I N C E P T I O N . . . The subconscious mind has always been an area of human interest. Such curiosity has been nudged on by the erratic visions they experience while sleeping. You know, dreams: those chaotic scenes lacking any definite connection that appear in your head at night. Everyone has them. As we’ve experienced these eerie apparitions, humans have wondered: Do they possess meaning? Or more interestingly: Could they be manipulated? Movies themselves often seem to follow the erratic fantasies of a madman (I hate you M. Night Shyamalan). Similar to dreams, films are a byproduct of the human mind’s raw creative power. However, films have the practicality of being manipulated in the real world. Such is an idea Christopher Nolan was well aware of while filming last summer’s blockbuster: I N C E P T I O N. As if he were there himself, conducting the very storyline of our dreams, Nolan’s film proves to be so mind-bafflingly pleasurable it will leave audiences perplexed for weeks. Nolan may be unfamiliar with the phrase “beauty in its simplicity”, for the multi-layered plot of Inception is more than just complicated; it leaves audiences trying to solve a mental labyrinth. Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is an extractor: a man hired to retrieve information from important figures through their dreams. He is followed by his dashing partner Arthur, played by a very dreamy Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They are hired by the multi-millionaire and suave badass, Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe). Together they form a team of 5 men and one woman, played by Ellen Paige, who takes on the role of an architect and can literally construct the foundation of a dream. Their mission is to perform “ I N C E P T I O N ,” planting an idea in the mind of Saito’s main industry competitor (Cillian Murphy) through his dreams, a process once thought of as impossible. As it turns out, the heist is much more than just heaps of cash for Cobb, for upon its completion he will be able to return to his home and see his children once again. The movie boasts stunning visuals throughout, which become very apparent early on while DiCaprio trains Paige’s character to build dream realms. As the audience follows the characters on a common stroll through a dream version of Paris, they are witness to the brain-teasing manipulation of common physics laws. At the conclusion of their stroll Paige literally folds the city in half to a point where roads shoot 90 degrees towards the sky. Leave it to the director of The Dark Knight to combine a heist movie with a high-edge fantasy thriller that simultaneously delves into deeper philosophical questions. Some films have been known to blur the line between fantasy and reality, but none since the Matrix have left audiences questioning their entire sense of what is real. Inception brushes these topics by introducing one more mind-numbing idea: dreams inside of dreams. Inside of dreams. Possibly in another dream. Or as my friend Xzibit would explain it: