The Hidden Beauty of Inception

This is a post from like a year ago, but I just rewatched Inception and it's so wonderful, so here's this. 

Inception is widely regarded as an awesome movie. I consider it one of the best. Prior to today, I had seen Inception twice. Once in the theater on opening weekend, and once with my mother, via DVD (not Bluray, sadly.)

The first time I watched it, I realized the general amazingness of the movie. The plot was very complicated, but I managed to figure it out. Or so I had thought.

(Minor spoilers ahead, if you haven't seen the movie, which you should have.)

Upon the second viewing of the movie, I noticed a lot of smaller details that I had missed the first time. These details added a lot to the movie. They made it a much more comprehensive plot, gave it more of a 360 feeling, and a better movie overall.

These details were very small, and when I think about it, it seems weird that they added this much (or anything) to the plot.

They were things like Saito coughing up blood in the third dream level, and the house where Mal kept her "secret" being the same house she grew up in.

It was details like this that were very small, but seemed to complete the story.

Then today, I watched Inception for the third time with my friend and I noticed more small details like this.

The details I caught this time were connections that I hadn't put together before. Well, actually, they were things I had noticed, but they were things that I hadn't really appreciated.

They were significant things that I hadn't really connected. It's hard to explain. The first time I watched it, I had noticed that the train that crashed through the town in the first dream level. That was fairly obvious. I also noticed that in the past, when Cobbs and Mal needed to escape Limbo, they killed themselves by throwing themselves in front of a train. I noticed these two things, but I didn't really connect the two. It was the same train. Cobb's subconscious brought it back.

It's details like this that make movies more awesome.

But there was another thing, a very significant thing, that I didn't really connect the first time I watched it.

Cobbs had said that he had performed Inception before. He had done it by accident, when he convinced Mal that Limbo was not the real world. But when they returned to the real world, the idea consumed her. She became convinced that the real world was not real as well. This caused her to kill herself. Therefore, it was actually Cobbs's fault that she killed herself, but he did it unknowingly.

The first time I watched the movie I noticed this, but I think I as too awe struck by the other awesome elements to really appreciate the epicness of the whole "It's his fault" thing. I mean, the man unwillingly caused his wife to kill herself, but the knowledge that he did this allows him to save his own life and back to his kids. Thats beautiful writing right there.

Basically, the roundabout point I'm trying to make is that Inception is one of those amazing movies, with all kinds of strings and loose ends, that turn out not being loose ends at all. It just requires multiple viewings to understad it all.

I've always heard people say "You need to watch it more than once to understand/appreciate it." I never really believed that, until I watched Inception more than once.

And thats part of the beauty of Inception. Its a story that grows and evolves with you, as you watch it again and again, and eventually, you perceive the full amazingness of the story, and the way its told.

PS: Another awesome thing about Inception is the awesome hallway fight with the gravity shift.

PPS: Another another awesome thing is the amazing soundtrack. My favorite song is Time. 

The forward moving plot of Inception. But the whole time, there are flashbacks that make it even more confusing.
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