preamble
Inception is one of Nolan's best-known films.
Like many others I was watching it for the first time and thought my wife was right, after all, this kind of suspenseful movie can't be justified without a reversal.
But after rewatching it the other day, I realized that I was actually really overthinking it.
The most important thing about a commercial film is that it appeals to the masses.
I'm afraid most people don't want to watch a memory fragment version of Inception, do they?
Below is his own manuscript, which clearly shows that there are four layers to the dream.
The fourth level is also called the border.
This layer is shared by all, which may draw on the collective subconscious, or on Buddhist ideas.
This story is actually quite simple, compared to the real-brain-burning stories ......
Here's a quick rundown of the story.
The logical sequence of the story
Couple caught at the border
After fifty years of living on the frontier, his wife forgot she was in a dream, but Little Lizzy remembered.
So the little plum spun the gyroscope to wake his wife up.
Wife jumps, little plum runs away
They meet to kill themselves and return to the real world.
But the wife still thinks she's in a dream.
She set up a trap that if she didn't jump with herself, Little Lee would be made out to be the killer.
Little Lizzy didn't jump.
(You jumped and I didn't jump. Thirteen years ago you cheated on Rose)
Dream Stealer Saito fails
Little Lizzy subconsciously created the fake wife, and that fake wife defected to the enemy.
Find teammates, arrange for rich kids
Saito gives Little Lee a dream-stealing mission that will clear him when he succeeds.
A scene often seen in Hollywood blockbusters, get a few tool people, all of them.
Into the rich kid's dream
first floor
A drag racing environment was created to move to the next level of the dream and create tension.
second layer
A vulnerable situation where you can be found at any moment and have only one person to guard it.
third floor
Just when you're about to succeed, create an accident and enter the border.
Re-entering the border
Rescuing Richie Rich and Saito.
Back to reality
Clear your name and go home.
Nolan's design thinking
What was Nolan trying to say?
That's the first step, only if you know what he wants to do, then you can analyze how he's going to make it out next.
The following three needs are my speculation, and all subsequent inferences depend on these three points.
First: a story about a dream thief
Second: Multi-layered Dreams
Third: The psychological impact of the language (messages) of family members on people
Now assume that all three of these conditions have to be met and that it also has to be a commercial film.
So how can you do that?
First: a story about a dream thief
Not much more to say about the story structure, there are so many thief stories out there with proven templates to use.
The key is in the dream world, and dreams can bring some creative ease.
1: Role switching in the dream world
2: Dreams can have incongruous events
3: Dreams have no previous memories
......
and various settings.
There are very many settings that Nolan must have thought of when he had this idea, but he didn't fall into the trap of heaps of settings.
He's probably thinking about the must-have setting first.
If I need multiple people to enter the dream as a dream, in person, then the way to enter the dream?
Ecstasy + a small device + a few wires
I know the way out of the dream world and it doesn't need to be too complicated, how can I synchronize it so that everyone exits together?
Design a signal transmitter that can penetrate several layers of dreams ...... Then set it to play a piece of music
I need several characters, how can I make them have their own abilities and not complicate the setting?
It's really just a matter of distinguishing between the dream master and the others, whose abilities depend on either realistic occupation or imagination
Second: Multi-layered Dreams
The idea of dream time flowing differently is a great one, and definitely one Nolan has had in mind for a while.
The great thing about this is that it perpetuates the tension.
Delivering the tension of the first and second level dreams to the end of the film has a bombastic effect.
Regarding multi-layered dreams, each layer can be different for the person dreaming.
This one setting is tailor-made for rich kids.
Because the episode that required him to be awake to enter someone else's dream.
Third: The psychological impact of the language (messages) of family members on people
First of all the protagonist can be influenced by this influence, or he can influence others.
Nolan chose the latter.
There are two kinds of influence on others, and Nolan wants both.
The negative impact of Little Lee on his wife.
The positive impact of the main group of characters on the rich kids. (by mistake)
This shapes an upside ending.
