Why Bother?


"We hafta go into a dream within a dream within a dream!"
Why?
"So that a corrupt global conglomerate can bribe corrupt American officials so that I can see my kids!"
Wouldn't it be much easier to just exfil your kids rather than to go into a dream within a dream within a dream and then trust corrupt people to follow through on their promises? Moreover, aren't you on good terms with the maternal grandfather? Wouldn't it be trivially easy for him to take the children to France?
"Can't fold Paris that way."

Spectacle sells more tickets than ideas. In the 90s, Hollywood made a lot of money destroying cities and landmarks.

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Well first off we don't know that any of this is happening in reality. But either way, what he wants is to be able to return home and live a normal life with kids. Assuming the father-in-law would be willing and able to take the kids to France, uprooting them to live with their fugitive father who could be arrested at any moment isn't really in anyone's best interest. Being in France doesn't just suddenly make you untouchable.

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Our common ground is that his objective is to reunite with his children. I can concede that, ideally, he would raise them in the US. Again, however, in terms of expected benefits vs. expected costs, it makes little sense to go into a dream within a dream within a dream and implant an idea.

You cite the possibility that France's status might be more fluid, but that would be an even bigger problem if he were to reside in the US. His admittance to the US is via corruption. This could be discovered and result in being locked up. His corrupt benefactor is in favor today, but maybe he's not in favor tomorrow. Alternatively, his benefactor could extort another favor out of him.

If France's non-extradition status is a problem, then it's a problem he's continually faced. He should have picked a different country for his home base before the film started. Companies and individuals look at a country's stability before settling in. Maybe a country has favorable tax rates, but it's not a good investment if it's susceptible to Communist Revolution. These considerations should have been weighed. Moreover, it's bizarre that France, the US's first ally, is a country he takes refuge in, but, then, it was probably chosen for commercial purposes: Better to fold the #1 tourist destination than, say, Moscow.

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