While we have an Inception review where you can leave comments, we’ve set up this page as a place where you can discuss the Inception ending and other spoilers without worrying about ruining the movie for folks who haven’t seen it yet.
To help steer discussion we’ve added a lengthy analysis of Inception (especially the ending) and explained why our analysis of the film fits with the story Christopher Nolan intended to tell.
Does our Inception explanation match your theory? Find out!
Many people walked away from Inception impressed. Some were confused, some were even feeling like they had their brains woken by the most exciting and thought-provoking movie experience to come along all year.
I realize that most people who saw Inception have already made up their minds about what they perceived the film to be (and Nolan will undoubtedly be proud of that). However, for those of you still looking for an Inception explanation, we like to offer a few thoughts.
We’ve organized things by category for you, in case you’re more interested in one facet of the film than another. If you want to read about specific points you can follow the links below:
- The Rules of the Dream World (this page)
- The characters and their functions
- Inception Ending Explained
-
The Rules
So, the first thing to talk about are the rules of the dream world Nolan created for the film. With all the action that happened onscreen, it was easy to forget some of the finer details – but once the lights came up, and people had time to think, I know the question of who was dreaming which dreams certainly came up (among others questions as well).
Remember the basic premise: Cobb (the extractor) and his team are con artists, and like any con artists their job is to construct a false reality and manipulate it in order to confuse and/or fool a mark (in this case industrialist Robert Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy). Nolan takes the classic concept of a con man a step further by making Cobb and his team dream thieves, but in the end, the basic concept is still your classic con/heist movie.
Dream Levels and Dream Time
Nolan throws a lot of fancy math at you but it’s all really inconsequential. All you need to really know are the basic concepts:
The dream within a dream process puts you into a deeper state of dreaming. The deeper you go, the further removed your mind is from reality. We all know what that’s like: the deeper you sleep, the harder it is to be woken up and the more vivid and real-feeling a dream becomes. If you’re in a deep enough sleep, not even the usual physical ques to wake up effect you, such as the sensation of falling (“the kick”) or even, say, having to go to the bathroom.
By the time you reach the Limbo state it can be so difficult to wake, and the dream can feel so vividly real, that the mind stops trying to wake at all – the mind accepts the dream as its reality, like slipping into a coma.
When you wake up in Limbo you don’t remember that there is such a thing as a “real world” – as in any dream, you wake up in the middle of a scene and simply accept it for what it is. Breaking yourself out of this cycle is extremely difficult, which is why Cobb and his wife Mal were trapped in Limbo for what seemed like decades.
Time is the other factor. The deeper you go into a dream state, the faster your mind is able to imagine and perceive things within that dream state. We’re told the increase is exponential, so going deeper into dreams turns minutes into hours, into days, into years. This is why Cobb and his team are able to pull off the Fischer job while the van is still falling through the air, before the soldiers break into the snow fortress, before Arthur rigs the elevator, and all within the span of a flight from Sydney Australia to LA.
In Limbo, the mind works so fast that actual minutes can be interpreted as years gone by. When Saito “dies” from the gunshot wound he received on level 1 of the dream, his mind falls into Limbo, and Saito remains there for the minutes it takes Cobb and Ariadne (Ellen Page) to follow him into Limbo – those minutes in one dream state feel like decades to Saito in his Limbo state. By the time Cobb deals with expelling Mal’s “shadow” from his subconscious, Saito has begun to perceive himself as an old man.
Mal’s shadow stabs Cobb during the film’s climax, which throws Cobb back out into Limbo and onto the shores of Saito’s limbo house. When Cobb has to “wake” again in Limbo, his mind is muddled just like old man Saito’s brain. Through Saito’s memory of Cobb’s totem and some shared dialogue that included key trigger phrases – “Leap of faith,” “Old man full of regret, waiting to die alone,” etc. – Cobb and Saito are able to remember the meaningful conversations they had and that there is a reality they existed in before Limbo, where both of them had deep desires still waiting to be fulfilled (Cobb and his kids, Saito and his business). Once they remember that limbo is limbo, they are able to wake themselves up (likely with a gunshot to the head).
Continue to the characters and their functions…
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The ending is reality, but Cobb is infected with the idea that it is not the real world. Cobb does not see the totem wobble because he left the room already. T
he point is that Cobb was a subject of inception: Mal planted the idea that the reality is not reality, exactly what he had done to her.
guys its not a dream cause cobb said the spiner he has if it keeps spining that means its a dream if it stops spining it reiality at the end the camera zooms in the spineer as we see it slow down and woobel and whenever u spin something and it slows down and woobels means its gona fall down i think its reility or theres another inception coming
I think he was still in a dream, or even still in the limbo. If it is hard to escape from the limbo, how do we know he even escaped. But Everyone here needs to see the CollegeHumor Inception Ending Extended. It is great.
I just remembered something important. Didn’t Saito touch Cobb’s totem while they were in the limbo? Could that mean his totemcan’t work now?
Umm i think the guy that found Cobb washed up on the beach was the one that touched it.. he goes to show Saito the totem but Saito doesn’t touch it he just looks at it…and they did say that ONCE someone else touches the totem it no longer works..so at the end where we see the totem spinning it doesn’t really matter whether it stops spinning or not because it was touched..=)
Now that I think about it, not only the guy on the beach touched it, but didn’t Saito pick it up and spin it? Because someone did indeed spin it other the Cobb because both Cobb and Saito where looking at it spinning.
