[abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]

Spoiler so don't click the spoiler. I found this off imd

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Basically giving an explanation to the ending

I do think Nolan was giving us, the viewer, another "Inception." By making the spinning top wobble but not stop spinning... I believe he plants an idea... What if there is a higher state of consciousness? What if our reality here on earth is like another dream within a dream? But we just don't know about it yet b/c we haven't died. Now going much further in this discussion will probably bring religion into the equation, which is always a dicey subject...

But I believe the ending was Nolan's ultimate "Inception" on us, the viewer.

[abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]

Explanation to the ending which will hurt your head

Spoiler:

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Found it on imdb

I do think Nolan was giving us, the viewer, another "Inception." By making the spinning top wobble but not stop spinning... I believe he plants an idea... What if there is a higher state of consciousness? What if our reality here on earth is like another dream within a dream? But we just don't know about it yet b/c we haven't died. Now going much further in this discussion will probably bring religion into the equation, which is always a dicey subject...

But I believe the ending was Nolan's ultimate "Inception" on us, the viewer.

[OhNO!]

(Original post by Phalanges)
Oh right, well in that case I don't know enough about physics to be able to judge.

But no, I disagree that for a film to focus on the workings and imaginings of the mind using only the constraints of an individual would be uninteresting.

I'm not saying it would be uninteresting, and there are plenty of great films which are completely surreal flights of imagination. But, Inception isn't one of them. There are logic and rules which constrain the dream worlds, the idea of extraction and inception, and which act to hold the plot together. I don't think anything in the film is justified by the catch-all 'well it's just a dream world, so anything can happen' - and that's one of the strengths of the film. I think a lazier filmmaker would have relied on that.

[pisaman2]

Just got back from it. It was absolutley brilliant. Yeah, slightly confusing but after 20mins of thinking about it, I think i have worked it out. I'll watch it again, definitly

[Doughnuts!!]

Just got back from watching it.

This is most definitely one of the greatest films ever created. The controlled complexity of the plot and the little intricacies show that Nolan knew exactly what he was doing and you never once got the feeling that it was as if Nolan was just winging it.

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I found that the plot wasn't too hard to follow if you thought about the film while watching it. The dream within a dream within a dream within a dream was VERY well done and wasn't too hard to get your head around if you paid attention

For everybody talking about the ending, I have a question which I also saw raised on IMDB.

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If the entire film was a dream, and Mal was right, then why did we see Cobb's totem spin earlier on in the film but still drop?

[3nTr0pY]

I thought it was a brilliant film. One which actually made me think!


I did predict a major plot twist though.

[3nTr0pY]

(Original post by Doughnuts!!)

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If the entire film was a dream, and Mal was right, then why did we see Cobb's totem spin earlier on in the film but still drop?

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I think they might be arguing that reality is just a dream. And if that's the case there's no reason why we couldn't create our own laws of physics where objects have to stop spinning in such a dream. In other words, the spinning top only indicated the difference between the 'real' world and the other dream worlds. But that doesn't mean that the 'real' world itself cannot be a dream. It could be a dream formed from different rules - each time you dream, the possibilities for new laws of physics arise.

Generally though, I take the Occam's razor approach. I don't believe we're dreaming because there's no evidence to suggest that we are. But we may be.

[WildBerrySpirit]

I finally had the chance to watch Inception today, and I've got to say it was absolutely amazing, it definitely exceeded my expectations of the film; I knew it would be a fanatastic film but this was way beyond what I figured, it was very thought-provoking and i'll definitely be seeing it again soon. The storyline was ingenious, very mind stimulating, although it may have been slightly confusing during the beginning it's easy enough to understand the plot device as it moves further along. I loved how the ending was ambiguous, but i've got to say during that certain scene i was thinking "please fall!". Oh well, Nolan never fails to deliver!

I do have a few questions, but I don't want to spoil it for those who have not seen it and i really don't have a clue how to put them into spoiler tags!

[Doughnuts!!]

