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[BobsRevenge]

So you can go into limbo going further down another layer and also be killed and go into limbo only if you're heavily sedated.

I don't understand why that would work. I mean, the movie presents them getting hit by a train and then waking up.

edit:

I spent way too much fucking time on this post here below from the last page, so I'm going to put it back at the top here. It kind of informs this post anyways.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To expand on my harddrive example:

Think of this with only one level in mind to keep it simple. Or perhaps, all of the dream levels are part of one whole: what is written onto the machine. What is contrived and placed into it.

The architect writes things onto the machine's harddrive in this way. If you are kicked off of what's pre-written you normally would wake up. If you are heavily sedated you can't wake up. Since you aren't on what is written and you aren't waking up you have to go somewhere. You get dumped into part of the machine's harddrive that hasn't been written to yet.

Presumably Leo and Mal could've ended up in limbo without even being under any heavy sedative by using the machine without having architected anything. Maybe that's how they got there during their experiments.

I don't think in their experiments they would keep on trying to fall asleep in dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams. How silly is that? I don't see how you would eventually end up in limbo doing that.

Leo and Juno went into limbo by following Fischer Jr there with the machine on Shadow Moses.

Leo's imagination however, had automatically had some of limbo written to because he had been there before. It was in his brain, and somehow the machine passively accepted this part of his subconscious into the limbo inside of it.

Anyways, that's my current understanding of how that stuff works.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: nm, I just found a hole. How would the machine inside of a dream tap into the dream outside of it? If they're all separate entities within dreams? Maybe the dreamer/architect dreams that they interface with the original machine... and so it does? Sure why not.

Okay, the movie is officially completely dumb and I'm going to stop talking about it.

 

[Trasher]

Found this:

Why did Ariadne jump off the building in Cobb's limbo if Eames was going to wake her up with his Kick in the level above?
A: Ariadne may not have been certain Eames' Kick would work, so she was attempting to kill herself by jumping off the building. Even though we'd been told killing yourself inside the dream would only push you into limbo, Cobb has just told her that once he got to limbo with Mal they escaped by killing themselves so Ariadne knows that death is a way to escape, even though in this case it wasn't necessary.

Alternate Theory Because of the sedative it may require two, synchronized Kicks in two levels to wake someone, instead of the single Kick normally used.

Source: http://www.filmhobbit.com/new/Inception-Explained-Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html

I guess it is true that she didn't know that until Cobb explained it to her while they were in Limbo.

 

[Anton Sugar]

I don't understand why that would work. I mean, the movie presents them getting hit by a train and then waking up.

edit:

I spent way too much fucking time on this post here below from the last page, so I'm going to put it back at the top here. It kind of informs this post anyways.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To expand on my harddrive example:

Think of this with only one level in mind to keep it simple. Or perhaps, all of the dream levels are part of one whole: what is written onto the machine. What is contrived and placed into it.

The architect writes things onto the machine's harddrive in this way. If you are kicked off of what's pre-written you normally would wake up. If you are heavily sedated you can't wake up. Since you aren't on what is written and you aren't waking up you have to go somewhere. You get dumped into part of the machine's harddrive that hasn't been written to yet.

Presumably Leo and Mal could've ended up in limbo without even being under any heavy sedative by using the machine without having architected anything. Maybe that's how they got there during their experiments.

I don't think in their experiments they would keep on trying to fall asleep in dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams. How silly is that? I don't see how you would eventually end up in limbo doing that.

Leo and Juno went into limbo by following Fischer Jr there with the machine on Shadow Moses.

Leo's imagination however, had automatically had some of limbo written to because he had been there before. It was in his brain, and somehow the machine passively accepted this part of his subconscious into the limbo inside of it.

Anyways, that's my current understanding of how that stuff works.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: nm, I just found a hole. How would the machine inside of a dream tap into the dream outside of it? If they're all separate entities within dreams? Maybe the dreamer/architect dreams that they interface with the original machine... and so it does? Sure why not.

Okay, the movie is officially completely dumb and I'm going to stop talking about it.

I'd love to get your opinions on Tesla's machine in The Prestige.

