Sedation

[lezzerlee]

I have some unanswered questions about sedation in the movie. Not the sedation that dropped four people into Limbo, but the regular extraction sedation

Comments

[helenorvana]

I think there's a sedative component included in the somnacin formula (separate from the sedative Yusuf uses) - from what I can tell, both in the Nash-level and on the train they simply administered a stronger dose of somnacin to Saito to keep him under a little longer.

Possibly the sedative keeps them asleep even if there's no lucid dream to entertain them?

[lezzerlee]

This seems very likely. It just wasn't clear how exactly they were keeping the mark under when they would die in the dream. It would have to put them into a deeper sleep state.

[avarice_girl]

Presuming that nothing killed them, I think the subject would be able to stay in the dream without the dreamer, at least until the dream fully collapsed. In Saito's mansion, the dream takes ages to collapse before he's smacked in the head.

I agree that the sedative component would probably keep them under even if the dream collapsed though, maybe just in sort of a blank environment or something, as long as they aren't killed in the dream, or given a kick in real life.

[gen_is_gone]

Yeah, it seems like somnacin would be part sedative anyway, because otherwise you'd have to wait until the subject was in REM naturally before going under. What I didn't understand was how the dream stay up at all without the dreamer in whose mind it was taking place. It seems like everyone should wake up if the dreamer does.

Also, unrelated-ly, you're using one of my icons! :)

[fae_boleyn]

My theory was that they slip the mark something extra - I mean, they clearly do that with Fischer to knock him out in the first place. Maybe whatever that stuff is, it lasts a long time?

[avarice_girl]

I've always assumed that somnacin has to have a sedative component normally (and not just when Yusuf synthesises it) otherwise how do they all always go to sleep so quickly? I know I can't go to sleep on demand

[croik]

I think it's in the script for The Big Under that they show Saito was drugged with something in his tea, for the team to begin their extraction in the first place. Assuming they weren't in Arthur's castle dream for more than a few hours, that's no more than several minutes in real life. I don't know much about drugs used to incapacitate people (not my line of work, lol) but unless it was pretty weak, whatever they used was probably still affecting him after the Extraction was finished, allowing them to escape.

If you crunch the numbers, even the Inception couldn't have taken longer than a few minutes Plane Time. I'm sure you can get that much time out of some decent roofies, right!?

What I'm more interested in is what Arthur was doing to keep Saito under in Nash's dream. In the shooting script he says, "We have to reconnect the loop before they wake up!" and in his directions later, "[Arthur] connects the second tube." Second tube? To what?? I feel like it's hinting at some function of the PASIV but I dunno what.

[lezzerlee]

Oh, interesting observation. I wonder what the loop really was.

[heith_30]

*is late to the party