(Original post by 3nTr0pY)

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I think they might be arguing that reality is just a dream. And if that's the case there's no reason why we couldn't create our own laws of physics where objects have to stop spinning in such a dream. In other words, the spinning top only indicated the difference between the 'real' world and the other dream worlds. But that doesn't mean that the 'real' world itself cannot be a dream. It could be a dream formed from different rules - each time you dream, the possibilities for new laws of physics arise.

Generally though, I take the Occam's razor approach. I don't believe we're dreaming because there's no evidence to suggest that we are. But we may be.

Hmm...interesting

It's certainly a valid explanation at least.

T'was a very good film though; I reckon that I'm gonna have to watch it again and then get it when it comes out on DVD.

I don't think that I'll be able to get to sleep without the cogs in my brain constantly turning!

Another question:

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Where exactly was the place that Cobb was with Old Saito? Limbo? The "real" world? WHERE?? I just ask because after Cobb stays in the van as it sinks, when we see him with Old Saito we don't see how he gets to the world where he's on the plane.

[Doughnuts!!]

(Original post by WildBerrySpirit)
I finally had the chance to watch Inception today, and I've got to say it was absolutely amazing, it definitely exceeded my expectations of the film; I knew it would be a fanatastic film but this was way beyond what I figured, it was very thought-provoking and i'll definitely be seeing it again soon. The storyline was ingenious, very mind stimulating, although it may have been slightly confusing during the beginning it's easy enough to understand the plot device as it moves further along. I loved how the ending was ambiguous, but i've got to say during that certain scene i was thinking "please fall!". Oh well, Nolan never fails to deliver!

I do have a few questions, but I don't want to spoil it for those who have not seen it and i really don't have a clue how to put them into spoiler tags!

I said the exact same thing in that scene as I didn't want my brain to hurt even more!

I want to see your questions, so I'll tell you how to do spoiler tags.

At the beginning of the body of text that you're writing type [ SPOILER ]

At the end of it type [ /SPOILER ]

Example: Writing "I loved Inception" in spoiler tags would go like this

[S P O I L E R] I loved Inception [/S P O I L E R]

But just without the spaces between letters

[3nTr0pY]

(Original post by Doughnuts!!)

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Where exactly was the place that Cobb was with Old Saito? Limbo? The "real" world? WHERE?? I just ask because after Cobb stays in the van as it sinks, when we see him with Old Saito we don't see how he gets to the world where he's on the plane.

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I've only seen the film once, so I'm not sure if my memory's up to the task. But the way I understood it, I thought that both Cobb and Old Saito were stuck in limbo. But Cobb arrived later due to the circumstances and so Old Saito was much much older. Having found him, Cobb convinced Old Saito to kill himself so that he could honour their agreement and presumably Cobb kills himself afterwards. I'm guessing that since the sleep period was nearing its end, he was able to do this successfully and then wake up shortly afterwards.

[Cyclone33]

I watched the movie last night and I loved it. It was so mind twisted and original!

[Doughnuts!!]

(Original post by 3nTr0pY)

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I've only seen the film once, so I'm not sure if my memory's up to the task. But the way I understood it, I thought that both Cobb and Old Saito were stuck in limbo. But Cobb arrived later due to the circumstances and so Old Saito was much much older. Having found him, Cobb convinced Old Saito to kill himself so that he could honour their agreement and presumably Cobb kills himself afterwards. I'm guessing that since the sleep period was nearing its end, he was able to do this successfully and then wake up shortly afterwards.

That is a nice one.

It actually makes a lot of sense!

[matthew93]

I haven't see the film, but at the night of it's premiere i saw Leonardi di Caprio, Michael Caine and Ellen Page in the flesh.

[3nTr0pY]

(Original post by Doughnuts!!)


That is a nice one.

It actually makes a lot of sense!

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Actually though I'd like to consider an alternative hypothesis. It is possible that he was still dreaming at the end. Instead of the ending being reality it could be him dreaming about what he wants his reality to be. Hence the perfect ending and the reunion with his children. It may just be coincidence but there was something ever so slightly fishy about how perfect the ending was - like a dream come true.

However the problem with the "it's still a dream" explanation is it doesn't account for how or why he entered a new dream inside the one he was in currently. So for now I'm thinking he did return to reality as we know it.

