# The "I've seen INCEPTION" thread (spoilers inevitable) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913 "2010-07-16T13:59:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/181 "2010-07-25T00:42:35Z")
Just saw it for the second time. I still enjoyed it and found it much more straightforward. I am convinced that Cobb is in reality at the end and during all scenes where he’s not expicitly in dreamland. I think the top at the end was just Nolan screwing with the audience. "It was all a dream…_or was it?_. Did anyone notice that Cobb plants the same idea in Saito’s head that he did in Mal’s? This world isn’t real. Hopefully Saito won’t kill himself later. I’m also a little more comfortable with the non-dreamy feel of the dreamworlds. The dreamworlds are designed by architects so they won’t have the totally random feel of real dreams. Of course sometimes subconscious things intrude, like the train that cuts through the city streets. A poster earlier complained that limbo was supposed to be this place you were trapped in forever till your mind went, but that Cobb could negotiate it easily. This bugged me too, but then I analogized it to the wilderness. Drop an inexperienced city dweller in the Alaskan wilderness and they will wander hopelessly until they starve, freeze, or are eaten by a bear. Drop an experienced woodsman in the smae wilderness and he may make it back to town, even saving the newbie. Cobb was like the experienced woodsman. ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/182 "2010-07-25T02:12:19Z")
A few random questions I have: First, in the limbo flashback, Mal locks her totem in a safe. Cobb later retrieves it and supposedly changes it to something that would reveal she was in a dream. But, she was in a dream, and her totem would therefore have not worked anyway. So I have no idea what Cobb was doing. Second, in one limbo flashback, Cobb & Mal lie down on train tracks to escape. They are their normal ages. In another limbo flashback, Cobb tells Mal that they did grow old together, which the movie shows. These two things are incompatible. Any ideas on what I may be missing? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/183 "2010-07-25T02:28:01Z")
Nice Easter egg: [http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/edith-piaf-vs-inceptions-mind-heist](http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/edith-piaf-vs-inceptions-mind-heist) > [@](#): > > For those that own the soundtrack you’ll recognize the comparison music from Zimmer’s score as the first track on the disc, “Half Remembered Dream”. As noted in the video by YouTube user “camiam321,” the second piece is “Non, je ne regrette rien” performed by Edith Piaf, the music the characters in Inception use as their musical countdown for their “kick” back to reality. > > Essentially, the theme to Inception is really nothing more than a slowed down version of Piaf’s song . This fits with the idea that in lower levels time slows down. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/184 "2010-07-25T05:13:22Z")
> [@Avumede](#): > > A few random questions I have: > > First, in the limbo flashback, Mal locks her totem in a safe. Cobb later retrieves it and supposedly changes it to something that would reveal she was in a dream. But, she was in a dream, and her totem would therefore have not worked anyway. So I have no idea what Cobb was doing. Mal had locked the totem away so that she wouldn’t see that it was spinning - she was trying to convince herself the dream was reality. Cobb unlocked the safe and discovered what she was trying to do, and then he began working to prove to her that she was dreaming. Since this was several levels of dreams-within-dreams, the thought was planted deep inside her and so she constantly believed she was dreaming up to her suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/185 "2010-07-25T06:59:33Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > One question of mine does not have anything to do with the movie’s mysteries, but I wonder if US Immigration has changed their procedure. Toward the end, Immigration at LAX stamps Cobb’s passport and says “Welcome home.” Now, US Immigration has never stamped my passport when I left or entered. They just check my name on their computer, then hand it back to me. It has been five years since my last visit to the US; does Immigration do that now in Americans’ passports, or was that just for a movie effect? Yes, US Immigration stamps passports. I returned from Heathrow on July 10 and have a stamp from when I went through US Immigration. Looking at my passport, I also have a US stamp from June of 2004, so they’ve been doing it longer than five years. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/186 "2010-07-25T07:08:17Z")
I think Michael Caine is Christopher Nolan’s totem. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/187 "2010-07-25T08:26:46Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > > One question of mine does not have anything to do with the movie’s mysteries, but I wonder if US Immigration has changed their procedure. Toward the end, Immigration at LAX stamps Cobb’s passport and says “Welcome home.” Now, US Immigration has never stamped my passport when I left or entered. They just check my name on their computer, then hand it back to me. It has been five years since my last visit to the US; does Immigration do that now in Americans’ passports, or was that just for a movie effect? > > Yes, US Immigration stamps passports. I returned from Heathrow on July 10 and have a stamp from when I went through US Immigration. Looking at my passport, I also have a US stamp from June of 2004, so they’ve been doing it longer than five years. That’s very odd. I assume you are an American. US Immigration has never ever stamped my passport. I last entered the US in April 2005 and left in May 2005, through Honolulu Airport both times, with my present passport, and nary a stamp. Just looked to be sure, and no. They did stamp my wife’s of course, as hers is a Thai passport. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/188 "2010-07-25T08:31:17Z")