Haha lol yeS he dOes pick it up and spin it…see all these comments and interpretations about the ending of the movie is starting to confuse me now…i think im gonna end up in limbo like Saito lol =p
but yea ok so Saito did touch it, not just Saito but also the guy that found Cobb sooo… twO people touched it!?…Ooo thats even worse lol…
Someone touching the totum does not negate its effect. It just makes the chance that someone will get the info on your totem, and then it will not work as intended if the buse the dream to make the totem do what they want it to.
This is flawed.. I don’t know if it was discussed..
Each level of the dream DOES NOT belong to each individual. There are valid reasons why each individual stays on a certain level, up to the point of limbo.
The dreamer, the whole time is Fisher. Cobb even tells Ariadna that they are going into Fishers dream, but Fisher thinks they are going into his Uncle Peter’s dream to get the answers.
The driver stays on the first level, because 1) his role was not large, only to provide a sedative to keep them in a deep sleep and 2) to protect them while they(the more important characters) go into the next level, because Fishers subconscious has defenses which are fighting against them as they go deeper, on the first level.
Cobb’s partner stays on the second level, because 1) He needs to make sure there’s a kick to get them out of the 3rd level and 2) to protect them while they’re in the 3rd level.
The reason why the forger stays on the 3rd level is because 1) He needs to make sure that Fisher is protected and can give him a kick to get him back to the 3rd level when he falls into limbo with the paddles and 2) because he is the forger and needs to know what Fisher finds out in order to keep the dream sequence feeling “real”, basically he HAS to be with Fisher the whole time because of his forged role.
Cobb and Ariadna go to limbo because 1) Ariadna forced her way(out of curiosity, after learning that Cobb was keeping a secret, ie. on her OWN will) into Cobb’s dreams and she found out that he was keeping the dark secret. Cobb needed to trust her because she was the only one that knew the depth of his subconscious as parts of it were revealed to her throughout the movie. Ariadna helped him to let go of these ‘shadows’ of his wife, but I don’t think she was the plan of Cobb’s father.
Saito goes to limbo because he dies in every dream sequence and if you die in that deep of a sedation, you only go deeper into the dream. They even said it.
Fisher goes to limbo because he dies in the 3rd level.
——
The beginning of the movie is PART of the END of the movie. Cobb is with Saito, as an old man.. Then the movie forward to Cobb’s “audition” as Saito put it. Then we see everything that led up to the END of the movie.. The END of the movie(after we’ve watched all the stuff that leads up to that point) then resumes right where it had cut out in the beginning. Cobb and Saito go back and forth “remembering”, hence.. They wake up.. Just as we see the top NOT fall over, we don’t see the entire recollection and realization that it is all a dream..
I might add that, we could trust Cobb a little when he told Ariadna that all he was going to do was get Saito and come back. The only thing Ariadna was worried about, was that Cobb would get stuck in limbo again, because of his wife’s ‘shadow’.. Which he didn’t.
I think the posing of his children at the end was intended to psyche people out and further give them the idea that maybe it was still a dream.. If the kids had been in any other position the viewers would not have thought.. “maybe it is a dream still” after watching the top spin and not fall. Also, he could NOT see his kids faces in the dreams, it was impossible, he already said it: no matter how much he tries to change that moment, he can’t.. In the dream the kids get called in by the grandmother. In reality, they turn, look at him and run to HIM. His subconscious tried to trick him in the dream when Mal told him to look at his kids, but he looked away because he knew it was a dream.. and not reality.
What about the part where Saito, Cobb and the forger Emmz(forgot his name)are talking about how they’re going to convince Robert Fischer to shut down his dads empire or whatever…i remember the forger asking about Mr. Browning…when they were all planning how to do this, the forger was saying that he studied Mr. Browning (Fischers right hand man/Fischers godfather) and even said he was able to ”impersonate” Browning making Fischer think that Browning is Browning??…Maybe it’s just my eyes but near the end where they wake up back in the white van, Fishcer and Mr Browning escape and when they get out of the water they sit on the rocks and Fischer’s saying how he’s going to be a better man bla bla notice how the camera is in front of them while Fischer’s talking to Browning, then as the camera moves to the back of them, if you look at Mr. Brownings face it changes and it looks like the forger…so that whole time they were in Fishcers dream the forger was playing two people? himself and Mr. Browning??? i don’t know what im trying to get at but i noticed no-one has mentioned that…
Oh.. I didn’t see the change in character appearance that you’re talking about.. but! Yes.. The forger was his self, and Mr. Browning. Basically.. He could forge his appearance whenever necessary, like.. when he came into contact with Fischer.
Remember that part where Cobb and whoever were telling the forger he needed to hurry up, when he’s sitting in front of the mirror in the first level of the dream? And you see the forgers regular appearance by looking at him, and the reflection is that of Mr. Browning?
The forger can change his appearance whenever he wants.. In the first level of the dream he has to maintain his appearance as browning for Fischer, because if he doesn’t… It will mess with Fischers’ subconscious and it can mess up the inception.. Fischer doesn’t know he’s dreaming on the first level.. He only thinks he’s dreaming in the second level (in the hotel).
…At least that’s how I understand it.
I entirely forgot that the limbo was still part of Fisher’s dream. I am sorry, I thought when you go to the Limbo, you end up in your own dream, seperated from the rest of the group. I am sorry.
@LordDalek
Two things: First, Saito and his bodyguard only touched the top IN THE DREAM, so it was not ruined as a totem. Its real-world properties were NOT affected.