 

[Trasher]

This double kick theory is kind of interesting:

Why didn't Arthur wake up when the van drove off the bridge?
A: When the van drives off the bridge, Cobb says they missed the first Kick. This is understandable since Cobb, Eams, Ariadne, and Fisher Jr. are two levels below it and can only be awakened by a kick in the level above them, where Arthur is. But Arthur is in the level directly below the vans, and the rules of the movie do seem to suggest that he should have awakened by that Kick. Perhaps experienced dreamers have some control over whether a Kick wakes them up? We're a little baffled by this one, let us know if you have a better theory.

Alternate Theory CB reader Jordan offers this possible explanation: Ealier in the movie Arthur tells Ariadne that if Yusuf kicks too early then they won't wake up. While normally in order to wake up you must recieve a Kick in the level above, this isn't true when using the special sedative. Instead with the sedative it takes two synchronized Kicks. In order to be Kicked when under the sedative you had to be kicked in both levels simultaneously. Arthur didn't have the second Kick ready when the van drove off the bridge, so he wasn't awakened by the van falling off the bridge.

 

[Talon]

Bob officially made this movie unfun.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

If Juno was under sedatives and jumps off the building in Cobb's limbo, then what happens? You can't wake up unless it was either a) pointless of her to jump off since the kick happened in the upper level that was going to wake her up anyway or b) being sedated while in limbo and jumping off would just move her back to level 3?

 

[BobsRevenge]

I'd love to get your opinions on Tesla's machine in The Prestige.

I'm going to go ahead and say I liked The Prestige even less than Inception. I probably like TDK about the same as The Prestige. Batman Begins is better than all of those. Memento is better than Batman Begins. I saw Insomnia but I remember nothing from it.

But Tesla's machine is a science fiction plot device that simply clones dudes. Its mechanism relies on logic hidden in a black box. Since Inception's doesn't do that completely it isn't the same. :lol

It's like looking into the black box that is the cloning machine and seeing nothing but cow excrement, except you have to use a flashlight to see any of it.

Either that or it's just Bowie being awesome.

 

[Zeliard]

Found this:


Source: http://www.filmhobbit.com/new/Inception-Explained-Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html

I'm not sure that the "kick" works if you're stuck in Limbo. If it did, then Cobb wouldn't have had to stay in Limbo in order to bring Saito back out of it.

Eames' kick was only going to work on the people still at the third layer. Ariadne wasn't there at that point - she jumped off the building in Limbo so that she would go back to level 3, and be successively kicked back up to reality. She knew to time the jump because Cobb told her to jump when the level 3 kick encroached into the dream and started destroying the Limbo buildings, and she had to jump then in order to synchronize the other kicks properly.

Cobb himself didn't jump, and that's why he wasn't kicked back up and instead stayed in Limbo.

 

[Zoramon089]

Guys you need to stop thinking of limbo as "x number of levels down". Stop thinking of this stupid rigid level architecture, because the movie never described limbo in those terms.

Limbo is simply when you're in a state where the mind isn't aware of if it's dreaming or not. With regards to the actual constructed levels, think of it as a videogame. There is a predefined level, but limbo would basically be clipping through a wall and ending up in the void space.

When you think of what reality is, it's the mind taking information from your various senses and constructing a world based on what it interprets that information to mean. Limbo would be where the mind isn't aware of whether the sense information is real or not, so you aren't able to determine whether you're in the real world or not.

But then this brings up the question, how did Cobb know he was dreaming when he was in limbo with Mal? Well it was most likely that HE had a grasp on reality and that it was her mind that had lost track of where it was.

 

[Trasher]

I'm not sure that the "kick" works if you're stuck in Limbo. If it did, then Cobb wouldn't have had to stay in Limbo in order to bring Saito back out of it.

Eames' kick was only going to work on the people still at the third layer. Ariadne wasn't there at that point - she jumped off the building in Limbo so that she would go back to level 3, and be successively kicked back up to reality. She knew to time the jump because Cobb told her to jump when the level 3 kick encroached into the dream and started destroying the Limbo buildings, and she had to jump then in order to synchronize the other kicks properly.

Cobb himself didn't jump, and that's why he wasn't kicked back up and instead stayed in Limbo.

