OT: Inception (WITH SPOILERS)
It's the off-season, so I feel that if we can have 20 bobblathon threads we can have 2 threads on what will probably be the highest-grossing film of the year.
There are spoilers in this thread.
If you want to see this movie (and you should!) leave now. If you don't leave, you deserve anything you get.
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Getting things started with some bullets....
- Holy f---. Did this movie ever slow down? I felt like it was the fastest 2.5 hours of my life.
- I'm fuzzy on some of the rules of the dream worlds - how did Cobb and Mal spend 50 years in their dreams? Did I miss something on that one? Did they have some kinda sedative? (EDIT: Aware of exponential time increases - thought they were in level one (L1) for 50 L1 years. Someone below said they were in limbo at this time).
- I believe the top fell. Why? Because I want to, which is most important. One main reason I believe this, though, is that early on in the film when he spins the top wouldn't it not fall as well?
- If he is asleep and Mal was right, then what is the number of layers we're looking at? Snow Mtn would then be 4, not 3. The van would be 2, not 1, etc.
- When Cobb went to find Saito, did he go down another layer?
Can't wait to go see it again. Even though I think I have a good grasp on things, I'm sure there are opinions/aspects that would provide some new dimensions that I had not considered.
"i love u too much to kill u" goes both ways for mal and dom. she had to give him the choice to kill himself, which he did for her while in limbo(til he cheated and did inception on her).
"i love u too much to kill u" goes both ways for mal and dom. she had to give him the choice to kill himself, which he did for her while in limbo(til he cheated and did inception on her).
That's actually the conclusion I can to. I don't like it from an efficiency point of view, but it seems to be the last explanation that makes sense.
My theory was that she got to that opposite ledge (whether it was by renting the opposite room, breaking in, whatever) in order to prevent Cobb from physically pulling her in off the ledge.
Regardless . . . that situation would suck, to have your wife across a giant chasm and not be able to prevent them from jumping . . . and to know you "caused" them to jump. Wow. I felt almost the same way when I watched Shutter Island and the scene with DiCaprio's wife.
One thing that's been bugging me about the negative reviews of this film are their complaints that the dreams aren't weird enough, that the dream worlds are too similar to the real world because there are no talking fish or roads made of boogers or the Gorton's Fisherman with a chainsaw.
1. The effect of real-world (or I should say higher-tier dream) physical changes upon the lower dream state, i.e., when the van flips and Arthur has the RADDEST FUCKING FIGHT SCENE OF ALL TIME. That was cool. That was obedient to how dreams really work, and should have been sufficiently unreal for the loser buttheads.
2. Way more importantly, this movie is fiction. The extractors hook up to two juiceboxes: one that networks the dream to each other, so that they all inhabit the same dream, and a sedative. Every time they go under they close their eyes and within three seconds they're out cold. It's not because they're sleepy. I imagine there's an agent or a compound within the sedative that makes the dreamer adhere to certain rules. It would certainly fuck up an extractor's operation if he got into a subject's dream and there were suddenly a hundred giant penises dive bombing him.
I don't know about anyone else's dreams, but the only things that are ever really weird for me are the people. I don't dream of alien worlds or giant monsters (for the most part).
That being said . . . I did have a dream the other night where I was stuck on some sandy islands and trying to escape on a canoe by paddling with wooden spoons. But I couldn't escape, so the evil king arrived in a boat. Who was the evil king? Santa Claus. A wooden, carved Santa Claus. Sitting in a wooden, carved seigh. Not moving. Because he was made of wood.
I did not escape.
was an absolute mindfuck. the resulting effects were great tho.
the reviews are from prolly from the lowst-brain-effort-tier people.
The cast did such a good job in this movie, Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy in particular. The whole gig was a business transaction--Saito trying to defeat Fischer--but they ended up giving Fischer a loving memory of his father. A love that didn't actually exist. The father didn't deserve such a favor, but Cillian was hurting. I thought it was really positive.
I still haven't comprehended what I've now seen twice.
Never before have I been so happy to be so utterly confused.
