arinakaren wrote:According to Wikipedia Mal is short for Mallorie. The name 'Mal' could also derive from the Hebrew word 'angel' or 'messenger'. Pretty much the opposite of the French meaning, which I think explains her complex and conflicted characteristic.
Mal is latin for evil or bad. He was pronouncing the name "moll" and if it was short for Mallorie, he would have pronounced it "mal"
Eames means wealthy protector.
Ariadne is from a greek story where she helps someone out of a labyrinth.
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Robert Fischer = Chessmaster Bobby Fisher. That and Ariadne's totem are making me wonder if there were more chess references I may have missed.
I thought of a real stretch... (don't take it too seriously)
Mal = George Mallory. When asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, Mallory gave us the immortal line "because it's there." He died trying to get to the top. Just as Mal did!
arinakaren wrote:According to Wikipedia Mal is short for Mallorie. The name 'Mal' could also derive from the Hebrew word 'angel' or 'messenger'. Pretty much the opposite of the French meaning, which I think explains her complex and conflicted characteristic.
Mal is latin for evil or bad. He was pronouncing the name "moll" and if it was short for Mallorie, he would have pronounced it "mal"
I don't know if you should criticize arinakaren's finding just because of pronunciation, especially since DiCaprio and JGL pronounced Saito differently. When abbreviating sections of the Old Testament, Mal is used for Malachi, just as Gen is used for Genesis. This supports arinakaren's finding. Personally, I like the idea of Mal's name having an ambiguous/dual meaning, just as her character serves an ambiguous/dual role in the film.
Skysaw wrote:I'm surprised no one has mentioned Robert Fischer = Chessmaster Bobby Fisher. That and Ariadne's totem are making me wonder if there were more chess references I may have missed.
I agree with you Skysaw. Here is my theory. I think Bobby Fischer is one big key to the movie.
In the movie Robert Fisher is the mark of the inception. This name is obviously linked to the real "Bobby" Fisher, famous chess master, who became world champion and then drifted into madness and paranoia. His american passport was cancelled on 13 july 2004 after controversial declarations about 9/11. He was born in 1943, and his father left him, his mother and sister when he was two... just like in the movie...
The best evidence for this interpretation is Ariane's totem. Her totem is a chess piece: a white bishop... Bobby Fisher favourite strategy was a gambit aiming to keep his pair of Bishops (for instance: http://www.bobby-fischer.net/game_of_th ... _chess.htm )
In this perspective it's possible to think that all characters in the inceptions are Cobb's projections. Ariadne is the white (positive) Bishop who leads him out of madness. The name Ariane hints to Ariane in the Greek mythology who leads Theseus out of the minotaur's maze. Mall is the Black (negative) Bishop who drags him into madness. And by the way Mall is very similar to "evil" in french (le Mal).
So what I think is that all the movie is just a projection of Dom Cobb guilt, trying to heal from something he did. In the light of Bobby Fisher biography, I assume that Dom Cobb ran away from his wife and children when they were two, just as Bobby Fisher's father.
This movie is also a beautiful metaphore of cinéma: you assume what you see is real but you can never tell how you get there... Just like Memento, excellent movie of Christopher Nolan....
I still can't figure out what the numbers are for (528 941) someone an idea??
Guzguz wrote:I still can't figure out what the numbers are for (528 941) someone an idea??
They mean nothing. Those are just the first six numbers Fischer thought of off the top of his head in the first layer. As they travel deeper, his subconscious starts assigning meaning to those numbers. His room in the hotel was 528, for example. When they get to the third layer, it actually is the combination for the safe, because he made it that way. It's a subtle commentary on how nothing in the dream has any meaning beyond what we impose, which is a common problem one runs into in dream interpretation because the subconscious can assign meaning to anything.
bubba1971 wrote:Mal means "Bad" in French and is the root of bad in Spanish (malo) particularly given the pronunciation.
Nope. "Mal" in French means "Evil" and it's usually accompanied by "Le". The same word exists in Spanish with the difference is that it's also an adjective that means "bad". In French it's a noun only.
