You know a movie is complicated when Internet artists start creating infographics to explain its plot. Such is the case with Inception. While I more or less followed the film’s labyrinthine head trip during my first viewing, don’t ask me to tell you exactly what happened to every character and in what level of dream. I couldn’t. That’s what second (and third) viewings are for. But if you want a little help now, a 3-D modeler called dehahs has designed this rather ingenious visualization of Inception‘s storyline. (Click on the image to the left for a much larger version.) If you haven’t seen Inception, it goes without saying that the larger graphic includes SPOILERS, although you probably wouldn’t understand what you were looking at anyway.
It’s all there: the multiple layers of dreaming (including Limbo), the various “kicks,” and the paths of all seven team members. However, what’s perhaps the most awesome thing about this graphic is that the artist molded the timeline to resemble an optical illusion “paradox,” like one of M. C. Escher’s endless staircases. Someone needs to turn this design into a poster, pronto. Or, better yet, Warner Bros. should print it on a card and ship it with every Inception DVD/Blu-ray.
PopWatchers, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of Inception did you comprehend the first time around? As for me, I’d say 7. And no, Christopher Nolan, you don’t get to play along.
Yeah, I’m about at a 7…definitely excited to check it out again to get closer to 10.
Also, whether you enjoyed “Inception” or not, it’s undeniably awesome when a work inspires fans to get creative like this.
About an 8. The movie was fairly straightforward in terms of the progression of the plot. If you want a really confusing movie, watch “Primer”.
Agree, Primer will twist your mind.
I think that like most great, classic novels “Inception” is fairly accessible the first time around. The plot makes sense. It’s the post-modern interpretations of the plot that take longer to think of and digest…so I’m at a 9 or 10 on plot, but my brain is still reeling from the rest of it.
Primer is confusing, but not in a good way. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but the plot is incomprehensible. Take a look at any of the online charts trying to explain it, and they’re just as lost as the plot was.
The infographic is incorrect in saying that we enter Eame’s dream. At that point in the story, Ariadne says “wait, who’s dream are we going into?” and Cobb responds that they are entering Fischer’s dream. This makes sense, because we need to get deep into Fischer’s subconscious to plant the idea.
That was something I caught the second time I watched it and I’m still confused!!!
It’s Eames’ dream, but Fischer’s subconscious is filling it.
^^This
Ariadne asks “who’s subconscious are we going in?”. The snow fortress is Eames dream. Fisher fills it with his subconscious.
For the entire film, I’d say an 8. The end…I mean, I have a theory, but I also agree with other people’s theories.
Watch it at least twice in theaters; there is so much I caught in a second viewing that I completely missed the first time through.
The graphic is neat, though I understood the movie a lot better than I understand the poster.
I definitely had about an 8 first. Then, I saw it this past Saturday, made it an 11. It really wasn’t that hard to comprehend. Pretty straightforward from Nolan when I thought about it. However, this infographic is horrible. Not only is it confusing but it get’s Saito’s title wrong (Tourist) as well as Fischer’s title (Mark).
By the way, I think that after a second viewing, Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of Fischer is easily the best performance of the film. He, besides Dicaprio, has an emotional core in the film, and it definitely plays well. I almost cried when he found that pinwheel in the safe. It was one possession his dad cherished. It was amazing to see such emotional resonance from the one character no one seems to be talking about!
I agree! The second time I saw it I realized how much heart his character’s journey gave to the movie.
Well I think I’m a 9 or a 10, as does my wife, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I was a 7 or evn a 5! It’s a very well conceived story with a satisfyingly complex plot. I think I get it, but that could just be yet another illusion. Can’t wait to see it again.
There’s a problem with the graphic. Level 4 is not Cobb’s Dream. Level 4 is Limbo. Fischer was shot and killed by Mal on Level 3 causing him to go into Limbo. The movie explains that limbo is raw subconscious, un-constructed dream space (unless you were sharing a dream with someone who had already been in limbo). Since Cobb and Fisher were sharing a dream and Cobb had previously been to limbo, Fisher was in limbo populated by Cobb’s architecture.
The infograph suggests that Cobb died while he was in “his dream”, which I understood to be his “limbo”. How could have Cobb died? From Mal stabbing him? Is that how Cobb found Saito?
no, Saito died in Eame’s winterworld dream. Cobb washed up on shore because he died in the van by drowning. That is why he washed up to shore. Saito had been dreaming for a very long time, and when Cobb reminded Saito of a deal they once had, they remembered that they were dreaming and I think, from what I interpret, Saito takes Cobb’s gun and he shoots Cobb and himself. They wake up on the plane.
Amen on the posterizing, pronto. I would so jump on ordering that when that happens.
Wouldn’t I have to get all of Inception before I realized on a scale of 1 to 10 how much I initially got of Inception? If I only got a 6 with it, how do I know I’m 4 clicks away from a full 10? Ow, my head.
It was all Cobbs dream and Teacherdating was good
only problem with this is it’s upside down
I’m not sure that describing the levels as “Arthur’s Dream”, etc. is particularly accurate. The dream wasn’t Arthur’s – all the dreams (except Limbo) were Fischer’s (just like the other two levels) – and Arthur was merely the guy they left behind to look after things. That’s why Cobb could have arbitrarily left any of the remaining team members behind when he went into limbo, but he absolutely needed to get Fischer back. Limbo, on the other hand, appears to be everyone’s dream – people in limbo appear to be able to simultaneously modify and populate limbo (both Saito and Cobb perform both tasks in the same limbo). In this sense, it’s really the first level rather than the last – it’s the non-architect’d reality.
THANK YOU! I hate it when people say whose dream it was — they’re all Fischer’s dreams! Cobb’s team alternates roles within the dreams.