Last week on Monday we started to examine the plot of Inception in light of Christopher Vogler’s work, The Writer’s Journey. We only made it through act one of three, however, because laying the groundwork of some principles covered in The Writer’s Journey, and because of this, that post will be an essential reference to understanding today’s post. Let’s dive in to the last post of May and see what the rest of Inception can show us! Once again, any content of this post that is credited to The Writer’s Journey or Christopher Vogler is property of his, not mine.
In his book, Christopher Vogler explains that the three ‘acts’ most stories posses can be described as deciding to take action (act one), taking the action (act two), and the consequences of the action (act three). Last week we covered how act one panned out in the film Inception, so today let’s look at acts two and three.
Right after stage five of the hero’s journey, ‘meeting with the mentor’, Cobb fully steps into act two of his trek; a part of the journey that Vogler names “A Descent”. This ‘descent’ that he mentions references something else that he’s named ‘the inmost cave’ of a story. The inmost cave is where (or sometimes when) the ‘treasure’ the hero seeks can be claimed, and where the enemy is the strongest. In Inception, getting to the inmost cave is literally a descent; the inmost cave is the last layer of dreams, which the characters will have to go down into. The first part of act two is this descent.
The first stage that takes place in act two Vogler has titled ‘tests, allies, and enemies’. This is the part of the film when Cobb is gathering his team around him, thus finding his allies. He is hunted down by his enemies while he’s in the process of rallying his allies, but once the team is assembled, they begin going through a series of tests. These tests take the form of them preparing to enter the dream state for their mission. The plans they make test their cohesiveness, their individual skills, and specific relationships within the team.
The next stage of act two is significantly longer than the one we just discussed; this stage Vogler calls the ‘approach’. This again refers to the inmost cave. As the title suggests, in this stage the characters approach the deepest, darkest part of the story using the plans and the relationships established in the ‘tests, allies, and enemies’ stage. In Inception this stage is personified by almost all of the time they spend in the dream state. As they work their way farther and farther down into the subconscious, they get closer and closer to the inmost cave. While they’re in this stage of approach, they’re thrown many curve-balls: the surprise of Fischer’s subconscious already having been militarized against intruders, realizing that because they’re under such heavy sedation, if they die in the dream state they won’t wake up, and most pivotally, Saito being shot in the chest. This last development nearly breaks Cobb’s spirit because if Saito gets trapped in limbo as a result of dying, the likelihood of his physically being able to make good on his promise to send Cobb back to the states plummets. But as a team they agree: there’s no turning back now. Ariadne confronts Cobb and tells him that he’s going to have to confront Mal before their time in the dream is over, seeing as another curve-ball they dealt with in level one of the dream was Mal showing up far earlier than they had anticipated her to. But as a team they move forward, altering their plans and working together well despite the pressure they face.
Pressure is indeed mounting throughout they entire time in the dream space as they move forward, however. Because of the militarized subconscious of Fischer, they’re working with far less time than they had originally been planning on. When they reach the third level of dreams, they are so close to achieving inception on Fischer, but the enemy is equally close to taking them out. While they’re in the midst of dealing with Fischer’s own private military, Mal shows up. Cobb has the perfect opportunity to confront her and stop her from harming the mission any more than she already has by shooting her, but he finds he can’t pull the trigger soon enough to do much good. By the time he’s shot her, she’s already shot Fischer, making the chances of completing the mission look impossible. This is the start of the next stage of the plot, Dubbed by Vogler as the ‘ordeal’.
When all hope seems lost, Ariadne points out that they can still go into the limbo state, get Fischer, and bring him back in enough time to complete the mission and ‘ride the kick’ that will wake them up back to the real world – but only if they hurry. Cobb knows that this means confronting Mal again, and this time he will have to win, but he and Ariadne enter limbo on their new mission: get Fischer, and fast.
This, then, is the inmost cave, because it’s the worst place for Cobb to confront Mal, and the only place that’s left for him to do it. It’s the worst spot for this confrontation because it is where Mal is strongest and where it’s easiest for Cobb to abandon real life and stay in the dream with her, making it also his weakest spot. While he’s confronting Mal, Ariadne saves Fischer, urging Cobb to come back up to the third level of dream with her. But Cobb knows he’s not done in limbo yet. Recognizing that Saito surely must have died and been sent to limbo, he confronts Mal with the truth, successfully vanquishing her, and moves on to the next stage Vogler outlined: ‘seizing the sword’.
The sword that the title of this stage references isn’t actually a sword in most cases, but rather, it’s the reward that the hero has been seeking throughout the entire story. Cobb seizes his sword when he saves Saito from his fate in limbo, thus securing his reward once they return to real life.
The next stage, ‘the road back’, is still stressful, because at first it appears that Cobb and Saito were too late to be awoken by the series of kicks that would have lead them back to read life. But before any of the characters can mourn the loss of their friends, the next stage is ushered in, ‘resurrection’, and once everyone is back on the plane where they started the dreaming, Saito and Cobb are seen awaking with the rest of them. All that’s left now is the peaceful last stage of the story, the ‘return’, where Cobb receives his reward of citizenship from Saito and returns to the children he’s longed for since long before the start of the film.
Inception is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, but when using the tools outlined in Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, you can clearly see what the author(s) was thinking when creating the story. This post concludes our own journey in which we navigated the confusing waters of Inception to fully appreciate the story. This Friday kicks off the month of June, where we will conclude the series on the Marvel cinematic universe. June will focus on the remaining characters of the original Avengers crew: Iron Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye!
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