He chose to stay though right? If you are in Limbo, and know you are in Limbo, then don't you have some control over whether or not you choose to take the Kick up a level? Also, Saito had been lost in Limbo in that level for who knows how many years at that point, so I don't think a kick would have done anything for him in his state of mind since he was most likely convinced that he was in reality.

I think this makes the most sense for the whole snow level kicking scenario:

Why did Ariadne jump off the building in Cobbs limbo if Eames was going to wake her up with his Kick in the level above?

Every character needed to be Kicked from one dream level up to the next until they returned to reality. The first three Kicks upward - from Eames's dream up to Arthur's up to Yusuf's - were planned ahead of time, but Cobb and Ariadne's trip to Limbo was not. In order to be Kicked upwards from Eames's level up to Arthur's up to Yusuf's, Ariadne had to Kick herself up from Limbo to Eames's level in order for Arthur's Kick to be effective. This was what Eames was doing, as well, by blowing up that building, but Ariadne may not have been certain Eames Kick would work, so she was attempting to kill herself by jumping off the building. Even though killing yourself inside the dream would only push you into limbo, Cobb has just told her that once he got to limbo with Mal they escaped by killing themselves so Ariadne knows that death is a way to escape, even though in this case it wasn't necessarily necessary. There's also the point that in dreams, many times when something wakes you up, something in the dream also causes you to wake up, simultaneously. Like Cobb being awoken by the water in the first sequence. The water in the bath tub in the higher level is waking him up, and yet, water on his level is pouring in at the same time making for a smooth complete transition.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/faq#.2.1.17

 

[Zeliard]

Guys you need to stop thinking of limbo as "x number of levels down". Stop thinking of this stupid rigid level architecture, because the movie never described limbo in those terms.

Limbo is simply when you're in a state where the mind isn't aware of if it's dreaming or not. With regards to the actual constructed levels, think of it as a videogame. There is a predefined level, but limbo would basically be clipping through a wall and ending up in the void space.

When you think of what reality is, it's the mind taking information from your various senses and constructing a world based on what it interprets that information to mean. Limbo would be where the mind isn't aware of whether the sense information is real or not, so you aren't able to determine whether you're in the real world or not.

But then this brings up the question, how did Cobb know he was dreaming when he was in limbo with Mal? Well it was most likely that HE had a grasp on reality and that it was her mind that had lost track of where it was.

This entire post seems to ignore the fact that Cobb and Mal purposefully delved deeper and deeper into their subconscious to get into Limbo. Once there, both were fully-aware of where they were. They lived as gods for 50 years, remember? It wasn't until much later that Mal hid her totem away, since that's what starts the chain of events that gets them out of Limbo. There was no sense that she was deluded prior to that.

And the only reason people are using terms like "levels" is because it's straightforward and fits with the film's dream layer concepts. That isn't really something worth complaining about. Even the people who worked on the movie discuss it in those terms.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Cobb decided to stay in limbo and to find Saito to bring him back to reality.

 

[Zeliard]

He chose to stay though right? If you are in Limbo, and know you are in Limbo, then don't you have some control over whether or not you choose to take the Kick up a level? Also, Saito had been lost in Limbo in that level for who knows how many years at that point, so I don't think a kick would have done anything for him in his state of mind since he was most likely convinced that he was in reality.

Right, Cobb chose to stay in order to look for Saito.

Ariadne knew she was in Limbo, but she still had to jump off the building in order to take the level 3 kick. You have to fool your mind, and you have to do so by convincing it outright. So Ariadne had to jump off the building, because she had to "die" in order to reach the next stage, so to speak.

Cobb didn't fool his mind into thinking he had died, so he remained, despite the kick.

 

[Zoramon089]

This entire post seems to ignore the fact that Cobb and Mal purposefully delved deeper and deeper into their subconscious to get into Limbo. Once there, both were fully-aware of where they were. They lived as gods for 50 years, remember? It wasn't until much later that Mal hid her totem away, since that's what starts the chain of events that gets them out of Limbo. There was no sense that she was deluded prior to that.

And the only reason people are using terms like "levels" is because it's straightforward and fits with the film's dream layer concepts. That isn't really something worth complaining about. Even the people who worked on the movie discuss it in those terms.

