Inception...anyone seen it?

[Alle_Gory]

You're still left with the same paradox. If what we believed was baseline reality (level zero) was another a dream level, which the final scene of the film leads to suggest, then how could it be Mal's dream if Mal was already dead.

That's true. The dreamer/architect has to be present in the dream right?

So, who's dream is Cobb in at the end? The totem doesn't work right, so it's someone else's dream.

Perhaps it was Miles' (Michael Caine) dream, the instructor, mentor figure. Where I would place my money, it was Ariadne's dream—she kept saying she wanted to better understand things. A labyrinthine romance story of an unrequited would-be lover, Ariadne, getting into his psyche to free him of his tormented fixation of his dead wife. Ariadne couldn't kill Mal because, as a rule in the dream universe, his realization had to be revealed to him through suggestion—he had to work it out himself, as if he had the idea.

That's true. Caine always wanted Cobb to come back to see his kids. Back to reality maybe? I never considered him because he has such a small role... but Cobb was his student in the field of dreams and psychology, so no one else is more experienced than the teacher.

 

[OzyBoy]

Sounds good.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

The end was reality. There is no other explanation that is supported by consistent facts in the movie. Leonardo's character (I'm horrible with remembering movie character names) was the only one that knew all the extra dangers of going multi levels deep.

I see three possible explanations for the spinning top at the end:

1) If it stopped, and it ended nicely with all the loose ends tied, it wouldn't have much of an impact.

2) The whole thing really was a dream, but a dream unto itself, to be played over and over (especially when it comes out on DVD) and the movie watcher, sitting in the theater seats, is really the only one in reality.

3) It was a common marketing strategy, used at the end of movies, (leaving an open loop) to get people talking about it and using the almighty word of mouth marketing strategy. (worked on me!) It is a great ending because all different interpretations are equally discussable, albeit not equally plausible. Already in this thread alone there are several people saying they are going to see it again, to see what's really what.


If indeed he really was dreaming in the end, then you'd have to be able to see that view presented through subtle evidence throughout the movie on a second viewing, similar to seeing Sixth Sense a second time and noticing that Bruce Willis never looks directly at, or is looked at by, or engages in any way with any other character other than the kid.

Of course, a great story writer will write a story so that are plenty of explanations, all which fit into the basic framework of the story with varying levels of "leaps of faith."

I'd give a solid 8.5/10.

If you are at all interested, there are plenty of resources to learn how to "lucid dream" where you can change things inside your dream while you are dreaming. I've done it a couple of times, and it's pretty cool. Not nearly as realistic as the movie, but it's as close to being Harry Potter as you can get. The trick is to not wake up once you realize you're in a dream.

 

[eaglez1177]

Heres a website I found that, using some very very subtle evidence in the movie, has a claim that Cobb is in fact in reality at the end and not dreaming.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Inception-Explained-Unraveling-The-Dream-Within-The-Dream-19615.html

Does Cobb’s totem keep spinning at the end or is it about to fall off the table?

Alternate Theory Aaron points this out in our comments section: "In the opening moments you get a glimpse of Leo's hand. Specifically, he's wearing his wedding ring. Now, if you follow the rest of the movie keeping an eye out for this you will notice that he only has the ring on when he's in the dream world. At the end of the movie he isn't wearing the ring." If the ring only appears when he's in a dream and he's not wearing at the end of the film, that could be confirmation that in fact, the top does stop spinning after the credits and Cobb is at last in the real world.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Then why do the kids always look the same?

And so what if he wore the wedding band before? He let go of Mal's memory near the end, so he could still be in a dream just without the wedding band (Mal).

 

[sageproduct]

Just got home from seeing it. Intense. One of my friends was seeing it for the third time.

I really think it's gotta be reality at the end. I mean, who's dream would it be? Were all the team members just part of that person's subconscious? Wouldn't DiCaprio's wife just go back in and get him out if it were (because she would be alive)? I think any theories of her going disguised as Ellen Page are really farfetched.

I can't stop thinking about one hole in the movie--after DiCaprio and his wife left the limbo that they spent 50 years in, his wife was convinced she was still stuck in a dream.

So why didn't she just spin her totem and see that it stopped spinning?