[Phalanges]

(Original post by abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz)
Explanation to the ending which will hurt your head

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Found it on imdb

That is a very interesting explanation.

(Original post by Doughnuts!!)

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If the entire film was a dream, and Mal was right, then why did we see Cobb's totem spin earlier on in the film but still drop?

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Good question. I think that as the film progresses the reality might be changing for the dreamer. I struggled at the time to find the symbolism in the childrens' faces, but perhaps they are used to symbolise the bridge from memory into fantasy, and as such changing what the dreamer perceives at reality (and the associated actions of the totem).

As another possibility, I think Cobb said at one point that the totem would spin forever is he was in someone else's dream, but he never said anything about what would happen in his dream. So perhaps when he leaves limbo he does not go back to reality but to a dream of his (maybe in reality he has slipped into a coma).

[Doughnuts!!]

(Original post by Phalanges)
That is a very interesting explanation.

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Good question. I think that as the film progresses the reality might be changing for the dreamer. I struggled at the time to find the symbolism in the childrens' faces, but perhaps they are used to symbolise the bridge from memory into fantasy, and as such changing what the dreamer perceives at reality (and the associated actions of the totem).

As another possibility, I think Cobb said at one point that the totem would spin forever is he was in someone else's dream, but he never said anything about what would happen in his dream. So perhaps when he leaves limbo he does not go back to reality but to a dream of his (maybe in reality he has slipped into a coma).

In response to that, have a look at something I found on IMDB. It changes pretty much everything that people thought they knew about this film. I actually think that everyone that has watched the film should take a look at this.

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The idea of Inception is to be a story crafted in the architecture of the mind Cobbs mind. What people perceive to be real isnt necessarily so, because the mind can make things appear to be as real as ever. An important thing to remember is the start of the film. Dom Cobb wakes up in a place that we later find out to be limbo more importantly, Saitos limbo.

What happens next is something that is meaningless the first time a viewer watches the film. Saito is seen handling Cobbs totem (which was a top that he took from Mal while in limbo). At first, this is meaningless. Upon a second viewing, the viewer should realize that everything that happens after this scene (the jump cut to Cobbs attempt at extracting information from Saito, and so on) is something much deeper.

Saito promises to give Cobb the one thing that he wants, and thats to find the way back home. How does he convince Cobb to do this? He tells him to take a leap of faith. This is another line that goes unnoticed at first. On a second viewing, the viewer should remember that line as something that Mal told Cobb when she jumped off of the building. Is the picture becoming clearer yet?

Cobb seems to appear wherever he needs to go, whether it is Paris, or Mombasa, just like it were a dream. While in Mombasa, Cobb gets chased by anonymous agents (which he perceives to be Cobol agents) through a fantastic action sequence where Cobb escapes the dream-like narrow tunnel and is rescued by none other than Saito. A bit later, Cobb and Saito visit Yusef who brings them into a basement with various figures connected to the dream machine. The idea was for Cobb to experiment with the deep sedative. He does, and when he wakes up he tries to use his totem only to be interrupted by Saito. Cobb never does find out if he is in the real world or not. In fact, he hasnt been yet. Hes been in limbo ever since he got there with Mal. Ever since then, hes been going deeper and deeper to the point where he created Saito as a projection to help him get back home Did you really think Saito can just pick up the phone and make murder charges disappear? No. But, Cobb believes it and thus Saito is used to thrust Cobb further and further into a state of limbo where at the end of the journey, Cobb truly believes he is with his children after confronting and getting over his projection of Mal.

While in the limbo, Cobb, using Mals totem, put the idea in her head that she was in the dream world. She was, she just hadnt realized it yet. What the viewer forgets is that all knowledge of limbo comes from Cobbs character. To think that Cobb is 100% accurate about it is absolutely wrong. He wouldnt know dream from reality not in the limbo that he describes to people and definitely not if inception were performed on him to believe that limbo truly was the real world.

