How are Motifs used in Thriller films?

A motif is a dominant or recurring idea or theme.

There are 3 main motifs or themes in the thriller Inception.

The first motif and reoccurring theme in Inception is that of the totems. The characters use totems to allow them to know if they are in a dream world or whether they are in reality, such as the totem of the main characters wife. Her totem is a spinning top and if she spins it and it doesn't fall over then she would know she was in a dream, if it fell over while spinning then she would know she was in reality. The spinning top could be seen as a metaphor for reality and that when it doesn't fall over it makes reality questionable. This is a really effective motif because personally it intrigued me into the film and even made me question my own reality a few times.



Another reoccurring motif in inception is "the kick music" the song is A slow down version of Edith Piaf’s song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien the English translation of this song title it "I don't regret anything" This is could be seen as antithesis because, the main character, Cobb spends most of the film regretting the implantation  of an idea in his wife's mind(inception) and the constant motif of the music which is saying "I regret nothing" reminds him of what he did and could be there to show the inner turmoil he is feeling. Another thing that Cobb regrets is not calling out to his children before he was forced to become a fugitive and this is shown as another thing he is regretting.

  Another motif in Inception is the open window, out of which Cobb watched his wife commit suicide on the night of their anniversary.  This window is shown in the third layer of the dream sequence and it shows that Cobb is slowly loosing his mind like his wife lost hers. it could also be down to the fact that he was the one who planted the idea in her head that her reality wasn't real and caused her to question everything and kill herself to go back to her children and what she believed would be reality.     Each of these motifs link to the main theme of Inception which is questioning reality and making the watcher wonder if what they know is actually real.


Motifs are often small little things in films that some audiences may not notice unless they are actually looking for them. Analysing this film and the motifs within have allowed me to think about the possibility of using a motif in the opening of my thriller film because I have seen how effective they can be.