Second, Limbo is not part of ANYONE’S dream; it CAN be accessed from someone’s dream but is NOT part of it.
I think you should see CollegeHomur’s Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception.
I agree with the article and people are reading too much into everything. The spinning thing is what made me know that the end was real. Also Cobb’s wedding band seems to be there in some scenes and gone in others. I don’t believe this whole thing was a dream crap. This isn’t Shutter Island. The top wobbles and like the article says, in the dream world it never wobbled, it just kept spinning perfectly so to me the end was real. It seemed clear to me. People alwasy has to ruin things by over analyzing.
I would have to agree with you too Carol, in the end. It is just a movie. But was a good one, don’t get me wrong.
Couldn’t agree more Carol! It’s so obviously the reality.. Getting sick of people thinking (or wanting) the ending was a dream.
!! LISTEN TO WHAT THE SON SAYS AT THE VERY END !! … the son says “Look what Ive been building”, Cobb says “What have you been building?”, son answers “Were building a house on cliffs” .. sounds to me like its NOT reality, and the children have been “building” just like Cobb has in earlier dreams. Havent ironed out all the details, but I have the movie downloaded and have listend to this part a few times now and that is definately what is said. But of course everyone has there own opinion, should really give it a listen yourself. Let me know what you think
The ending was left hanging, so it was hardly obvious. If you really think it was that obvious i suggest you watch it again. The top never stopped spinning, so you therefore you dont know if it stopped or not, that was the point.
The movie was so full of ideas and metaphors that it is impossible to draw any conclusions, therefore the inception is on the audience. Genius. It’s a film about dreams and subconcious, its supposed to be open-ended with many possible theories and explanations.
For “jesus” to say “its so obviously reality” well I guess you missed the whole point of the movie! I thought the whole thing was a dream, but that was MY interpretation, as is “its obviously reality” is yours. If thats the case tho why the hell are you even bothering to read these theories if “your sick of people thinking or wanting it to be a dream”. The simple answer would be not to bother..
Let people appreciate a film for what it is. This is what art is about, making you think and question what is in front of you, as does cobb through much of the movie. Not nice to piss on peoples bonfires just because they have a different opinion to your own. Excellent film, and some really interesting thoughts and ideas from most of the posters on here. Pity some of you are so close-minded.
Oh and thanks for ruining shutter island! I havent bloody seen it.
Jim,
PLEASE tell me you’re joking. You DID read the title of this article, right?
INCEPTION ENDING EXPLAINED.
Vic
Yes i read the title of the article..
BUT YOU CANT EXPLAIN THE ENDING vic, that is the point.
Please tell me you are joking.
Jim
Jim,
First – sorry for all caps, shouldn’t have done that.
Second, yes, you CAN explain the ending. People just rationalize the hell out of things to reach their own conclusions.
Third, I didn’t look at the comments above yours closely – we publish over a dozen stories a day and the site gets hundreds of comments every day, which I try to skim for moderation reasons, so I don’t get every nuance.
Thanks,
Vic
For me the ending is reality because if it’s not the entire movie is pointless to me. Cobb has to overcome his guilt about Mal only so he can stay in a limbo dream with his kids that are only his imagination or memory? What good is that? Why then does he tell Mal that his memory of her is not as good as the real thing (her actually alive)? If she never was real enough, then why would being with memories of his children be good enough? And why bother with the entire scam to do the inception to break up the companies? Seems like a lot of go through only to end up still in a dream.
wao this is one of my favorite movies, I’m studying film direction/production and it is because of this type of movies
I thought the movie was ‘ok.’ I was a bit dissappointed after all the hype. Interesting analysis of the movie though. I like the idea that it was all Mal’s dream, but then again when looking back at the movie I don’t see any evidence. And the top is real, because in the dream world it never wavers, but does at the end.
I say that as it is spinning still and walks away that is the turning point and perceives the dream he is still in reality and the top is then considered real and starts to wobble. How he would still be in the dream is another question. I have a few ideas for that though.
He is still in a dream state at the end of the film. In fact the wife never actually dies, she just kicked back to reality. The proof is he is constantly hunted in his ‘reality’ world by gun weilding bandits and other clues.
I agree Mal kicked back it is Cob who is in denial. He is unable to surrender to the reality of a non dream world, and resists all attempts of his subconscious to restore him to probably a boring unfulfilling life.
@aj
How is the fact that he’s chased proof that it’s a dream???
wait so i don’t get the ending.
was he still in a dream? cuz the thing was still spinning. :S
@Carly
I and many others feel sure that he was back in reality because the top, though spinning at the blackout had begun to wobble (which does NOT happen in a dream, as the top would spin, virtually forever, WITHOUT a wobble ONLY in a dream).
There are many people, though, who feel just as certain that he is still in a dream because the top, at the blackout, continues to spin.
Of course, both sides have quite a few other (and varied) reasons for believing yea or nay, but the top has proven to be a focal point of discussion, debate, argument, and even contention among the people posting on this particular thread.
Ultimately, you will decide for yourself anyway, so welcome to the madness
Vic if you bothered to read the comments above me, you would realise what i was referring to.
lol
I do not claim to know exactly what Mr. Nolan meant or intended, but I was struck by the obvious (to me) parallels between what happens in INCEPTION and Dante’s Inferno. Dante finds himself midway through life (threatened by beasts he can’t seem to avoid, in a dark wood, unable to find the “straight way” out) He is falling into a “deep place” and only the appearance of his guide helps him find the way out.
