brain disorders movie reviews

Inception

4/22/2013

An expert dream thief must do the impossible task of implanting an idea into someone else’s sleeping mind.

Cobb is the best information extractor in the business. He steals valuable information from the subconscious during sleep, when it is believed the mind is most susceptible to threats. Cobb is given the opportunity to reunite with his children if he completes one last job that is said to be impossible. Instead of stealing information, Cobb must do the reverse and plant an idea into the target's mind. Cobb and his team travel deep into their target's dream levels to pull off this daunting task.

24 Comments

Jan Voss

1/27/2015 04:53:56 am

I really enjoyed the various characteristics of dreaming that Nolan incorporated in Inception.
First, I want to talk about he addressed the issue of time. I like how Nolan considered how time seems to pass slower in dreams: Often, you briefly wake up and look at the clock and e.g. see that it is 9 AM and fall asleep for another 15 minutes, but have some sort of dream again that feels much longer than just the 15 minutes in which it took place. Nolan addressed this by explaining how much time the characters have on each individual level to finish their mission.
Second, I liked the idea how he used the 'Kick' required for the characters to 'wake up' from the dream and go back to reality. Just as you sometimes have the feeling of falling which wakes you up from a dream, the characters also need some sort of impulse (in the end of the movie, it actually involves falling, in that case the car falling into the river) to return from the deeper levels of dreaming.
Third, he also included the topic of lucid dreaming, which allows people 'in real life' to form their dream according to their ideas if they manage to realize that they are dreaming. In the movie, he incorporates this by having one of the characters take on the role of the 'Architect', responsible for shaping the dream in a way required to fulfill the mission - and also capable of creating objects that would be impossible in real life, such as infinite stairs.
Fourth, I enjoyed how he showed that the dreaming characters can still perceive things that are going on in the 'waking' world. In the case of Inceptions, it is the song 'Non, je ne regrette de rien' by Edith Piaf that is played to notice them that their time is running out. I think this is a very realistic use of such an element: If you, for example, fall asleep in front of a running TV, you sometimes see that the characters or visual cues become elements within your dream.
All in all, I think that Inception is a very good movie: It incorporates a lot of elements from the world of dreaming, and - important for a movie - has a lot of suspense and action.

Veronica Monteiro

2/5/2015 10:29:24 pm

Inception is certainly one of the most thought provoking movies I have seen. It explores brain activity while sleeping in a different light than most humans seem to experience dreaming, thus allowing us to think, “what if that happened in real life?” Realistically though, our brains are just as active in our world as the physical motions of the characters are in Inception. Although incredibly entertaining, the actions of characters and the need for actually completing tasks as created and outlined by the Architect is largely unrealistic. For example, as soon as the characters fall asleep, their stories begin. For us, our brains don’t immediately begin dreaming. When we first fall asleep our brain waves begin to slow down, all the way to NREM-3. Those waves are very slow and have long wavelengths. As our brains ‘warm up’ again into the REM sleep portion of the sleep cycle, our dreams begin to occur. Imagine how uninteresting the movie would be if each character had to go through each sleep cycle before entering the REM cycle when their dreams could begin? Ultimately this movie seems to have been created out of pure entertainment, but many of the directive choices seem to have been derived directly from scientific facts.

Amanda Schauer

2/9/2015 11:12:32 pm

I agree with the above comment from Veronica that Inception is a very thought provoking film. I had to watch this film twice, when I saw it when it first came out, for me to fully grasp and understand it. I am even still left with questions. I love the exploration of dreams. When I was studying abroad in London, I went to a very neat bookstore with all old books. There I found an amazing book by Freud about dreams. Inception gives so many ideas of how dreams could be formed, it is eye opening. In class we discussed the different levels of REM cycle sleep. In this movie, there are different levels of the dreams; I kind of see these being the different REM cycles of the person sleeping. It is interesting because the movie seems so fictitious, but at the same time the way they perceive dreams in the movie is very possible and realistic. The dreams are constructed by the dreamer and controlled by them completely. Basically, the movie is showing the characters in very intense lucid dreams. My favorite thing about this film is that it isn’t far from impossible.

