A Brief Defence of an Unpopular Opinion (#ENGL277)

This is mostly just a cathartic thing but I'll put it into the ether for posterity.

Yesterday in my film studies class, we discussed the film inception. When asked what we liked about the film, I responded (not particularly articulately, this is paraphrased):

"The emotional payoff of the Fischer plot, specifically him finding the windmill in the safe. It was a well lead to scene, and I bought it"

The response was mainly bafflement on the part of the professor, and I don't blame him. Part of the structure of the lecture was in discussing how the psychological plots of the movie were lacking and what that might mean. Still, I feel obligated now to defend my opinion. Here is the scene:

First, a disclaimer. I am a sucker for parent/child shit in movies. I eat that shit up. Probably says a fuckton about my psychology, but I do consistently buy that shit.

Still I think that scene has a lot of interesting parts to it, and isn't as shallow as critics have made it out to be.

The music is the first thing I like about the scene. Hans Zimmer did a good job with the music throughout, and this scene is a good example of how that can frame the feel of a scene. It begins menacing, in the way that Fischer has been seeing his father for the majority of his life. Then the moment he is shown a different viewpoint of his father, the menacing tone resolves and begins a slow build which continues throughout the scene, while using the same string motif established early on. At each point of development in the scene (the opening of the safe, the discovery of the windmill) more complexity is added to that musical theme, bringing the build closer and closer to the final payoff, him clasping his father's hand, at which point boom explosion special effects etc.)

Beyond the general emotive framing of the scene, I think it is actually quite interesting on a psychological level that relates to the central questions of the film. Everybody zeroes in on the fucking top spinning at the end, "is it a dream or is it real", while Nolan himself has stated "the point is that Cobb believes it is real". This phenomena is the exact same as demonstrated with Fischer. The thing to remember is that there is no safe. Safes are just places in people's dreams where they store important memories that extractors can then remove. 528491 is just a set of random numbers, but through repetitive suggestion they have been made significant to Fischer. And yet, Fischer does find closure. Being able to believe that his father truly cared about him is something that will make him happier in his life, more than retaining control of the empire ever would. And none of it is "real". The father, the safe and the windmill are all projections of fischer's mind that have been gently nudged to come together. But the important thing is that he's willing to believe it's real, making the mission a success.

The scene is also set up visually. Throughout the film, we are told repeatedly that Inception requires simple, positive ideas. The safe room is the ultimate example of this simplicity: it is a tron-like grid which only contains the exact objects that are necessary. Nowhere else in the movie are we shown this kind of pure dreamspace, even in the supposedly formless area of Limbo. And yet it is all that is needed, fischer ignores the lack of features and stays fixated on his father. Also worthy of note is Eames being able to simply stand and watch the scene unfold, without any interference from projections. We can say that he managed to clear all the projections from the fortress/hospital, but that doesn't really fit the general concepts of the film. Much more believable is that this is the moment where Fischer is completely "sold" on the dream (similar to when Cobb turned away projections attention through the Mr. Charles routine).

Still, the Father/Son reconciliation story has been done to death. But this is precisely why it is used in the film, and it is precisely why I get a little chill when I watch this scene. The whole point of the scene is that Fischer is being emotionally manipulated, and (using the film as dream metaphor) we, the audience are being manipulated through his lens as well. Almost everyone on this planet has a bit of a fucked up relationship with their parents, and seeing a simple, perfect reconciliation is something that is coded into our basic psyche to be satisfying. As a whole, I feel no shame for enjoying a scene that the movie is set up to make me enjoy. The puzzle of the dreams comes together at the same time as this reconciliation, leading to what I spoke of in class, "emotional payoff".

This is just my unedited rambly thoughts on the scene, I'm sure I could go deeper (ha) if I wanted to. But suffice it to say, I meant what I said and I said what I meant, the Fischer/safe scene is my favourite part of Inception.