Perspectives - Postmodernism in Inception

Figure 1. Totem spinning

1. Inception's story line is linear, and linear storytelling usually goes from the start to finish having a definitive ending and no cutbacks, but with Inception's ending it plants the idea that it isn't over yet. Just before Cobb greets his children he spins his totem and as the final shot shows the totem still spinning and wobbles just a bit the shot cuts to black. We are left with an open ending with the question whether the totem dropped, knowing that it's reality or it kept spinning, meaning Cobb is in a dream still.

   

   Figure 2. Van falls to the water

2. Another point of linear storytelling is the fact that real time is still going but as they dream an hour in the dream world is 5 minutes in reality, so at the near end of the film when the Van drives off of the bridge they have varying amounts of time before the van crashes into the water. The more dream levels the fall into the slower the van will fall into the water and therefore the more time they'll have, even though the events should be happening at the same time.

   

   Figure 3. Cobbs subconscious and Mal Attacking Ariande

3. There is a sense of Hyper reality within the dreams of inception, depending on whose subconscious it is the person manipulating their dream can do anything with the objects around them, extend bridges with mirrors, fold cities and many other ways to 'plant the idea' into that person's subconscious but the disturbing factor is when a manipulator changes to much of the dream the other person subconscious attacks the manipulator, a good example is when Ariadne creates a bridge that's familiar to Cobb which triggers a memory and his subconscious attacks Ariadne.

   

   Figure 4. Limbo

4. There is a huge element of Structuralism within Inception and it's when Cobb travels within limbo, you can see within Figure 4. the building across the back are all designed to fit structuralist architecture and the front buildings are crumbling which could be a metaphor for the death of previous trends of structuralism.

   

   Figure 5. Penrose stairs

5. There is also some intertextuality within the movie, most notably the Penrose stairs also known as the 'Impossible stairs'. In terms of Architecture the stairs are impossible to create but within the dream world it is possible as there are no boundaries within the dreams. 

Illustrations :

Figure 1. - Inception - [Movie Still]
Figure 2. - Inception - [Movie Still]
Figure 3. - Inception - [Movie Still]
Figure 4. - Inception - [Movie Still]
Figure 5. - Inception - [Movie Still]