(This post includes spoiler. However, the movie came out forever ago so it’s your fault at this point.)
Aside from badass suspense music and a plot complex enough to make you question the question your are questioning, Inception has raised some actual questions regarding dream access and memory hacking. Is it possible to see a person’s dream? How does time function in a dream? Leonardo Di Caprio may have been on to something.
Even though the Movie has complex devices that send you into various dream worlds, levels, or whatever, that kind of thing doesn’t exsist. However, as mentioned by Rowan Hooper of New Scientist, modern MRI brain scanners can reveal the brain activity of a dreaming person and attempt to recreate that image through advanced software.
In the movie “Inception”, they determine that each level they go into a dream, the slower time is (Hooper states that 5mins=1hr in the first level, 5mins (on the second dream level)= one week). This concept allowed inception to have an insane climax that was a confusing as a Matthew McConaughey speech. The scene only makes sense if you understand the time concept. The idea brings up some cool ideas on the topic, but has little evidence to support it. While it may seem like only a little actual time elapsed while you are having a dream, it is most likely happening in real time rather than the slowed time that Inception suggests. I believe the illusion is due to the rapid change in setting that occurs in a dream, making it seem like a lot has happened therefore a lot of time has elapsed.
Having control of your dream is referred to as lucid dreaming. Hooper states that avid video gamers are good at lucid dreaming because they spend time living an alternate projected life often.
Overall, Inception made the audience question why we dream, how we dream, if its possible to enter a dream, or if we can control a dream. Even though those questions have limited data. For example, Scientific America published a story stating that new data showed why we dream and why we remember those dreams, the data was essentially tied to the use of MRI brain scanners and the meaning of the findings is ultimately speculation.
All I know for sure: the top keeps spinning.
Sources:
https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/07/inception-peering-into-the-science-of-dreams.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-dreaming/
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/18/6674.abstract
I am commenting on this post because I am still confused after watching this movie– which I have done multiple times, more than a year ago. Eventually I gave up on trying to figure out whatever was going on because IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME. Clearly I am still frustrated because of my lack of understanding…
However, I did have to do a presentation on this movie in my classic literature class in high school. We had to relate the movie and the characters in it to Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth- “the Hero’s Journey” which basically explains a character’s struggles/encounters throughout their journey. This website summarizes each stage quite well:
http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/the-hero-journey-mythic-structure-of-joseph-campbell-monomyth.html
As you can imagine, I BS’ed my way through that whole presentation, because how can I explain a character if I don’t even get what’s happening to them???
What I do know, though, is that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character CAN be tracked through the monomyth.
For anyone who doesn’t understand the what’s happening in Inception and the process of dreaming, watching the movie and then reading the resource I provided about Joseph Campell’s writing should definitely help you grasp the concept a little more! 🙂
Thanks,
Daniele
The key to understanding the movie is pretend that it makes sense. If you trick yourself into thinking it makes sense, then you might be able to trick yourself into understanding it. Here is an article with some tips on how to trick yourself… http://lifehacker.com/top-10-ways-to-trick-your-brain-into-doing-what-you-wan-1502990312
That movie definitely left my head spinning after the final scene. I think it’s interesting how little information we have about dreams and Inception, though mostly unrealistic, only made it seem more complex. I think you did a good job explaining the time issue and I found an (article). that details an interesting study about the passage of time and our own awareness of what is happening during a dream. I think dreaming is such an interesting topic and definitely want to see further studies in the future.
The concept of this movie is definitely something that is really hard to grasp. It’s so beyond what we can perceive as a real thing. When the topic of lucid dreaming comes into place although, it’s even more mind-blowing because it actually is something the human mind can create and accomplish. To me, this truly shows how much intelligence we hold and how extensive our brain power really is. In class the other day, we covered the theory that we are smarter than our parents, our parents are smarter than theirs, and so on. I believe this theory to be true. Imagining what our brains will be able to do and if lucid dreaming becomes easier to accomplish because of our growing intellectual abilities, that is truly amazing. I hope to be able to witness something as spectacular one day.
This is so cool. I didn’t know that that there is software that has the ability to recreate the images of a persons dream. I think you a did a really good job deconstructing the film and making me go back and question some things about this movie. I like how you mention the hooper state because It would be pretty cool to have control over your dreams. overall very interesting topic.