Alea Ford

TEL-T101

13 November 2010

Depicting Interactive Technology in Inception: A Theatrical Experience

                Christopher Nolan’s Inception is an original film in which the Extractor Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes into other people’s dreams to steal or suggest ideas. I enjoyed watching Inception in theaters the first time around in comparison to the second. According to my ticket stub, I first watched Inception with my two younger sisters and dad on August 6th at Regal Theaters. We watched it in a relaxed atmosphere as the theater wasn’t crowded because the film had been running for a while. Afterwards, we discussed the plot of the film, especially the open ending as we were confused and didn’t have a consensus.

                In contrast, my second time viewing Inception was unpleasant because I saw it alone in a crowded, hot environment. I saw it at the Indiana Memorial Union’s Whittenburg Auditorium on November 11. Both the 8:00 and 11:00 showings were full. I went to the 11:00 showing and sat on the end six rows back from the front. Unlike the Regal experience, noisy college students comprised most of the audience. Predictably, I heard the appropriate audience response to the right cues. For example, after witty lines or slapstick humor, I heard laughter. I also saw the audience jump, talk excitedly, and laugh nervously in response to loud, startling noises. Only two responses weren’t typical.

First, the girl sitting to my right surprised me. She was sending text messages on her phone throughout the entire film! Personally, I do not know how she or anyone else could ignore the action packed fight sequences filled with special effects such as the hallway scene in the hotel where Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fights Robert Fischer’s (Cillian Murphy) projections on the floor, wall, and ceiling. Lastly, I was surprised mostly by the audience’s reaction to the movie’s end. People were laughing and talking during the final scene. Once it ended, there was no applause. This is very different from the 8:00 audience’s reaction. I heard them clap loudly as I was waiting outside. Due to the girl’s blasé reaction and the audience’s reaction towards the end, I conclude most people in the 11:00 showing have either seen the film before or they are less appreciative of this film genre.

Though I have seen the movie before, I’m still confused by a few scenes such as Cobb’s phone conversation to his children, Cobb’s arrival to the airport, and the ending where Cobb was reunited with his children. I still love the movie, but I enjoyed it less the second time because the theater was crowded, and I had no one to discuss it with. Though I do not think I understood more plot elements this time through, I did see various themes relating to class. Upon analysis, I conclude that Inception is a dystopian film that illustrates the negative consequences of interactive technology, which have societal implications beyond the film.

Inception is a unique dystopian film. Unlike other dystopian films such as The Matrix or 12 Monkeys, Inception doesn’t have many bleak, gray settings. However, the few that it does have are seen in the dream world, particularly Cobb’s emphasizing his struggles to free himself from his guilt and bad memories concerning Mal. In the real world, the characters don’t live in a “Jetsonian” setting where everything is technological and could be done with one button push. In fact, the time frame is ambiguous. It can be interpreted as the near future, perhaps two to five years after 2010, or the present since the setting looks exactly how the world looks now (out of context to the film). I think the slow, distorted, boomy, constant, and repetitive soundtrack is what gives the movie its dark feel in contrast to The Matrix’s upbeat techno soundtrack. Nevertheless, Inception is dystopian because it “stresses the negative impacts of technology” (Bucy, lecture). At first, the movie seems empowering as man seems to be in control of the technology as illustrated through Cobb’s successful inceptions, but by the end, the audience is left to question whether Cobb is in control or did he finally succumb to his own dream. The interactive nature of the dream infiltrating technology proves to be dangerous.

Inception features interactive technology. Though many definitions of interactivity persist, Erik Bucy sums the previous ones, modifies, and reduces them to the single definition: “reciprocal communication exchanges that involve some form of media or information and communication technology” (Bucy, 375). Taking this out of context to the film, my experience of going to the theaters is interactive because of how the audience responded to the action and dialogue on screen (i.e. they laughed talked, jumped, etc). Though the reciprocal part (i.e. the audience response) was present in my theater experience, it may not always be there as people perceive media and its messages differently. Therefore, people’s “perception” or sense of their media experience is “important” (Bucy, 377) as people could feel they have control when in reality they don’t (Bucy, 376). Relating Bucy’s pseudo two-way relationship in context to the film, the architect Ariadne creates a seemingly interactive dream experience that places Robert Fischer “in control” of his own destiny via three dream levels. These levels, consisting of dreams within dreams, follow the different stages of Don Norman’s design theory to achieve the team’s goal: have Robert Fischer plant its idea in his mind without him realizing that the idea was never his.           

