First off, I want to thank everyone who read the previous analyses, particularly those that commented! You guys spotted a lot of stuff I missed. Also, you made me feel relieved knowing that I'm not the only person obsessing over this movie (y'all are obsessing, right?). Anyhoo, I'll be bringing up your points throughout this post.
(Also, Lenny, was that all conjecture? Or was it from the plot detail leak a while back?)
So it's only been a matter of hours since I finished the last post and a matter of minutes since my last drink, but here I am yet again. As I prep my small Inception surprise before 2010, I find more things in the trailer that I missed in the previous entry, something even I found ridiculous as I began making these connections even during bathtime. C'est la vie.
To quote Morpheus from the Matrix Reloaded trailer, "Here we go."
[For the following, I'm going to use both teasers released so far.]
Since it won't fit anywhere else, I want to share a discovery by Aaron Faulkner regarding this shot:
Spot any other famous mugs in there? Cillian from behind, Leo of course, JGL with his gun...
...and yes, why it's Ellen! How could anyone miss her cute Canadian face? Thanks for the find!
Now onto the meat of the matter:
Considering Nolan's penchant for nonlinear storytelling, it would be difficult to guess what happens where in the story, even if we knew the plot. But we can place certain things in closer proximity if we look at the clothes people wear. For the time being, I'll only focus on Leo.
So whilst in Paris, Leo wears a very casual grey jacket with a blue button-up shirt. We can place this as his wardrobe for that entire scene.
I've been told I like to hammer in points. Anyway, this is already an easy scene to connect because we have Ellen throughout each shot in the same wardrobe to connect them already. But for future trailers, this may come in handy.
Now here's where I need your thoughts. So here Leo wears a brown leather jacket and the taxi is parked nearby. Convenient. When else have we seen a brown leather jacket and a taxi?
Right. Before I move to my main point, I'll tie in these two scenes together even more. Take a close look at the taxi in the previous shot:
Back window's out. How could that have happened? Well, I can't answer that, but I can show you another taxi that has its back window broken:
This is more than likely the same taxi. However because we do not see in either scene the actual breaking, we can't place which scene happens first. I will point out that in the shot with Leo in the brown leather jacket, the taxi looks dry, so this could be the earlier scene BUT we still don't know the rules of Inception too well (unless Christopher Nolan is reading this somewhere) I would say there's a possibility that the city-building, world-transforming, rule-rewriting power of ideas may also encompass the ability to (...wait for it...) 'make it rain.'
Okay, okay, main point. So whose jacket is it? If we go with the safer assumption that the brown jacket Leo is the first shot, then the jacket is indeed his. So why would JGL be wearing it during a chase sequence?
My guess is that they swap clothes so that JGL will be his decoy. This makes sense if you go with the idea that JGL is Leo's security detail. They will think Leo is driving the taxi and then:
Leo actually pops out of the backseat to shoot at his pursuers (assailants?). Wait, Leo? Yes, I said it seemed like Tom Hardy in the backseat before. Let's backtrack to the last entry I made.
Jen1 brought up the idea that this man in the brown jacket Leo shot is Tom Hardy. I judged from his out-of-focus face that it was JGL, but I don't think JGL's hairstyle has that left hand part. I think she (I will assume Jen1 is a she, awkward if you're not) is right, so I compared that guy's look to the man I had pegged as Tom before:
As much as I think it doesn't look like Leo, I think it's actually him, and not Tom. And for one reason I had overlooked before.
This man has a watch.
The man before (who I now believe to be Tom Hardy) has no watch. We've seen Leo with a watch before.
Many...
...many...
...times. Not only that, look at his shirt in all of those shots except for the one in the kitchen.
Striped shirt.
Between the watch and striped shirt, I think it's a safe enough bet that it's just one of those weird moment when a person doesn't look like himself, like when you contort your face, and that the man in the taxi backseat is Leo. As always, thoughts?
Now, moving on, Matthew Lensch pointed out that that thing/tube Leo is holding in the 'kick' sequence-
-is also being held by the sick/wounded in the sickbay shot-
-and by protagonist Ken in the waking/feigning sleep scene. Oh and also:
He too is wearing a striped shirt and watch. I had a crazy theory that an idea infects Leo and temporarily turns him into Ken because of the similar wardrobe, but there were too many discrepancies between them that I've abandoned the idea (punny enough for you?). I would at least guess from this that Leo and Ken will be doubled in this film, sized up as the antithesis of each other. But hey, what am I doing? Looking so much into two pieces of clothing. So take it with a grain of salt.
Going back to the watch, I was rewatching the first teaser while preparing that Inception treat for you guys and I came across something you all have probably already noticed (but I didn't because my brain was so fried yesterday from Avatar and screencapping and no eating and the drinking):
Whose watch is in that insert shot? Leo's or Ken's? Does it matter? God, I am going crazy.
not from Inception