The other parallel I saw was the “guide” Ariadne– who reminded me of Ariadne of Greek mythology, who was best known as the “Mistress of the labyrinth (maze)” and for giving Theseus a thread and leading him away from the Minotaur and out of the maze.
@Gary
I agree with everything you just said. BUT, it’s still fun to read everyone’s theories, especially when a lot of them make prefect sense.
He was dreaming all along. Let me explain this, so you can see what I mean.
- Cobb worked for Cobol Enterprises (too easy, but still evidence).
- Cobb was chased by the company’s henchmen, although never catch. He even gets cramped in a “smaller-by-the-inch” passage (too convenient).
- Saito was a job that, even thou it was a failed one, finds his way to “return” to the point where he can offer Cobb “redemption”. Why bother, when he could employ Cobol Enterprises directly?
- Ariadne is THE Ariadne of Greek Mythology. Cobb, being a former architect knew her story, and needed a “stronger and detached” projection to help him. Why try to protect her from Mal, when in “dreamworld” they would simply woke up upon death in the dream, if not?
- Cobb is so lost in unthinkable dream levels that he can no longer return to reality, but he can make peace with his guilt. In the end THIS is what the movie is all about, and everything else is just a fabrication of Cobbs mind to help him “solve” this point.
- His wife is the only one of them both who “awoke” (her suicide).
- The unstoppable spinning top is the final key (yes it is, because the top never ceases to spin, and the fact the he “finds” his children in the EXACT same situation he remembers “leaving” them is the perfect “back to reality” point in his projection (the decision he talks about in the entire movie he regrets he cannot change even in his “dreams”).
Finally I wanna add two things:
1) I admire profoundly Nolan’s work, and this is no less prove of his ability in film-making: he manage to disguise a love-flick into a sci-fi action thriller perfectly.
2) The idea is old as farts, but he managed to make a visual and narratively incredible movie.
I definitively enjoyed and recommend this movie. Go to the cinema, don’t watch it on your TV. It’s absolutely worthwhile.
if Cobb was in a dream the whole time then why did the spinning top stop spinning at different times throughout the movie?
a top that stops doesnt prove it is reality.
a top that never stops proves it is a dream.
It stops = he’s not in someone else’s dream.
the top stops ‘spinning’ means its reality. his is because he can no longer control it not to while he can do that in the dream. now if you say he cant control it in another persons dream, then he hade to be in reality first befor getting into another persons dream.
but i dont realy know if he was awake at the end, but i think he was.(a wobbling top is half way down) it will eventually fall. the producers realy did a good job, this is the first film of this kind.
I think this is a distinct possibility. My problems with it is that all points leading up to him getting on the plane would need to be dreams, then him waking up on the plane would be reality, then he would go see his kids. I kept thinking throughout the whole movie that it would be really mean, but not altogether inappropriate, if all this is a dream sequence in which Cobb is working out some issues regarding his own work, wife, and kids.
The complete change in interactions between Cobb and the rest of his crew after he awakes on the plane allows us to interpret the two options outlined in this article, plus the possibility he was dreaming all along.
What makes me think that this is probably not a plausible solution is the fact that the totem is such a central feature in the movie. If this ‘rule’ is a fabrication (seeing as how stuff in dreams *can* act like stuff in reality – a spinning top, etc), that begins to break trust in other ‘rules’ and would undermine lots of elements of the movie. Sort of like the end of Lost, if I can go off topic for a second.
Inception was fantastic. However, not nearly as complicated and mind bending as Primer. That one was never intended for large audiences since it requires so much brainpower, but worth seeing if you can get it rented.
In the end he is still in a dream. The clues are given throughout the film. Here is why.
1) The children are a metaphor. He sees them like that throughout the film. When he arrives back, they are in the same position.
2) When he returns, the children are in the same position as when he left.
3) When he arrives home, there is nobody looking after the children.
4) In the dreams, he is constantly being chased by Matrix like agents. In Mombassa, he is also chased by the Matrix like agents of the corporation.
5) Mal tells Cobb that the Matrix like agents chasing him are a sign he is in a dream (big clue)
6) In Mombassa what was with the very narrow alleyway?
9) When Mal climbed out of the window, she was on the wrong side of the street.
10) Finally – and most importantly, Mal and Cobb experience 50 years. They were very deep – but awoke from only 1 level.
Mal has returned to reality. Cobb is still asleep and she returns to try and place the same idea in Cobb’s mind as he did to her.
This echoes what I feel happened. He was DREAMING THE WHOLE TIME (except the end, when he woke up on the plane). Consider:
- Whenever there is an external rumble and the drink in a glass ripples, it is because there is ‘a disturbance’ outside. Like turbulence.
- The zero-G work happens when the PLANE OUTSIDE is turning — gravity in the dream gets thrown for a loop.
- Mal has chastised Cobb that his ‘reality’ of being chased everywhere by faceless corporate goons is a paranoid fantasy and IS NOT REAL. We might dismiss it at the time because she’s the antagonist, but her logic is sound: Does it sound like anyone’s reality to you? No. Because it’s not. Take this one step further and imagine if Cobb was sleeping on the plane – then his own overall dream would ‘make it feel real’ (like what he was telling Ellen Page in the French sidewalk cafe’. And they won’t realize how strange it was until after he woke up.
- No one at the airport at the end recognizes him – because they are indeed strangers.
- His dad never was in France (because that was part of the dream), and that’s why he’s there to greet him when he returns home.
