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‘Inception’ infographic helps you understand the film

Posted by · 11:33 am · July 27th, 2010

Kind of.  Click for a larger image (courtesy Last Exit to Nowhere, via Collider):




→ 42 Comments Tags: | Filed in: Daily

42 responses so far

  • 1 7-27-2010 at 12:12 pm

    Speaking English said...

    I’m honestly not sure what’s so hard to follow, but this is neat.

  • 2 7-27-2010 at 12:17 pm

    Matthew Starr said...

    This is actually more confusing than anything.

    I thought the third level was Fischer’s dream not Eames?

  • 3 7-27-2010 at 12:26 pm

    Drew said...

    lol, I’m sorry but the colors and everything just made think of Tron.

  • 4 7-27-2010 at 12:36 pm

    Ryan Adams said...

    Matthew Starr, my understanding is that the dream stages in play are designated here by who’s in control of the dream. Sure, Fischer is being carried along in the shared dreams through each level, but only members of the Inception team can manipulate what’s happening at each stage.

    Best clue to who’s in control of each dream is to look at which member of the team is responsible for the “kick” to snap everybody out of it. Eames blows up the hospital/fortress to end his dream, Arthur detonates the elevator in his dream, Yusef crashes the van off the bridge to lead everyone out of his level.

    (Ariadne improvises the fall from the high-rise and the emergency CPR to rescue Fisher and herself from Cobb’s dream, leaving Cobb behind to slap some sense into Saito.)

  • 5 7-27-2010 at 12:38 pm

    Speaking English said...

    ***Best clue to who’s in control of each dream is to look at which member of the team is responsible for the “kick” to snap everybody out of it.***

    In other words, who plays the “host.”

  • 6 7-27-2010 at 12:40 pm

    Al said...

    Matthew, I think you’re right, I’m pretty sure in the film they even say its Fischers dream.

  • 7 7-27-2010 at 1:03 pm

    Duncan Houst said...

    Matthew: No, it’s Fischer’s subconscious that fills the dream. It’s Eames’ dream that he helped create. Ariadne is the architect, so she helps his vision become a reality. It’s very simple once you get it.

  • 8 7-27-2010 at 1:18 pm

    Mike_M said...

    Duncan, what you said sounds correct to me, Ariadne is the one who built the dream. Remember when Cobb asked if there was a quicker she built way to into to the “base” and and she said she couldn’t tell him, but then did, it was her dream, but Fischer who filled it in with the info in the safe, etc.

  • 9 7-27-2010 at 1:33 pm

    Al said...

    Which basically means….its Fischers dream. Just like the hotel is Arthur’s dream.

  • 10 7-27-2010 at 2:05 pm

    word said...

    Cool! check out our review of the movie @sevendaycinema

  • 11 7-27-2010 at 2:05 pm

    THE Diego Ortiz said...

    Oh. Now I get it.

    Wait… wha?

  • 12 7-27-2010 at 2:09 pm

    Derek said...

    Mike, Cobb actually asked Ariadne if Eames added anything to her design, and that’s when she said he added the shortcut through the pipe. It is Eames’s dream with Fischer’s subconscious.

  • 13 7-27-2010 at 2:23 pm

    DickRchrds said...

    It’s not fischers dream, its clearly stated, they want fischer to think its his dream

  • 14 7-27-2010 at 2:23 pm

    Jacob S. said...

    This infographic feels much more complicated than thefilm itself.

  • 15 7-27-2010 at 2:24 pm

    Matthew Starr said...

    In the Vulture interview with Dileep Rao he says it is Fischer’s dream. Is it possible that a cast member of the film doesn’t even understand what is going on?

    Another thing I was wondering is how come only Fischer and Leo were filling the various dreams with their subconscious? I guess Yusuf made it rain in level one but I find it odd that Leo is the only team member with any issues and that everyone else is perfectly normal.

  • 16 7-27-2010 at 3:38 pm

    Al said...

    DickRchrds, no they want Fischer to think its his uncles dream. They say it right before the snow fortress dream starts. I literately just saw it for a second time yesterday, they said it was Fischer’s dream after he was asleep.

  • 17 7-27-2010 at 4:49 pm

    Roy said...

    Can I buy a poster of this somewhere? This is awesome.

  • 18 7-27-2010 at 5:22 pm

    Matthew Starr said...

    On top of Dileep Rao, check out this tweet from NolanFans.

    http://twitter.com/NolanFans/status/19696006020

    NolanFans can’t be wrong can they??

  • 19 7-27-2010 at 5:46 pm

    Douglas said...

    The only thing I cant remember or work out is how they all enter the one dream. Is that explained?

  • 20 7-27-2010 at 5:46 pm

    RichardA said...

    It’s like a snakes and ladder board game. Inception would be pretty cool as a board game, in a Clue kinda way. Going from room to room and “extracting” clues and finally having to set everyone in a “kick” to put the clues together for the win.

  • 21 7-27-2010 at 6:55 pm

    Matthew Starr said...

    Douglas, they are all hooked up to the same machine (the suitcase).

  • 22 7-27-2010 at 7:41 pm

    Glenn said...

    Richard, audiences are too cynical for that these days.

    But, then again, if you’ve played the “Twin Peaks” board game you’d know that labyrinthian titles can lead to dreadful board games.

  • 23 7-27-2010 at 9:12 pm

    Hans said...