It doesn't ignore anything about that. Obviously Cobb had to have known to some degree that it was a dream or he would have never known to spin the top. Mal clearly wasn't aware that she was dreaming, and she chose not to even know, which was why she locked her top away. And we don't know how far along into their dreaming period Mal hid her top.

 

[BobsRevenge]

Guys you need to stop thinking of limbo as "x number of levels down". Stop thinking of this stupid rigid level architecture, because the movie never described limbo in those terms.

Limbo is simply when you're in a state where the mind isn't aware of if it's dreaming or not. With regards to the actual constructed levels, think of it as a videogame. There is a predefined level, but limbo would basically be clipping through a wall and ending up in the void space.

When you think of what reality is, it's the mind taking information from your various senses and constructing a world based on what it interprets that information to mean. Limbo would be where the mind isn't aware of whether the sense information is real or not, so you aren't able to determine whether you're in the real world or not.

But then this brings up the question, how did Cobb know he was dreaming when he was in limbo with Mal? Well it was most likely that HE had a grasp on reality and that it was her mind that had lost track of where it was.

Not talking about Inception here.

Talking about the meaning of a word.

Reality is the physical world. If your mind is taking information and interpreting it right you have lucid vision of it. If not, you aren't perceiving it correctly.

 

[Zeliard]

It doesn't ignore anything about that. Obviously Cobb had to have known to some degree that it was a dream or he would have never known to spin the top. Mal clearly wasn't aware that she was dreaming, and she chose not to even know, which was why she locked her top away. And we don't know how far along into their dreaming period Mal hid her top.

The important point is that, unlike Saito and Fischer, Cobb and Mal went down to Limbo deliberately. They were both familiar with the dream concepts enough to be able to delve into their subconscious and share dreams, and they were purposefully experimenting by going deeper and deeper.

When they landed in Limbo, they certainly knew exactly where they were. It was sometime in those 50 years, and likely towards the end, that Mal began to believe in the illusion. It doesn't make a lick of sense that she would have thought she was in reality right off the bat, with Cobb somehow not noticing this until after 50 years have passed. I would think they probably had at least one "whoa, check out where we arrived" type of conversation. It makes much more sense that, dwelling in a shared subconscious with no sense of time and place, you're at risk for confusing it or even (subconsciously, haw) preferring it to reality after a long stretch of time has passed.

 

[harSon]

Having now seen the film two and a half times, I think I have a fairly good idea on how I feel about the movie. I revised the review I posted a few days back, it's about 500 words longer and encompasses everything I liked and disliked about the film.

You can read it here if you'd like: http://awesomelybadcinema.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/inception/

 

[gamemadmax]

The biggest danger in the dream world is limbo--not the world of limbo itself, but because of your minds inability to separate it from reality. If you know it's not real...then you can just kill yourself. Assuming there aren't "levels" of limbo.

Yes.

In this case it happened to SAITO, he was sedated and DIED in one of the dreams because of which he went in to LIMBO. He started living in this world as if it was real and got old. That was until COBB arrived.

COBB and Ariadne came in LIMBO using the machine and not by dying. So they were fully aware that this was not the real world. So Ariadne and Fischer jump from the building to reach the level above. I think they do this because COBB tells Ariadne that he and his wife escaped LIMBO by killing themselves.

This also explains why COBB doesn't age. And when in Limbo he himself keeps forgetting that this is not the real world and must be using his TOTEM to keep him reminding that he is in LIMBO to find Saito (so that he can get back to his children). When he meet Saito he doesn't remember him. But when Saito shows TOTEM to COBB things starts making sense to him and Saito. And they wait till the timer on the machine runs out or wait till the effect of the sedative wears off or just kill each other so that they can get back to real world.

 

[DyTonic]

Can you have sex with your subconscious or someone in the dream with you?


I'm just saying what if you have a banging subconscious, movie left out details on how sh*t really works.....

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Can you have sex with your subconscious or someone in the dream with you?


I'm just saying what if you have a banging subconscious, movie left out details on show sh*t really works.....

It's a dream. I just assumed any second of dreamtime that was not actually shown on screen was spent hardcore fucking.

 

[way more]

The more I read and the think about this movie, the more I realize it makes absolutely no sense.
Still a great movie though.

