The Film “Inception” By Christopher Nolan

"Inception" is a science fiction action movie produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film demonstrates the power of technology in extracting information from other people's minds by infiltrating their subconscious. Essentially, the movie revolves around a professional thief who steals information by interfering with his victim's subconscious. Dominic Cobb, who is the thief in this case, holds a long criminal record of stealing secrets from the vulnerable subconscious by subjecting the victim's mind to a dream state. Cobb's involvement in criminal activities has made it hard for him to get back to his family, an issue that he feels has robbed him of what he loves. To earn this freedom, Cobb is tasked with implanting another person's idea into a target's subconscious. If he is successful in this mission, Cobb's criminal history will be erased and thus will have the opportunity to return to his family. Compelled by the desire to succeed in his mission, Cobb acquires a team of highly qualified architects who will work alongside him. Cobb and his team must be very creative when carrying out their task, a factor which forces them to choose to implant a new idea into their target's mind other than stealing it. Mr. Saito, who runs a multi-industry company, wants to use Cobb to convince his ailing competitor's son to dissolve his father's company. Carrying out the task is challenging since one has to fall into a dream for the inception to occur. Moreover, the inception has to be done in the unreal world. Once the inception has occurred, the involved persons experience different levels of reality, and it is hard to tell what is real or not. This is well portrayed at the end of the film, where Cobb is forced to escape after being framed by one of his team members, Mal, who committed suicide while testing whether she was living in reality. One of the primary themes exhibited in this film is reality and dreams. Similarly, the theme of gender as a social structure is well-defined in this film. These themes are exhibited through various techniques employed throughout the film. Based on this, therefore, this paper will primarily focus on analyzing Christopher Nolan's film "Inception" by examining the various film techniques employed in conveying the multiple themes exhibited in the movie.

Mise-en-scene (Setting)

This technique constitutes entirely everything that has been captured in the movie such as actors, costumes, shooting locations as well as lighting conditions for various scenes (Basavanhally, 1993). Nolan uses this technique to describe the mood, objectives, and the different themes associated with the film. Nolan achieves this through multiple scenes in the movie. For example, the scene where Cobb is involved in stealing information from unconscious targets is done in a different setting. The initial scene where Cobb has to meet one of his targets is done in Paris, France, where Cobb is shot entering the Architecture College, as well as the elemental scenes between Ariadne and Cobb. Based on the mixed culture that is significantly involved in the film between the Japanese and the Western influences, the film uses multiple settings to portray this aspect. For example, the scene that involves Saito is entirely filmed in Los Angeles, which is significantly constituted of Japanese Architecture to represent the interior rooms of Saito's Japanese castle.

Sound

Using sound is one of the primary techniques that Nolan employs in this film. The sound effects are elemental in films since they can be used to add moods to a film by creating soundscapes that can provide additional meaning to screen images (Basavanhally, 1993). Both dialect and non-dialect sounds are widely used in the film to represent various scenes. For example, the film entirely uses a musical score composed of nostalgia and sadness to represent Cobb's feelings. However, one of the elemental scenes that extensively uses sound is the Bristol scene. In this scene, there are loud sounds that originate from explosives as both as both Cobb and Ariadne are involved in pivotal scenes in Bristol (A fictional one in this case) (Nolan and Jonah, 2010).

Camera work

This is one of the major techniques that play a significant role in ensuring that the film's goals and themes are attained. One of the primary goals of this film is to make it appear as real as possible to its audience. Thus, most of the camera work combines hand-held Camera and Steadicam work. This technique dominates most of the scenes in the film, for example, the scene where an initial foray into Saito's mind happens. Similarly, this technique is also employed during the scene where Cobb recruits his team as he hires Eames and Yusuf (Nolan and Jonah, 2010). In this scene, which is done in Morocco, a shot-on-foot chase is done in the streets and alleyways of the historic Medina Quarter. However, this film makes insignificant use of a digital camera and 3D or 2D image projection.

Computer Generated Imagery

Even though Nolan uses practical effects as much as possible in his work, this technique cannot be ruled out. In an effort to clearly bring out specific themes in this movie, Nolan employs some elements of Computer Generated Imagery (Nolan and Jonah, 2010). One of the primary themes exhibited by Christopher Nolan's film "Inception" is reality and dreams. The film has numerous scenes that portray an unreal world that is portrayed as dreams. The ‘Limbo' world that Cobb is forced to enter in his search for Mr. Saito is a distinct example of how the film's director has widely employed imagery. The limbo city, which is represented in the movie as an iceberg version of Gotham City, which has water running through it, is based on computer-generated imagery. Similarly, the film uses computer animations in the Paris-folding sequence as a method of portraying how the sequence looks in motion. Moreover, Nolan employs more than five hundred visual effects shots in this film. By using this technique, Nolan succeeds in capturing the main theme of the film, which not only fits into the targeted audience's expectations but also renders the film real (Nolan and Jonah, 2010).

Conclusion

As seen from above, the film "Inception" is a science fiction action movie produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. The movie revolves around a professional thief, Dominic Cobb who steals information by interfering with his victim's subconscious. Due to his habit, Cobb has a bad criminal record, which forces him to flee his home. Eager to reunite with his family, Cobb agrees to carry out the duty of implanting a new idea in the mind of Mr. Fischer's son, who is in a business competition with Mr. Saito that will make the elder Fischer dissolve his company. In exchange, Cobb will be cleared of all criminal history, and Mr. Saito will allow him to return to his family. Thus, Cobb recruits a team of architects that help him carry out his work, and finally, he is reunited with his family. This film portrays a set of themes such as reality and dreams, as well as gender as a social structure. These themes are enhanced by a series of techniques that are employed in the film. For example, the setting of the movie is done in different locations, such as Paris and Los Angeles, to ensure that the scenes in the movie are made to appear as real as possible. Sound is also widely used in the film to provide additional meaning to the images on the screen. For example, the musical score is composed of nostalgia and sadness to represent Cobb's feelings. Similarly, camera work plays a fatal role in enhancing the film's meaning. The handheld camera technique is widely used in various scenes, such as the initial foray into Mr. Saito's mind.

Works Cited

Basavanhally, Nagesh R. "Conductive adhesive film techniques." U.S. Patent No. 5,221,417. 22 Jun. 1993.

Nolan, Christopher, and Jonah Nolan. Inception: The shooting script. Insight Editions, 2010.