提到今年的暑期档电影,就不能不提《盗梦空间》(Inception),这部全球票房超过七亿美元的影片在国内上映半个月即横扫两亿票房。虽然火爆程度不及《阿凡达》(Avatar),但较之《阿凡达》电影特技的不同凡响与故事内容的先天不足,《盗梦空间》则是技术和智慧兼备。影片除了精彩纷呈的特效让人眼花缭乱以外,纷繁复杂的故事情节也对观众的智商提出了相当的挑战。无论是精通理科的geek们,还是热衷哲学理论的文科nerd们,皆被这部“你做梦梦到你做梦梦到你做梦梦到……”的电影点燃了“寻梦”热情。也许看完《阿凡达》你可以很快将它忘记,但看完《盗梦空间》,你却可能对之回味许久。借用片中的美女造梦师Ariadne的话说,这是一个“Pure Creation”。
造梦理论
影片从始至终贯穿着一系列亦真亦幻的梦境,梦境之间交叉着让人辨认不清的现实。而将这些梦境与现实串联起来的,是由莱昂纳多饰演的Cobb领导的一个“盗梦小组”。
影片一开始,由盗梦者Cobb、前哨Arthur和造梦师Nash组成的“盗梦小组”受雇于康柏公司,试图通过将日本企业家Saito带入梦境来盗取他脑海中的信息,从而获取他们想要的商业资料。为了说服Saito与自己分享梦境,Cobb和Authur以帮Saito训练其潜意识的防御能力为借口,试图让Saito放松警惕,在梦中对他们敞开心扉。
Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?
Arthur: What Mr. Cobb is trying to say …
Cobb: An idea, resilient (有复原力的), highly contagious (传染性的). Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood. That sticks (粘着,根深蒂固), right in there somewhere [pointing to his own head].
…
Cobb: Sir Saito, we can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor (盗梦者).
Saito: How can you do that?
Cobb: Because I am the most skilled extractor. I know how to search your mind and find your secrets. I know the tricks. And I can teach them to you, so even when you’re asleep your defense is never down. Look, if you want my help, you’re gonna have to be completely open with me … If this is a dream and you have a safe (保险箱) full of secrets, I need to know what’s in that safe. In order for this all to work, you need to completely let me in.
Cobb对自己的判断充满信心,但这次盗梦行动却以失败告终。尽管“盗梦小组”成功将Saito带入了由造梦师Nash精心策划的梦境中,甚至窃取到了Saito藏于梦境保险箱中的机密,然而就在打开机密的最后关头,一个人的意外出现毁掉了整个盗梦行动,使他们被迫从梦境中无功而返。这个闯入梦境的意外人物就是Cobb去世的妻子——美丽迷人的Mal。这一充满悬念的精彩开场吊足了观众的胃口,人们也开始随着小组成员的行动去一一破解悬疑。
由于“盗梦小组”成员Nash的出卖,Satio不仅了解了整个盗梦行动的始末,而且还找到了正欲离开日本潜逃他处的Cobb和Arthur。让Cobb和Arthur感到意外的是,Saito并不打算报复他们,而是想雇佣他们完成一项奇特的任务,正是这项任务引出了本片的一个核心理念——“inception”(植入)。原来,Saito领导的企业有一个最大的竞争对手——费雪-麦罗能源集团,该集团掌舵人Maurice Fischer已病入膏肓,其子Robert Fischer即将继承家业。为了趁此权力交接之际打垮竞争对手,Saito打算雇Cobb等人利用梦境控制Robert Fischer的思想,让其毁掉父亲创造的商业帝国。为了让“盗梦小组”接受这项任务,Saito抛出了一个足够诱人的诱饵:他有办法让顶着“美国通缉犯”名头的Cobb洗去罪名,顺利通过美国海关,回家与自己的孩子团聚。
Saito: If you can steal an idea from someone’s mind, why can’t you plant one idea instead?
Cobb: How complex is the idea?
…
Saito: My main competitor is an old man in poor health. His son will soon inherit control of the corporation. I need him to decide to break up his father’s empire.
…
Cobb: What’s your problem with this Mr. Fischer?
Saito: That’s not your concern.