 The first level is primarily “visceral,” meaning “physical features such as look, feel, and sound dominate” (Norman, 67) to elicit initial or gut reactions (Norman, 68). At this level, the team appeals to Fischer’s emotional side through a kidnapping and robbery plot. On the second level, behavioral design dominates. Behavioral design is about function and performance (Norman, 69). Since rationale doesn’t matter at this stage (Norman, 69), Cobb explains the situation to Fischer posing as his dream bodyguard. This level serves to make Fischer realize he is dreaming and to subtly reinforce the messages from the previous stage. The final level is reflective, which emphasizes the “message, culture, or meaning of a product or its use” (Norman, 83). In this level Fischer knows he is in a dream. He unknowingly uses the previous information (i.e. his birth date, memories, etc.) to make a discovery. When Fischer wakes, he will divide the energy company that he has inherited, creating a monopoly for his competitor Saito. The team’s success to incept an idea illustrates a negative consequence of interactive technology, albeit a futuristic one, but this isn’t the main problem.

Being unable to discern reality from fiction is the main negative consequence of interactive technology in Inception. Inception, much like David Brin’s article, breaks down the adage that “seeing is believing.” According to Inception, we are at the point where people cannot expose forgeries and reveal traces of meddling left behind, and even worse, it has gone commercial (Brin, 29), and in Inception’s case, it’s all mental. The dream world is based on visual perception. Therefore creating dreams from memory is dangerous as it can lead you to believe that they are real. Mal serves as an excellent example.

Because of her years and decade’s worth of dream exploration, Mal suffers from a Truman Show-esque delusion where the world she thinks she has waken to isn’t real as Cob explains, “Eventually, She tells me … that our world wasn't real and in order to get back to the reality, We'll have to kill ourselves” (Nolan, 2010). Unlike The Matrix where death in the virtual world is equivalent to death in the real world (Bucy, lecture), death in the dream world wakes people up in the real world. However, if they are under a sedative, then they could potentially “die” and be lost in Limbo forever. Eventually, Mal accidentally kills herself in the real world which leads to Cobb’s problems. Cobb is a flawed character. The audience cannot trust him as he too seems to be delusional. Cobb lies saying he has his projection of Mal under control, and in some cases it seems that way. For example, in his dreams Cobb is wearing his wedding ring because they are together (IMDB), but in reality, he doesn’t wear one. On the other hand, Cobb converses with Mal, and she foils his plans. Also, Cobb’s personality shares a lot of similarities to the negative effects of interactivity that Bucy outlines in his graph. For example, Cobb is selfish, instable, frustrated, and withdrawn (Bucy, 379). How does Cobb attempt to keep himself sane?

According to Brin’s article, the only ways to combat falsehoods is “internal restraint” and “skepticism” (Brin, 28). Cobb’s spinning top is his “skepticism” or a safeguard against fiction. If it topples, then he knows he is in the real world. However, he disregards this at the end as he immediately runs out the door to see his children. As the camera zooms in for a close-up, the top is still spinning but wobbling slightly. The film cuts to black before the audience can see whether it topples or not. Therefore, the audience is left to decide the final conclusion. Is Cobb actually in the real world or is he still stuck in the dream?

In conclusion, Nolan’s Inception is a dystopian film that warns the audience against too much interactive technology as it can have adverse effects. For example, Cobb’s wife Mal suffers from delusions, becomes unable to discern between reality and fiction, and commits suicide. Nolan blames people for the technology and its effects as machines cannot think of ideas or dreams, but people can. Therefore, people are scarier than machines. If Cobb can plant an idea to divide a huge successful company as is in Robert Fischer’s case, then he could influence others to do far worse things. Ideas like technology can be good or bad. It just depends on who is in control. In relation to the movie, I think Cobb is still in a dream. Out of context, I think Nolan’s film is an allegory for the internet. As of now there is no “end” to the internet. Like Nolan’s dreams, it’s vast and deep, and there are a lot of falsehoods that we must be skeptical about. Sometimes we cannot attribute or trace whose idea, picture, etc. is on the internet. Therefore we must be cautious otherwise we will be “incepted.” Given the real time setting of the film, perhaps we are at that stage. Though the 11:00 audience that I saw this film with probably couldn’t perceive that far or even care, the message is still there for those who bother to stay awake.

Works Cited

·             Bucy, E. P. (2004). Interactivity in society: Locating an elusive concept. The Information

Society, 20(5), 375-385.

·             Bucy, E. (2010, October 7). Course Lecture. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN.

·             Brin, D. (1998). The transparent society: Will technology force us to choose between privacy and freedom? Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

·             Norman, D. A. (2003). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books.

·             "Inception (2010) - IMDb." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/>.

·             Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page. Warner Bros., 2010. Film.