- Cobb never dies or gets wounded in the whole movie — until he drowns in the river (which we don’t see on screen, but it’s implied). Once he dies in the river, he wakes up for real. On the plane.
- This also explains why the kids never age.
- Side note: Think of the multi-ethnicity aspect of the cast – Much like the multi-ethnicity you would find in an airplane.
- It doesn’t matter if the top spins forever or falls; it’s just something Cobb does. Which is why he dreams it.
There are probably other things to support this theory as well. To me, it makes a LOT more sense than justifying a fictional world of paranoid corporations and dream technology and all this other stuff that DOESN’T EXIST. (Yeah, I know it’s fiction — but just because the movie introduces the idea in the beginning as truth, doesn’t mean it was telling you the truth!!)
Think about it…
He did get wounded, didn’t he? I’m pretty sure Mal stabbed him in ‘limbo’ when she realized he was going to leave her. And if he had drowned in the river, why would that wake him up? I thought when you were sedated that heavily, you wouldn’t wake up when you died; you would just drop into limbo. Why would he wake up from drowning in the river?
PRIMER IS AWESOME!!! Love that movie. And I agree with you that it’s more mindbending.
Re: The totem… If the spinning totem is his (or Mal’s) favorite item in real life, it would make sense that he would dream about that as well. Same reason why he could never see anyone else’s totem.
I hear you re: breaking trust in the other ‘rules’ that were set up in the dreams. But I don’t think that trust is broken. What’s cool about the movie (one thing, anyway) is how elaborate and complex the rules are. Even if it’s all a dream, that doesn’t mean the rules don’t still hold up.
… Maybe.
I loved this movie! But there are random things i have to point out.
How come there was zero gravity for arthur at the hotel, but at the snow fortress there was still gravity? At first i thought maybe the kick only affects the next dream level BUT as yusuf begins the kick in the first layer of dream, it is felt in the second and third layer with the avalanche at the fortress. Plot hole or some kind of explanation i missed. Please reply
Also, when saito dies in the snow fortress he goes to limbo and Cobb follows him there. If their bodies drown in the city and if there bodies die in the elevator, and the fortress (supposing they did die) wouldn’t they be trapped in limbo? Or do their deaths act as a sort of insta-kick and skip over those levels back to reality on the plane. Also please reply.
Lastly, When saito dies in the fortress and goes to limbo, wouldnt the big explosion in the snow fortress kill them all and send them to limbo? Also please reply.
There are a bunch of different questions/comments left like if Cobb got Mal’s totem from their dream how would he be able to use it in reality? Ive only seen it once and i had to pee twice so i missed a few minutes:P so if i missed some key points or something my bad. Absolutely loved the movie it’s my new favorite, please comment back!
@ heereman
“Lastly, When saito dies in the fortress and goes to limbo, wouldnt the big explosion in the snow fortress kill them all and send them to limbo? Also please reply.”
When the charges went off, the fortress collapsing produced the kick it was intended to before they all “died” and went to limbo.
Also, theres one thing pulling me to the theory that it is all a dream, because is Mal is really dead, gone, and genuinely a non-existent “person”/”projection” how the hell does she know where Fischer is in the apartment scene?
I just watched it for the second time tonight and i fully think/know he’s in reality at the end.
“Mal is really dead, gone, and genuinely a non-existent “person”/”projection” how the hell does she know where Fischer is in the apartment scene?”
Before Cobb goes to limbo Cobb says that mal’s projection is trying to lure him to limbo so he can stay with her their. So mal takes fishcer to limbo in order to bring Cobb there too.
When the fortress collapses that can’t be to kick them out of the fortress, because the kick works in the layer BEFORE to get them BACK to that layer. My theory with them blowing up the fortress is to kill everyone inside which includes Eames, which would then destroy that dream. The reason for this is because if there were layers of dream in between reality and limbo then when saito and cobb killed themselves in limbo they’d go back to the closest layer of dream. So, they killed eames with the explosions and then later ended the other dream layers in order for Cobb to get back safely.
I don’t know what other evidence there is toward the whole movie being a dream, so if you can think of any tell me and ill give you my explanation. Lastly, if the whole movie ended with the whole movie being a dream i don’t think it would be as good at all. I think the ending with the top is simply just to keep you guessing.
Hi there,
@hereman regarding-
““Mal is really dead, gone, and genuinely a non-existent “person”/”projection” how the hell does she know where Fischer is in the apartment scene?””
First lets put the facts,1)Mal is dead 2)Cobb is in the dream.
Now, as cobb is in the dream, the Mal there, is a projection from Cobb’s subconscious, and since its a dream, Cobb’s perspection of Mal’s mind projects a situation where Mal has come to jeopardise his mission(this perspection comes from Cobb’s guilty conscious of letting Mal die). Now, since immediately after Mal shoots Fischer and Mal herself dead, both end up in Limbo(because Cobb thinks Mal has inserted herself into this dream) and so Cobb ventures into another level along with ariadne to keep him grounded and not getting lost. Now, in this other level, the dream entirely is projected from Cobb’s raging subconscious and so you find all those buildings. Hence he knows where to find Mal and also dreams/believes in his dream that Fischer is captured by him.
Now, remember Fischer is not entirely dead, he is captured in Mal’s world which is actually a projection from Cobb’s subconscious. Since saito is also in that Limbo level, dicaprio goes in search of him.
