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
- 'Awake' finale: Replay Kyle Killen chat
- 'Revenge' boss fields burning Q's!
- JoAnna Garcia joins 'Animal Practice'
- 'Transformers the Ride 3-D': A fun one!
- Grant Bowler: Richard Burton to Lohan's Liz
- 'Men in Black 3' poised to KO 'Avengers'
- Elijah Wood joins cast of 'Red vs. Blue'
- 13 most unfortunate TV characters
Most Commented
Top 5 Most Read
- ‘Revenge’ season finale: Creator Mike Kelley answers burning questions!
- Bodies of Work: 46 Unforgettable Nude Scenes
- Cannes: ‘The Paperboy,’ starring Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, proves that ‘Precious’…
- 'Duets' series premiere recap: Just Me, Myself, and You
- 'American Idol': Who REALLY Won Each Season?
I think the fact that the movie stimulates conversation testifies how much buy in we all have in the story and characters. (yes, in some cases it could have used slightly more development) In that sense, this is a successful film, one that makes it the best movie I’ve seen in a while.
Here is a thought, most movies have some continuity or other errors, with something like this, how do we tell? Was it Nolan doing something subtle, or is it a blooper? lol. Food for thought I guess.
Actor says “use your ears and not your eyes”
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1643620/20100714/story.jhtml
Rewatch the ending and listen:
As the screen goes blank and before the word “INCEPTION” comes on the screen you clearly hear a small “thud”
The spinning top dropped!! YAY IT WAS ALL REAL!!!
hey, have anyone noticed that when they went into dream sitting in a car they reached in a hotel. and in that dream they went again in one more dream.
so when the car was falling down in the river they all gone weightless..that effacted on their hotel dream too and they started to floating. so there should be an another effect that in the third level they should float also cause it was happening in first two level also…am i right?
reply..
nitin
level three is not affected by much the happenings in level one. It would be affected by the stuff happening in level 2, but only slightly.
Not since “Vanilla Sky” have I thought about the outcome of the film’s characters long after the movie’s credits rolled. Cheers to good writing. Oh, and he was dreaming… (Deciced over wok friend rice and 2 cups of green tea by the four of us that viewed the film)
The movie is actually about two sad old souls who refuse to lead a normal life, i.e. that includes growing old naturally and die. Cobb (DiCaprio) and Saito (Watanabe) are both very old in reality. Cobb, leaves everything behind (his wife who wants to life and die normally in the “real world”, and his children), is an expert of living inside his own intricately and meticulously built “dreamy” webs of realms. This movie is full of existentialistic and nihilistic views.
Two important things to realize/theories…
1) Cobb goes to sleep in Mombasa as part of a test. When he “wakes up” from that experience… he starts to spin the top but drops it next to the sink. He’s interrupted. You never see him personally spin it again (except in a flashback) until that end scene.
But, what bothers me even more…
2) The top is Mal’s totem, not Cobb’s. We never see Cobb’s totem. Ever. I don’t believe he simply adopted her totem after her death. What he does is too vital. He would keep his own totem. In the final seen, Mal is his projection. Her words about being chased by corporations etc. are his thoughts… his words. He’s been “under” long before the movie even begins.
The reason he chose not to look at his children in the dream was because they were his sole anchor to his REAL life. Throughout his dreams, Mal appears as a manifestation not only of his guilt but of his doubt. She represents the part of Dom that is attempting to perform inception on himself; on some level, he wants to believe in the same idea which he planted in Mal’s head because it means that she is not dead and that they can be together again. Had he chosen to look at them, he would have been very easily persuaded into believing that his REAL life is the dream.
…if that makes sense. xD
I believe that he is awake at the end. As others have said before me, the wobbling top is merely a manifestation of his and Mal’s continuing doubt, a doubt which wavers once he is finally reunited with his children.
There is no Saito. The whole movie is a dream. Cobb is in all likelihood still lying on the floor somewhere in “reality” next to his wife, both brain dead. The movie starts in the middle of a dream, as Cobb describes, dreams just start and you don’t know how you got there. The whole thing…the murder charges, the corporate espionage, is all a fabricated illusion by Cobb to try and get himself out of the dream he is no doubt still in. How else could Saito give Cobb that whole “you’ll end up a lonely man” speech…in the helicopter, in “reality”…when it actually is delivered and has meaning later, in the dream? Because the helicopter scene was also in Cobb’s dream. The whole thing is Cobb trying to find a fake reality within his endless dream, even if it means sacrificing his wife. If Christopher Nolan wanted you to think the top falls at the end, he would have shown it. He’s not just leaving doubt for no reason.
All of these arguments mentioned make sense in their own ways and I have thought about them over and over again.. My doubts are on the totem. During the movie, we learn that each person has their own individual totem and no one else can touch it or else it will no longer be of any use. Correct? Well, at the end of the movie we discover that Cobb’s totem isn’t his after all. It’s Mal’s. So can we really trust this false totem to determine whether the ending was a dream or reality?
Isn’t the giveaway the “leap of faith” comment that Saito (Watanabe) makes to Cobb (DiCaprio) from the helicopter at the beginning of the film? Mal says the same when Cobb re-lives her suicide (or return to reality, depending on the perspective). That is, the suicide scene comes later in the film, but precedes it in the narrative. How then could she say the same phrase (i.e. “leap of faith”) unless the earlier scene (the entire Saito conceit of the inception plot itself) is itself part of the dream? Of course, when Saito says the phrase, Cobb recognizes it, and accepts the offer. So there is a chance that it’s merely coincidence, and the memory that produces the recognition for Cobb, and hence his willingness to take the job. (Cobb repeats the phrase to the old Saito in the deepest level at the end of the film, when the narrative loops back to the beginning.) But the reading that there is no outside to the dream within the film is easily available through the “leap of faith” line. Cobb take the leap of faith, but in what direction? Deeper into his own dream (now no longer haunted by Mal, who entreats him to leave it and return to reality)? Or back to reality? The “real” puzzle is your experience of reality when you leave the theater. Isn’t our life just a dream? “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.”
If he was in fact dreaming the whole time then couldn’t Mal just ‘kick’ him OR hook up to the same machine and dream wit him?
A lot of people believe Cobb made up a lot of rules to fullfill his needs. So the rules in reality with regards to inception may not even work.
If the movie made money; the top didn’t fall.
Back to the immigration scene. What country was that? The USA? He was a citizen of the USA? Citizens DON’T have their passports stamped when re-entering the country. Another message from director Nolan?
was just for suspense to see if Saito lived up to his deal.
As an American citizen and frequent traveler internationally – American citizens ABSOLUTELY have their passport stamped upon return. Jeez – do a little research before posting.
i read somewhere that you should use your ears not your eyes when watching the last scene
I think whether it is reality or a dream is not Nolan’s aim in the ending scene. It is a question: “what is a dream?” Is a dream an imaginative world created when you are asleep, or a life long desire or goal come to fruition? Thus the saying, “It was a dream come true”. Seeing his kids was reality, but at the same time it was a dream, a dream come true.