Perspectives - Inception (2010)

Figure 1 – Inception (2010) [Poster]

Is Inception (2010) Postmodern?

Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller, Inception (2010) displays an array of Postmodern concepts along with Postmodern cinematic techniques used to engage audiences to become sceptical to reality itself.

Inception centres around dreams focusing on the subconscious state of mind. This brings Postmodernism to centre stage, “Reality is truth, but Postmodernism blurs the lines between the two.” (Chestersmom. 2014) With this argument dreams and the subconscious could be argued to be a Postmodern aspect within itself. Overall giving the film in a hyperrealistc tone, another technique coined within Postmodern cinema.

From this, audiences may find it hard to distinguish between what is real and what isn’t, questioning even the ending of the film, left down to interpretation. It could be said that Nolan intended for this as the concept of Postmodern is going against the absolute truth. This is shown with in the film as “No absolute truth exists because reality is constantly changing” (Polihronis, C. 2014) This is due to the characters regularly switching from dream to reality.

Nolan also included intertextual aspects into the film, mainly through characters. Ariadne is a clear example of this. “Ariadne, like her ancient namesake, creates the maze and guides the others through it, but also helps Cobb navigate his own subconscious, and as the sole student of dream sharing, helps the audience understand the concept of the plot.” (Sygrove, L. .2014) The character of Ariadne is a direct reference to Ariadne the mistress of the maze in Greek mythology. Making this connection not only with having the same name, but also having Ariadne design the maze for the film, allows audiences to make the connection between the two.

In conclusion, Inception is postmodern due to Nolan’s inclusivity of blurring the lines between reality and dreams, allowing audiences to witness no absolute truth within the film, as the reality constantly being interchangeable. As well as implementing Postmodern techniques into characters adding an intertextual link between characters in Greek myths, such as the character of Ariadne.

Bibliography

Figure 1 – Inception (2010) [Poster] Nolan, C. (2010). INCEPTION POSTER. Available: https://uk.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-123396/Inception.html Last accessed 12/10/2019.

Chestersmom. (2014). Inception and Postmodernism. Available: https://www.karanovic.org/courses/mca008/archives/1675  Last accessed 12/10/2019.

Polihronis, C. (2014). POSTMODERNISM IN INCEPTION. Available: https://prezi.com/170nlbaibvwo/postmodernism-in-inception/  Last accessed 12/10/2019.

Sygrove, L. (2014). Inception: Intertextuality & Hyperreality. Available: http://laurasygrovelcpomo14.blogspot.com/2014/01/inception-intertextuality.html  Last accessed 12/10/2019.