Summary
- Inception’s title refers to planting an idea in someone’s subconscious mind, not just layers of dreams.
- The message of Inception is that everything starts with an idea, reflecting Nolan’s own creative process.
- The term “inception” has been misused in pop culture references to the movie, lacking the true meaning behind it.
Christopher Nolan’s Inception is one of the most iconic (and confounding) science fiction movies ever made, but exactly what does its title mean within the context of the film? Although it was initially developed as a horror movie along the lines of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Inception ended up materializing as a heist film set in the dreamscape. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb and his crack team of dream infiltrators embed themselves in the subconscious of a wealthy heir in order to literally change his mind.
Nolan’s Batman movies had put him on the map, but Inception was the film that proved Nolan could turn a convoluted original concept into a bona fide blockbuster. When it arrived in theaters in the summer of 2010, Inception had audiences lining up around the block and sparked all kinds of discussions about dreams and consciousness and the human mind. Everything in Inception, from the dream-within-a-dream framing device to the ambiguous ending, has been picked apart over the years. But in the world of the movie, what does the word “inception” actually mean?
Inception’s Title Refers To A Special Kind Of Dream Infiltration
Inception means planting an idea in someone’s subconscious mind
The title of Inception refers to a particular type of dream infiltration. Cobb and Arthur are “extractors” who use their ability to infiltrate people’s dreams for the purposes of corporate espionage. They’re usually tasked with extracting information from their targets’ minds. But Saito hires them to do the opposite to Robert Fischer. Saito doesn’t want them to extract information from Fischer’s head; he wants them to plant an original thought in his mind so that he thinks he came up with it himself.
That’s what the term “inception” refers to – planting an idea in someone’s subconscious mind. In the world of the film, the concept of “inception” is more or less unprecedented, which is why Cobb and his team face so many challenges as they try to pull it off. It’s also an extremely dangerous task, as they realize halfway through the job that if something goes wrong, they could be stranded in limbo where, in the words of Tom Hardy’s Eames, their brains would turn to scrambled egg.
Inception
marked Nolan’s first solo screenwriting credit since
Memento
.
How Inception’s Title Connects To The Movie’s Themes & Message
Everything starts with an idea
The message of Inception is that everything starts with an idea: everyone’s goals and dreams and ambitions can all be traced back to a single idea. Even the film itself began as an idea that popped into Nolan’s head. Before he developed the script and worked with a dedicated crew to bring it all to life, Inception was just an idea. The literal definition of the word “inception” is the starting point for a project or an institution; it points to where it all began. In the movie, this means the idea that set off a train of thought.
The ending of Inception sees Cobb going off to reunite with his kids before the spinning top confirms whether he’s in a dream or not, because he doesn’t care. Whether those are his real kids or just projections of them in his subconscious mind, he’s exhausted, and he just wants to spend some time with them. Cobb’s desperation to reunite with his family was the inception of his journey in the movie. He planned one last job so he could clear his name, quit the dream infiltration game, and go back to his kids.
“Inception” Has Entered The Cultural Lexicon (But In The Wrong Way)
People who use the word “inception” to reference the movie usually get it wrong
The term “inception” has entered the pop culture lexicon as a reference to the movie, but the people who use “inception” as a reference usually get it wrong. People will often say, “Whoa, inception!” when they see layers of the same thing repeated or something to that effect. But that’s not what the word “inception” refers to in the film. It’s a common misconception, because despite being the source of the film’s title, “inception” isn’t the most iconic bit of dialogue from Inception.
The biggest takeaway from the dialogue of Inception wasn’t the term “inception” itself; it was the phrase “dream within a dream.” Just the image of a dream within a dream conjured up all kinds of trippy ideas and got audiences excited. Nolan used Inception’s dream levels to facilitate another edition of his signature three-way cross-cutting finales, but a lot of viewers think that’s all the movie is about. The title of Inception has nothing to do with dream levels; it’s all about the ideas that set things into motion.
Inception
5.0
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 Sci-fi action film Inception follows a thief who enters the dreams of others to steal information and, after being caught, is given a chance to clean his slate by performing an untested concept – implanting an idea within another mind. An ensemble cast is brought together by former target Saito, who seeks to implant the idea of destroying his own company into his father’s mind. In a complex labyrinth of dreams and untested theories at the forefront, survival is not guaranteed in this psychological heist where the stakes are high, and nothing is what it seems.