Cobb: Mr. Saito, this isn’t your typical corporate espionage (间谍活动). You asked me for inception. I do hope you understand the gravity of that request. The seed that we plant in this man’s mind will grow into an idea. This idea will define him. It may come to change everything about him.
Saito: We’re the last company standing between them and total energy dominance. We can no longer compete. Soon, they’ll control the energy supply of half the world. In effect, they become a new superpower. The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind.
一直渴望回到美国的Cobb最终接下了Saito的这个任务,并组建了包括自己在内的全新 “盗梦六人组”,其他五个人分别是:经验丰富的前哨Arthur、年轻聪慧的造梦师Ariadne、具有丰富想象力的伪装者Eames、药剂师Yusuf和自愿亲自前往梦境以了解最终结果的“观光者”Saito。而在团队组建和计划酝酿的过程中,影片也将关于造梦的种种理论一一展现在观众眼前。
映像(Projection)
为了教授初涉此领域的Ariadne如何造梦,Cobb让Ariadne进入梦境,在梦中向她讲述造梦的原理以及映像为何物:
Cobb: We got the basic layout. Bookstore, cafe. Almost everything else is here too.
Ariadne: Who are the people (编者注:指梦境中他们周围的人)?
Cobb: Projections of my subconscious.
Ariadne: Yours?
Cobb: Yes. Remember, you are the dreamer. You built this world. I am the subject (受体,指潜意识被带入梦境中的人). My mind populates it. You can literally talk to my subconscious. That’s one of the ways we extract information from a subject.
Ariadne: How else do you do it?
Cobb: By creating something secure, like a bank vault (金库) or a jail. The mind automatically fills it with information it’s trying to protect. Understand?
映像是做梦人潜意识所产生的人和物,其为虚幻而非真实。在影片中,Cobb梦里常出现的Mal和奔腾的火车就是他潜意识产生的映像;而Robert Fischer由于缺乏安全感,其潜意识里所产生的映像都是全副武装的士兵。
迷失域(Limbo)
“迷失域”一说来自但丁的《神曲》,指地狱边缘的一个中间地带,是那些既不能入天堂也不能下地狱的灵魂暂时待的地方,他们在那里等待救世主的拯救,那是一个虚无的空间。在单层梦境中,人死了就会自动醒来;而在包含“梦中梦”的多层梦境中,人一旦死亡,就会进入迷失域里。在影片中,Cobb如此为大家解释人在三层梦境中死亡的后果:
Arthur: So what happens when we die?
Cobb: We drop in a limbo—unconstructed dream space.
Arthur: What the hell is down there?
Cobb: Just raw infinite subconscious. Nothing is down there, except for whatever might have been left behind by anyone sharing the dream who has been trapped there before.
刺激信号(Kick)
刺激信号就是刺激做梦人醒来的信号,通常是通过撞击。在单层梦镜中,人被杀死就可以醒来;但若做梦人服用了镇静剂,此时从多层梦境中穿越到现实就困难得多。针对此,药剂师Yusuf选择用音乐来使多层梦境中的刺激信号同步,从而把小组成员从不同层次的梦境中唤醒。
Ariadne: What’s a kick?
Cobb: It’s that feeling of falling. You get the jolts, you’re awaken. It snaps you out of the dream.
Arthur: Are we gonna feel a kick with this kind of sedation (镇静)?
Yusuf: I’ve customized it to leave any ear function unimpaired. That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper still feels falling, or tipping. The trick is to synchronize (使同步) a kick that can penetrate all three levels. We can use a musical content to synchronize the different kicks.
图腾(Totem)
为了能够区分现实和梦境,Arthur告诉Ariadne,她还需要一个图腾:
Arthur: You need a small object, something you have all the time that no one else knows.
Ariadne: Like a coin?
Arthur: No. It must be more unique than that. This is a loaded die. Only I know the balance and the weight of this particular loaded die. That way, when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt that you’re not in someone else’s dream.