Ariadne is an extractor: she gets Cobb to reveal that he performed inception on Mal, how he did it, and how it killed her. Grandpa introduces her as a novice, which she clearly is not. I think the movie is set up to provide a possibility for all the things suggested. It’s an idea mobius strip. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/189 "2010-07-25T13:36:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > That’s very odd. I assume you are an American. US Immigration has never ever stamped my passport. I last entered the US in April 2005 and left in May 2005, through Honolulu Airport both times, with my present passport, and nary a stamp. Just looked to be sure, and no. I honestly have no memory of getting stamps at reentry but I just checked my passport and I have “Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Admitted” stamps from 2006, 2008, and 2009. I do not seem to have one from my 2005 trip to Singapore or from cruises in 2004 and 2009 that did go through customs on our return. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/190 "2010-07-25T13:57:03Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > > [@Avumede](#): > > > > A few random questions I have: > > > > First, in the limbo flashback, Mal locks her totem in a safe. Cobb later retrieves it and supposedly changes it to something that would reveal she was in a dream. But, she was in a dream, and her totem would therefore have not worked anyway. So I have no idea what Cobb was doing. > > Mal had locked the totem away so that she wouldn’t see that it was spinning - she was trying to convince herself the dream was reality. Cobb unlocked the safe and discovered what she was trying to do, and then he began working to prove to her that she was dreaming. Since this was several levels of dreams-within-dreams, the thought was planted deep inside her and so she constantly believed she was dreaming up to her suicide. Not quite. Mal locked the totem in her safe without spinning it - it’s just sitting there, unmoving, when Cobb finds it. What Cobb does is pick it up, start it spinning, and then close the safe with the top still spinning inside. Remember, the safe itself doesn’t exist any more than the rest of the dreamworld. Safes in general are explicitly described as an aspect of the dreamer’s subconscious - the place in their mind they hide their deepest secrets. They can hide these secrets so deeply that _they themselves forget the secrets are there._ (Importantly, this doesn’t negate the existence of the secrets themselves - after all, what is the subconscious but something we can’t voluntarily control or remember, but which deeply impacts our thoughts and decisions anyway?) Mal hiding the top in the safe is both action and metaphor, representing her choice to believe in her and Cobb’s limbo world as “reality.” By locking the totem away, she no longer recognizes that she is within a dream at all. Cobb spinning the top in the safe (and leaving it spinning) reverses that. Spinning the top is, itself, the inception he performs on Mal: essentially, he is reprogramming her mind to subconsciously believe that, no matter what evidence there may be to the contrary, she is _always_ still in a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/191 "2010-07-25T13:57:39Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > I honestly have no memory of getting stamps at reentry but I just checked my passport and I have “Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Admitted” stamps from 2006, 2008, and 2009. I do not seem to have one from my 2005 trip to Singapore or from cruises in 2004 and 2009 that did go through customs on our return. Maybe it just depends on individual reentry sites? I used to go through LAX quite a bit, but the last time was April 1999. Never got stamped there either. ---
**Author:** ![TheTerribleTako](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@TheTerribleTako](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTerribleTako)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/192 "2010-07-25T22:04:43Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Maybe it just depends on individual reentry sites? I used to go through LAX quite a bit, but the last time was April 1999. Never got stamped there either. You know, I thought I got stamped when I went through LAX, but I just checked my passport and there’s no stamp. I guess it does just depend on where you land. Since Cobb is landing in LAX though, it might be an error or just an editorial choice. It does feel more satisfying to see someone stamping the passport though. There’s a sense of finality to it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/193 "2010-07-26T02:25:21Z")
[quote=“TheTerribleTako, post:192, topic:546913”] > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It does feel more satisfying to see someone stamping the passport though. There’s a sense of finality to it. That’s what I figured it might be. Bang! Stamped in. Home free. But post-9/11, I could see where practices may have changed but not made it out to the boonies of Hawaii. Not exactly the same thing, but I recall another movie that ended with a dramatic pullback of the inside of the international terminal at LAX, except someone had just left on a domestic flight; the international terminal looked better for this purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/194 "2010-07-26T04:11:14Z")