I am of the opinion (and this is subject to change) that the top continued to spin, that Mal was indeed good the entire time, and that Ellen Page is way cuter than I remember her ever being.
I actually didn't know a whole lot about this movie before watching it, and I didn't know she would be in it.
When she was introduced as the brilliant student, I thought "oh, shit - I have to watch the annoying chick Juno for the next two hours?"
Needless to say by my demonstrated obsession with this movie, I was very pleasantly surprised by her character and her performance. Kudos to Ellen and I look forward to watching her in future movies.
(and yes, she is cuter than I remember, too...must be something attractive about brilliance, perhaps?)
It could have been the whole pregnancy and my limited knowledge of her other work that did it.
Regardless, I thought her role was played well, and Leo was great as always.
the cast was incredible. if you havent seen this movie and wandered in to this thread. go see it now. right now.
1. If this movie doesn't win a ton of awards Hollywood is a sham and a joke.
2. I'm going to see it again tomorrow so I'll be able to come back with some more ideas but I do agree that they clearly were trying to create controversy with the top at the end. In previous scenes though when the top would spin forever it did never seem to falter it would just spin perfectly hence why it was in the dream world. The top didn't spin perfectly at the end and it's rotation (for a lack of better was) was coming apart. Thus gravity, physics, all that good stuff, says that the top should have fallen.
3. The ledge scene: How she got over there could just be that she walked out onto the ledge and went all around the outer perimeter and then went across from the window so that he couldn't get her. I just hought that it was a separate section of the hotel that just had a small jut cut into it probably for an alley access to the kitchen or something. I really don't think that it was a part of a dream sequence or anything.
4. I also agree that he used her totem out of respect for his wife to remember her by.
5. Does anyone else want to buy a totem and carry it around with them at all times? I bet that sales of useless shit that tips over in odd manners will go up as a fad this year. Anyone got any sweet ideas as to what a cool totem would be?
Maize and Blue Dreidel?
So I'll just go with a maize and blue Top.
Also, the only part that bothered me was Ellen Page's Totem. WTF a chess piece? How the hell do you determine if it worked or not? Obviously the weighted di goes to the correct number, the top never stops spinning but what does the chess piece do? Not fall over? That bothered me.
they just needed to be only recognizable by the individual. So even though Ellen Page couldn't spin the chess piece, the exact texture/weight/shape would only be able to be created and remembered by her own mind. Even if Leo's character wanted to trick Page's character into thinking she was in reality when she was actually in Leo's dream, he would have been unable to do so...because he couldn't imagine the exact chess piece that she created.
It just so happened that the totems that got most of the air time in the movie could "do" something.
And for the record, I wasn't assuming anyone's ethnicity or religion...I just thought of a dreidel because of its obvious spinning qualities. And I don't know where maize and blue came from.
I used to have a necklace-type item when I was a child. It was a chain with an alien riding a skateboard on it. I think I'd take the skateboarding alien off the chain and make that my totem.
No hard feelings :-p.
I agree with you in some respects. If it doesn't win effects it's a joke, because this used effect efficiently and perfectly, and used non-CGI effects to get there in the cases it should have.
As for other Oscars (and other awards), first thing that needs to be realized, that actually sucks, is that it is a popularity contest. This is why the Dark Knight suffered even with it's popularity, and Avatar. This is why The Hurt Locker won. Like The Hurt Locker or not, face it, Hollywood, no matter the stage, loves a good story.
This may make a good story come that time, which would help it, I'm not sure. It really depends on how media spins things, so we'll see in that regard.
In other regards, I went into this a bit on the previous Inception thread, but will touch on it again here. The plot is very linear, something the Oscars committee usually doesn't lean towards. The fact that it is also very multi-layered may help it, we'll see though. The idea sometimes doesn't seem fully understood. I explained below, while I believe it to probably be the case, why it may not actually be an issue. However, if others are going to see that isn't clear.
