On September 21, 2010 In Media, Movies
So I got a request recently to do a quick synopsis of what the heck the movie Inception was about. So below are my thoughts and ideas regarding that movie specifically. Nothing too in depth but regardless I’m testing out the NEW “Spoiler” tag I have for my blog (style of it edited by my friend and owner of Scoopmedia. Look for her link in the links section to the right).
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One thing that people remark about this movie is how complicated it is. I argue that it isn’t all that complicated when you break it down into it’s basic story components which it uses quite well. The basic story is that you have a group of thieves that are very good at their job and that they’re hired to do another job which instead of stealing something they want something forged and put in place (the “will” that they used to convince the son that he should break the company apart). If you want to boil this film down even further into a standard movie or story genre it’d be along the same lines as any bank heist movie…
No seriously. I KNOW that there’s the whole dream aspect but that’s more or less inconsequential to the base story line itself. Which is again a bunch of very good thieves that steal information from a very secure location (the persons mind).
If you want a direct comparison movie wise lets pull up the movie “Ocean’s 11″ starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. In that film they had to do the following things.
- Get a heist (The Casino)
- Assemble a team (you know… the actual… 11 of them… cuz that’s the title of the movie)
- Teach a new protégées the ropes (Matt Damon)
- Break through multiple layers of security (The entrance, the elevator, the “pinch”, the telephones etc)
- Get the money
- Leave safely
In Inception the only difference is that they’re leaving a forgery at #5 instead of taking something. So the outline would be this instead:
- Get a heist (convince someone to break up their fathers company by making him believe that is his fathers dieing wishes)
- Assemble a team (the forger, the protégées [Ellen Page in this Matt Damon in Ocean’s 11], the old master [Leonardo in this but George in Ocean’s 11], and the side kick [Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11])
- Teach the new protégées the ropes
- Break through multiple layers of security (the rainy city, the hotel, the icy fortress)
- Leave the forgery for the guy to read it
- Leave safely (The “kick” to get them to wake up or escape a level of security)
If we accept that the movies base plot is a simple heist at this point the only question that remains is the whole idea of dreaming in a dream and whether any of this is actually real or in a dream itself. Another good movie to draw parallels from for this is the movie “The Matrix” where a bunch of people are plugged into a HUGE simulation. To quote Morpheus from that film “What if you were in a dream you couldn’t wake up from, how would you know what is real and what is not?” Which if you want to put a REAL spin on that movie you could argue that the wasted earth was also a simulation to make the prisoners believe that they HAD escaped but in reality hadn’t. Much like Inception really.
So the question remains was Leonardo’s character in a dream or not in Inception. Well… sadly there’s no real good answer to that. Which personally is one of the single best parts about that film I find. Regardless here’s the arguements for him not being in a dream:
- He wakes up with the appropriate people on the plane.
- If you count the levels he goes down and comes back from they work out properly
- The wedding ring. He isn’t wearing it all the time. If I’m not mistaken he’s not wearing it at the level he meets his kids. Which is a reasonable thing to do since his wife “left” him at that level.
Arguements that he’s still in the dream:
- His kids don’t age (hardly their fault for not aging in the span of a single movies filming cycle though)
- His team. They all seem to have very distinct personality types which could be individual parts of his psyche
- The city chase he had when talking to the forger. It was maze like, you didn’t REALLY know the layout of the place and he was getting chased by some police force much like someones mind protects itself from other rogue thoughts as explained earlier in the movie.
Finally the top at the end isn’t an argument for either. But it is a GREAT piece of cinema leaving everyone in the lurch trying to figure out if he is or isn’t in a dream.
So what’s the answer? There is none. But it’s loads of fun to discuss no?
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So there ya have it. Click on the show or hide button to see it or not. Cheers.
On September 10, 2010 In Boat, News
So just a quick update because frankly I haven’t had a lot of time to… you know… sleep. So a bit exhausted.
This past weekend we worked our butts off (Dad and myself) also my Dad worked on the boat (with my Mom) for part of this week as well. A number of things got done including a redesign of the upper floor plan. Before I explain that here’s a cut away of the boat itself and how the ship is more or less laid out.
Ok. The image is REALLY not to scale so don’t get too hung up on that. So in no particular order here are the room’s described:
- Master Cabin: Basically the master bedroom you’d have in a house. 2 closets, bed side tables, queen sized mattress, and even a little sink.
- Cargo hold: This is the tiled area from previous posts and will contain the bathroom (shower, toilet, sink etc), a sitting room that will span from port to starboard for about half the length of the cargo hold and can be converted into 2 additional cabins in the future if needed. Currently this has the wood burning fireplace in it. Also this is where the straight stairs come down to a little counter which will have the washer and dryer underneath.
- Engine room: This has the engine (surprise surprise), the fuel tanks (500 gallons in each tank), the batteries, generator etc. A future plan for this is to get rid of the engine and put it into the Lazaret (different type of engine known as a Volvo Zeus Pod Drive System) and changing this entire space into a much larger master cabin and larger master bath, leaving the existing ones as a spare cabin and guest bath. Nice huh?
- Lazaret: Currently a cargo hold and where the steering gear is.
- Pilot House: Primarily where you steer the ship from but with the modifications we’ve done we’ve made it much larger and usable as a living room that happens to have a steering station up front and a dynamite view from the top.
- Galley: The kitchen and dining room area (Stove top, oven, microwave, dish washer etc etc).
So the floor plan changed as to where the galley was going to go versus where it is now. The old plan we were trying to put the galley up behind the steering station in the pilot house. Which would be handy on long cruises (like REALLY long cruises) but ridiculously hard to put there with the size and space limitations. My Mom and Dad came up with the idea of why not put it where the living room was going to go where there’s a bit more space, closer to all the plumbing, AND we can use a rubberized tile in there as a nonslip surface that can take a bit of a beating (shoes from outside with the whole winter thing coming up would be hard on any other type of material we put down).
So ya. THAT’S the NEW plan. Also we figured out the final way to do the walls easiest so that may be started on this Sunday.
I may also have secured winter dockage… But it may be a bit tight to get in there. I won’t relay too many details now just to not get my hopes up too much. But it is looking good.
Thanks again to my Dad and Mom for all their help!
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