I kept a close eye on the “smashed up room, jumping” scene. The room behind Mal is not smashed. She rented the room across from Cob so he couldn’t stop her jumping. She smashed up Cob’s room to frame him for her murder. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/195 "2010-07-26T08:30:27Z")
so… a few thoughts. i think i have it all figured out pretty tidily, so have at it. 1st thought - totems - leo’s totem is something of much contention. the fact that he uses mal’s totem lends itself to questions of what’s the REAL totem? imo this can be easily explained away if you can accept that leo has MANY totems (tells), most of which have already been pointed out. i’m just merely saying it doesn’t have to be one or the other. the top, the wedding band, and ghost Mal are all totems. heck, the looped staircase, zero G, and the levels themselves are all totems, if you know to look for it. leo himself said - architects don’t model the levels out of existing places or else you won’t be able to distinguish the dream world from the real world. 2nd thought - dying vs dead. just like how sleep has progressions (1,2,3,4,REM), dying is a progression of fading into unconsciousness, organ failure, clinically dead, and past of resuscitation/gone-for-good dead. you go into deeper levels of dreams in **Inception** by going unconscious either through the dream machine or as Fischer did in the snow fortress via natural means. SO… fischer in going unconscious descends into unconsciousness leading to level 4. saito’s slow/steady blood loss up in level 1 allows him to slip quickly (in the context of stage 3 time) through unconsciousness into death/limbo. So… in my understanding - unconsciousness slips you into deeper and deeper levels, theoretically forever. dying detours you straight to limbo. 3rd thought - level 4 (not limbo). it’s been established that different levels are dreamed up by various members of the group. 1st level youseff, 2nd gordon levitt, 3rd forger. Level 4 is simply another dream, this carried out by Leo’s subconscious Ghost Mal. the subcon is able to be the dreamer since level 4 is teetering on the edge of limbo (entirely subcon). Level 4 has to be its own level and not limbo because… ariadne and fischer are kicked up and you don’t get kicked up from limbo. 4th thought - limbo. Limbo is a place so deep that you forget you’re in a dream all together. only with a trigger like a totem would you even have a chance of remembering what’s really going on. saito’s aging was proof about how deep he bought into the lie, however some are ignoring the fact that Leo himself was disoriented too. he was glassy eyed, and shoving gruel into his mouth instead of focusing on saito. saito really saves the day by noticing the top which triggers his memories (totem alert) and his speech about obligations (kids totem alert) in turn triggers leo’s memories. then it’s obvious that saito shot the both of them back to reality. 5rd thought - the “reality is really a dream” opinion is bunk. Leo dreams into deeper layers repeatedly throughout the movie. you can’t sleep from limbo into deeper limbo. if you can, then that means there’s an infinite number of limbos. if that were the case, there is no difference between dream levels and limbo. if the two are one and the same, then dying in any level would wake you up instead of sending you into limbo. of course if you go extreme-meta and say the rules of limbo are just dreams to begin with, that explains away everything but i feel like if you’re going to undermine the entire canon of the movie just to prove a point. 6th thought - plot hole; ellen page’s emotional yet inexplicable leap from the balcony - again, as it is with most of the movie - the discrepancy comes in the difference between level 4 and limbo. gordon-levitt plants charges to ignite a kick that would wake up the crew from the snow level. sure. i get that. why does the forger plant charges to kick ariadne/fischer? because they’re in level 4 right? he puts ariadne and leo on the sleep machine - knowing full well they’re going into level 4 and needs a kick to wake up. ok. once there, to escape ariadne feels the need to… jump off the building? why? if it’s suicide, she’s operating under the assumption she’s in limbo. if that’s the case, why plant charges? if she’s jumping off to simulate the freefall of a kick… WRONG. you can’t kick yourself. you need the level above you to kick you, which the forger does with the charges. i mean, visually it’s a stunning scene and evokes a good chunk of emotions but logically speaking… it makes no sense. OPINIONS: wow. what a thriller in every sense of the word. the plot was pretty straightforward with exception to level 4 and limbo. visually it’s stunning with FINE attention to details (notable - tiny droplets of zero-g blood floating out of ken watanabe in the hotel). the music and sound effects were outrageously effective, and the action scenes are phenomenal. to call it a ripoff of the matrix is an insult. what, no movie made after the matrix can have interesting fight scenes without it ripping off the matrix? i have some beef with the handling of level4/limbo. it was just poorly handled and i hope it wasn’t intentional as to be clever