Nick Denunzio

2/11/2015 04:38:02 am

Inception is a movie that you need to pay attention to throughout, because it can definitely be hard to follow. I did really enjoy the movie. As was stated above, I really enjoyed the fact that the Nolan brothers incorporated a lot of realistic dream elements into the movie, such as the time distortion that seems to take place when you’re asleep, the “kick” you feel when you feel like you’re falling in a dream, as well as the incorporation of lucid dream and the idea that you can control your dreams. This made this fantasy movie seem all the more realistic, which I think made the movie that much more interesting.
Something that interested me from the movie was the “dream within a dream” idea, especially because I feel like I have experienced that when I thought that I woke up, but I was actually in another dream. This is called a “false awakening”. World of Lucid Dreaming states that this experience happens with both lucid and regular dreamers, and happens mostly when you’re anxious about an approaching event. This phenomena illustrates the ability of the human mind to emulate reality to the point that you truly believe that you are awake.
<http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/false-awakenings.html>

Ben Dougherty

2/12/2015 03:26:19 am

Inception is a heist thriller that takes place in people's dreams and subconscious. The movie centers around the efforts of Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, as he tries travel through someone's subconscious to manipulate them. Psychologically, this movie addresses the both the role of our subconscious, and the cycle of our dreams. One of the major themes of the movie is the role of the unconscious in the conscious behavior. Dreams are presented as a gateway to the unconscious, and can be used to manipulate our conscious behavior. In the movie, they also divide the mind into three sections: the conscious, the subconscious, and the unconscious mind. These psychological ideas presented in Inception seem to align with the beliefs of Sigmund Freud. He believed that "nothing you do occurs by chance; every action and thought is motivated by your unconscious at some level. (http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/freud.htm). This belief seems to have directly influenced the plot of this movie. Many of the psychology presented in the movie seems to be directly rooted in Freud's work. He to articulated that the mind was divided into separate sections of consciousness. It seems that Inception was heavily influenced by modern psychology, as well as the groundbreaking work of Sigmund Freud.

Ryan Mulholland

11/23/2015 09:54:21 am

Inception is a psychological thriller that explores the abstract concept of dreaming and sub-consciousness through the interpreted medium of an alternate reality. In this movie Dom Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) is shamed fugitive with the uncanny ability to enter the dreams of different people and steal and/or implant new information. In order to redeem himself, Cobb is tasked to implant an idea into someone else’s mind, an interesting task as he typically steals information. This task seems easy enough, until someone starts countering his every move. While the movie bases itself off of the abstract perception of dreams, its interpretation is not necessarily accurate. What seems unlikely is the way the dreams are induced (immediately, in the movie, REM in real life). Also, the dream within a dream is likely impossible, as it would be highly improbable that a fictionalized construct would perfectly mimic subconscious function. In general, the movie is very interesting and offers a very interesting way of interpreting a lot of “what ifs” of dreams, particularly death within a dream (which I personally believe would just wake the individual up).

Badr Nassif

11/23/2015 10:24:34 am

I remember watching Insomnia, and thinking of how awesome it would be to try and be put in that situation. The task seems easy at first, but kind of worrying. It is very psychological and deals greatly with the subconscious. Relatively, I connected this movie to the presentation we saw in class about REM sleep, and sleepwalking. Though, it wasn't necessarily sleep walking it is something that happens in dreams or in the subconscious so that served a deeper understanding. I liked how Inception followed the character closely enough that it showed many different situations and how he dealt with them, not all the situation he faces were necessarily good. This is sort of related to a hallucinogen (LCD) that people take and are put in deep unconsciousness. Some dreams are characterized by bad dreams which is sort of related to the dreams the main character goes into.

Ziqiu Zhu link

2/6/2016 06:58:22 am

When the movie starts, I thought it was a scary movie with many super starts. But later, Leonardo DiCaprio and other actors showed me what is the real "magic". They tried to go through someone's mind and control them when they are unconscious. Based on my psychology knowledge, Inception indicates the three sides of us. Conscious, Subconscious and our dreams. Those psychology ideas shows that every action and thought has a reason that is motivated by our unconscious at some point. Overall, I really love this movie because it affirms the definition of dreams and has strong connect with the Sigmund Freud's thesis.

Chun Yin Kenneth Wong

3/4/2016 03:49:15 pm

Inception is definitely a great movie, and its success is based on the details and theories of brain sciences, presented in a logical as well as mind blowing way. As most of the other reviews have said, the use of theories of dreaming and consciousness are solid, which make us think it can be real and hence interesting to watch. For example, the concepts of projections (people and the environment in dream) and extractions (steal thoughts from dream). From what I have learnt in class and on PsychSim, things appeared in dream are somehow related to what we experienced in the real world. According to Dr. Freud, “the story line of a dream is a disguised version of the real, but hidden, meaning of a dream”. It is kind of smart to convince the subject about a fictional safety, to let the subject unconsciously put his secret in it, which then can be stolen.