And about the kids--did the movie ever say how long it had been since leonardo's wife's death? It could be less than a year, right? In that case the kids wouldn't have changed that much.

EDIT: Speaking of dreams, I had a very memorable one this morning where some girl randomly came on to me and we made out. I literally had no idea at all it wasn't real until the very last moment. I literally woke up thinking about how to write my FR here, LOL

 

[backbreaker]

wow is this movie really this damn good? i might have to actually go to the movies. everyone i have talked to says this it the best movie they have ever seen.

 

[sageproduct]

I would say it's really damn good, but not the best movie I've ever seen. In terms of action, it was ok compared to the type of action we get nowadays in action movies. Plot--not really that complex. Characters--not very deep, except obviously the main character dealing with what happened to him.

The whole concept of "inception", dream sharing, etc. is what really got people going. I'd say it's pretty original and very creative.

I think it's better than a movie like Wanted and really entertained me and got me real intense, but it didn't leave me thinking as much as a movie like The Matrix did.

 

[eaglez1177]

I would say it's really damn good, but not the best movie I've ever seen. In terms of action, it was ok compared to the type of action we get nowadays in action movies. Plot--not really that complex. Characters--not very deep, except obviously the main character dealing with what happened to him.

The whole concept of "inception", dream sharing, etc. is what really got people going. I'd say it's pretty original and very creative.

I think it's better than a movie like Wanted and really entertained me and got me real intense, but it didn't leave me thinking as much as a movie like The Matrix did.

Lol what!!? How can you say the plot was not that complex!?! Hahah, imo this plot was BY FAR the most complex and interesting movie plot ive EVER seen in my life! Theres never been an occasion like this before where i've really had to pay this close attention to the movie both times I saw it, and yet im STILL left with a bunch of unanswered questions lol.

I thought the action was fvcking awesome too...that scene with Arthur fighting in the hallway was fvcking SICK!

EDIT: I think I finally figured out why Saito was so much older than Cobb in limbo. It was simply because Saito died shortly before Cobb did in the dream, so in dream time that would actually be a very very long time, which was why Saito was an old man and Cobb was so much younger when they both met up again (after Cobb was taken off the beach)

 

[cordoncordon]

Great movie, really makes one think.

IMO the entire movie was basically Cobb, the Leonardo character, dreaming the entire movie until the very end when he wakes up on the plane. Notice the main characters never talked to each other from that point on. They all looked like they didn't know one another other than occasional glances. And he got right through immigration, which is hard to believe even IF the Asian guy had gotten his charges cleared with a simple phone call-which I dont believe could happen in real life. In a dream world yes, not real life. And when he got home, his kids were slightly different than in his memories. Slightly bigger and the clothes were a little different.

He was just a guy, getting over his dead wife, coming home from a trip to who knows where. Now, the only question I have is was he just having a dream, with his mind dreaming to help him get over the loss of his wife and he incorporated the other people he saw on the plane into his dream while he was falling asleep, or were the other people in first class hired by someone, like his father, to do an inception on him to help him move on from his dead wife is up for debate, but imo no doubt everything up until the point where he woke on the plane was pure dream.

 

[sageproduct]

Lol what!!? How can you say the plot was not that complex!?! Hahah, imo this plot was BY FAR the most complex and interesting movie plot ive EVER seen in my life! Theres never been an occasion like this before where i've really had to pay this close attention to the movie both times I saw it, and yet im STILL left with a bunch of unanswered questions lol.

I think the movie as a whole was very complex, but the plot itself wasn't. The idea of inception and all its rules were very hard for me to follow at first, and I was concentrating really hard trying to keep track of everything, but the plot in terms of conflict remained clear and was somewhat straightforward. The plan they had (damaging Fisher's perception of his godfather to push him toward fondness of the memory of his father) was hard to understand at first but at least made sense when it happened.

Maybe it's just me, but I had a LOT more trouble keeping up with the plot in movies like the Bourne series, Casino Royale, and The Departed. What I consider a complex plot is conflicts where people are not necessarily working together for the same goal, and everyone's kind of in it for their own reason . It's much harder for me to keep track of each individual character's motivations and for me to fathom what kinds of mystery people are behind things unexplained in a movie. Those are really frustrating for me. Like in the Bourne Ultimatum (SPOILER ALERT) when that old guy shoots himself, I had no fwcking idea why.