or to stimulate thought. i mean, making people ponder the essence of “reality” is one thing but to make people ponder the nuances between dream level and limbo is pedantic. i DIDN’T like the wink at the end with the top and the wobble was needlessly incendiary. a more poignant ending would have had leo look at the top and decide to not spin it at all. once it’s spun, the die is cast for him. he’ll find out if he’s dreaming or not even if the audience doesn’t. in not wanting to find out sets the audience up for a real debate on the reality of “reality” without mucking it up with mindless chatter about wobbles vs continuous rotation. \*bonus conspiracy theory - maybe not the entire thing was a dream but everything from the mogadishu basement was. leo did “wake up” from it but as he was in the bathroom spinning the top, watanabe interrupts and leo knocks his top over, and doesn’t see if it’s continuously spinning or would stop on its own. and if iirc it’s the last time that the top is used. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/196 "2010-07-26T16:27:41Z")
I thought the pace of the movie was a little jarring. It went from action scene to introspection, back and forth, back and forth, in an odd manner. There’s a zero-G fight scene going on, then we cut to DiCaprio whining about his dead wife, then over to action with the van, back to more whining. Heh. Still, I enjoyed the film. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/197 "2010-07-26T17:41:31Z")
I really liked the film and I admit I lean towards to the “all a dream” theory. For one thing a lot of the scenes in the “real world” seemed very over-the top: the helicopter scene with Saito. the chase in Africa, as was the idea of a single corporation on the verge of becoming a “superpower”. As Mal suggests near the end it does all seem like a paranoid fantasy on the part of Cobb. And it’s really hard to tell when the “real world” starts which as we are told is the quality of a dream. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/198 "2010-07-26T18:26:07Z")
Couple observations: 1. Is “the real world” a dream or not? My stepson says the wedding ring Cobb wears is a clue so I guess I need to go back and rewatch the movie. For me, early in the movie Cobb & Mal are experimenting with a dream inside a dream but they only wake up once. At the time, I thought this was just skipping waking up in the intermediate dream. But the second time we see the exposition, Nolan has shown us the team going through the stages but then Cobb and Mal only woke up once. Cobb’s not in limbo but he is still dreaming. Other clue. He can’t dream except through the machine. 2. the totem: If #1 is true, why does it fall the other times. Because it wasn’t his totem! It was Moll’s (in his subconscious) at least until the end. Then again, it may fall like some have noted (because it’s not his totem) but the cut is Nolan telling us it is a dream as if it spun forever. 3. How can Cobb, Ari and Saito go into limbo and come back the normal way (the drop)? Because they are in Fischer’s dream and he is not sedated at that level. Notice they sedated him at all of the other levels. 4. Suppose 1 is correct and Cobb cannot stop dreaming. In other words, Mal was right and can’t wake him up. Is Mal not a subcon but actually her trying to make contact with Cobb by entering his dream? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/199 "2010-07-26T18:31:51Z")
Wow, it really [kicked ass](http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2865&p=.htm) this past weekend at the B.O. > [@](#): > > While _Salt_ had a solid start, the weekend box office was again headlined by _Inception_, this time with how well it held up. Christopher Nolan’s dream caper drew an estimated $42.9 million, easing a mere 32 percent from last weekend. That marked the smallest second-weekend percentage drop of the summer for any major release and the second smallest for the year behind the much lower-grossing _Tooth Fairy_. > > To find a comparable genre title to _Inception_ that held better without the aid of a holiday, one has to go back to the first _Matrix_ in 1999. _Inception_ also had Mr. Nolan’s scantest decline for a nationwide release, losing less steam than _The Prestige_ (35 percent drop). With $143 million in ten days, _Inception_ has generated more business than _Batman Begins_ through the same point, and it has mopped the floor with similar summer science fiction titles like _I, Robot_ and _Minority Report_. I suspect the availability of the film on IMAX helped, but I still don’t think anyone would have predicted it would’ve beat the Jolie film. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913/200 "2010-07-26T18:44:10Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > (why did Ariadne pull these massive mirrored doors together other than it looked cool?) I think she was creating scenery. The result of the two mirrors was what appeared to be a long tunnel of those metal support arches. When she breaks the mirror, the image became the (dream) reality, a bridge with those arches, which wasn’t there before. She used a “tool” (the mirrors) to shape (in Cobb’s mind) what she wanted him to see, although this took a minute to complete. She admits that it also matched a bridge from her own memory, as well. Later, she just “raised” a foot bridge straight out of the river bank, and you notice that the projections got more hostile quicker, with such a blatant show of non-reality. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ive-seen-inception-thread-spoilers-inevitable/546913.md?page=11)