima is the feminine side within a male (Whereas, the animus, would be the male side within a female) and she represents who a male truly is rather than who he presents himself as in reality, and in many ways, what that's what Ariadne represents for Dom. Out of all the other characters in the movie, she's the closest to being who he really is—note, all of the details he tells her are basically the same details he's telling us, too, with the audience being a part of who he is, as well, being that we're living inside his head while we watch the movie—and she's also an architect, which Dom once was too before his shadow became overbearing.
Think about it, it's Ariadne who goes with him into limbo when everyone else has to stay behind. She's the one who tries to pull him away from his darker side and get him to move on so he can be himself again. ("What If Inception Were Analyzed By Dream Experts?")
Cobb: Genuine inspiration, right? Now, in a dream, our mind continuously does this. We create and perceive our world simultaneously. Now, our mind does this so well that we don't even know it's happening.
Michael adds: Leonardo - "I'm king of the world!" tells Ariadne that she is the designer of the dream, and he is the subject. His mind "populates" the dream world.
Or we might say... impregnates it. What he is describing is the relationship between the dreaming mind and the conscious mind - Id and ego. That's why the ego is "male" and the subconscious "female". I'm realizing that all this religious symbolism about marriage is really just a symbol for the proper relationship between the ego and the Id - the true alchemical wedding.
22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8)
The easiest way to access this interpretation is to examine the character of Mal, the wife of Dom Cobb. She represents Cobb's personal inspiration; the Greek kind of muse, not just the beautiful-girl kind. Young artists conceive a passion for their métier that is analogous to a love affair. (Maria Bustillos)
Leonardo DiCaprio even looks like Christopher Nolan. But Nolan the Demiurge is performing the Inception on himself (self-impregnation). He wanted to write a heist movie, but the Dead Girl (a treacherous muse) intervenes, as always. The last level? Shadow-Mal knows they're living in a movie.
The Magician (Demiurge) impresses his thoughts upon Maya, the goddess of illusions, who manifests them upon her board. Sic mundus creatus est. ASA NISI MASA = A NI MA.
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| The Kick |
The Tree of Life is also a metaphor for filmmaking. Brad Pitt is Terrence Malick (note again that he's the projectionist in Fight Club); Jack is the audience--but the director is forced to participate in the mystery. Film as the Great Work. Director as Demiurge. Cinema as shared dream. Of course it's all happening in his head.
Hugo has the same plot as Inception (and so did Martin Scorsese's previous, Shutter Island).
Georges Méliès is Dom Cobb, the movie director. He used to create worlds ("dreams," as the film says) with his wife, his Muse, before everything went wrong. It was the War that did them in.
Georges Méliès: If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from, you look around. This is where they're made.
The station inspector is the Law, who lost his leg in the War (wounded King--all of these characters are the same person). He thinks that people can survive on their own. By fixing the automaton (Quasimodo, the half-made mechanical man), they Heal the King (Ben Kingsley)--he was left "unfinished" when Hugo's father, Jude Law (the Jewish Demiurge) died (paralleled by Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands, again).
Hugo Cabret: Everything has a purpose, even machines. Clocks tell the time, trains take you places. They do what they're meant to do, like Monsieur Labisse. Maybe that's why broken machines make me so sad, they can't do what they're meant to do. Maybe it's the same with people. If you lose your purpose, it's like you're broken.
Isabelle: Like Papa Georges?
Hugo Cabret: Maybe we could fix him.
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| The Tree of Life |
“Inception” did seem a lot like “Shutter Island.”
It did, didn’t it? Leonardo DiCaprio as a man with a dead wife who can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. You can even draw parallels as far back as “Titanic,” a movie about literally and figurative “letting go” of past loves. Either DiCaprio knows what kinds of characters he’s good at playing or he’s got some recurring issues to work out — probably both. (Salon.com)
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| A train of thought? |
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| (Chris Myers) |
"Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels . . ."
. . .
Father-Atonement in the Sanctum Sanctorum
(End of Empire)
(End of Empire)
. . .
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| Between two pillars (the Girl with the Book) |
His love interest is the
Max, being the Aspirant to the Goddess, heeds the Call to Adventure written in Rosemary's undersea voyages book.
Herman Blume (Bill Murray) is God, the Demiurge (a wealthy industrialist)--he's a bit lonely these days, after having been driven to Participate in the Mystery and experience the agony of division. It is he who will be at last reunited with the Shekinah, Rosemary Cross. Max is "too young" for Her, and must instead assist in healing the cosmic breach in the Godhead (with a healthy amount of Jacob-struggling-with-God along the way--they both want the same woman).
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| Max lives next to a graveyard . . . |
First comes a long time of trial and torment on the edges of Death, when everything in Max's life goes wrong.
Max Fischer: [to Rosemary] I'm sorry, I just came by to thank you for WRECKING MY LIFE!
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| . . . and from Death and the Grave come the first signs of a new life |
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| An omen? |
As a reward for his efforts he gets the Asian (Assiah) girl archetype, the China Girl who secretly pines for him--Josie Packard, Cho Chang, Knives Chau, Cherita Chen et cetera ad infinitum.
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| "Will you marry me, Le-Chahn?" |
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| Or, Apocalypse Now |
The movie ends when he Finishes the Play and ends the war between spirit and matter through a union of the two (which is why Cobb must work for the Asian man to win his freedom). He does not vanquish his enemies, but brings over to his side their efficacy and strength. The story is bewilderingly universal.
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| The restoration (Heal the King) |
(The lesson?)
"Now it's time to wake up."
Ed Wood, Scissorhands ("I like to dress in women's clothing.")
"Now it's time to wake up."
Ed Wood, Scissorhands ("I like to dress in women's clothing.")