Mal and Cobb never really left limbo at least, not that layer of it. When Mal jumped off the building, she gave herself the very same kick that Ariadne improvised later on in the movie. Mal was right about still being in the dream world. Cobb was still engulfed in limbo and didnt realize it. Cobb believed that if you die in limbo once the sedative wore off, you would simply wake up in the real world. That may be true, but it only happens if the sedative wore off. When Cobb and Mal had killed themselves with the train, the sedative was not worn off yet and they simply moved one layer deeper (this happens again at the end of the film when Saito picks up the gun in front of Cobb).

Cobb, deep in limbo, unknowingly uses the projections of his team to keep going deeper and deeper until the idea of inception is performed on his mind, and he truly believes he was able to find a way back home. Saitos promise to Cobb was kept - in the form of Saito (a projection from Cobb) making sure that Cobb ended up in limbo, so that he could live his "life" with his kids (who are still wearing the same clothing as they did throughout the film).

The team were projections in Cobbs mind the entire time. Its how he was able to go to Miles in Paris and find an architect named Ariadne (a name which comes from a Greek mythology story about a labyrinth) who improvised the kick at the end of the movie the same way that Cobb had seen (but not accepted as a dream) Mal do previously when she jumped off the building. Its how Eames happened to know of Yusef, and so on and so forth. Everything Cobb needed to make this inception work happened to work out for him. Its even how Cobbs lawyer knew so quickly that Mal had gone to 3 different shrinks to be declared sane and how he happened to have two tickets for Cobb to be able to get out of the country before the police would have arrested him.

The movie ends with Cobb appearing from place to place, going from limbo with Saito, to the plane where Saito magically makes one phone call to free Cobb from his problems, to walking through the airport, to meeting Miles who is with Cobbs children. Cobb spins his totem and it spins just like it was a dream. He fixes his eyes on his children and the totem begins to lose speed this is because inception has worked Cobb truly believes he is in the real world. His totem will not spin like it did in the dream, not as long as he has his kids. The title of the film is now shown to us, making complete sense because the title was really Cobbs journey through his own mind: INCEPTION

I'm trying to find holes to pick in it, but I'm still trying to get my head round it and process everything!

[abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz]

(Original post by Phalanges)
That is a very interesting explanation.

hmmm ,something went wrong with my post lol (or were you not being sarcastic XD)

here it is again

Spoiler:

Show

I do think Nolan was giving us, the viewer, another "Inception." By making the spinning top wobble but not stop spinning... I believe he plants an idea... What if there is a higher state of consciousness? What if our reality here on earth is like another dream within a dream? But we just don't know about it yet b/c we haven't died. Now going much further in this discussion will probably bring religion into the equation, which is always a dicey subject...

But I believe the ending was Nolan's ultimate "Inception" on us, the viewer.

[3nTr0pY]

(Original post by Doughnuts!!)
In response to that, have a look at something I found on IMDB. It changes pretty much everything that people thought they knew about this film. I actually think that everyone that has watched the film should take a look at this.

Spoiler:

Show

The idea of Inception is to be a story crafted in the architecture of the mind Cobbs mind. What people perceive to be real isnt necessarily so, because the mind can make things appear to be as real as ever. An important thing to remember is the start of the film. Dom Cobb wakes up in a place that we later find out to be limbo more importantly, Saitos limbo.

What happens next is something that is meaningless the first time a viewer watches the film. Saito is seen handling Cobbs totem (which was a top that he took from Mal while in limbo). At first, this is meaningless. Upon a second viewing, the viewer should realize that everything that happens after this scene (the jump cut to Cobbs attempt at extracting information from Saito, and so on) is something much deeper.

Saito promises to give Cobb the one thing that he wants, and thats to find the way back home. How does he convince Cobb to do this? He tells him to take a leap of faith. This is another line that goes unnoticed at first. On a second viewing, the viewer should remember that line as something that Mal told Cobb when she jumped off of the building. Is the picture becoming clearer yet?

