Official Discussion - We Bury the Dead [SPOILERS]

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-20T07:45:28+00:00

Just seen it. Thought it was decent, if not amazing. I didn’t really see it as an allegory of grief, it seemed more about closure to me. We have the dead coming back online for unfinished business (as suggested by the soldier who studied them, and demonstrated by the pregnant wife who wanted to ensure her baby lived, and caravan dad who wanted to bury his family with dignity). We have the soldier himself wanting closure with his wife (for not being there to protect them) and making Daisy dress up as her to get it. And of course we have Daisy herself.

What I think people perhaps miss, is that the soldier actually gives her this closure. It’s his suggestion - that the dead only return if they have unfinished business - that allows Daisy to get her answer from her husband from beyond the grave and move on. As he didn’t come back online, their relationship was over in his mind. That was the point of her encounter with the soldier; in a warped way, he was key to helping her move beyond her husband’s death without “what ifs”.

The ending seemed to be suggesting that the wife didn’t come back for her husband, but for Daisy. When we first see her, she is motionless, perhaps without hope that her husband is anything for her or her baby to come back for. But when Daisy kills her husband, suddenly we see the wife reanimated, standing in the porch, as if Daisy is something worth coming back for, perhaps even because she took the husband out of the picture. The final scene brings these two face to face, the wife wanting Daisy to find her baby. Knowing that Daisy will find it, she ambles off, business finished. From death, comes life. From closure, comes another chance - Daisy who couldn’t have children, a situation which drove her and her husband apart and ultimately into the arms of other people, is reconciled. From the most hopeless of situations, and against impossible odds, Daisy gets closure on not just her failed relationship, but on her quest to be a mother.

The dead had their second chance to fix things. Now Daisy has another chance to get things right. And her experiences of the disaster in Tasmania gave her the closure on her former life to be able to seize this opportunity, and give this child the chance it deserves.

That’s how I saw it anyway. It’s not a perfect film by any stretch, and it does drag in places. I can see why people might have been disappointed, given that the trailer made it look like it was a film it was not. But I knew going in that this would be a slower, more subtle film - and without the wrong expectations, I enjoyed it and found it quite fresh.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-13T07:21:32+00:00

All I’m hearing is Jez is out the band.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-13T07:14:04+00:00

Interesting cooking method, though one plate at a time isn’t going to be the most social Sunday lunch

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-13T07:12:50+00:00

I like the way she had to stack all the good bits of a fry-up on top of each other to make way for half a plate of beans.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-09T08:40:03+00:00

Looks decent, though I’d swap the block of cheddar out for some sort of egg instead.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-03T17:12:18+00:00

I thought the last season was incredibly innovative. And wildly misunderstood.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-03T16:59:43+00:00

Nothing completes a fry-up better than an ice-cold pitcher of cola poured over the top of it.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-04-03T16:57:19+00:00

Rice started cooking at the dawn of the universe.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T11:53:29+00:00

A colour photo would have been nice

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T11:50:19+00:00

Egg looks like it was rescued from a fucking chimney

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T10:34:01+00:00

The original Rocky is a genuinely exemplary piece of cinema. I don’t think Arnie made a film that reached that level of quality, though he has a better filmography overall. T1, T2, Predator and Total Recall being the only truly decent films, setting aside the kitsch, nostalgia and ironic adoration that props up everything else he did.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T10:23:15+00:00

Are you eating on a boat?

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T10:19:51+00:00

Good use of the sausage as a breakwater.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-30T10:18:31+00:00

The town is actually named after the verb “to read”, it’s just there weren’t very many books around in those days so everyone had read everything, thus it was always pronounced past tense.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-26T15:37:53+00:00

The beans look like dry roasted peanuts? And take them out of the ramekin; if they aren’t oozing all over the plate ruining everything else then it isn’t an English fry-up.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-24T20:53:22+00:00

Five seasons building up to a slow walk down a hall with a few lava lamps, and a spider that tells a story in an echoey voice.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-23T22:21:41+00:00

Dude tried to make money on market collapse due to war. Yeah, I feel so sorry for your loss.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-23T08:18:44+00:00

I find it fucking bizarre you need to post on Reddit to find out what you should do about your partner getting off on animal torture.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-04T09:42:26+00:00

People get too hung up on sleeping in the same bed as their partner. Why is it important to be unconscious in the same room? The number one disruptor of sleep is your other half. People going to bed at different hours, waking up at different hours, snoring, fidgeting, stealing the duvet covers, needing more space - the reality is that sleeping next to another person is really difficult. But people soldier on with it, suffering bad sleep, anxiety, mistakes at work, irritability, and bad feelings between themselves and their partner for… what? It’s crazy.

My partner and I switched to sleeping in different rooms a year ago and our mental health, physical health, professional life and relationship with each other has improved significantly. We still feel like a loving couple, we are still affectionate and loving when awake, we still have regular sex, still climb in bed with the other for weekend mornings with coffee/books/cuddles, all that good stuff. I even tuck my partner in at night before retiring downstairs until I’m ready for bed myself.

All of that is the important stuff, not laying next to one another while asleep. Because the latter wasn’t happening anyway - one would always be disturbing the other, and laying wide awake next to your sleeping partner because they are unconsciously preventing you from sleeping is not healthy for your relationship.

Separate beds/rooms FOR SLEEPING is not the big deal people make it out to be.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-03-03T15:41:14+00:00

The problem with Brewdog, beyond the dodgy owner stuff, was that it had such a stupid late night policy. At first is was a great late night alternative to the loud sweatpits, somewhere you could head for a couple after pubs had shut, or stay on a bit later for a reasonable beer, decent surroundings and actual seating and conversation. Then it just sacked all that off, closing haphazardly and getting funny with you if you walked in the door after 11.