图腾是用来判断一个人是否处于梦境中的小物件,只有拥有它的人才能知道其中的奥秘所在。在影片中,Cobb拥有的图腾是一个小陀螺。Cobb靠旋转陀螺来区分梦境于现实:如果它一直旋转不停,Cobb就知道自己是在梦里;如果陀螺旋转一会儿便停下来,Cobb就知道他身处的是现实。
梦中时间(Compound Time)
在现实和梦境中,时间的概念是不同的:
Cobb: In a dream, your mind functions more quickly. Therefore time seems to feel more slow. Five minutes in the world gives you an hour in the dream.
Yusuf: Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times normal. When you enter a dream within that dream (梦中梦), the effect is compounded.
Cobb: It’s a week the first level down, six months the second level, and the third level is ten years.
“现实五分钟,梦里一小时。”这个概念确实有科学依据,一般人类只能记住五分钟之内做的梦;而在这现实的五分钟里,我们的梦常常有很长的时间跨度。
盗梦与心理学
影片除了诠释构建梦境的理论基础,还更深一步地将探索的触角延伸至人类的深层思维。就像导演Christopher Nolan自己所说:“《盗梦空间》是部心理剧,表现的是‘层层穿透某个人心理’的过程。”其实梦境一直都与人的心理分不开,而《盗梦空间》里将想法植入思维的过程实际上就是对真实生活的认识过程。
在《盗梦空间》如进阶般的层层梦境中,始终贯穿着“盗梦小组”想要将想法植入其思维的目标人物Fischer和父亲之间,以及盗梦者Cobb和妻子Mal之间的感情冲突,而影片中一共出现过的两次“inception”也分别发生在Fischer和Mal身上。首先让我们来看看“盗梦六人组”为Fischer量身打造的“inception”计划:
Eames: Now, in his first layer of the dream, I can impersonate (假扮) Browning (编者注:Fischer父亲的得力助手,Fischer的教父), and suggest concepts to Fischer’s conscious mind. Then, when we take him a level deeper, his own projection of Browning should feedback right back to him.
Arthur: So he gives himself the idea.
Eames: Precisely. That’s the only way it will stick. He has to see himself generate it … On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father. And seed “I will not follow in my father’s footsteps.” And the next level down, we feed him with “I will create something for myself.” By the time we hit the bottom level, we bring out the big guns …
Cobb: “My father doesn’t want me to be him.”
Eames: Exactly.
简单来说,在“盗梦小组”设计的第一层梦境中,Cobb等人绑架了Fischer,逼他说出他父亲病床旁保险箱的密码(实际上并不存在保险箱)。在这一层,通过观察Fischer潜意识里的Browning,他们发现Fischer内心对Browning充满怀疑。然后,由Eames假扮Browning,并故意对Fischer“坦白”自己是绑架的指使人,绑架他的目的是为了获取保险箱的密码,因为那里藏着另一份效力更高的遗嘱。
在成功给Fischer植入了“存在着另一份遗嘱”的想法后,小组成员将Fischer带入了下一层梦境。在第二层梦境中,Cobb告诉Fischer他实际上是在梦境中,有人想要偷取他的想法,然后将他带入第三层梦境来寻找那个遗嘱。而在第三层梦境中,Fischer将在自己潜意识的暗示下打开一个保险箱,并形成一个想法:“The will means that Dad wanted me to be my own man. Not just to live for him. That’s what I’m gonna do.”这样,盗梦小组就成功让Fischer自行产生了“瓦解父亲创建的商业帝国”的想法。
这层层梦境中所展示出来的是Fischer与父亲生疏的父子关系以及Fischer在这种环境里所产生的强烈的防备心理。而父亲临终前对他说的“disappointment”更使他的心理极度脆弱,正是这种脆弱使得“inception”成为可能。
Cobb与Mal之间的感情冲突是影片的另一条重要线索。Cobb和Mal曾拥有一个美满的家庭,育有一对可爱的儿女。但是,由于Cobb和Mal都痴迷于研究梦境,他们构筑并进入了一个只属于他们两个人的美妙梦境——那里有漂亮的房子、轻柔的海风、浪漫的爱情……他们在梦里相约白头偕老,共同走过了50年的梦中时光。正因这个梦境太过美丽,Mal宁愿相信这就是现实,不愿醒来。可Cobb却清楚地知道他们是在梦中,他想回到现实。正是Mal与Cobb之间的这种冲突最终导致了悲剧的发生。这也是Cobb一直深埋在心底的痛楚。在“盗梦小组”执行计划的梦境中,Cobb对造梦师Ariadne道出了他一直深藏的秘密:
Cobb: The reason I knew inception was possible was because I did it to her (编者注:指Cobb的妻子Mal) first. We were lost in here. I knew we needed to escape but she wouldn’t accept it. She had locked something away, something deep inside. The truth that she had once known but she chose to forget. She couldn’t break free. So I decided to search for it. Going deep into the recess of her mind and found that secret place. I broke in and I planted an idea. A simple idea that I knew would change everything—that her world wasn’t real ... And I never knew that … that idea would grow in her mind like a cancer, that even after she woke, even after you (编者注:此时Cobb开始对自己潜意识中的Mal说话,因而用“you”) came back to reality, you continue to believe your world wasn’t real.