Some review may comment on some unrealistic settings of the story, but I would rather say they are not well explained only. For example, characters in the film can immediately fall into dreams, which in reality our brain have the go through those NREM phases and take time to dream. However, I think skipping those phase maybe one of the function of the machine (the “suitcase”) which using to synchronize and share the “subject” dream.

Anyway, I really enjoy watching Inception, and I recommend it to everyone who loves complex and inspiring plots.

Adam

3/4/2016 05:05:52 pm

Inception is about people that can get into a shared dream and approach the others while they are in the dream state. More accurately a group of dream thieves pulling off a heist in a dream to plant an idea to heir to the company to dissolve the company. Like others have said this would likely take place the REM part of sleep where you have visual memories and made up thoughts/ideas that your brain makes into stories. The dream would be a lucid dream because they had control over the sequences and experiences in the dream, and were often aware of being in a dream. This could also, however, be a form of consciousness, such as astral projection where a person is having an out of body experience. This is where they are projecting their body to another plane or space. One author that I read has stated that astral projection can just be a dream where you think you are astral, or you are really in a lucid dream state, but could also be a real state of being. However, really traveling out of your body has no scientific basis today with the exception of purely theoretical basis.

Linh Nguyen

3/5/2016 02:56:45 pm

Inception is a movie in which the main character, Cobb, and his team are hired to use dream sharing and find out corporate secrets. It delves into the idea of seeding fake incidents into people's brains in order to change their perception of what happened in the past. This is an idea that seemed very interesting to me and I believe is also an area of psychology that has yet to be fully understood. However, this is a movie and though Christopher Nolan has tried his best to make it as scientifically accurate as possible, some parts of the movie seem to lack explanation like how ReM sleep is induced so quickly. Watching 'Inception' led me to research about dreams and sleeps, and from that I learned some interesting facts about our brains during the dreaming mode. I learned that although our muscles become relaxed during non-REM sleep, they are completely unresponsive during REM sleep. The reason is that the brain impulses that control the muscle movements are completely suppressed.

(I talked to Prof. Spiers after class about writing 2 reviews instead of just 1 to gain 5 extra points to fill up my 20 points of research study. This is 1 out of the 2 comments.)

Duc Nguyen

3/6/2016 07:39:49 am

I love the movie and the idea of the movie as well. I believe that this technology will be available in the future when scientist do more research about people’s dream. One of my favorite aspects from the movie is that it gives us a brief picture of how your dream can be created when you are sleeping and the impact of dreaming to your real-life thoughts, actions and decisions. Most of the frames, objects or people we dream about are coming from the information we gather in our daily life: images, voice, shapes, … All these information is stored as temporary or long-term memories and reflect back while we are sleeping. Sometimes, the impact of the dream is very vague and people tend to lose the details of their dream when they wake up. However, there are cases that dreams detail can be reflected back in real-life when we approach the information we see in our dream in real-life, which is called Deja-vu. Also, the theme of the movie is about controlling the dream and putting information into other people’s head, which relates to Lucid Dream.

Madeleine Jew

3/6/2016 11:14:32 am

Inception is a complex movie about the delicacy of a dream. The idea behind inception is that one goes into a dream world where they are able to manipulate aspects of this persons dream in order to alter their reality. It touches on how easily dreams are affected by real aspects of a human’s life. For instance, if you fall asleep thinking about chickens and your friend, you might dream that your friend is a chicken. Inception plays sort of the opposite idea where they can alter a dream and in turn pave the path for reality. At the end of the movie we are left wondering weather or not the final scene is a dream or a reality. This touches on the idea that the two are very closely connected. What is in our dreams is a partial reflection of our reality.

Ravi Patel

3/6/2016 12:56:51 pm

Inception is a movie that focuses on dreams and how similar they are to real life. The movie follows a group of people that are able to access people’s dreams and alter them in order to influence their real life actions. I think the last scene of the movie was interesting and emphasized that parallels that both states have with one another. In the final scene it is unclear weather or not we are watching a scene set in dream or in reality. This shows how vivid dreams truly are and proves that when we do dream we are genuinely engaged in them.

