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Ryan Groat

Movie Scene Written Report

Describe the scene:Our group chose a scene from the 2010 film Inception. Cobb goes to

the French university where Miles, his father in law, works. He is in need of a new

architect, somebody who can design the dream world for Cobbs next mission. At first,

Miles objects to the fact that Cobb is there to corrupt one of his students. After Cobb

reveals that successful completion of his next mission would allow him to go home and

see his children, Miles relents.

1. Apply all 8 elements of interpersonal communication to your scene.The source-

receiverpair consists of Cobb and Miles. The encoding-decodingpair was Cobb, who

argued his point to Miles, who was attempting to understand why he should help his son

in law. The messageis that Cobb will likely never be allowed back into America to see

his children again if he is not able to complete this job, as he is a fugitive from justice.

Miles sends the message back that although he is reluctant to do so, he will help Cobb for

the good of his grandchildren. The discussion is face to face via a vocal-auditory

channel. There is a good deal of noisepresent in the conversation, as Miles is originally

quite reluctant to help Cobb due to the notions he holds about Cobbs professionand

failed relationship with his daughter.

The meeting takes place in Miles university classroom, which is the physical

context. The temporal context is vaguely present day. Miles relationship with Cobb has

been strained due to his daughters suicide after being caught up in a dream world with

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Cobb. The cultural context is that Cobb is American and Miles is from Britain, which are

both individualistic cultures.

The ethicsdisplayed in this scene are questionable. Cobb is asking Miles to

involve a third party in an illegal enterprise to further his own goals. In the end, Miles

compliance is also unethical. Cobb displays extreme competencein the art of persuasion,

as he gets Miles to completely reverse his original inclination after laying out his talking

points.

2. How do we see one of the 7 principles of communication used in this scene?The

principle that I chose is that Interpersonal Communication is Purposeful. Miles must

learnabout why Cobb is in his classroom and why he should lend his help. In order to

make his decision, Miles must relateto Cobbs position and understand his options.

Cobb is there in an attempt to influenceMiles using his children as the crucial leverage.

The dream worlds that both characters have traversed can be a form of playwhen they

arent actively working. In the end, Miles decides to helpCobb and voices the fact that

hes got the perfect candidate for the job.

3. Were your characters from individualistic or collectivist cultures? Explain how

their cultures affected the way they acted towards each other.Cobb is from the

United States and Miles is from England, though he resides in France during the scene.

They are both from individualisticcultures, though the end result would have likely been

the same if they had been from a collectivistculture where the family is highly valued.

4. What is a stereotype and what stereotypes are present in your scene?The

definition of a stereotype is a fixed impression of a group of people. Cobb uses his

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stereotype of what a grandfather should act like to formulate his argument. Miles may

have an impression that Americans are headstrong and stubborn as well.

5. Apply the four parts of the Johari Window to one of the characters in your scene.

Cobb is a well-dressed man during the scene, which is apparent to all and is his openself.

His blindself is that he is losing grip with reality, which Miles recognizes quite clearly

but Cobb himself cannot see. Cobbs hiddenself is that he cannot keep his dead wife out

of his dreams, but this is something he doesnt tell anybody. His unknownself is that he

has it in him to forgive himself for the death of his wife and let go of her memory. He

confronts her projection in the dream world later in the movie and does this.

6. What is a self-serving bias, and explain how one character used it in your scene.

Self-serving bias is when you are harder on other people than you are on yourself for

doing the same thing. Cobb exhibits this in the scene when he blames Miles dream

training partially on his current troubles. However, Cobbs plan is to train somebody in

much the same fashion to do the same job that he once did.

7. How could your characters have increased the accuracy of their impression

formation?Miles could have analyzedhis impressions to make sure that he didnt come

to any early conclusions before Cobb had fully stated his point. Cobb could have

checkedto see if Miles was interested in helping him without using his children as

leverage. Miles could have reduced uncertaintyby asking Cobb more questions about

the job he was about to embark on. Cobb could have respected Miles cultureas a

college professor more.

8. Apply all five stages of the process of listening to the scene in your movie.Miles

receivesthe message that Cobb wants his help. He understandsthat without his help,

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Cobb is unlikely to ever return to the United States to see his children again. Miles

remembersthat Cobb is in a highly dangerous, morally ambiguous and illegal line of

work. He evaluatesCobbs proposal and looks for alternatives. Finally, he respondsby

telling Cobb that he will, in fact, help him.

9. Name a listening barrier you saw and explain how it affected your scene.In the

scene, Miles is biased and prejudicedagainst the profession that Cobb has fallen into.

He steals ideas from people, and the idea of thievery is unappealing to Miles. He does not

want to encourage another one of his students to get into a life of crime.

10. Based on what weve learned in our class, how could communication have been

improved in this scene?In the minute or so that leads up to Cobbs proposal, he makes

almost no eye contactwhile he goes almost as far as accusing Miles of being the cause of

his current predicament. When Miles pleads with Cobb to return to reality, Cobb is

listeningto him but doesnt really hearhim. Instead, Cobb uses the term reality to turn

the argument around onto Miles.