The last point isn't even about Inception, it's about 'True Grit.' It comes out in December, it will have momentum, the Coen brothers are widely loved out there, the cast is full of stars that Hollywood loves, and in all accounts it is should be an amazing movie. Some years Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption don't win. Why? Because of Forrest Gump. It happens.
About True Grit: One thing in favor of Inception is the Coen Brothers already have their oscar, while Nolan doesn't and a lot of people felt the Dark Knight was snubbed, so he has that going for him. They already expanded the best picture field to 10 based off the reaction to TDK not getting nominated
I agree with all your points, including that the Coen brothers already have one and how that can change thigns. But, in all honesty, that helps in the case of media hype, but sometimes not in the case of the Oscar people. Oscar people tend to already know what they like, which may hurt Nolan, who may be looked at as just the director of a Batman movies. That isn't close to right, he's done many other good movies (Insomnia, Momento, Prestige, even is debut Following is underated), but that could be the perception. I really think it comes down to how the media runs with it come December. I think Nolan needs the hype to sway voters that he is more than Batman guy.
Oscars aren't always won on merit, it is also very political
HEY! NO POLITICS!
Sorry
I love that not one person in this thread has said anything truly negative about this film. Out of the many people i know who have seen it, all but two have loved it.
This movie has given me hope for the film industry. This is what movies should be, more than just mindless explosions, pretty special effects, and cardboard actors
Movie-goers as a whole are mindless morons. Hollywood is only churning out movies for the masses. Stupid people don't really enjoy intellectual movies as they get bored easily and want either cheap action or cheap laughs.
Thats why I am surprised at the positive reaction to this movie. People I would never have expected to, fans of movies like Transformers, tell me how much they love this movie. Its awesome and refreshing
I think it is a misconception by Hollywood that people want mindless movies. The highest grossing films haven't been mindless films, but at least some what intelligent. I think the problem is that only so few directors can see the picture so clearly and broadly, because so few directors are the ones actually writing their own screen plays anymore. Because of this, it has become increasingly difficult to pull off an intelligent film without being preachy, lose sight of the purpose, etc. There are intelligent film (2001: A Space Odyssey) that are overbearing, there are others that to most (including myself) try to hard (The Fountain). The most impressive part of this movie is that it is intelligent, not dumbed down (The Dark Knight, IME, was a bit dumbed down), but was still easy, to a point, to follow. It allowed the casual viewer to feel like he at least understood the idea, even if they were still confused on the details. Basically, what it did, was is made viewers interested in the subject matter, and because of this, made them want to learn more by asking questions, speculating, etc. That's the genius of this movie.
Purely intelligent film isn't safe. It's not because people don't want to think, it's because people don't want to feel degraded, left behind, etc. Like I said, the genius of this movie is that it is smart, without making the viewer feel stupid. People don't want to go to the movies to feel stupid, they get that every day with their jobs, home life, etc. People want to be challenged, and think, and feel like they have a chance to succeed, because that makes us feel better than anything else, that we succeeded in at least some what understanding a challenging idea. When a movie pulls that off, it becomes special, and people react in kind.
Good analysis: A smart movie that makes people feel that they at least somewhat understand it, even if they aren't really sure about the details. That makes the movie accessable.
Sadly, the rest of the film industry isn't filled with the talents of Christopher Nolan.
My favorite prior to this, and my cemented favorite now.
But imdb.com has a forum that explains/speculates/everything else. There are a lot of people that will annoy you, some trolls, but overall you get some good stuff out of it. Just thought I'd post it here, though if you aren't a member at that site I'm not sure if you can efficiently guide your way through the boards there. So sorry if that's the case, just trying to help some brothas (maybe some sistas too) out.
I liked the movie... a lot, like most people. IME, it was not perfect. To me it's not a 10/10, more like a 9/10. Personally, I don't think even Nolan 100% understands the whole theory. May that have lead to some plot holes? Possibly. Does it matter all that much? Not really. One of the many things you learn when writing stories is that if it doesn't matter in respect to getting your message or idea in the end, than you don't need it. Some of these questions do seem to matter, but the overall idea of the movie is left in tact, regardless of the answers to many of these stories. Because of this, because the director of this movie, the lens of the movie, isn't the lens of God, but rather a lens focused on Leo, etc. who also probably only mostly understands it, these are questions and answers that are valid. The ending, while IME obvious, was obvious because it was the only way to end it appropriately. It was the perfect ending. But again, for the purpose of the movie, does it really matter if the totem fell or not? No. Leo's character achieved what he needed to achieve.