Also, the gyro (and other markers) were spawned as a result of "letting the wife know she was in the dream".
This setting is the one that stands out the most.
Character Arc Light (Character Line)
First lead, Little Lee
Little Lee blames himself and wants to make it up to his wife, partly through dreams and more so through the reality of being a kid. Nolan made him a suspect, and he needed to do something in order to get over that hurdle, and that's what drives the character.
The fake wife is not a character, but a fleshing out of Little's inner conflict, and generally the more complex a character is inside, the less the audience will be.
Little Lizzy starts out with two potential difficulties to resolve, the first being the choice between reality and the dream world, and the second being washing away suspicion and returning home.
Saito gave him a push, making it possible for him to reach home.
However it was about to work out when Nolan released the fake wife and gave Little Lee the choice of dream or reality.
Nolan helped Little Lee pick reality.
When the script isn't out yet, it's really okay to pick that side, as long as it makes the internal struggles and changes of the characters.
Just the role of the rich and famous
He was the "difficulty to overcome" for Little Lee, and his importance speaks for itself.
So Nolan gave him a character arc.
From the initial lack of confidence, to the courage, and finally Dad saying "Don't be me."
Saito in the role of a freshman
Giving Little Lizzy hope and steering him to a difficult task
Saito's character arc is not strong.
But Nolan's use of him as a set of ambushes and resolutions gives the character even more weight than the rich kid.
A collection of just-needed tools for people
A setting narrator
One keeper per dream level
......
In fact, only one toolman is needed, the apothecary, illusionist, architect, etc., are all things that fill out the plot.
Toolman doesn't have a character arc.
Story Structure
With the story material basically complete, the next step is to design the story structure.
As a result, Nolan chose a three-act structure.
Nothing wrong with it, it's classic and works well, and there are little structures in each act.
The first act puts in a little climax straight away.
The most appropriate, naturally, is a dream-stealing mission.
Nolan scanned the three most central characters and decided to go with Saito + fake wife.
Why not use True Wife's previous mission footage?
Sure it could work, maybe if Nolan thought about a five-layer dream version, the real-wife in the real-real world would show up.
Anyway, he chose Saito's dream for the first act.
The first act serves to draw the audience in and showcase the content, explaining that the setting will usually be placed in the second act.
I thought this scene was the best part of the whole movie.
There are no words to tell you directly, but rather through images of switching between dreams, the changing speed of the watch hands, earthquakes, floods, etc.
The dark line of the wife should indeed have been put in from the beginning, no questions asked.
The first act gets full marks.
second act
The second act has to explain all the settings, as well as throwing out all the questions.
Come out all the instrumentalists in order, describing the settings in turn.
Middle of the road, I guess.
Act III
The third act is destined to be up and down.
The first three levels of dreaming are the easiest, just bursts.
Put some small twists in the middle and it's not a big problem.
Once you enter the fourth level, you have to give Little Lee a choice, dream or reality?
Normally, choosing the reality Richie Rich would kill you, choosing the dream world would cost you something else.
And as a result, Little Liar faked his choice and managed to get through?
I don't think this choice carries enough weight.
But Nolan lets the dream end at this point to get the audience HIGH and thus drown out the discontent.
It would be too easy to end it like that.
So Nolan added another set of ambushes and resolutions.
The first act shows Saito and the fake wife, and using both of them could have been placed at the beginning of the movie as an ambush.
But Saito is a real person and will age at the border, which could be exploited.
Use old Zito to raise audience expectations and then address that expectation at the end of the movie.
This adds to the story completion.
Then let the little plonker go home again.
Almost all expectations were resolved when the sinister Nolan CUT when the gyro didn't fall to the ground.
Combine that with "The gyro can only tell that it's not in someone else's dream." It's easy to be led into the pit by this setting.
If it's true that Lizzy is always in his first level of dreams and no one else comes in, we have no way to disprove it, but there's no proof of it either!
other
I talked a lot about "expectations", "ambiguity" and "resolution" and story lines and character lines, as I made clear in my first two videos, and here's the link.
What the story is.