Pretty sure the headline makes it clear enough, but I’m gonna go ahead and slap a big ol’ SPOILER ALERT on this one anyway, because Read the full post.
Latest News
- 'The Vow': For love...and box office $$?
- Melissa McCarthy, hubby land pilot at CBS
- Oscars: Acting nominees' official portraits
- '30 Rock': Best lines this week
- Paul McCartney gets star on Walk of Fame
- 'Hunger Games' soundtrack: Cover art
- Nancy Pelosi's 'Stop Colbert' ad: Watch
- 'Vampire Diaries': EW exclusive pics!
Most Commented
Top 5 Most Read
- This Week’s Cover: ‘The Vampire Diaries’ stars talk about the red-hot Damon-Elena-Stefan triangle
- ‘The Vampire Diaries’: Talk tonight’s shocking twist, and find out what’s next from producer…
- 'Vampire Diaries': Exclusive pics!
- ‘Game of Thrones’: Amazing season 2 photos
- 'Grey's Anatomy' recap: Love Is in the ER
i loved this movie <3
i think though, the ending was made the way it was, because the Director of the movie wanted to plant the idea into your mind of how you might persieved the ending to be. Because in the movie they were always refering to another person influences another to have an idea.
Therefore, those people in the movie theatre who had the idea of the top toppling over in the end, then it did.
And those who believe it kept spinning in the end, it did.
Depends on what idea that last scene gave you in the movie <3
But who really knows x3
just my opinion.
Was truely a great movie though.
really got me to thinking
I think it’s a dream because his totem was tainted. Touched by Saito, or quite possibly a projection of Saito. He skips levels, is pardoned for murder, arrives home to the same house. Wouldn’t they be at their grandparents? They are wearing the same clothes and doing the same actions as previously dreamt.
Every single person on this board is right. The story is infinite. Endless permutations of the same story. As you discuss it, you discover more and more layers. The movie itself is inception and we create more layers just by discussing it.
I’d like to watch it again to look for clues but I think he’s still in his dream and Inception isn’t possible. The story that was shown in the film was an elaborate plot by his subconscious to prove that Inception was possible, so he could justify that he planted the idea in his wife’s head and that she wasn’t being sane and logical when she committed suicide. When he “let her go” he was letting his doubts go. Nolan set up the consequence of someone’s brains becoming mush in real life if they spent too long in limbo. He had this consequence matter for getting Saito getting Cobb pardoned, but it really matters in that without that it wouldn’t have mattered if he committed suicide with his wife or died later. He made the tragic choice to live out his life, with his kids, in the dream.
My take on it all: From the first time Cobb tries the sedative under the store, he never wakes up. After he “wakes” he tests reality with the top in the bathroom, but it falls to the floor. He never confirms his reality after that point. Ever He’s still dreaming.
I guess we can all agree that Cobb didn’t care whether he was in reality or dreaming because he left the room while the top kept spinning. Thus mean he was just happy to see his kids.
Good point.
My theory:
Mal was real, sent in to his subconscious to try to get him out. Cobb was in a dream state. Mal’s suicide was an attempt to get Cobb to join him in reality, and he refused to go. Finally, Caine’s character decided to just indulge the false reality, and make it as pleasant as possible.
I think we were even told where Cobb’s “real” body was sleeping. Where didn’t Caine’s character like to be? His office!
DREAM DREAM DREAM DREAM DREAM !!!!!! that was the ending.. he boarding the flight and all that was happening in his sub conscious and they were showing it to us… someone above mentioned it right.. the kids with same clothes and the director making the camera stop there when the totem spinning just makes the point clear to all viewers and i personally and strongly feel were indications to say that was not the reality.
I just want to throw an idea out there and I’m not sure if it’s been posted already since I don’t want to read all of these posts.
What if the Cobb set all this up to place an idea deep within his own subconscious. The idea would to make the dream he’s living in at the end real. When he was with his wife in their created world, he couldn’t stay there because he knew it wasn’t real. So, this whole elaborate story about helping Saitou in order to see his kids was his way placing an the idea within his own subconscious.