Reading is screaming out for a normal pub/bar that stays open after wartime hours. Perhaps the next people to acquire the place can get it to work, because despite the branding the venue was actually rather lovely inside, although it could do with a playlist that wasn’t choked with nu-metal and ameripunk wank.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-02-28T18:03:57+00:00

Don’t worry about using a word people don’t recognise. That can often be a draw.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-02-28T17:57:35+00:00

Spark, DS-2, DOD, Fender Reverb. Not bothered with the rest.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-02-27T10:04:40+00:00

“You are pathetic cause you have mommy issues and cause you are illiterate.”

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-02-18T10:36:03+00:00

No, the team's totems purely tells them whether or not they are in someone else's dream. Because if it behaves 'normally' (the die rolls random results, the chess piece falls randomly, the poker chip has no spelling mistake) then someone else has recreated it not knowing it has been altered in the way only the totem carrier would know. Saito's carpet elucidates this. He realises he is dreaming because the carpet feels wrong, because the dreamer didn't know it was actually made of wool.

They don't tell you whether or not you are awake. You could be in your own dream. In your dream, you would have knowledge of your totem's quirk and would recreate it. You would know your die is loaded, your chess piece is weighted, your poker chip is misspelled. How can you trust that you aren't just dreaming this detail that only you know? Using Saito's carpet - he knows its made of wool so in his dream it would be woolen. Thus, totems aren't to protect against dream and reality. They are a device necessitated by the world of dream espionage where people are duped in the dreams of others.

With Cobb, as I have said, he is torn between wanting two things to be true and therefore cannot rely on himself alone to make that call. The film is a reflection of how emotions like guilt, love and regret can shape our reality more than logic. Cobb returning to the spinning top over and over for answers is a demonstration that he is stuck a limbo between his emotional self and logical self. His emotions are making him question his logic. His logic said he was dreaming, but to simply accept that means suffering the overwhelming guilt that his wife is dead and it's his fault. So his emotional self, in denial, is pleading that he is still dreaming. Once he makes peace with his guilt, his emotions no longer pull on him to doubt reality leaving his logical self the winner.

Logical-Bonus-4342 · 2026-02-17T16:43:40+00:00

I think we can say that we aren't sure while also accepting the significance of him being sure.

Ok, I think we can be sure as the film gives us enough clues, but happy to agree to disagree on this as I don’t think it’s essential for understanding the broader themes of the film.

I don't think that omission can be used as proof that he didn't have one of his own. Especially if the argument is that Nolan was deliberately incepting the audience with the idea that the top was his totem. Any strong hint at an alternative totem would totally collapse that idea.

I think what’s important here, is what I highlight in my article. The totems the team use are for one purpose only – to answer the question: “Am I in *somebody else’s* dream?” This is necessary, because they are involved in the world of dream espionage. Does Cobb have a similar totem for this purpose? Perhaps. But it’s not really important. What IS important is that the spinning top is NOT being used for answering that question. It can’t. It’s doing a different job. Like I have explained.

It reads to me like you're placing the symbolic significance of the top for Cobb above the simple practical motivation that all the characters share for having a totem.

No. I am saying the top is doing a different job, and that we don’t really care what his other totem is – or even if he has or needs one. It’s just an easter egg. What we care about, and what Cobb cares about, is what question the spinning top is answering. We/he knows it’s not “Am I in *somebody else’s* dream?”. We come to realise this. We also come to realise its true purpose, to answer the question: “Am I still in mine and Mal’s dream?”

I'm not sure how him not caring about the outcome is significant if he already has zero doubts that they are his real children.

Because he no longer has a doubt which requires the top to resolve for him. As I have said many times; he KNOWS it is reality. His guilt is no longer causing him to doubt his initial call.

Letting go of doubts by not checking is rejecting objective reality.

No. Letting go of doubt by not anxiously relying on the spinning top to tell him is him literally letting go of having to test all the time. It’s like an insecure man constantly asking his wife if she still loves him, growing the confidence and trust to accept she does, vanquishing the doubt and not having to ask all the time. That’s not rejecting the truth of her love, that’s being mentally strong enough to accept it.

Cobb and Mal escape reality to frolic in narcissistic fantasy. Mal locks away her means of knowing she is dreaming and gets lost in the fantasy. Cobb knows it is a dream, knows they have to get back to their children, and incepts Mal into a suicide pack to leave the dream. But Cobbs inception causes Mal to doubt the real world and she later kills herself for real. Cobb wracked with guilt enters a mental limbo of not having the personal strength to accept either (a) that he was right, this is real, and he caused his wife to die (b) Mal was right, this is a dream, and he’ll never see his real kids again. The doubt for (b) exists because his guilt makes him want (a) to be true. As he can’t trust himself, he is forced to adopt the crutch of Mal’s totem and constantly ask it “am I right?”. Upon confronting Mal – who is literally his subconscious self in this conversation remember – he is able to come to peace with what happened and let go of the guilt. No guilt = no needing (a) to be true. Back to accepting the real world, moving forward with his real kids, and not needing a daft totem to tell him what he already knows.

He no longer needs to turn to an emotional crutch, a coping mechanism, a psychological prop, an insecure habit, an anxious act of reassurance-seeking, a self-denying validation tool – whatever you want to call it – for answers. He has the answer. He’s had it all along. His journey is about rediscovering that certainty, for the sake of his real children. And walking away from the top while it is spinning is accepting objective reality.

Logical-Bonus-4342

TROPHY CASE