Cobb将“Your world wasn’t real”的意念植入到Mal脑海中,让Mal意识到,唯有死亡才能让他们回到现实。然而,这个意念像癌细胞一样在Mal的脑海中蔓延,让她在回到现实后还认为自己是在梦境中。为了回到她所认为的现实中,她选择了自杀而亡。而Cobb却被警方认定为幕后真凶,不得不逃亡国外,被迫与子女分离。因为内疚与悔恨,Cobb常常沉溺在梦境里,和自己潜意识里产生的Mal在一起,以逃避“妻离子散”的现实。
其实在某种程度上,我们每个人都喜欢白日梦,特别是当现实不那么美好的时候。不过,在现实生活中,美梦总是太短。问题是,如果梦境可以足够长,你是否愿意醒来?影片中有这样的情节,在药剂师Yusuf的地下室里,总有很多风烛残年的老人来这里做梦。如果梦境足够长,现实和梦境也许真分不清了:
Cobb: They come here everyday to sleep?
Old man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, huh?
这样的想法也许不可理喻,但在真实生活中,还是有很多人会自觉或不自觉地拒绝接受不够美好的现实生活,而陷于自我营造的梦境。从某种意义上说,他们都被施与了“inception”,而这些被植入的想法就如同Cobb所说的,既“resilient”又“highly contagious”。其实我们大多数人都是“inception”的受害者,不论是电影里植入的广告还是无处不在的美女招贴画,都在我们脑海中植入了一种现实中不存在的理想生活,暗示我们:你的生活还不够美好,你还缺一部智能手机,你还需一瓶润肤晚霜。而当我们拥有这些之后,需要的还会更多。正是这些植入的想法,让我们把梦境和现实都混在了一起。
科学与哲学
对于很多思维缜密的电影爱好者来说,《盗梦空间》的造梦理论并不完美,尚存在诸多疏漏。但也有影迷告诫说:“不用把一部文科片理解成一部理科片。”《盗梦空间》的成功之处就在于它不仅在科幻理论上有创新,还在哲学层面上展示出极大的想象空间。在这一点上,《盗梦空间》很像《黑客帝国》(The Matrix),虽然都是科幻片,但在本质上探讨的都是真实和虚幻之间关系的哲学主题。两部影片中的虚拟世界一个是由电脑创造,一个则是由人类的想象和潜意识构成,相同之处在于陷入虚幻世界的人常常都不愿意回到真实世界。这一主题也显示出了人类在信息爆炸的多媒体时代对能否回归生活本质的焦虑。随着科技的发展,这种焦虑似乎越来越强烈。如果说1995年拍摄的《黑客帝国》里人类还可以寄望于传说中的“the One”来解放全人类的话,在15年后的《盗梦空间》里,人类则只能依靠一个小小的图腾来判断自己是否在白日做梦。
影片末尾,Cobb终于回到了美国,见到了自己的孩子,一家人其乐融融、皆大欢喜。不过,Cobb的陀螺却还在不停旋转,此时影片戛然而止,成为让很多影迷无法释怀的悬念。也许不经意间,我们又被施与了一次“inception”:当《盗梦空间II》上映时,我们又会乖乖坐回电影院看那个陀螺是否最终会停下来。建议大家到时候也带上一个自己设计的图腾,看电影的时候也不妨看看自己是不是在做梦。