Sneak peek at Talk #4 - "This Dream Will End"

Hullo, friends. Here is a sneak peek at Talk #4, titled "The Dream Will End." It includes only the beginning parable.

This Dream Will End

by NEAL SILVESTER

There is something in the end of Christopher Nolan’s film Inception that is worth discussing. No, not the spinning top, not the endless questions of what is real and what is not — no, for the idea I have in mind we must take for granted that the scene at the end is real life, that his mind is in the world, not the world within his mind.

I am speaking of the scene in the airplane at the ending of the dream, when Cobb has found Saito, and all of the crew begin to wake up. If you can remember that scene, focus with me on Cobb as he opens his eyes after a lifetime lived in dreams below, as those disconcerted eyes zoom madly back and forth, taking in everything he knew before, seeing things as they really are. Watch with me as he remembers all he once knew, a life he had completely forgotten about, a life that had led him into the dream world in the first place, a life he had originally left to improve, to change. I think we’ve all experienced something similar in waking from our own dreams.

Then watch his gaze falls onto Saito, the man he made a special promise with, a kind of covenant. As their eyes lock onto each other’s, everything rushes back to them, more memories flood into their minds and we can see Saito’s near-instantaneous remembrance of the deal he made with Cobb that started this whole experience. The first thing he does as he wakes and remembers is make that precious phone call that would free Cobb from legal binds, to honor the arrangement that had been agreed to before the dream began.

Now here’s the parallel that a good friend pointed out to me: think of what it must be like to die, and to wake up in the afterlife, and have the veil pushed aside and passed through. I imagine this experience of waking up will be very much like what we see in the ending of Inception, as a preponderance of memory comes rushing back into our minds. Think of how we might look back on our mortal life in context of the pre-mortal life we descended from. Think of the people we knew before, and what we know of them now; think how many promises we kept, and how many we didn’t keep; think of the things we’ve done and the words we’ve said that we can never take back; and more importantly, think of the covenants we made, and the covenants we broke. And think of that deal we made with our Heavenly Father before we came to earth, the agreement He is bound to honor if we did our own part.

Will we look back in the context of that agreement in horror and shame, with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Will we be filled with regret? Or will we feel that perfect sense of relief and peace as we remember that we gave all we had to give, did all we had to do?

Suppose Cobb had failed in his test. When that plane landed he would be instantly arrested and thrown in jail for perhaps the rest of his life. As it stands, however, he did not fail; he did what he needed to do, and as a result he gained his freedom. Think about that. And the next time you watch that movie (which should be soon), keep it in mind.

But there’s another aspect to this little allegory, and this other one is what I want to focus on today. Still acting on that same parallel from before, in which waking from a dream is like waking from mortal life, remember the whole sequence of dream levels that comprises the better part of the movie, and recall how much violence there is. Think of the shoot-outs, the fistfights, the explosions, the car chases, the bloodshed. Characters get shot, stabbed, strangled. Think of Saito being shot in the chest, and the number of human-like projections killed and done violence to, and the huge amount of destruction the whole conflict causes on each of the dream worlds. And then remember that they are in fact merely “dream worlds.” None of it is real, or lasting. The bloodshed and carnage end. They wake up in that plane in the end perfectly intact, physically speaking. All the suffering and strife are gone, erased, only imagined to begin with. The players in this story are once again whole. The only thing that has truly changed is the mind of the players themselves.