I do think there are possible plot holes still, I think the movie was very linear (which isn't always a bad thing, in this case it isn't, but it is there), though it is very multi-layered. The acting, the photography, the effects (and often times lack there of, the anti-gravity room was not CGI, but actually a spinning room with the actors on wires) were great. There really is not much to complain about it, and that's why I think it's the best, most original movie of the year, and one of the best of the decade (right up there with 'No Country', 'Distract 9', 'WALL-E' and 'In Brudge' IME). It portrayed subtle conflicts (something not always the case with 'The Dark Knight') and wasn't over bearing. It was complex but not confusing. There are questions, but there is evidence to support theories, even though, in many cases, there may not be answers. My few flaws (only minor in nature) are editting could have been slightly more crisp, score was a little over used and generic (though I liked the score, it wasn't perfect), and I think Nolan confused himself just a little (he made a wonderful world, and to create your own world this gigantic and complex has been done so few times throughout history, Lord of the Rings being what first comes to mind). Great movie, not 100% perfect, but a very solid 9/10
/Review
Also: I think the totem did not fall. The children were wearing the same exact clothes, and in the same exact position. Call me a pessimist, sorry, but that's my epinion. I must admit though, that I first was leaning towards it had fallen, so nothing is set in stone.
Regarding the children: I originally thought the same, however on the second viewing, i believe the girl was wearing something slightly different, and they were in different positions than they had been all movie. Its subtle enough to where you aren't gonna notice it unles you are looking, and maybe i am only seeing it because i want to believe the top fell.
Thats what i love about the ending, there are things for both sides to point at to prove their belief
I won't repeat many of the sentiments of others on this thread. I however will comment on the the ending with the kids. It went too perfectly! O.K. he made it past customs, but if his mother-in-law and many others actually thought that he had killed Mal, things wouldn't have gone that smoothly. Not to mention, what is the time frame that he has been away from his kids? They didn't seem to age from his memories to reality, whether their faces were shown or not. Unless Cobb was only on the run for a few months. (which is completely possible) As stated above, the movie was about him accomplishing his task, which he did. This will be one of the few movies that I can watch over and over, just because I'm trying to sate my own curiousities about what is going on.
well i think they HAD to be in the same exact position that they were throughout the entire movie for the ending to be so perfect. if dom walked through the front door and his slightly older children met him at the front door, then he spun his totem and it didnt fall, would ANYONE think that hes asleep? no. if u changed their position/anything else it would have been too easy to say "oh hes awake."
This movie made my mind desperately and thrillingly tired. I liked that.
I can't get this movie off my brain. After seeing Inception twice, I feel like I $15 is enough.
So, 2nd best thing to do? Soothe thy ears. This song is at the tail end of the movie. Close your eyes and listen. Greatness happens.
I'll admit to being a choir boy, and although there is not singing in this, I absolutely love when trailers, movies, TV shoes or whatever absolutely nail the music for the really dramatic or intense scenes.
All the music was great.
for a couple of F#%K!!!!!! reasons, but have been awaiting its release. Without being able to comment on the movie and having not read the spoilers, but instead as a movie enthusiast, I can only say that the first hour of the Dark Knight told me everything I need to know about Nolan, seriously seriously impressive (strayed a little and could have used to shave about 1/2 hour from running time, but did not diminish). An Oscar or seven in that guys future. Along the same lines, while the subject of unexplainable ridicule with many people (especially guys that mostly seem pissed about the chicks that he can bang on call), I have to say that I believe Dicaprio to be about the best male lead around, in a dead heat with Edward Norton (when he's right - Pride and Glory? What the shit was that?). Aviator-brilliant, Revolutionary Road-even better, Shutter Island-easily the best thing about a just OK movie. Inception has all the elements of a classic, and it sounds like it was.
until you go and see this movie.
