In/deCEPTION by maTT vZ

Or… ‘Ah my brain hurts. And my brain’s brain. And my brain’s brain’s brain’s…’

You’ve woken up before, not knowing where you are, what you are and unsure of which body parts are directly attached to which. I know you have. Everyone has. It feels like you are rising out of a big tub of syrup. You’ve even made noises akin to Swamp Thing as you do.

‘Glaaargle….’

So does Leonardo DiCaprio, when awakes washed up on an endless beach in a tux with a gun tucked in his pants. If his character, Dom Cobb, had awoken with a purposeful look on his face we would be less unsure ourselves, but perhaps he is trying to figure out why his name is as weird as ‘Dom Cobb’. It sounds like someone is calling him a silly millie (that’s corn for all y’all not in SA).

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked and things haven’t even begun to get interesting. No sooner has Dom groggily awoken and gurgled, is he hauled up by the ubiquitous gun-toting henchmen and dragged into a massive oriental fortress on the cliff to meet with an ancient, ancient-looking Ken Watanabe. He is so old he has not hair, but instead what looks like cobwebs wisping happily off his spotty skull. This is Mr. Saito. Both mumble about knowing each other, and Cobb spins a small metal top on the table.

Now that we are thoroughly confused, the scene of course completely shifts and we are at a grand dinner on the self-same cliff-top fortress, Dom Cobb is there, in a fresh tux, and so is Mr. Saito, looking faaaar more sprightly, 40 years easily knocked off. Ken has been in Hollywood too long and obviously has let the surgeons have a go at him.

Thus the tone, pace and magnetism of Inception is set. Most of you know it is a movie about dreams, and of course is going to invite much conversation around that vs. reality etc. We’ll get to that. The film is an original straight from the throbbingly cerebral mind of director Christopher Nolan (although some really bored people mention an old French film) but can best be described as thick slices of the Ocean’s movies and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind layered into each other and sandwiched between a $160 million budget, popped into the oven on low heat for 9-10 years until a complete melt delight, and served as a gourmet burst of originality amongst the fast-food mayhem of sequels and comic book adaptations.

It is rich, delicious, exhausting and you will struggle to finish it (in your head) in one sitting.

Cobb and his team are thieves of the highest order. They steal ideas. They steal them from within the minds of people. And they steal them from the most powerful people, for the most powerful people. This is called extraction. So whether they succeed or not, very powerful people or going to be upset. Mr. Saito is one such powerful person. They try to steal his idea. They fail. Mr. Saito is upset.

This is quite something, as Cobb’s method of theft is devious and mind-bending, as they draw their victim, or Mark, into a dream he does not know is one, a dream constructed by an Architect, a member of the team that can memorise incredible environmental detail and reconstruct it in the dream. They proceed to play a series of intricate psychological mind games to make there way through the dream to a vault, where said idea is hidden. The Mark knows none of this, but if things slip up and he gets suspicious – you know, when you sometimes realize you actually are dreaming – all the people in the dream, who are all constructs of the Mark’s mind, freak out and attack the team. This can be a whole city of people. Very angry people. All coming for you. It’s fun.

Especially when Mr. Saito, who – as a very powerful person – requires their help, catches Cobb & Co. But he does not wish to steal an idea. He wishes to plant one – inception, not extraction. His Mark is Fischer, played wonderfully low-key by Cillian Murphy, who is the son of a dying corporate energy tyrant.

Now this is nigh impossible, but Cobb has done it before, in a very personal way that greatly affects the plot. To do this will require an entertainingly elaborate plan involving entering a dream… within the dream… within a dream.

There is a lot of setup and explanation of how this all works, happily it does not get too technical but is more conceptual, so not too heavy, and it is all done while we are enrapt by brilliantly realised and detailed sequences of dreams – quite literally in one case as Paris becomes a calzone with Citroen and cobblestone filling. The visual effects feel hidden and integrated, an astounding feat considering the warping of reality you are drawn into. It all has a faintly haunting and humanless quality, whether that is intended or not, I have picked up that atmosphere in Nolan’s other films so perhaps just a trait of his work.

All through the movie, Inception chews on the notion that nothing is as subtly powerful, infectious and inexorable as an idea. The simpler, purer and tiny the seed of it, the deeper it slips into our hearts, the swifter and with more potential it grows, spreads and germinates. It can become the core that fuels our every move. It can become our motivation for life, consumes it, and finally destroy us… or set us free.

The way this movie so vividly reveals this made me realise just how powerful our thinking, and what influences it, can be. In part it terrified me, as I reflected on my life and how ideas, thoughts, whispers and opinions can dictate your path, or confuse it. The parallels with our journey and influences we either exert or are subject to are profound.

Just as Cobb and his crew draw their Mark into a labyrinth weaved of his own personal fears, securities and perceptions to a degree that he accepts their falsely created version of his reality, so the enemy tries desperately to do the same in ours, as he plays out the same game in our heads and hearts. Cobb’s goal was to put an idea deep in the core of Fischer’s psyche, one that alters his view of life and his actions, what he thinks of himself and others.

In short, he stole Fischer’s original identifying thought and replaces it with one that served his own purposes. Sound like someone we know?

‘The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.’ That’s John 10:10a.

We all know it. And we know how he tries in so many different and devious ways to steal our truth, kill our hope and destroy our purpose: That we are free in Christ, that we are kings and children of our Almighty uber-awesome Father. That we are holy, called, powerful living conduits of His will, His love, His message. No-no. He uses every vile and subtle trick to try get us to think less of ourselves, to question the unquestionable and indescribable work God has done for and in us, all of Himself. He tells us we have failed, we are not worthy, that we are not enough. None of which is even relevant – BEACAUSE OF WHAT GOD HAS DONE. Because He has done it all. And offered it to us.

Awesome.

And just like Fischer, and even Cobb and his team, we can get so flipped around and inside out within our own heads and hearts, pulled by perception and emotion, that we struggle to know up from down, truth from fiction, lie from revelation in any area of our lives that we have vulnerabilities.

In the film, Cobb & Co each carry a token, something they use to test whether what they are in is reality. And they had to know, absolutely, that that token was real. Each token is deeply personal and if it is lost, so is that person. In limbo. Forever.

We all have the same token, but it becomes deeply personal to us in many different ways and yet always leads us to the same beautiful, liberating and powerful truth. It’s that kind of awesome. It is the Word. It even comes with a tutor, God Himself, His Holy Spirit, within us. Keep it’s truth with you always, so whenever you become confused, flipped around and inside out within your own head and heart – it provides the directions out of the maze and into the real, real arms of your all-loving, all-conquering Father.

Because the enemy knows ‘as a man thinks, so is he.’ That’s Psalm 23:7, roughly. It’s talking about a miser specifically, but applies to any dude or dudette.

Yep, I said dude or dudette. I’m sooo old-school-cool.

Anyway, if the enemy can change your thinking, he can change you. It is why we are called to renew our minds – and this we do not through force but with a willing, tender heart for God’s Words. Sometimes the journey out of the maze can seem long and as confusing as the maze itself – so don’t lose sight of your guide, or drop your directions. And know, absolutely, that they are real.

Bill Johnson once said, ‘Any area in you life that is without hope is under the influence of a lie.’

For every area in your life that feels hopeless, take out your token, consult your guide, and blow yourself out of the maze of that lie and into the clear, open air of God’s beautiful truth: YOU ARE HIS AND YOU ARE AWESOME.

Have a coolio day.