    Semi-OT, I’m on vacation in Hawaii and I’m in a car right now, and just as I click on this page on my phone, I look to my left and I see a sign for “Watanabe Laundry”. Talk about questioning if the dream is real.

  • 24 7-27-2010 at 11:54 pm

    tom. said...

    I thought the fourth level was Limbo. If the fourth level is a dream, what is the point of Ariadne and Fisher jumping off the building? You can’t kick yourself out of your current level under heavy sedation.

  • 25 7-28-2010 at 4:23 am

    Duncan Houst said...

    Al, the second level is Arthur’s dream, but it’s Fischer’s subconscious filling the dream. You’d know this if you were PAYING. CLOSE. ATTENTION. Remember the opening to “The Prestige” when Christian Bale said “Are you watching closely?” That didn’t just mean for that film. It meant for every single Christopher Nolan film he ever makes.

  • 26 7-28-2010 at 4:33 am

    aspect ratio said...

    I didn’t think the film was all that difficult to follow either.

    I echo the sentiment that this infographic isn’t particularly helpful though. It feels more confusing than just simply watching the film, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what an infographic should do.

  • 27 7-28-2010 at 7:42 am

    the world said...

    While it’s true that Fischer was infecting the initial dream with this security army, why didn’t the random people in the host’s world attack them since they were obviously “alien” to the dream world??

  • 28 7-28-2010 at 10:30 am

    Al said...

    Duncan Houst, I wasn’t paying close attention? You’re the one who thinks the snow fortress wasn’t Fischer’s dream even though they as far as saying it once Fischer is asleep. I know, a lot of things in the film can’t be taken at face value, but there’d be no reason to lie in this particular spot.

  • 29 7-28-2010 at 11:26 am

    mikem said...

    duncan try and get over yourself a bit. everyone is entitled to their ideas on the film. you act as if you conceptualized the thing. really. chill out.

  • 30 7-28-2010 at 11:31 am

    Joe W said...

    I find this to be a MUCH better graph
    http://www.cinemablend.com/new/An-Illustrated-Guide-To-The-5-Levels-Of-Inception-19643.html

  • 31 7-28-2010 at 11:58 am

    Kyle said...

    Okay, I need some clarification…so when Cobb and Ariadne fall asleep in the hospital/fortress..they’re entering Cobb’s dream? But how was Fischer in Cobb’s dream? And where does Cobb’s dream end and Limbo begin? Wasn’t Fischer already dead? or conversely how did Ariadne and Cobb enter limbo without dying?

    That sequence with Cobb, Ariadne, Saito, Mal & Fischer is the most confusing part of the movie for me.

  • 32 7-28-2010 at 1:13 pm

    Duncan Houst said...

    Cobb’s dream is Limbo, but both Ariadne and Cobb are alive. Cobb isn’t trapped in Limbo until he dies in Yusuf’s dream by drowning in the river. Saito died before Cobb, so that’s why he was so old.

  • 33 7-28-2010 at 1:29 pm

    Kyle said...

    So…I’m gathering you can’t go any deeper than 3 levels in the dream-world, any deeper = limbo?

  • 34 8-01-2010 at 5:11 pm

    sigmundhead said...

    Saito and Cobb are one. Mal is a projection of the obsessive mother/lover. Saito’s father is – you know what. It all comes down to pneumatics.

  • 35 8-01-2010 at 9:38 pm

    DM said...

    sigmundhead – that was not Saito’s father. That was him as an old man. He’d been in limbo long enough to age, with the time multiplying and all.

    Kyle – I think you’re right in the amount of levels, but no, Ariadne never entered into limbo. Only Cobb’s and his wife Mal’s apt/house where she saved Fischer, who only also came back to life because of the defribillator hooked up to him in the previous dream, once Ariadne pushed him/gave him the kick.

  • 36 8-01-2010 at 9:41 pm

    TR said...

    Here is another, clearer chart. Perhaps a tad different, but just might be correct also:

    http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news/19643/_1280106601.jpg

  • 37 8-02-2010 at 9:09 pm

    Andreia Mandim said...

    Check my critic. its more clear than this.. who has the dream isnt important. the important thing its understand the concept of all movie.

    http://cinemaschallenge.blogspot.com/2010/07/atencao-imagens-de-inception-que.html

    and Ariadne is in limbo, but only a few minuts, because she has to save fischer, and kick him there!

  • 38 8-03-2010 at 12:28 am

    D said...

    Al – They clearly say they’re entering into Fischer’s subconscious NOT his dream. Arthur even states something along the lines of “He’s helping us break into his own subconscious.”

    With that said they’re in Eames’ dream. Cobb even says it clearly when they first meet up in the snow. “Eames, since this is your dream, you draw the guards away from the fortress.”

    And lastly, when Fischer and Saito fall off the mountain after the avalanche. Fischer in anger yells at Saito “Couldn’t one of you have dreamt up a goddamn beach?!”

  • 39 8-04-2010 at 4:12 pm

    Nona said...

    THIS INFORGRAPH IS WRONG.
    There was no “Cobb’s Dream” it was all limbo, and the falling was NOT a kick, it was the death required to get out of limbo.

  • 40 8-04-2010 at 4:27 pm

    Nona said...

    THIS INFO GRAPH IS WRONG.

    There was no “Cobb’s dream”, and Adrianna and Fischer falling was not a kick. They were in limbo and needed to die to get out.