The Film Inception

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Fear of the Subconscious In the movie Inception, Dominic Cobb, a dream extractor who is framed for the death of his wife Mal, is desperately trying to find a way back to his kids in America. In the movie Inception, Mal is never introduced in any real time period, where she is alive. Actually throughout the whole film Mal is portrayed from the mind of her husband Cobb. From what the viewers see Mal is this hyperemotional women, who is against Cobb completing any mission in the dream world. Cobb desires to be near Mal; however he knows the destructions that comes with her appearing in any dream. Because of this Cobb constantly tries to contain her, but whenever Mal appears Cobb is stricken with fear; in fact, whenever Mal appears Cobb’s facial…show more content…
Since Mal is only Cobb’s projection of his wife you can see that to Cobb, Mal symbolizes his fears, and guilt in his subconscious. At 5:40-10:15, Mal is introduced rather early in the film, and you can see Cobb is scared to see Mal; in fact, Cobb’s express a sense that she’s the last person he wanted to show up. Cobb automatically looks as if he is horrified and enticed to walk over and speak with Mal. Cobb almost seems as if he has to make his way over and visit with her, and further on in the movie we will find the reason is guilt. Cobb can’t escape Mal in his subconscious, because he is stricken with guilt over her death being primarily his fault. He planted a thought in her mind that caused her to kill herself in the real world. He can’t escape Mal in his dreams, because he can’t escape the guilt of her death being somewhat his fault. An important instance…show more content…
There are quite a lot of ideas going on, and it’s prevalent that Ariadne is very creative, but as soon as she builds the bridge from her memories Cobb begins to panic. He is afraid that his subconscious will catch on to what’s going on. Part of his subconscious is Mal, which is why he is afraid when Ariadne brings forth a bridge from his memory. You can see the flash backs Cobb is having and remembering all the moments he has had with his wife. This beautiful moment in Cobb’s memories is instantly changed into sheer terror, for fear this creation from Ariadne will bring forth a visit from Mal. Cobb says he has Mal under control, but every time she appears Cobb goes into complete panic. This is proven when, his subconscious pulls Cobb away, while Mal appears and stabs Ariane in the stomach. He is able to control Mal but he would have to let her go, which he is unable to do; therefore, he must continually try to imprison her in his mind. Obviously Cobb is unable to control Mal, but if he admits he is unable to control her, Cobb could lose the opportunity to see his children again. That is why Cobb is so afraid of the dream world, and Mal. Cobb is afraid that much like Mal, he will lose himself in the dream world. For Cobb, Mal symbolizes all his fears that he is slowly losing sense of reality, and in subconscious is taking over. All these fears in his subconscious stem
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