Cobb seems to appear wherever he needs to go, whether it is Paris, or Mombasa, just like it were a dream. While in Mombasa, Cobb gets chased by anonymous agents (which he perceives to be Cobol agents) through a fantastic action sequence where Cobb escapes the dream-like narrow tunnel and is rescued by none other than Saito. A bit later, Cobb and Saito visit Yusef who brings them into a basement with various figures connected to the dream machine. The idea was for Cobb to experiment with the deep sedative. He does, and when he wakes up he tries to use his totem only to be interrupted by Saito. Cobb never does find out if he is in the real world or not. In fact, he hasnt been yet. Hes been in limbo ever since he got there with Mal. Ever since then, hes been going deeper and deeper to the point where he created Saito as a projection to help him get back home Did you really think Saito can just pick up the phone and make murder charges disappear? No. But, Cobb believes it and thus Saito is used to thrust Cobb further and further into a state of limbo where at the end of the journey, Cobb truly believes he is with his children after confronting and getting over his projection of Mal.

While in the limbo, Cobb, using Mals totem, put the idea in her head that she was in the dream world. She was, she just hadnt realized it yet. What the viewer forgets is that all knowledge of limbo comes from Cobbs character. To think that Cobb is 100% accurate about it is absolutely wrong. He wouldnt know dream from reality not in the limbo that he describes to people and definitely not if inception were performed on him to believe that limbo truly was the real world.

Mal and Cobb never really left limbo at least, not that layer of it. When Mal jumped off the building, she gave herself the very same kick that Ariadne improvised later on in the movie. Mal was right about still being in the dream world. Cobb was still engulfed in limbo and didnt realize it. Cobb believed that if you die in limbo once the sedative wore off, you would simply wake up in the real world. That may be true, but it only happens if the sedative wore off. When Cobb and Mal had killed themselves with the train, the sedative was not worn off yet and they simply moved one layer deeper (this happens again at the end of the film when Saito picks up the gun in front of Cobb).

Cobb, deep in limbo, unknowingly uses the projections of his team to keep going deeper and deeper until the idea of inception is performed on his mind, and he truly believes he was able to find a way back home. Saitos promise to Cobb was kept - in the form of Saito (a projection from Cobb) making sure that Cobb ended up in limbo, so that he could live his "life" with his kids (who are still wearing the same clothing as they did throughout the film).

The team were projections in Cobbs mind the entire time. Its how he was able to go to Miles in Paris and find an architect named Ariadne (a name which comes from a Greek mythology story about a labyrinth) who improvised the kick at the end of the movie the same way that Cobb had seen (but not accepted as a dream) Mal do previously when she jumped off the building. Its how Eames happened to know of Yusef, and so on and so forth. Everything Cobb needed to make this inception work happened to work out for him. Its even how Cobbs lawyer knew so quickly that Mal had gone to 3 different shrinks to be declared sane and how he happened to have two tickets for Cobb to be able to get out of the country before the police would have arrested him.

The movie ends with Cobb appearing from place to place, going from limbo with Saito, to the plane where Saito magically makes one phone call to free Cobb from his problems, to walking through the airport, to meeting Miles who is with Cobbs children. Cobb spins his totem and it spins just like it was a dream. He fixes his eyes on his children and the totem begins to lose speed this is because inception has worked Cobb truly believes he is in the real world. His totem will not spin like it did in the dream, not as long as he has his kids. The title of the film is now shown to us, making complete sense because the title was really Cobbs journey through his own mind: INCEPTION

I'm trying to find holes to pick in it, but I'm still trying to get my head round it and process everything!

I really like that explanation actually. I think I'm convinced.

It raises an interesting question though. Does it matter if you're living in a dream if you don't know it's one?

The reason the previous dreams were unsatisfactory for him were because he knew he was dreaming - he knew his actions weren't real. But if he hadn't known that, maybe it would've been the same as reality?

[silent ninja]

I liked this film but expected something a little better. Often I kept thinking this is a bit like the Matrix, even though it was quite different. The spinning room effects were the best and you realise it was a real rotating room, touched up with special effects later-- it beats the green screen action anyday, it looked very real for this reason.

I don't think Cobb made it to the real world.

Chris Nolan is a great director but I really do feel he cant pace his films properly. This movie was sequence after sequence, he didn't show the skill in crafting it and putting it together artistically, rather he was being 'clever' in the way it was made. I like well crafted paced films and this just didn't feel like it was paced right, hence it was slightly more underhwleming than it should have been.