This article contains mentions of suicide.
There’s a hidden meaning behind the names of almost every major character in Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending sci-fi opusInceptionthat ties into their motivations or the themes of the story. AfterThe Dark Knightmade Nolan a household name,Inceptionproved he could turn a confounding original story into a global blockbuster.Audiences around the world were captivated by Nolan’s tale of a heist crew plotting a daring job in the dreamscape. From the dream-within-a-dream logic to the ambiguous ending, fans are still discussing the ins and outs of this movie to this day.
As with all of Nolan’s work,Inceptionwas meticulously crafted to hide deeper meanings in every little detail – including the characters’ names.The initials of six of the main characters – Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur, Mal, and Saito – come together to spell out “Dreams.” Add in Peter, Ariadne, and Yusuf, and it makes “Dreams Pay,” hinting at the characters’ unusual dream-hopping profession. Most of these names carry their own individual meanings, too. Nolan named all the key players inInceptionwith a hidden thematic or dramatic significance.
Inception Ending Explained - Is Cobb Still Dreaming?
Inception’s ending sees Cobb walking away after pulling out his totem, but whether the top ever stopped spinning may not be as important as it seemed.
8Yusuf
The Pharmacologist Who Controls And Monitors Dreams
Dileep Rao appears intheInceptioncastas Yusuf, the unconventional pharmacologist who provides Cobb and his crew with all the sleeping drugs they need to pull off their dream heists. Cobb wants to do all his work off the radar with no one regulating his activity and no possibility that it could be traced back to him. That’s where Yusuf comes in;he operates in the underworld, providing Cobb with unapproved drugs that allow him to sneak in and out of the minds of his marks.The chemist has a unique role on Cobb’s team.
The key to understanding the hidden meaning of this character’s name is that Yusuf is the Arabic form of Joseph
Cobb and co. are the ones who infiltrate their targets’ dreams, but Yusuf is the one who controls their dreams by controlling their sleep and monitoring their unconscious minds. The key to understanding the hidden meaning of this character’s name is that Yusuf is the Arabic form of Joseph. In the Bible, Joseph famously interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams. Yusuf doesn’t necessarily interpret the marks’ dreams, buthe does put them in such a state of deep sleep that it leaves their dreams open to interpretation.
7Fischer
His Thoughts And Emotions Impact His Subconscious Mind
Regular Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphyappears inInceptionas Robert Fischer,the wealthy heir whose dreams are infiltrated by Cobb and his team in order to plant an idea in his head.Fischer shares his name with chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, the eleventh World Chess Champion, which could be more of a nod to the themes of the film as a whole than anything specific to the character himself.Inceptionis all about mind games and using quick wits to outsmart opponents in an intellectual showdown, and chess is the epitome of that.
It could also have something to do with the myth of the Fisher King. The Fisher King was the last line of defense protecting the Holy Grail, but the most interesting part of his story is that his wounds affected his surroundings; his injuries were reflected on his kingdom. InInception, Fischer’sthoughts and emotions impact his subconscious mind,which impacts changes to the characters’ surroundings as they traverse his dreams.
6Eames
The Charming Forger Who Impersonates Others
Eames is the silver-tongued devil played by Tom Hardy. He’s described as a fence – a buyer and seller of stolen goods – buthis main area of expertise is forgery, specifically identity theft.Eames doesn’t just steal people’s credit cards; he goes a step further and impersonates them in the dreamscape. He uses his ability to embody other people to manipulate Fischer in the dream world, making him an invaluable asset to Cobb’s crew. Eames is also one of the funniest characters in the movie; he always has a hilarious quip up his sleeve.
The name Eames is taken from the surname of Charles Eames and his wife, Ray-Bernice Kaiser Eames.Known collectively as “The Eames Office,” they’re two of the most significant and revered designers of all time. They broke new ground in the fields of architecture and furniture. Their crowning achievement, the Eames House in the Pacific Palisades, is lauded as a landmark in mid-20th-century modern architecture. Nolan draws many parallels between the tenets of architecture and the construction of his dream levels, and this is one of the most obvious ones.
5Saito
The Purifier
Reuniting with Nolan after his turn inBatman Begins, Ken Watanabe appears inInceptionas Saito. Saito is the Japanese businessman whokicks off the film’s main plot by hiring Cobb and his crew to incept an idea into Robert Fischer’s mind.It’s made clear that “inception” is extremely dangerous, but Cobb takes the job because Saito promises to clear his criminal record, allowing him to return to his kids, if he does it. Watanabe captured a different dimension of Saito’s character as he progressed through each dream level, making for a rounded portrayal of the role.
