# Inception Nitpick
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 20, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017 "2012-08-20T01:37:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/21 "2012-08-21T12:04:00Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#):
>
> Except in the main job in Inception, they say something about the drugs they’re using being different, making it so that if one dies in the dream, instead of being kicked up a level, they fall down to limbo where time stretches on endlessly and they would surely go mad. Or something like that, right? It’s been a while since I watched it.
Yea Cobb goes to the chemist and requests he tweak the usual drug mix for time dilation, the risk being that if they fall into limbo while under the influence limbo will stretch on for what seems like eternity.
I honestly don’t remember the exact details of the custom drugs myself compared to the usual ones, but they still don’t die in reality. It just seems like a hundred years have passed, they still wake up at the usual time in reality.
There is a scene where Cobb explains that the military created the dream machine for training soldiers, a group of soldiers could enter a specially designed level and play war games against each other and learn and wake up without stab wounds or bullet holes. It sounds like some kind of virtual reality machine in truth, not a dream machine. In fact this is very similar to another movie called Existenz that explores the idea of getting lost in a VR game.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/22 "2012-08-21T13:59:02Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> In fact this is very similar to another movie called Existenz that explores the idea of getting lost in a VR game.
Very similar to a couple of movies, actually. [eXistenZ](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/) is one of Cronenberg’s lesser movies (or one of his greater failures, YMMV) but really the concept (in films) at least goes back to 1984’s (much better executed IMO) [Dreamscape](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087175/).
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/23 "2012-08-21T14:08:23Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> but really the concept (in films) at least goes back to 1984’s (much better executed IMO) [Dreamscape](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087175/).
:dubious:
I say this as someone who has watched Dreamscape in the past week, in no way is it a superior film to Inception. It is badly paced and has not held up well at all(I had fond memories of this movie). It has a few cool sequences but they can’t save it as a whole.
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### Author:  [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/24 "2012-08-21T14:22:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Despite the fanwanking, not one single second of the movie makes any sense.
>
> Once you start from there, everything else falls into place.
Thank you! The entire movie was an overwrought vanity piece. And the Mcguffin that is the dream machine…ugh.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/25 "2012-08-21T14:29:03Z")
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inception-nitpick/632017/26 "2012-08-21T16:16:30Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> That is because the dreams in the movie are not natural dreams generated on the fly, they are drug induced machine assisted dreams that require an architect to construct.
And I’m willing to accept that for some technobabbly-bordering-on-mystical reason, that somehow works, but it also means I’m less inclined to take the movie seriously. At that point, it’s more like a cartoon than anything else.
> [@](#):
>
> There was no “die in a dream and you die in real life” plot line in the movie, if you die in a dream you are kicked out to the upper level and you simply wake up if you die in the top level.
On further review, I see you’re right, though when a character gets wounded in a dream, they sure took it seriously, as I recall. No doubt I was conflating this with _The Matrix_ somewhat.
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