Inception touched a nerve this summer, with the resultant cultural cache translating into big box office dollars, as well as a choke-hold on the memetic exchanges on the internet. Devin did a round up of many of the basic .jpeg and .gif type pieces floating around the net (although that only covers a fraction of what’s out there now), but when the DVD becomes available (tomorrow! Buy it from CHUD) you’ll see an increase in these kind of jokes and “did you notice this?” type YouTube clips. Inception is a film that lends itself to repeat viewings, detailed deconstructions, and stupid jpegs that poke holes in its serious demeanor- I wanted to bring you a few that have already started making the rounds.
First and foremost is a lovely Wired article that includes an interview with Chris Nolan, and a chart outlining the evidence backing the many different interpretations of the film. I take issue with some of the chart (I don’t think it’s fair to say the “entire film is a dream” theory relies on the long since disproven misunderstanding that the children don’t age and have the same clothes), but overall it’s a nice piece that integrates quotes from Nolan himself.
Next up is a YouTube clip that was instantly submitted by half a dozen Chewers and has already appeared in numerous blog posts. It breaks down the second half of Inception, running the various levels of the dream construct next to each other in relative time. Because of the footage they’re working with, not everything can be stretched or slowed correctly, but it’s still an excellent demonstration of the masterful parallel editing going on, four layers deep.
This joins the long-popular YouTube clip that demonstrates the sonic origin of the now-famous Inception horn, that has itself become a meme, with its own dedicated sound effect button, and a 57-minute loop on YouTube.
I think you can expect to see a lot more of those kinds of videos, now that the DVD will make capturing scenes that much easier.
Finally, there’s a ton of fan-made posters and t-shirt out there, but this one-day t-shirt deal is pretty nice, and definitely affordable at $9.00. This link will take you to the page, though after the day is up, the shirt won’t show up. It assembles all of the team’s totems into a “Totem Totem-pole” and it’s a nice classy design- the kind of thing that people will look at with curiosity for a moment before it dawns on them. This is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s out there and what is coming, so watch out!
Nick and I are re-examining our Tag Team from this summer as part of the Blu-Ray review of Inception for CHUD, so keep an eye out for that soon!
Thanks to everyone who emailed links or pointed them out on the message board.