 

[jafyk]

I've just got back from the pictures to see this, all I can say is FVCKING WOW! What a brilliant masterpiece. 10/10. Action, story-line, absolutely superb! Me and my chick started throwing popcorn at the end because we were so disappointed and wanted to find out, it's such a mind-cracker. I reckon he didn't wake up atall Eaglez. I still believe he's in "Limbo" otherwise "it" would've stopped spinning. I like the way the producers made it tilt and near-enough STOP, but didn't. When a film gives you that type of emotion to an ending, you know it was good.

It's mindboggling to think that MAYBE, just MAYBE we could actually be just dreaming all this now. Maybe 3 or 4 dreams down lol. I need to watch it again, just to skim through some scenes, but the layer is out and I get the majority of it. Best film I've seen in 2010. It's just like how Matrix was when it first came out and does resemble some traits of the Matrix.

I don't wanna spoiler alert this thread about the first and ending scenes, but if you crack on to it when Cobb is caught by Saito's men at the beachend, Then the scene shows him being escorted back to Saito at the ENDING scene, (remember, he LEFT Mal to find Saito - But saito was already in LIMBO) it can possibly mean HE DID wake up, it didn't SHOW Saito KILLING both of them - remember the van (kick) hit the ocean, and he hadn't woken up like the rest. Just because Cobb had woken up in reality could only be his SUB-CONCIOUS from the 4th dream/Level of Cobb's world. (Him and Saito). I can't explain it, but it was worth a shot LOL.

Great movie, in my opinion the best film of this year. I started watching from when Cobb was sitting in the chair with a gun in his hand (How many minutes did I miss anyone?) Anyway, I think he did wake up because if you listened to the sound of the thing that was spinning it was about to stop. In a dream it will spin with the same about of momentum constantly (which is why it doesn't stop spinning) What, I don't understand though is why his wife was always trying to sabotage him since she's dead.

 

[Alle_Gory]

I don't understand though is why his wife was always trying to sabotage him since she's dead.

He just couldn't let go of his wife and would always dream about her. That was the only way he could see her again. She was just a projection, a piece of himself that didn't want to let go.

 

[jafyk]

Great movie, really makes one think.

IMO the entire movie was basically Cobb, the Leonardo character, dreaming the entire movie until the very end when he wakes up on the plane. Notice the main characters never talked to each other from that point on. They all looked like they didn't know one another other than occasional glances. And he got right through immigration, which is hard to believe even IF the Asian guy had gotten his charges cleared with a simple phone call-which I dont believe could happen in real life. In a dream world yes, not real life. And when he got home, his kids were slightly different than in his memories. Slightly bigger and the clothes were a little different.

He was just a guy, getting over his dead wife, coming home from a trip to who knows where. Now, the only question I have is was he just having a dream, with his mind dreaming to help him get over the loss of his wife and he incorporated the other people he saw on the plane into his dream while he was falling asleep, or were the other people in first class hired by someone, like his father, to do an inception on him to help him move on from his dead wife is up for debate, but imo no doubt everything up until the point where he woke on the plane was pure dream.

Well, they don't talk to themselves because they were a group of people who came together to scam (for lack of a better word) Fischer. Now, if Fisher knows anything about inception and sees them all buddy buddy with each other and recalls his dreams then he will know that he had been invaded, but when he sees them acting like they don't know each other; he'd probably think, "hmmm, what a strange dream I had. All these guys were in my dream'

 

[Rogue]

I watched Inception for a second time and the spinning totem in the final scene of the film was a red herring. Without a doubt, the story was not a dream. There is a scene early in the movie of Leonardo Decaprio in a hotel room (I think) and he whimsically spins his totem twice (I think) and both times it completely falls over on a table, proving his baseline reality is reality. But since the film was so complex, we forget about it by the time we reach the final scene, on the first viewing.

I also confirmed the children wear the same clothing in every scene except maybe one. I couldn't pay enough attention to Decaprio's fingers but he did wear a wedding ring in the inception dreams and without one in reality.

Good movie, but moderately easy to solve.