Introduction:
The film Inception is a sci-fi action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Eliott Page, and other notable actors. The film was released in 2010 after a nearly ten-year production period. Inception is about a skilled thief named Dom Cobb, who steals beneficial secrets from people when they are subconscious while dreaming. Mal, who is Dom’s wife, loved the idea of dream sharing and invented the use of totems to tell the difference between dream and reality. Dom Cobb is also a fugitive who left his family behind after being falsely accused of Mal’s death. Mal before she threw herself from a building left a statement saying that Cobb is abusive and has been threatening her, which forces Cobb to leave his children behind and flee. Eventually Dom Cobb is offered a chance at redemption to go back to his children. The task does not involve the stealing of ideas from someone’s dream but instead to plant one. Saito asks Dom Cobb to plant the idea to the heir of a strong leader so that he will not want to run his fathers business. Cobb reassembles his team and prepares them for a complicated mission. The one thing that affects the mission and Cobb fails to mention is that memories of Mal keep erupting into his dreams which tends to confuse his reality and dreams. Mal becomes his dangerous enemy as she anticipates Cobb’s every move.
Methods:
Science fiction is a type of genre in which the stories often revolve around future science and technology. Sci-fi films and novels frequently make references to scientific principles; these stories involve partially true, partially made up scientific theories. For example, the writer incorporates elements of Oneirology, the scientific study of dreams, throughout the film. This branch of research seeks to understand the connections between dreams and neurological brain behaviors. While Cobb and his team are able to perform inception, or the implanting of an idea in someone’s mind, in the film through a process of “dream-sharing,” there is no factual or scientific evidence that this is possible in real life (or at least not yet). Despite the plot’s scientific elements, the film’s beautiful and intricate visuals, while not realistic, brought the film to life and depicted the insane reality of how many of our dreams appear. Special effects like these provide a link between fiction and reality.
However, the concept of “lucid-dreaming” is the closest discovery or study that can be compared to this. According to researchers, this type of dreaming refers to dreams in which a person is aware that the events taking place are merely a dream and not a reality. While sleeping, the dreamer may even be able to direct the events of the dream as if they were directing a movie. (Kharti, 2020) This type of dreaming first appeared in the 18th century, when Tibetan Buddhists practiced a technique known as “Dream Yoga,” which essentially aimed to awaken the consciousness while in the dream state. (Turner 2008) Another concept presented in the film that can be partially depicted in science is the ability to implant another person’s idea into the subconscious of a target. While it may not be as cool as it appears in the film, these are methods used by many marketing and advertising firms all over the world. The two most important skills in these processes are explaining the benefits of one’s idea in an unrelated context and planting an undeniable truth in their mind. All with the intention of persuading the listener or buyer to accept the new concept, just as Cobb did with Fischer. (Orzechowski, 2017)
Results:
Throughout the movie Inception we constantly see the main character Cobbs use a device in order for him and his team to collectively be in the same dream. The device used to accomplish such a task, PASIV ( Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous ), seems to be connected to the dreamers via a wire that attaches to a briefcase filled with different types of wires and tubes. Never explaining how the device truly works, once everyone is connected with the briefcase via wires they all share the same dream.
The scientific accuracy for the year this movie was released is subpar to nonexistent. A device that has the ability for people to share dreams is simply not real nor does it seem to ever be real. In the year 2010 when this movie was released there were no scientific breakthroughs involving the use of dream technology. In modern day it is still a heavily debated topic on the true meaning of dreams and why they even occur. The only step forward towards scratching this type of technology is discovering through testing that mice have dreams that can be manipulated and with wishful thinking can be applied to humans.
Although technology is unrealistic, being able to control your own dream is not completely out of the question. There have been multiple accounts of people claiming to have lucid dreams, which is being aware that you are in a dream. The term lucid dreaming is not a new idea with it coming to light in 1913 by a Dutch author and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden. In theory this allows you to control your dreams, which is the closest you will likely get to the fiction in Inception.
Discussion:The movie Inception has multiple messages spread throughout the film. The film portrays the importance of our thoughts, how they shape who we are and the decisions that we make. Inception emphasizes how our thoughts reveal a lot of information, which is why we see this group tasked with going into the minds of powerful individuals. We see a few instances in which thoughts shaped the individual. Fischer spent his life trying to be like his father, however when fed the idea that his father wanted him to choose his own path, Fischer decided he would not run his father’s company and be a different man. Mal, no longer able to see the line between dream and reality, was given the idea that the world she had lived in for 50 years was fake, and the only way to escape was to die. This thought followed her into reality, manifesting overtime until she was convinced the reality she and Cobbs lived in was not real and she took her own life. The film also highlights the subjectivity of reality. Each character has a totem that they use to try to distinguish dreams from reality. Cobbs is seen multiple times throughout the film spinning a top, with the idea being if the top stops spinning, he is living in reality. However, at the end of the movie, we see that this time Cobb does not wait to see if the top stops spinning. Cobb has chosen his own reality, Nolan’s motive perhaps being to encourage the audience to do the same. The use of sci-fi to portray this message not only brings these messages to the audience’s attention in an interesting way, but let’s them know that it is relevant. The fiction in this movie is not something that is completely out of reach, but involves concepts such as dream sharing and dream mapping which are being studied today.