Joyel Manoj

3/6/2016 03:56:44 pm

This is a great movie which consists of many important and interesting psychological concepts. This film is based on the unconscious human mind and its power to create a fake "reality" known as dreams. In this movie Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and a few of his associates are trained to enter the dreams if people in order to gain valuable information and put new information in their minds. I believe that this movie is based on the concept of lucid dreaming. "Lucid dreaming is a well-documented phenomenon where one becomes aware of the fact that (s)he is dreaming and, in some cases, is able to control the events of the dream." The movie correctly portrays the idea that if a person dies in a dream or get an external stimulus, they wake up.

http://personalitycafe.com/cognitive-functions/153811-what-domains-psychology-have-been-convered-movie-inception.html

Xinyi Wang

3/6/2016 08:25:05 pm

Inception is a movie about dream and subconsciousness. In the movie, the main character Leonardo DiCaprio had an ability to enter dream deeper and deeper and control others' mind. He found that his dead wife always appeared in his dream and became his problem. At first, he denied his own dreams until a girl told him not. This plot indicated people's repression and rejection of bad memories. The deeper people go into subconsciousness, the farther they go away from the consciousness of reality, and the ordered and controllable elements will be fewer. As the famous line in the movie, What's the most resilient paradise? An idea. Once people have an idea, it can be exposed to the whole brain.

Shuting Yu

3/6/2016 08:40:09 pm

It has been a long time since I watched the film, Inception. I haven’t watched a film like that before. And I have to say that it is a very amazing film.
Dom Cobb, who is acted by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a thief. He is so amazing that he can come into people's dreams and steal their valuable secrets from their subconscious. This unbelievable ability brings both good and bad things to him. He is admired by many people but he lost many things that are meaningful to him as well. Cobb is informed that if he complete this mission to plant an idea in someone's mind, he could come back to the live he once had. There is no doubt that if he makes it, it will be a perfect crime.
There are six layers of time in the film, including the reality. Cobb always tries to blur the limit of the reality and the dream. Because he doesn’t want to remember the sorrowful feeling of the loss of his wife. Often the dreams can cheat us because they can make us feel the warmth which cannot be felt in the reality. Maybe it is us that want to be cheated in our subconscious. However, some sorrows, some challenges and some people can not be avoided, we are bound to meet them. That’s why there’s some sweet memories but some painful hallucination as well. Anyway, the dream, the reality are both important to a man. Who can say the reality is also a dream, consisting of both happy and painful experiences.

Jihao Zhu

3/6/2016 08:51:21 pm

This film man actor is Dom Cobb(Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a thief with a special ability that he can enter people’s dream and steal their secrets and some important information from their subconscious. At first there are total 5-level of the dream. The first level is the normal dream; everyone has this level dream it happen on our sleep. If he want to enter the second level dream , he must use special drugs. The third level, he should to increase the dose. The last level, if he wants to entre it, he need use the “synchronize a kick”. It mean，he need to wake up the different level dreamer at the same time. Leo and her wife were the first human that they created the dream world. When they do the experiment the drug has some side effects. He wife dead in the dream. The main plot of the movie is to help a Japanese steal some secrets for business. I think it was a good movie, it was really hard to understand. End of the movie，the film also has some doubt for the moviegoers.

Po-Yuan Lin

3/11/2016 09:30:03 pm

Christopher Nolan sure does an affinity towards stories that invoke the audience’s interpretation. And to modernize the idea of entering people’s dreams. The reason why I say modernize is because the idea of entering people’s dreams is nothing new regardless of popular opinion due to the movie’s critical success. The movie takes after many key elements that were conveyed in a 2002 Disney comic; starring Donald Duck in “The Dream of a Lifetime”, story by Don Rosa. The Disney comic follows main protagonist Donald Duck (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is on a mission to influence the dream host’s intentions. Donald Duck jumps through many through “Dream Layers”, much like how Inception played with the idea of using the dream machine to enter another host’s dream to gain different accesses to information. To make it even more wild, key features within each story is that they possess the same ideas of “Totems” to differentiate reality versus a dream and “Kicks” to wake the user from the dream. I enjoy the premise of both stories because they invoke the audience to think of all the possibilities that can happen within a dream. And to relate towards real life phenomenon’s such as the feeling of falling and suddenly waking up is curiously intriguing. I say there’s no shame to taking inspiration from other stories and to explore the uncharted mystery of dreams is a 10 in my book.

Nicole

6/11/2017 07:24:49 pm

Ultimately, the first time I watched inception I was actually a bit confused. I had to watch it several times in order to fully understand what was exactly happening. In the movie inception, you see a professional thief played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He essentially steals information by entering others subconscious in order to get his criminal background expunged. Inception is essentially the implanting another person's idea into ones subconscious. This movie can relates to psychology since it portrays consciousness, dreams as well as subconscious. In neuropsychology we learned that sleep contributes to ones conscious state. I would say overall this movie is excellent and love the idea of it. I cannot even imagine how the world would be if we were actually able to this in our everyday life.

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Inception

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