Perspectives | Postmodernism in Inception

1. The way reality is treated in the film is one example of postmodernism as during the film the viewers sense of reality is tested. There are two ways reality is tested, one is through the blurring of the real and the dream worlds, the other is through the dreams themselves. The dreams test reality in that they are the dreamers perspective on reality more than an actual representation of the real. The blurring is done both at the very beginning of the film, in the scene where Ariadne and Cobb are talking only for Ariadne - and the viewer - to realise she's dreaming, as well as the end of the film. The blurring of reality is more extreme near the end as the viewer is left to wonder whether Cobb made it back to the real world at all or if he has accepted his dream as reality.

2. Time is distorted during the film in a postmodern way as the distortion of time lends the film to be less linear. This is due to time passing differently dependant on where they are. In reality time passes much faster than in the dreams, and in the dreams time is staggered - getting slower the deeper they sleep. This leads to multiple events happening at the same time but being shown one after the other.

3. Inception is fragmentary as the dreams are each separate from each other and we bounce between them all, this is to show what is happening in each dream as they all occur simultaneously. Another example of the fragmentary nature is that the opening and ending scenes are almost exactly the same.

4. The narrator in inception is an unreliable one as Cobb is often unable to tell the difference between reality and dream himself, making it more difficult for the viewer to know as well. Another reason is because of the circumstances around the end of the film. This is as according to the established 'rules' Cobb should still be stuck in the dream, he did not get awoken from the van in the first dream, but there is still uncertainty as to if he did as he is shown awake in the plane. This could then be because it is what his reality is seeing even if it's not what the true reality is.

5. The ending of the film leads the viewer to question the validity of a 'true reality' as the film leaves the viewer wondering if Cobb is still dreaming or not and whether it truly matters if he is as he has accepted where he is either way.