I concur. The people analyzing every grain of silver are going to be disappointed when it degrades the fun.



About limbo. It seems weird that Mal and Cobb would somehow forget they were limbo when they were so commonly visiting it. But I guess that's what happened.

And what's the significance of him stealing Mal's totem. Wouldn't that help prove that they were in limbo?

 

[Vizionblind]

Having now seen the film two and a half times, I think I have a fairly good idea on how I feel about the movie. I revised the review I posted a few days back, it's about 500 words longer and encompasses everything I liked and disliked about the film.

You can read it here if you'd like: http://awesomelybadcinema.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/inception/

you lost all credability with your critique of Joseph Gordon-Levitt

 

[Zeliard]

Can you have sex with your subconscious or someone in the dream with you?

I'm just saying what if you have a banging subconscious, movie left out details on show sh*t really works.....

You can feel pain, so getting a blowjob from the Lady in Red in your dream would probably work nicely.

 

[harSon]

you lost all credability with your critique of Joseph Gordon-Levitt

What exactly was good about his performance?

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

I concur. The people analyzing every grain of silver are going to be disappointed when it degrades the fun.



About limbo. It seems weird that Mal and Cobb would somehow forget they were limbo when they were so commonly visiting it. But I guess that's what happened.

And what's the significance of him stealing Mal's totem. Wouldn't that help prove that they were in limbo?

Cobb knew their limbo world wasn't real. It was Mal who started to believe it was real. Mal took her totem and locked it in the vault while Cobb planting an inception into her mind to tell her it wasn't real. Mal freaked out and got pissed at Cobb for doing that.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

What exactly was good about his performance?

I think that his performance was quite good; it was stylish and fit the character well. That the character was not developed beyond "Cobb's friend" is not a fault to the actual work of JGL as an actor, which was quite solid.

 

[Zeliard]

What exactly was good about his performance?

Well, a large part of the depth of a performance comes in the writing. The only thing demanded from JGL in Inception was to look good in a vest and flip on walls, both of which he pulled off with aplomb.

I will say that there was a light and amusing back-and-forth between JGL and Tom Hardy's characters in the film that I really wish there had been more of.

 

[Discotheque]

JGL's performance was average, but that was probably at the fault of the writing rather than the actor himself. He wasn't given much to do other than look cool and stylish.

I still can't help but feel James Franco would have been more interesting (though I like JGL more, he has a tendency to sometimes just turn in robotic stuff once in a while).

 

[Dead]

Too bad Nolan couldn't write a role as in depth as JGLs role as Cobra Commander in GI Joe

 

[harSon]

I've used this example before but a good representation of what I'm talking about can be seen within a scene in the beginning of the film after JGL's character is ejected out of the dream world by Cobb. Specifically, the part beginning with him grabbing one of those dream brief cases to stabilize the dream enough for Cobb to finish his mission, all the way to the point where he must wake him up through a "kick". He was emotionless and robotic during that entire ordeal, despite it being a relatively suspenseful moment for the character's involved within the context of the film.

 

[Pinko Marx]

I concur. The people analyzing every grain of silver are going to be disappointed when it degrades the fun.



About limbo. It seems weird that Mal and Cobb would somehow forget they were limbo when they were so commonly visiting it. But I guess that's what happened.

And what's the significance of him stealing Mal's totem. Wouldn't that help prove that they were in limbo?

How is it weird that they forgot they were in limbo? They weren't commonly visiting it. They went once while experimenting, pushing the boundaries of what they could do, and wound up living for FIFTY YEARS inside limbo. Of course they forgot where they were, limbo became their reality for FIFTY YEARS.

Also, Cobb only stole Mal's totem once she had killed herself. Inside limbo, he only went insider her safe, and made the totem spin indefinitely, planting the seed of doubt inside Mal's head about what was real.

 

[Pinko Marx]

I don't understand why that would work. I mean, the movie presents them getting hit by a train and then waking up.

edit:

I spent way too much fucking time on this post here below from the last page, so I'm going to put it back at the top here. It kind of informs this post anyways.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To expand on my harddrive example:

Think of this with only one level in mind to keep it simple. Or perhaps, all of the dream levels are part of one whole: what is written onto the machine. What is contrived and placed into it.

