Little moments in the background that are easy to miss?

**author** February 13, 2011, 6:54 am

There is one other detail I noticed.
Why does Yusef appear to write on
the wall before take-off? Is he marking
reality?

**dustbust5** February 13, 2011, 7:25 am

Woah...

Just noticed for the first time that as they lay the street down while planning the job, they are at some type of inverse point or absolute center or paradoxical trick or something, because the coffee shop in the background is the exact same in both directions, as are both streets. Better yet one light is green (Cobb's color, Mal's dream) and one is red (Mal's Color, her dream). One goes North South and one goes East West, I would bet that if we follow the train moment, it comes perpendicular direction of where the cars were going at first. Maybe Wilshire (the street sign), is actually in that action scene. I gotta look now. It could make very clear just where and how early they start going into Cobb's mind simultaneously I would bet you the acton scene makes sense by this image.

Makes you wonder, is Mal really bursting through Cobb's subconscious or is Ariadne just not yet informed that they're going into Cobb's mind also. Makes you wonder what proof you have that Mal in the 3rd act is a projection at all...

the only time we see a fully realized projection is with Browning, but Eames clearly explains that that's a result of his planting Browning''s role in this system of levels. By this concept, how does it make sense that Mal is so fully realized, so emotional, so dynamic? Cobb says she's jsut a shade, but this idea has without doubt been getting planted in him. I

've long felt that Mal was right and is alive but didn't have the energy to explain and defend it on any internet boards, but I feel like this image and the ensuing train might be the most telling image capable of proving it. Lets see...

**dustbust5** February 13, 2011, 7:28 am

author wrote:There is one other detail I noticed.
Why does Yusef appear to write on
the wall before take-off? Is he marking
reality?

Great catch, looks like a map of what's about to be done. Yellow button on that machine, yellow tie on his white shirt, yellow and white map that he's either checking or putting there. I really thought I had found most the stuff in this movie and today Ive been flipped on my head again, this is absurd...

**dustbust5** February 13, 2011, 7:29 am

dustbust5 wrote:
author wrote:There is one other detail I noticed.
Why does Yusef appear to write on
the wall before take-off? Is he marking
reality?

Great catch, looks like a map of what's about to be done. Yellow button on that machine, yellow tie on his white shirt, yellow and white map that he's either checking or putting there. I really thought I had found most the stuff in this movie and today Ive been flipped on my head again, this is absurd...

I take back the tie, but the non white color of whatever that is is the same as the machine button.

**dustbust5** February 13, 2011, 7:38 am

dustbust5 wrote:Woah...

Just noticed for the first time that as they lay the street down while planning the job, they are at some type of inverse point or absolute center or paradoxical trick or something, because the coffee shop in the background is the exact same in both directions, as are both streets. Better yet one light is green (Cobb's color, Mal's dream) and one is red (Mal's Color, her dream). One goes North South and one goes East West, I would bet that if we follow the train moment, it comes perpendicular direction of where the cars were going at first. Maybe Wilshire (the street sign), is actually in that action scene. I gotta look now. It could make very clear just where and how early they start going into Cobb's mind simultaneously I would bet you the acton scene makes sense by this image.

Makes you wonder, is Mal really bursting through Cobb's subconscious or is Ariadne just not yet informed that they're going into Cobb's mind also. Makes you wonder what proof you have that Mal in the 3rd act is a projection at all...

the only time we see a fully realized projection is with Browning, but Eames clearly explains that that's a result of his planting Browning''s role in this system of levels. By this concept, how does it make sense that Mal is so fully realized, so emotional, so dynamic? Cobb says she's jsut a shade, but this idea has without doubt been getting planted in him. I

I've long felt that Mal was right and is alive but didn't have the energy to explain and defend it on any internet boards, but I feel like this image and the ensuing train might be the most telling image capable of proving it. Lets see...

Yup, they turn the corner to pick up Fischer, so they're now going perpindicular to the original direction of the cars, and thus Cobb's car.

When The train crashes, it's also coming parallel of Cobb's car, so on the same level they just picked up Fischer on. The train that from Mal and Cobb's world comes straight at Arthur's car that now has Fischer, and pretty clearly as a response to them tunring onto it.

Only two characters freak out in shock about the train, Ariadne and Arthur, the two characters who wouldn't be in the know til the train thatt they're performing Inception On Cobb. Everyone else accepts it, including Cobb who just transfers the blame to Arthur.

When We first meet Eames, hes wearing a green jacket over a red shirt, like he's already working in both dreams... :crazy:

**ThePointMan528491** February 13, 2011, 7:16 pm

The post about the direction of the train makes me think of the fact that if Cobb filled the first level with his subconscious and memories/world, the taxi would be passing through the 'Mal' boundaries before setting off Cobb's subconscious. This is interesting as it's within a deliberate maze where projections are closing in simultaneously.

Also, it's as if Cobb is going though some sort of 'journey' along with the train: He first wakes up on what is established as a real train and gets off at Kyoto, then is 'blocked by a freight train' halfway through the film, and finally we see the memory of that same freight train running he and Mal over. The "You're waiting for a train..." riddle is said three times, as he must 'wait' for a train three times as well before moving on. At the least, this is poetic and tragic.

I also have interpreted Cobb's memories as an expressive continuation of the story moving forward as well as accounts of the past: Cobb and Mal getting run over feels to me like a natural expression of Cobb's emotional journey at that moment since he performed inception, but is at that point in the high rise apartment accepting it while beginning to banish the illusion of Mal.

But then again, like you said, if Mal was right is she an illusion? Hmm...There could be a possible greater jacob's ladder while Cobb never went in not limbo, but is within interpretations of dreams already deep within dreams while Mal has awoken. Though, there are instincts I have that argue this on an emotional and structural level. It does not seem plausible to me Cobb is having inception done to him, but I am of the belief that the film is a dream with literal meaning throughout - like creating and perceiving.