Christopher Nolan's Inception

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In the film Inception one follows Dominic Cobb who is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the vulnerable subconscious while the mind is in the dream state. Cobb's rare ability has landed him a job with a corporate espionage to try and earn his way back home after he has lost everything he has ever loved. This final job could give him his life back but only if he can complete the seemly impossible task of inception. Cobb and his team of highly trained architects and extractors have one chance to complete their task. Now instead of stealing an idea they must supplant a new one. Failure is not an option for Cobb and he has taken extra care to exclude information about any fallacies he thinks could jeopardize the mission. Even with every base covered and an elite team, no one could have predicted their encounter with an enemy that only Cobb could have protected them from. Inception exhibits gender as a social structure with its blatant use of gender stereotypes and ‘identity codes’ (Schwalbe & Mason-Schrock 157.) The film supports these characterizations of gender with its themes of male establishment and creditability by use and exploitation of a femme fatale (Grossman 77.)
As discussed by Schwalbe and Schrock, identity codes are symbolic constituents of gender order that are learned through childhood interaction and through exposure to media imagery. Examples of these predetermined ideals are present in both the male and female characters of the film. The most prevalent examples given are the locations where each character chooses to store their most secret information. We are introduced to Cobb’s mental maze early on and see it has been constructed after...

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... are left unthanked and unaccredited. Inception is a prime example of how even on a deeply intellectual level; women are not seen as equals.

Works Cited

Bird, Sharon. "Welcome to the Men’s Club: Homosociality and the Maintenance of Hegemonic Masculinity" Multi-Cultural Film: An Anthology. Comp. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren C. Martilli. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2014. Print.
Grossman, Julie. "Film Noir’s ‘Femme Fatales’ Hard-Boiled Women: Moving Beyond Gender Fantasies" Multi-Cultural Film: An Anthology. Comp. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren C. Martilli. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2014. Print.
Schrock, Douglas and Schwalbe, Michael. "Men, Masculinity, and Manhood Acts" Multi-Cultural Film: An Anthology. Comp. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren C. Martilli. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2014. Print.
Inception Dir. Christopher Nolan. 2010.

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