Inception
Much has been said how Inception combines different genres, i.e., science fiction, heist, and action (or thriller). It’s certainly also classic cyberpunk which has begun to enjoy its well-earned renaissance lately.
I’ve watched the movie twice so far, and it went straight from love at first sight to serious engagement. I started to try and sketch the dramatic structure (in words, not in pictures), for which I’m going to need a little more time. But this greatly helps: Co.Design’s Inception Infographic Contest (h/t Tim)!
The most amazing piece, of course, is the winner: Inception: The Architecture by Rick Slusher (click to embiggen):
The contest started off strong with Dehahs’s “Inception: Timeline,” also an amazing piece of work, which makes use of the Escheresque never-ending staircase, or “paradoxon”:
And there’s also miscellaneous runner-ups, some of them extremely complex, which you have to check out for yourself.
Christopher Nolan’s screenplay is fiendishly clever; I said so already, and how clever it is became even more clear after watching the movie a second time. Some see faults and some see flaws where there aren’t any, but I also think I understand why the movie does not resonate with everybody. Nevertheless, I want that dreydl!! :-)
One of the things that make the screenplay tick like clockwork and proceed like a well-oiled machine, I think, is that the story is structured like the rules of a game. But not a regular game, and not a fixed set of rules, but like a role-playing game and different sets of rules that get progressively complex depending on the difficulty level, escalating in perfect tune with the plot points in the script.
But I’ll keep the details for another post.
(Oh, and wouldn’t Inception make for a fantastic pen-&-paper role-playing game?)
If you have something valuable to add or some interesting point to discuss, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you at Mastodon!