The architect writes things onto the machine's harddrive in this way. If you are kicked off of what's pre-written you normally would wake up. If you are heavily sedated you can't wake up. Since you aren't on what is written and you aren't waking up you have to go somewhere. You get dumped into part of the machine's harddrive that hasn't been written to yet.

Presumably Leo and Mal could've ended up in limbo without even being under any heavy sedative by using the machine without having architected anything. Maybe that's how they got there during their experiments.

I don't think in their experiments they would keep on trying to fall asleep in dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams. How silly is that? I don't see how you would eventually end up in limbo doing that.

Leo and Juno went into limbo by following Fischer Jr there with the machine on Shadow Moses.

Leo's imagination however, had automatically had some of limbo written to because he had been there before. It was in his brain, and somehow the machine passively accepted this part of his subconscious into the limbo inside of it.

Anyways, that's my current understanding of how that stuff works.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: nm, I just found a hole. How would the machine inside of a dream tap into the dream outside of it? If they're all separate entities within dreams? Maybe the dreamer/architect dreams that they interface with the original machine... and so it does? Sure why not.

Okay, the movie is officially completely dumb and I'm going to stop talking about it.

Bob, you're giving too much power to the machine. The machine only allows people to share dreams, it doesn't accept or interface or do anything but allow people to share dreams. Its the people themselves that write their dreams, and limbo is a collective dreamspace, where the machine really has no power at all, accept for allowing others to enter into limbo with those that are already there.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

The kids are Cobb's key to sanity. They are his focus like we so often hear other characters say in other movies and books:

"My kids are what I focus on most in life. They keep me sane. They are everything."

His desire to get back to them is the catharsis he needs to get over the nightmare that his life has become when the idea he placed in his wife's head to get out of an alternate reality manifested itself like an uncontrollable virus and led her to her own suicide. The secret she buried deep and forgot is symbolized by the top that Cobb clings to desperately in several scenes in the film to get over the trauma he just experienced in dreams he is waking up from even though it could have saved his wife if she had not left it in limbo. The symbolism of the top spinning at the end alone on the table, near where Mal was sitting, is that Cobb no longer needs convincing that he is not in a dream. He no longer needs the secret his wife buried that could have saved her from the viral inception he had placed in her mind, and that regardless of whether or not it stops, Cobb is at peace and free, for now, from having to use his wife's forgotten secret to shake out of a bad memory. That nightmare is finally replaced by the relief of being home with his family after a very long business trip.

 

[Kraftwerk]

I've used this example before but a good representation of what I'm talking about can be seen within a scene in the beginning of the film after JGL's character is ejected out of the dream world by Cobb. Specifically, the part beginning with him grabbing one of those dream brief cases to stabilize the dream enough for Cobb to finish his mission, all the way to the point where he must wake him up through a "kick". He was emotionless and robotic during that entire ordeal, despite it being a relatively suspenseful moment for the character's involved within the context of the film.

I think that being robotic and emotionless IS 'Arthur's' character.When Cobb and Eames are talking in Mombasa they conclude that Arthur is the 'best at his work' BUT 'lacks imagination'.I think that's why Cobb works with him.Someone with no skeletons in the closet who is just here to finish the job and doesn't lose focus.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

His kids are also a key to his INsanity. Cobb's conjured up memories (kids+wife) that entered the dream world. This was a liability.

 

[harSon]

I think that being robotic and emotionless IS 'Arthur's' character.When Cobb and Eames are talking in Mombasa they conclude that Arthur is the 'best at his work' BUT 'lacks imagination'.I think that's why Cobb works with him.Someone with no skeletons in the closet who is just here to finish the job and doesn't lose focus.

How is a lack of imagination and creativity synonymous with being robotic and emotionless?

 

[Zoramon089]

I guess the issue here is that my interpretation of limbo and everyone elses differs greatly. Correct me if I'm wrong (on my assumption your what you interpret limbo as).

For you guys, limbo is a "place" where you're mind goes when it's gone down enough levels of dreaming.

My Interpretation:

For me, limbo is a "state" where your mind doesn't know whether it's dreaming or not. Because the mind isn't aware that its perception of reality is messed up, it populates it with whatever it can, and leaves the rest of the unknown as ocean. You seem to grow old because the mind interprets time as actually moving at the speed of the dream world and ages itself accordingly.

