A Critical Analysis of Inception with Respect to the Culture Industry

Prima facie Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie Inception presents a seemingly fanciful idea: the idea that one can successfully implant an idea in the mind of an unaware subject insomuch that the subject believes that the idea is his or her own. Yet, upon further analysis, perhaps there is a more substantive theory that we can gain from Nolan’s work—something practical and far from fanciful. Perhaps inception is real. Theodor Adorno’s book Dialectic of Enlightenment provides a discussion of the deceptive culture industry that undertakes some of the very same actions taken by Nolan’s characters in Inception. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the deception in Nolan’s Inception, analyze the deception in Adorno’s understanding of the culture industry, and, finally, compare the two analyses