Excellent take. Mal is only involved in the Fischer mission because Cobb can’t control his thoughts. Ariadne repeatedly asks Cobb about his inability and the increased risk that entails for the mission. Cobb knows that Fischer is with Mal because Mal’s involvement is coming from his subconscious, and not the other participants. So he has to confront that part of his subconscious to get Fischer. The scene where he tells her that he knows she is a construct – and further tells her that they did grow old together – is important since he is finally letting go of that “dream.” She is a total illusion as evidence by the kids being in the scene. Clearly, the kids aren’t dreaming // using inception. Mal’s world is an illusion. Cobb won’t look at the kids because he knows they are an illusion. He asks her why she left him and the kids in the real world. At a minimum, we know the kids are not there. Mal doesn’t treat them as constructs. She must be one.
Unlike the others, Cobb used to be an architect. His subconscious is leaking into Ariadne’s work. As she designed the mission’s architecture, she is aware of where her work ends and Cobb’s subconscious begins. As they explore limbo, she has no clue about the buildings, which Cobb has to explain.
This movie was brilliant. Thats all I can say, its worth seeing 3 times or more… it took me to see it twice to really understand the movie. Sheer brillance…
for all saying he was dreaming the whole time.. you are wrong….stop looking into this movie so fricking deeply. Nolan would be laughing at this column and patting himself on the back as a f’n genius cause he’s got u all so confused.
they did a job for Cobal in Saito’s mind.. and failed. boo hoo. Saito gave Cobal their old architect cause he sucked, but Cobal still wanted the remaining dudes, which Cobb escaped their goons(they were not projections…they just wanted to kill frickin Cobb).. oh and about the “tiny tunnel” he squeezes through..how is that even part of the discussion of a dream thing? have u been to mombassa???? they prolly have alleys like that!!! WHO KNOWS? so thats the most unimportant thing ever..
OK..continuing on..one of u said that his dad was in the dream world –>Michael Caine teaches in france and isnt banned from the U.S. so him meeting him at the airport is no dream…(he told Caine that he had a way to get home..it’s his f’n DAD..surely he told him about the flight and being a good dad he is, he showed up at the airport..)
next–>with the dream levels..1st one they had the security of fischer’s mind(unexpected yes, but they knew it was possible) yusuf was driving and it affected the dream in the bar with them all because they were all in that dream level, everyone went deeper except Arthur so only HE would have the full effect of the zero-g falling van, the others had only a little effect of it(the avalanche) cause they were deeper. Notice how the security stopped going after them in fischer’s mind as soon as fischer beleived that he was dreaming and that Cobb(and the others) weren’t real. in the snow layer of the dream, fischer thought that he was in his godfathers head(so he thought there would be security against them thus the army going after them all (fischer being completely safe cause they actually were his projections)–>only the other dudes were in actual danger. Fischer got shot by Mol–>COBBS projection, which make sense. and so they go deeper to get fischer who falls off the building with Ariadne waking them from that level. then the explosion in the snow level wakens them to the level arthur was in which they wake from the falling elevator and then finally the water wakes em up. Cobb and Saito are in limbo from dying(so the water isn’t affecting them—they are dreaming and in a deep dream). they others wake up in plane after fischer accepts the inception and booyah done on that level Job complete wait for the s*** to wear off to wake on the plane(or maybe the shot each other doesn’t really matter they were in the first level of the dream).
NO ONE DIED IN ANY OF THE DREAMS except Saito and Cobb. the others awoke from the falling sensation that works on all levels because of yusaf’s tweaking of the formula so inner ear function still recognizes falling and jolts u awake.
Cobb and Saito however died(saito was shot) and Cobb died because the dream was collapsing because all layers above were about to be donezo an him being as low as he was–>boom sent to limbo.
In limbo–>dont realize ur dreaming or w/e they explained, but shootin ya in the head would wake you (though u might not want to because u think ur not dreaming) but it WORKS..look at mol and cobb when they were in limbo–>died and woke up. they didnt wake up to another level…they weren’t in a lower level they were in LIMBO! not a level, just free dream space.
continuing on… someone stated “- No one at the airport at the end recognizes him – because they are indeed strangers. ” wrong again, did u see the movie, they all looked at each other, not gonna frickin talk to each other cause they just did the most illegal thing on the planet.
cobb and saito didn’t drown or die in the river, he was dead in the lower levels of the dream and in limbo with saito..
in his memories he never looked at his kids faces, in his memories the kids were called off by some unknown person.
when he returns home, kids were called by Caine, he sees his kids faces
with the aging of the kids, who the f knows how old they were in the dream world or in real life anyways? so how can one speculate they didn’t age.
and finally the top…pretty pointless to even discuss in my opinion but its flawlessly spinning in the dream(the only time we see this is in limbo with mol) every other time it falls and even at the end it wobbles..i know it doesn’t stop nut big woop thats just to make us all like..”wait..what?” but hopefully only for a second!!! guess not tho..
I could continue in proving that he was not dreaming the whole time and that they dominated that mission and the movie was awesome..but hopefully i made my point..
Peace
TABITHA
wow, tabitha, for someone who signs off with ‘peace’ you sure are full of hate and vitriol. Take it down a notch, will you? Geezh.
I wasn’t offering ‘proof’ — just another interpretation of the movie. And I don’t think you ‘proved’ anything in your own post; you make some good points, but I think you missed the point of mine altogether. My point was that it’s a lot simpler to view it all as a dream then it is to present the contorted defense that everything was real. In fact, making it all a dream actually supports the themes and ideas that were presented in the film. I too think the movie is awesome, but don’t think that I’m the idiot just because you can’t understand my sound theory.