Saito is a common Japanese surname, especially in the northeastern region of Japan, but it has a deeper meaning inInception. It means “purification,” which ties into Saito’s role in the story.Saito gets Cobb to agree to a dangerous job implanting an idea in Fischer’s mind by promising to wipe his criminal record clean– in other words, “purifying” his record.
4Mal
The Villainous Femme Fatale
Mal, played by Marion Cotillard, is the closest thing thatInceptionhas to a big bad. The real Mal died before the events of the film; she took her own life to prove she was in a dream, but she turned out to be in the waking world, where death is permanent.The character that appears in the film is a projection of Cobb’s guilt over Mal’s suicide.Although Cobb is a master dream extractor who can control pretty much anything in the dreamscape, he’s unable to control his projection of Mal.
Mal wasn’t an evil person in life, but her posthumous manifestation in the dreamscape acts as the movie’s villain. Sinceshe messes with Cobb’s mind every chance she gets, she’s a classic femme fatale, and she has a name to match.“Mal” is the Latin root word for all things bad, like “malice,” “malevolence,” “malpractice,” “malintent,” etc. In French, Spanish, Portuguese, and various other languages, “mal” means “evil” or “wrong.” Suffice to say, it’s an appropriate name for a villain.
3Arthur
The Meticulous And Professional Point Man
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Cobb’s partner Arthur, who manages the crew and researches all the missions.He’s Cobb’s right-hand man and most trusted confidant.Inception’s characters each represent members of a film crew. If Cobb is the director with the unifying vision, Arthur is the producer overseeing the operations and making sure everything runs smoothly. The hidden meaning behind Arthur’s name isn’t as obvious as some of the other characters fromInception. It’s not lifted from a historical figure, like Eames, and it’s not the root word for what the character represents, like Mal.
Inception’s Arthur is often linked to King Arthur, with Cobb’s crew being compared to the Knights of the Round Table. But that doesn’t make much sense, because Arthur isn’t the leader of the crew inInception. Alternatively,he might be named after legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.2001: A Space Odysseyhas beena huge influence on Nolan’s work, and Clarke is every bit the mastermind thatInception’s Arthur is.
2Ariadne
The Talented Architect
Elliot Page co-stars inInceptionas Ariadne, the latest addition to Cobb’s crew. She’s a graduate student in the field of architecture who is recruited to construct mazes in the dreamscape. Ariadne is essentially the film’s audience surrogate; as Cobb explains all the complicated lore to her, it’s also being explained to the viewer.Ariadne’s name has its roots in Greek mythology.In Greek mythology, Ariadne was the name of a Cretan princess, nicknamed the “Mistress of the Labyrinth.”She’s the daughter of King Minos of Crete and she’s best known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur.
Ariadne helped Theseus escape the Minotaur by giving him a sword and a ball of string to guide him through the maze, which is where the connection to herInceptionnamesake comes from. But theInceptioncharacter flips the mythological character on her head.In the myth, Ariadne just helps Theseus find his way out of the maze; inInception, she creates the maze.Ariadne earns a spot on Cobb’s team by creating a maze he can’t solve.
1Cobb
Infiltrates Dreams To Return Home To His Children
The leader of the dream team inInception, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is named Dom Cobb. This isn’t the first time that Nolan has named a character Cobb; Cobb was also the name of the gentleman thief in Nolan’s no-budget debut featureFollowing. It could just be thatNolan likes the name Cobb, so he used it twice, but there seems to be a subtle connection between the two.These two characters share an intoxicating suaveness and a moral ambiguity.Cobb’s name is easily interpretable; it’s similar to “khwaab,” which translates to “dream” in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi.
Cobb’s name is easily interpretable; it’s similar to “khwaab,” which translates to “dream” in Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi.
So, the name of the lead character inInceptionliterally means “dream.” But that’s not the only deeper meaning hidden in Cobb’s name. Cobb’s first name is Dom, which means “home” in Polish (derived from the Latin word “domus”), andthe character’s entire goal is to pull off one last job so he can get home to his kids.Dom Cobb infiltrates khwaabs, or dreams, so he can get back to his home, or domus, to see his children.
Inception
Cast
Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, features a skilled thief who uses dream-sharing technology to steal corporate secrets. He is tasked with planting an idea into a CEO’s mind, while confronting his troubled past, which threatens the mission and his team.