So what was meant by Cobb and Mal purposefully "entering" limbo?
I took this as them continuing to use the dream machine within a dream, sending their mind further into their subconscious. After a while, they started doubting whether what they were seeing was real or not and their minds began to age. Mal hid her totem at this point, so as to hide from herself the truth (notice she didn't spin it, as that would have revealed whether they were dreaming or not). Cobb went and found this out and spun it, and when he realized that he could keep it spinning he knew at that moment that they were dreaming.

When Fischer went into limbo, how did they find him?
Well first, the fact that they were even able to locate him is because they were in a shared dream. I think we can all agree on that. Now, how they were able to locate him? Well Cobb commenting on knowing where Mal would take him. This supports the idea that they both went into Fischer's dream, breaking out of the constructed levels, and Cobb simply found where they were because he knew what would be there.

How come when he went into Saito's mind he washed up on shore and was forgetting why he came?
Well because Saito had been there for what he perceived as decades his mind had changed the world drastically. This is why Cobb seemed to wash up on the shores of it. It probably greatly differed from the limbo he knew and he simply got lost. His forgetfulness could be attributed to the length of time he looked for Saito. The fact that he didn't age was because although he was there for a long time, he held on to the believe that it was a dream, thus preventing his mind from aging.

 

[Kraftwerk]

How is a lack of imagination and creativity synonymous with being robotic and emotionless?

Well one could argue that people (some) who 'lack imagination and creativity' are dull ,boring,and cold/emotionless which is true in many cases.My point is just that Arthur is the opposite of Cobb who is open minded and keeps trying new things and pushing the boundaries whereas Arthur is a person who just wants to finish the job without taking many risks and then go home etc.

 

[Discotheque]

Too bad Nolan couldn't write a role as in depth as JGLs role as Cobra Commander in GI Joe

LOL I loved how he automatically turned evil when he saw that evil doctor's new inventions.

 

[Zeliard]

Zoramon, I don't disagree with a single thing there.

 

[Talon]

Well one could argue that people (some) who 'lack imagination and creativity' are dull ,boring,and cold/emotionless which is true in many cases.My point is just that Arthur is the opposite of Cobb who is open minded and keeps trying new things and pushing the boundaries whereas Arthur is a person who just wants to finish the job without taking many risks and then go home etc.

A "stick in the mud," if you will.

 

[Talon]

Guess we just got a sneak peek into a deleted scene.

Michael Caine says there's an opening scene where his character teaches Leo how to jump into dreams.

Link

 

[Solo]

Too bad Nolan couldn't write a role as in depth as JGLs role as Cobra Commander in GI Joe

DETONATE THE ICE PACK!

 

[Zoe]

That's what the sedative prevented.

It prevented slaps from waking them, but it was supposed to leave inner ear function alone.

 

[OrangeGrayBlue]

Some of you guys are killing the movie for yourself with this much analysis. I thought it all made sense after two viewings... I really don't understand what these arguments are about.

 

[Kraftwerk]

Some of you guys are killing the movie for yourself with this much analysis. I thought it all made sense after two viewings... I really don't understand what these arguments are about.

The seed has been already planted in our minds....flee before it is too late.

 

[brianjones]

Some of you guys are killing the movie for yourself with this much analysis. I thought it all made sense after two viewings... I really don't understand what these arguments are about.

sometimes i think internet messageboard analysis just ruins films.

 

[BigAT]

You can feel pain, so getting a blowjob from the Lady in Red in your dream would probably work nicely.

http://i32.tinypic.com/15mlqw4.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
If taking a piss caused it to rain in the dream world, what would be the result of the end of this? :-\

 

[SickBoy]

sometimes i think internet messageboard analysis just ruins films.

Agreed. I'm really surprised by how many people are obsessed with the kick and the levels (and concepts like the architect, for that matter), when I doubt any answers about the film are hidden within how those things work.

 

[D23]

Some of you guys are killing the movie for yourself with this much analysis. I thought it all made sense after two viewings... I really don't understand what these arguments are about.

could not agree more with you!!