Peace.
@Steve Thomas
You’re right that it is simpler to say it was all just dream. Unfortunately, if it WAS a dream, then Nolan made a horrible film, because NOTHING mattered in the story, INCLUDING what a lot of people keep falling back to about him simply accepting the dream as reality to reunite with his kids to FINALLY achieve happiness.
NO.
“Mal” offered him that chance right before she revealed where Fischer was being held, but he rejected it BECAUSE MAL IS DEAD IN REALITY, and he didn’t want to spend a lifetime with a subpar mere projection of her. THAT actually happens in the film.
@archaeon
I hear ya. I don’t view the film the way you do in your first paragraph though. Perhaps I misspoke. To say ‘it’s all a dream’ in the way that Bobby Ewing getting shot in Dallas was a dream (remember that??) is not what I meant — in that instance, you would be right; it’s all just a BS story. But to rephrase my thoughts…
I do feel it was all a dream — but there is a guy (Cobb) dreaming the whole time, and like all dreams, they are reflections of what’s going on with that person’s mind and heart. This is a story of a man overcoming his guilt, blaming himself for his wife’s death (so yes, I agree Mal IS dead in reality). The story of him overcoming his guilt was told in the context of this quite elaborate dream.
I know it may be anathema to many to consider that a story could be ‘just a dream’, but ultimately does it matter? It’s fiction, whether it’s a dream or not. It’s just semantics. Why would it weaken the movie at all if it was entirely ‘just a dream’? As a story telling an emotional journey it’s valid — and because of the emotions, it DOES matter, dream or no dream. Why is it hard to accept a story that might be ‘just a dream’? (insert any David Lynch movie here).
@Steve Thomas
I feel I understand you a bit more…I still don’t AGREE with everything you’ve said, but I, at least, see why you are thinking the way you are somewhat clearer.
The reason I think it weakens the film if it’s a dream throughout is simply this: Nolan does an excellent job setting up the universe of the film, BUT if the movie (or even a signicant portion of it) is a dream, then it seems as if all of that careful planning and exposition (and revelation) falls by the wayside, thus making the overall experience of WATCHING the film poorer. It would be as if Nolan flipped his middle finger at the audience and said (laughingly), “Hey, all of you, I just led you down one path while making you think you were going down another!” The example of “Dallas” and its dream season actually is the PERFECT example–a LOT of the fans of the show were furious when they discovered the storylines and characters they had invested in for several months were parts of a huge lie…that everything was FAKE.
That is, in fact, the essence of my utter refusal to believe in the “It’s a dream” idea. To me, “all a dream”=FAKE=bad film.
That said, I still respect the fact that you are trying to think more deeply about the film…That open potential is what really makes the film brilliant to me
You know, it is funny how it’s hard to accept a story that is ‘just a dream’ as being as full of a story as one that’s not a dream. And I’m not speaking about you, per se, but about audiences as a whole. Dallas’ dream didn’t work because it was so clearly tacked on. Yet Kafka’s Metamorphosis seemed to work just fine. And as for the potential of Nolan flipping us the bird… well, (barring the cynicism), isn’t that the nature of all storytelling? Offering a red herring and making the audience think something is true when something else is true altogether? Like The Usual Suspects. Or The Sixth Sense. Or anything Hitchcock (esp. Psycho!). Whether a story is a dream or not, that’s what I love about well-crafted red-herring-do… is that a word?
As for Inception, I just keep finding myself coming back to Mal’s line to Cobb that makes him question whether his own paranoid view of life resembles any life that he’s ever heard of, let alone reality. The nameless corporations and the paranoia at every turn being accepted by Cobb (and us) as ‘reality.’ I actually agree with her here. This also makes it easier to swallow the giant black train that comes storming through the city street; though they’re explained away as Saito’s security team (which would be the rationale Cobb would believe), the fact that it was a train seems too highly coincidental for it not to be from COBB’s imagination. So I keep coming back to the idea that Cobb was dreaming everything.
I actually do hope Nolan was (ahem) flipping his middle finger at us. I actually don’t think he would be such a DB about it, though.
I just think he loves misdirection (as in Memento and The prestige… two more flipping-finger movies!)
Thanks for the lively discussion. I love purposefully ambiguous stories.
One last thing… I meant to mention… And at the danger of being too literal…
Any fictional story was dreamed up by some writer somewhere… so why would framing it within a ‘fictional dream’ weaken its point? I mean this question rhetorically, but I do think there’s an answer. Any movie will have its own inner logic — but when you say ‘it’s all a dream’, then suddenly you’re substituting the nature of its logic with the different logic of the ‘real world.’ Which is highly disappointing (see: Dallas).
But here, I think the ‘it’s all a dream’ idea actually serves the story rather than hinder it. Perhaps because they talked about the nature of dreams the whole time, and the very topic is what the movie is about (in part, anyway). Also, in this scenario, the inner logic of the overall dream is not contradicted or substituted by anything else. Instead, it serves as a backdrop to view this new perspective of reality in a different light. Which, for my money, makes it not disappointing at all, but highly satisfying.
Ah, good times….
@ the very peaceful Tabitha
If it really was all reality, and the dream phases existed, why did Cobbs projected entity “Mal” know where Fischer was in the apartment scene where Ariadne and Fischer end up jumping off to trigger the kick?
