Perspectives: 5 reasons why 'Inception' is Postmodern

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Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) is a  action, adventure, sci-fi movie, about Dominic Cobb  who is a  thief professionalised in stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious while the person dreams. His job costs him everything he loved, but one last job has offered him the chance to go back to his past life. He gathers a skillful team and sets out on the dangerous and almost impossible mission to not steal an idea, but to plant one into the mind of a CEO.

Reason 1: The film plays with reality in two ways. Firstly, the visuals - although looking realistic - the way they act as an environment is hyper-real. As stated in the dialog a few times, the characters are able to distort and manipulate their surrounding in the dreams. For example, when Cobb introduces Ariadne to the dream world, she questions what would happen if they would mess with the physics of the environment. We see the city in its normal state, then the end of the road starts curling up and settles on top of the  other buildings, completely upside-down. The second way the film plays with reality is making the viewer question if what they see is real or a dream. The characters jump from dream to dream, and especially towards the end, when Cobb returns home, we might have different opinions about what was a dream and what was not.

Reason 2: The film contains many references and intertextuality. We see the Penrose's staircase when Arthur explains how to build a maze to Ariadne. Also, when Ariadne explores the possibilities of building a world, there is a mirror reference from a 1941 film 'Citizen Kane', but there are many more movie references. Furthermore, Ariadne (the only female character of the team) is the one who builds the world or as sometimes said/shown in the film, she makes the maze, which is a clear reference and connection to a Greek myth of Ariadne the Mistress of the Labyrinth (both sharing their names and are creators of mazes and labyrinths).

Reason 3: The narrative is fragmented, as they keep entering different dreams. As said in the film, we just end up in the middle of a dream but can't recall how we got there and how it started. So as the characters go deeper and deeper into dreams, the scenes, action, clothes and environments change. Whenever a new dream starts, the characters are at a different scene and they are already in the middle of an action, which makes it feel like the audience just joined in at a random moment. What help the viewers  understand and follow the story-line is the dialog, where the characters explain a lot about situations.

Reason 4: The character roles and the line between 'hero' and 'villain' is unclear and undefined throughout the film. Cobb is the main protagonist, but since the movie is quite fragmented the role of being the protagonist can be hard to tell, as some other characters play just as much importance and are presented in more detail as Cobb. Furthermore, movies often present a 'hero' character and a 'villain' character, and it is very clear which one is which. In case of Inception, the line between being a hero and being a villain is unclear, since we see the film from the eyes of our protagonists which, would most often mean that they are the 'good guys' and we are facing against the 'bad guys'. But the person they target is not presented as an evil character, but just an average person. They are presented as normal people as well, however their acts could be seen as villainous, since they are committing a crime and manipulating a persons thinking and future actions, but only for personal reasons, not because they need to 'save the world'.

Reason 5: The ending of the film is a plot-hole, as we followed Cobb's journey as he and his team complete an inception, where they plant an idea into the target's mind. We see how he sometimes questions if he is dreaming or is in reality, by spinning the charm. As we get to the end of the film, Cobb returns to his children and spins the charm, but walks away not waiting to know it is a dream or not. The camera stays on the charm as it spins, but before we know if it falls or not the screen goes black and the credits start to roll. It leaves the viewer confused and lets them decide about it.