Jalaj P. Jha Technical & Miscellaneous Ramblings

Inception Analysis – Inception Ending

Leonardo DiCaprio starrer Inception is making news all around. This is the second movie after "The Matrix" that you need to spend a good amount of thinking to get into its concept and relevance with technologies existing currently. While for 'The Matrix' I believed was based on the, then infant, concept of 'Virtual Reality', Inception, as I feel, more relates to Computer Networks and Hacking.

The basic plot is that while we believe that each person owns his dreams, there are people who can hack into the dreams of others with the aim to get some vital info which the target person will never reveal in real, much like hacking into other's computers to get hands on documents which a person will never lend it to you himself.

During one of such hack into target's dream, the target who himself was aware of these crafts follows Leo and his team out of the dream and threatens them to expose their doings unless they work for him and implant an 'idea' into one person's mind. This idea when implanted into the target's mind will make him do some actions that will ruin the business of target's father. This is much like implanting a Trojan horse in a system that will benefit the hacker while harm the target. "Condition applies**" that Leo needs to this in such a way that the target never discovers that the idea was implanted in his mind otherwise all his plans will be ruined

The answer to this condition is going through multiple layers of dreams much similar to going through multiple proxies on network to prevent easy detection and implant the idea in between. Leo and his team have to accept the challenge as they had no alternative. It is now revealed that Leo and his deceased wife once went through such a multiple level of dreams and were lost for long in a condition called 'Limbo'. During this attempt Leo had implanted an idea in his wife's mind that made her unable to differentiate between dream and the real world which ultimately led to her committing suicide. All seems to have worked fine and Leo is seen reunited with his children and movie ends.

The whole movie actually cannot be explained in words here but this is what I figure from its ending. Leo and his wife knew about the concept of Inception i.e. planting of an idea in one's mind. While it seems that Leo is attempting to plant the idea, it is actually Leo who have been implanted an idea in his mind by none other than someone concerned with death of Leo's wife and to take her revenge (correct me if I am wrong) with the idea of going through the multiple layer of dreams, AGAIN, so that he can be held in the state of limbo. In the end while Leo thinks he is again in the real world he is actually trapped in limbo in the same state as his wife was before committing suicide.

Anyways, like The Matrix I will need to see this movie again to get the real meaning and ending.