Spinning the Top

July 26, 2010 in Journal with 6 Comments

*Beware: Potential spoiler alert!

Don’t let anyone fool you, storytelling is mostly about questions. Not answering them, mind you, because I don’t think we’re really that into answers if we’re honest. We say we need answers, but we take most of life with a heaping of faith and hope. Truth be told, it’s actually the exploring, the discovering, that we’re addicted to. It’s the tease that we really want. It makes for a good story yarn as well as an interesting life. The same principles apply, I’ve come to realize.

I’ve also learned that only a few people really know how to ask truly important, perception-shifting questions. The kind that push the listener down a rabbit hole of mysteries to discover still more unknowns that we don’t yet realize are begging to be explored and…questioned. The kind that satisfy and dissatisfy at the same time.

If you’ve seen Christopher Nolan’s imaginative (read: “brilliant”) film Inception, you understand what I mean. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out while it’s in theaters. Here you have a movie that’s all about questions: What’s real? What isn’t? Does it matter? Did the spinning top fall over?

Ah, yes, the top. Round and round it goes. I have my own opinion about the top, but I won’t share it here. But I bring it up because, while some felt cheated by the film’s ending, I thought it was a brilliant way of letting us decide the answers for ourselves. A week later I still find myself thinking about the movie. That’s good storytelling.

So, I’ve been thinking about how to create spinning tops in stories. How do you put the power of choice into the hands of readers or viewers? How do you create a world where the top could either spin forever or fall from the table? What do you think?

And for those who’ve seen the movie, which way do you vote: did it fall or spin?

  • Christian

    It fell… for sure

  • http://deleted John

    *SPOILERS AHEAD!*

    it wobbled….. and if you listen you can here it wobbling….
    i think it fell… although it is fascinating to think “what if it didn’t?”
    what possibilities would that open up?
    the studio is already hinting at a sequel but is more preoccupied with getting batman three off the ground, a film that’s been in development hell (not purgatory… where every truly good idea MUST go to be properly honed and refined… but HELL!) ever since the death of Heath Ledger left it without a returning villain.
    But will there be a sequel to inception? i think not. Nolan is a class act. Many think the spinning top not falling opens the door for a sequel. I think a sequel to inception is just as unlikely as Nolan making a sequel to Prestige (another brilliant film) or Momento.
    if the top fell, then why didn’t we see it? i think it is the thesis statement of the film. How much of our lives do we take for granted that we might as well just be dreaming? what if that moment that we felt the most intense of emotions, love, was just a dream? what happens when we treat it like one? i think Nolan brilliantly cut before it fell to make us examine our own lives, not just the possible outcomes for the characters.
    if the top did NOT fall then….. sequel (though i hope not).
    a sequel would answer the lingering question at the end, killing whatever introspection we might experience. Nolan is classy, not cheap.
    but.. round and round it goes.
    loved that movie.
    what is your analysis Kevin?

    most stories begin with questions…
    fight club for instance. edward norton with a gun down his throat saying “you’re probably wondering how i got here?”
    But some of the best stories leave you asking questions… like inception. By leaving you with a question, they seep into your mind and fester, having a profound impact. they make you think… something our culture would rather not do. I have never seen such drastically split reaction s to film before, with about 80-90% of critics calling it the best film of the year.. and the remaining 15% or so saying, “Too complicated and difficult to understand!”
    great movie.

  • http://www.elliottcmorgan.com Elliott Morgan

    It fell. It wobbled, and it fell. Really, it depends on the audience’s preference for a happy or sad ending. If it fell, yay. If not, then the brooding movie-goers out there can be satisfied, as well. I prefer happy endings, so it fell. I’m sure the emo teens and the basement-dwelling thirty-year-olds have a much different interpretation.

    As for giving the audience that kind of power, is it such a good thing to do? I know when I read a book, I want to be punched at the end–in one way or the other. I want someone else’s psyche to determine my catharsis, not my own. Cliffhangers are great every once in a while, but really, I want the brilliant storytellers out there to tell the whole story.

  • Jon Burns

    I think it kept spinning. I’m a film student hoping to get into screenwriting and the current theory among my group of friends is that Cobb is really in limbo. A further theory, though we are less sure of it, is that Mal is real and might actually be entering Cobb’s mind either to perform inception on him or otherwise trying to force him out of limbo….. But I’ll have to see it a few more times to look for more hints.

  • http://deleted John

    Jeffrey Kurland, the costume designer for inception, admits that he had Cobb’s children wearing different clothes at the end scene as opposed to the other much repeated shot from his psyche.
    So unless Cobb’s psyche is now evolving and randomly putting different clothes on the children in that ONE scene….
    yeah….. i think it fell.
    although i do very much like the theory of Mal trying to perform inception on Cobb’s mind… i think it’s slightly over analyzing but to each his own. i do see it as a possibility.
    But then why would her name be Mal?
    Mal is the root word for Malicious. It is also translated as “Bad” or “Evil” in both french and spanish and is used to describe sickness. For instance, air sickness is Mal de l’air. And the fact that Ellen Page’s character, Ariadne, is named after the mysterious princess that leads the hero Theseus out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, shows that Nolan does take the meanings of his character’s names to heart.
    So, taking into account the importance of names i will stick with my theory…
    not saying it’s right mind you ;)
    Mal is the sickness in his mind.
    Ariadne is the woman that helps lead him out of the labyrinth where his own demons lurk.

  • http://www.bsnapzworld.com BSnapZ

    I think it fell, because you could hear it wobbling and it kinda looked like it would… but then again, did it?

    Very clever ending. I love it. Like you say, mystery is really what we want, not the actual answer. We think we want to know, but if were were provided an answer (ie. by sequel) then it would very much disappoint, and totally destroy an excellent film. I vote no sequel (and don’t think there will be).

    For what it’s worth, I don’t think that we’re meant to be able to truly know what happened to the spinning top. And I don’t think anyone ever will know for sure.

    Perfect ending to a brilliant movie.