For those who are going to say the top was going to fall, it didn’t. Also in the movie when he was arguing with his wife that he couldn’t control anything in the “real world” in order to convince her that she wasn’t dreaming; she argued back that he couldn’t control anything because he believed it was real.
I too see the film ending with Cobb in reality. Mostly due to the fact that his totem fell during the film, which if the entirety of the movie was a dream, wouldn’t have happened. It fell after he and Ariadne came back from her test and he ran to get it. Also another time in the basement at Yusif’s place, he didn’t technically get a chance to spin it fully because he dropped it but it could have then as well.
Anyway I don’t want to get into his mile long dissection about every last detail but due to the totem falling and the idea that he created all of these people being a little far fetched, I believe he was awake at the end. The children were also clearly older and even stated as being different actors in the cast list.
Nolan is a brilliant director to say the least and I believe is just teasing the audience with the top. He wants you to draw your own conclusion and create your own ideas from the film. Which is really the entended purpose of films isn’t it? To be entertained and take and perceive what you will from what’s placed before you. So really no one is wrong here, it’s simply your opinion of what you saw.
He was awake because there were 2 sets of children casted and used in the film, verifying the fact that they aged.
Claire Geare … Phillipa (3 years)
Magnus Nolan … James (20 months)
Taylor Geare … Phillipa (5 years)
Johnathan Geare … James (3 years)
Great find. My one problem with the argument he was awake is I thought they used the same kids throughout the film. If they didn’t, well, I think that proves it. Of course, it’s also possible that they would age in his dream, so maybe that doesn’t prove anything.
Listen to the kids voices on the phone. They are aged more than the kids we see on the screen and we don’t see the kids at the time he’s talking to them. The older credits are voice credits.
I think that ending he was awake. After seeing the kids in the distance, I think the daughter was wearing different clothes but the son was not. Will be seeing it again with other friends just to debate. I love movies that give the audience something to talk after. How often do we get to do that with most summer flicks?
notruth has one good point i would latch on to. by ending the movie that way, the entire movie undergoes a sort of inception. the idea and legend of the movie is now planted in our minds like a virus by Nolan and it can never be removed.
Also, in the scene where Cobb goes to the chemist and sees all the old guys in the basement sleeping, Cobb tests out the sedative. He has a short nightmare about his wife’s head on railroad tracks. Then Cobb “wakes up” and is in the bathroom splashing water on his face. He spins his top on the sink, but it falls off and topples on the floor. So he never really got to test whether or not he woke up from that. Im just saying
I think you may all be missing the point. The movie isn’t about dreaming. It asks: what is your understanding of reality? He didn’t look back at the top because he had found a reality which with he was content. The tease isn’t “is he awake or dreaming.” It was “if this [looking around you] isn’t reality, then what would/should reality be.” In other words, do you have a “totem;” do you even care?
I believe Cobbs was still in the deep dream state. He stayed behind after he awaken Saito out of the dream. Remember when his wife first locked the top in the safe? The topple was still spinning never once stopping.
I believe Cobbs never planned to awaken with the rest of the group. I think he was convinced that being in a dream state was his reality. Remember when he visited the underground with the mixer? The attendent mentioned ‘which reality do you prefer?’ In the movie there was already a society addicted to avoiding reality and pay to stay in a dream state.
What is really waiting for him in reality? His kids? Remember he stayed with his wife growing old for 50 years in a dream state? Who was taking care of them when they were going off in the escapade? Wasn’t it 1 week for 10 hours in a dream state to reality? I’m not a math wiz but, I’m guessing it is more then a few months. Remember his mom doesn’t even show up at the end? On the phone conversation his mom was distancing herself to him.
Remember his father said “Isn’t it dangerous for you to be here?” Isn’t there alot of people looking for you? Even if Saito makes that one phone call. How many enemies that he has made leave him alone? If Cobb does the unthinkable for the sake of one large corporation. Think of how many powerful men besides Saito would like to “forcely” convince him to work for them? In the real world wouldn’t Cobbs put his family in more danger?
The only thing that bothered me. Is not seeing if Saito made it out alive or the team for that matter. But it’s Nolan’s movie and I still loved it.