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This story takes place during and shortly after my first viewing of Christopher Nolan's Film Inception. The film had left me with a heightened awareness for the surreal. Which proved convenient as i experienced four odd real life occurrences that would have been more at home in a dream than in reality. I call them “Inception moments”
Inception Moment 1
The first inception moment actually happened during the viewing. There was a city wide power cut about two thirds of the way through the film. Initially my friend and I questioned if the total shutdown of sound and imagery was an inspired Avant-garde move by Nolan. But the rational explanation from the staff member quickly quashed that theory. After five minutes of fiddling with back up generators everything was back on track. I could see the irony in having my perception of time warped beyond the pace of the editing, as if the movie had spilled over into real life. I shrugged my shoulders and under my breath muttered “Inception” while contemplating just how fitting the power cut seemed.
Inception Moment 2
Post film with ideas of dream states still fresh in our minds my friend and i walked home and upon turning the corner to the street on which we reside we noticed a group of theatrical fire dancers right in front of the door to our apartment, breathing and whirling sticks of fire with much finesse. Needless to say its not something one regularly sees in an urban environment and certainly like nothing we had ever seen on our humble street before. I slyly muttered to my friend “Inception” and jokingly looked around, half expecting to see Ellen Page as the architect somewhere in the distance winking at us.
Inception Moment 3
A little later on that night we were walking down a street en route to a birthday party when we experienced a second power cut, the lights around us for a few blocks suddenly went out, with some lights taking longer than others to die. By now we were getting used to these occurrences, so we just looked at each other shrugged our shoulders and both said “Incpection” and continued walking. It was bizarre being in a void of light, when we could see houses lit up all around us in the surrounding hills. About two minutes later everything flickered back on.
Inception Moment 4
Upon reaching the aforementioned party I was chatting to a friend in a noisy room about a recent trip I had completed. She asked me the names of my companions for the trip, I mentioned two who I thought she might know, but she miss heard both names. She then repeated back two names that she thought she had heard. To my surprise they were names of two other members of the trip, but not the ones I had mentioned. This was a coincidence of extreme proportions. I interrupted her and said, sorry “I'm having another damn Inception moment”.
Realizing this night was starting to get ridiculous and that I had no totem to confirm my reality, I decided the only choice was to reach the next level of consciousness by walking off to grab a much needed second beer...
The moral of the story is Christopher Nolan has created a film that was so immerse it kept me in its grips beyond the cinema. While I never genuinely questioned my existential reality I found the film engaging to the point that I could relate it's concepts directly to real life occurrences that questioned my status quo. These moments could have occurred on any night, but perhaps i only gave them deserved notice because I had just watched such a stunning and smart film.
So thank you Nolan for creating a not only a wonderful film, but also a full nights worth of engagement.
Has anyone else had inception like moments while, or just after watching the film? Feel free to post them below.