@Lawl
Ummm…if you’re talking about when Cobb and Ariadne go down to rescue Fischer after Mal shoots him and Ariadne throws Fischer over the balcony, then herself, Mal is there PRECISELY because Cobb’s projection always knows what he knows, being a projection from inside his mind–his memory. THAT is why and how she knows.
WELL SAID TABITHA!!!!!!! BRAVO!!!! I loved exactly how you explained it all!!!!
Great analysis but Saito an cobb couln’t wake from limbo by getting a heashot because the sedative doesn’t permit it. It has to be, obligatory with a kick
kick can’t wake u from limbo
@Sophie
Yes, they could, because once Cobb remembered himself and why he was there, he knew the sedative was wearing off and would not hinder them fully waking up.
@tabitha
I know you’re right…YOU know you’re right…It doesn’t matter, though, because no matter how many times these facts are related, they are almost ALWAYS ignored or misunderstood. I’ve tried many times to provide the same information you just did; rarely has it worked. You even have a great many people who, for some reason, believe Mal is actually alive and trying to perform inception on Cobb!!!
Great analysis, I liked it! Quite thorough and thought-provoking. I do think that what matters is Cobb accepted the reality of being happy with his kids and didn’t care about the totem… ending the control of what he thought was important….
(Do correct the typo if you would: “Seeing Clash of the Titans was nearly a thought-provoking, fun or worthwhile.” WASN’T NEARLY ya meant! Otherwise it is bad English, if Mr. Nolan ever reads it!)
Good stuff.
He was DREAMING and wanted to stay there!!!
He decided that it was better to live in a pleasant dream world than to go on in life separated from the ones he loves.
That’s why he finally allows himself to look at his kids – he allows himself to indulge in the dream instead of fighting it.
Consider these two key quotes that were repeated in the movie…
1. “Don’t you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone!”
2. You’re waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can’t be sure. But it doesn’t matter – because we’ll be together.
Also, here’s something that my wife was wondering…If they lived for 50 years in the dream world, growing old together, why were they young when they laid their heads on the train track?
It was a dream.
in the movie they show old cobb and old mal in limbo at the end.
They actually show a shot of the old Mal and Cobb’s hands holding each other as the young Mal and Cobb on the train tracks.
Maybe they did grow old in real time and Cob returned every day to re-dream the ideal life like in the chemists cellar 4 hours of dreaming offer 10 years or more of experiences.
I think when you take the film as metaphor for life. we all live in realities that are different and unique hence the idea that all of our opinion’s are right as they are projections of are own experiences.
Have you ever misread a situation of being hurt, loved or desired by another only to find you had really fabricated the whole situation. remember the last time you got pissed. well similar to the experience of watching this movie. It evokes reflection and interest in the way we behave and feel as humans. love it
My question, all other things aside: how did he have the spinning top if he left it in the box in limbo?
did he leave it and lock it away, in the dolls house? having only wathched the movie once like this afternon hMMMMM
because mal still had it in real life…it was with her when she woke up for real, and when she really died he took it from her.
My question is, Why? Why would he take it from her? Didn’the have his own totem?
Just a couple questions:
1) Why is it illegal to ‘put an idea’ in somebody’s mind? Is it not what others (firms, politicians, friends,…) are doing continously in our ‘real’ (?) world?
Then I must think the supposed real-world is, actually, a dream-world.
2) When they are in different dream levels (the rainy city, the snow fortress)… why the bad ones never kill their targets (out of Saito) and the good fellows always kill someone? Ok, it is their dream and they can dream what they want. As when the guy chooses to have a heavier weapon! Then… why cannot they blow their enemies expiring air or wear bullet-proof clothes or have paranormal powers?
Then I must think the supposed dream-world is (are), actually, a real world.
Sorry Steve, I’m sure you are no idiot. You raised a few questions that are worth noting. I’m more upset at the critics who gave bad reviews for it being “too hard to understand,” ” confusing,” and what not. It’s a complex piece of work that is very engaging (obviously) and deserves positive praise for that reason. And I felt that Nolan did a great job explaining everything well enough that i left the theatre very satisfied. I never thought for a second that there would be any debate about the movie..but i was apparently wrong.
I have no problem considering other theories on the movie…But, I’m going to need to hear some truly logic explanations before that happens
-Tabitha
Thanks, Tabitha. And one thing about critics nowadays — just because people can type doesn’t mean they have a brain.
You’ll never satisfy EVERYONE, especially critics who tend to be holier-than-thou and sneer down at everyone for trying to be original. So screw ‘em! 
As for the debate… I love it when films can be open to differing interpretations. It doesn’t mean anyone is right or wrong; it just means that something truly provocative has happened to the audience. We all try to make sense of what we see and experience (in life and in movies), and it’s hard for anyone to accept that one person’s ‘sense’ may not be another person’s. But many films operate on that more expressionistic or emotional sensibility, instead of a straight-forward linear narrative sensibility (especially outside America), so I for one love to see narrative films that go the extra mile and shake things up. Anything that can thrill and entertain an audience while challenging them and inviting interpretation — it’s a real gem.
Great movie but subcounscius is not an opera.
Well, good ones but I think he was dreaming. Why? Because after he leaves limbo, and finds saito which he’s in a further limbo u see satio reach for the gun and then Cobb wakes up. So another rule that there was is that once your so deep in like that u can’t just kill yourself, you need a kick. They were at that point at the van chase. So Cobb was even deeper when he washes up-shore, and finds satio. After telling you that watch the movie one more time and am sure you’ll have the answer.