{"id":7304,"date":"2010-08-09T11:27:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T15:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=7304"},"modified":"2010-08-09T11:27:25","modified_gmt":"2010-08-09T15:27:25","slug":"the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics of Reality in Inception"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One common thread in many viewers\u2019 reactions to Inception<\/em> has been to view the film\u2019s ending as an\u00a0endorsement\u00a0of the belief that what ultimately matters is what we believe to be real, our own reality, not what is actually real.<\/p>\n

Whether or not Cob\u2019s\u00a0totem topples is\u00a0irrelevant\u2013so this line of reasoning goes\u2013as long as in his reality he is able to go home to his children and forgive himself for his role in his wife\u2019s suicide. While the moving image of Cob hugging his children in the final shot of the film and the reality-blurring dream-worlds plot might seem to support this interpretation of Inception<\/em>, if we carefully consider one of Cob\u2019s driving motivations we can see that Nolan actually challenges the idea that there is no significant difference between Cob\u2019s dream and reality.<\/p>\n

The final shot of the film is of Cob hugging his children, which is a reminder for the viewer that Cob\u2019s story is not only about seeking forgiveness for killing his wife; it is just as much, if not more, about his efforts to return home to his children. If the film ends and he is dreaming still, then in reality those children will remain fatherless. It does matter whether or not Cob is dreaming because Cob is not the only person in the world. Cob has an obligation to his neighbors and particularly to his children, an obligation to love them, to live with them in community, as we all do. In this sense, the only way in which it would not matter if Cob is dreaming is if he is the only person alive, or if we assume that he has no obligation to love people in the real world. There is noevidence for the former in the film, and as Christians we must reject the latter, as Nolan does.<\/p>\n

Nolan clearly points to the ethics of living in the \u201creal world\u201d early in the film when Cob visits his father in France. Please excuse my paraphrasing here; I don\u2019t have the script in front of me and have only seen the film twice. But as I recall the scene, Cob tells his father that he needs an\u00a0architect because Mal won\u2019t let him build anymore. His father replies something to the effect of, \u201cCome back to the reality.\u201d And Cob responds that \u201creality\u201d is that his children do not have a father. If we keep this scene in mind, the end of the film takes on a new significance. There is a real ethical difference between the dream world and reality. While Cob might experience both worlds the same, in reality there are two young children who deeply miss their father, and if Cob remains in the dream until he goes insane, then they will never have their father back.<\/p>\n

Christians often speak out against what they perceive as the \u201cpostmodern\u201d view that reality is entirely subjective, that all truths are relative to the individual. While it is true that these are important issues for Christians to consider, Inception<\/em> reminds us of another aspect of total relativism: because we live in a world with other people, it does matter what is real and what is true, because our lives and actions affect those around us.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":7318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-film","category-headline"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Ethics of Reality in Inception<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ethics of Reality in Inception\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Noble\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Noble\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/\",\"name\":\"The Ethics of Reality in Inception\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d\"},\"description\":\"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Ethics of Reality in Inception\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d\",\"name\":\"Alan Noble\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alan Noble\"},\"description\":\"(Co-Founder\/Editor\/Columnist) is a part-time lecturer at Baylor University. 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In addition to editing, Alan writes his column, Citizenship Confusion for CaPC. ---Follow Alan on Twitter\u00a0@TheAlanNoble and on Facebook. ---For questions, comments, or interest in speaking engagements please email me at noble.noneuclidean [at] gmail [dot] com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thealannoble\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/anoble\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Ethics of Reality in Inception","description":"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Ethics of Reality in Inception","og_description":"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/","og_site_name":"Christ and Pop Culture","article_published_time":"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00","author":"Alan Noble","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alan Noble","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/","name":"The Ethics of Reality in Inception","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00","dateModified":"2010-08-09T15:27:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d"},"description":"It's not our perception of reality that matters, but the other people who live within it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/08\/the-ethics-of-reality-in-inception\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Ethics of Reality in Inception"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/","name":"Christ and Pop Culture","description":"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/08868a891b6ea4b842db4fce67dc4e5d","name":"Alan Noble","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3d4149adb62d3be491438cd7b1abb4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alan Noble"},"description":"(Co-Founder\/Editor\/Columnist) is a part-time lecturer at Baylor University. 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