Negging to begin in:
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Uh-oh, that is -1.
My wife hates watching movies with me because I always seem to find holes in them. Its not on purpose - I just have trouble turning off my brain sometimes. I'm not talking about holes in the physics/math/science/logic of a movie. Thay all need to bend an/or completely break these rules in order to keep the story going and interesting. the holes that I usually find are more of the "Why did he do that?" kind. In that regard, this movie had a pretty big one that I am hoping someone here can dispell for me (the wife was pretty upset when i pointed this one out).
Kobb was obviously vey talented, sought after, and wealthy due to this "skill" he had. he didn't seem to have any problem traveling the globe as long as he avoided/was careful of countries that enforced extradition back to the US. So, why couldn't he simply bring his kids to him? I understand why he couldn't return to the US, but what is the reason why his children couldn't leave the US (in reality or a dream)? My wife mentioned that the children seemed to be living with Mal's mother who now has custody and hates Kobb for what he (in her eye) did to her daughter. Fine. then how would it be ok for him to just stroll back into their lives? Anyway, no matter what the scenario, with the amount of money and contacts that Kobb seemed to have, moving the children seems like it would be easier than taking on the "inception" job. I just thought that they could have come up with a stronger reason for him taking the job.
This doesn't detract from how much I liked the movie - just one of those questions that immediately popped in my head when we learned why he was taking this job.
Also, it was mentioned before, but did anyone notice if the children's clothes were different at the end from Kobb's earlier dream?
I think this one is just common sense/the right thing to do.
If he brings kids with him, then he's kidnapping. There's two more people, kids nonetheless, to have to take with him as he avoids authorities. They'd slow him down. They'd be living in an environment completely the opposite to their well-being.
It was better for the kids to stay with their grandma - he sacrificed his feeling for what was best for the kids.
He had to flee the US, but once he was outside of the border all he has to do is avoid countries that extradite. So, the kids could have joined him in Argentina (not kidnapping if whoever has custody goes alon - which we don't know if they would or not) . Going back to the US may have been his best option, but it seemed like there were other options that were'nt discussed and dismissed. Or, there could have been a more compelling reason to go back - child is sick, children in unhealthy living situation, or simply that he missed deep-fried twinkies which are only available in the US.
The totem sounded like it was slowing and was going to tip, but who knows?
I do believe the ending was some dream of Leo's creation.
The children were playing out the same scene from Leo's mind, except this time they turn. They have on the same clothes as before and everything looks how it did when Leo first left them after Mal died.
Then again, I don't know what to think. It needs a second, and probably third, viewing.
That being said, did anyone else immediately think of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare when they saw that snow fortress?
I'm not saying this is right, but I'm saying it does make you think about what really happened at the end. Here we go:
What do we know, based on the rules given to us.
1) A totem can be used to 'test' if you are in a dream world or not because only the owner of the totem knows the feel and weight of it, and therefore it is near impossible for someone else to recreate
2) If someone else touches your totem, it is now useless because they can recreate it in a dream.
Now, obviously at the end of the movie, it leaves with us not knowing if it fell or not. However, right before that, Cobb had his totem touched by someone else. He showed up on the 'shores' of Saito's conscious, and Saito himself touches his totem. We never see how they leave limbo, only that they wake up in the airplane. Would not Saito now know how to make his totem seem real, and therefore trick him into thinking it was reality? One might ask, why would Saito do such a thing. Perhaps after 50 years Saito also went crazy, and didn't believe the 'truth' that Cobb was trying to tell to him. He therefore created a space for Cobb to exist in, and Cobb filled it with his memories and believing it was real, allowed himself to no longer be haunted by those memories.
This also leads to a bigger question. If Cobb is happy at the end, then regardless of where he is, is this not his 'reality' even if it is a dream state? It's all in the perspective of the person.
Yes, I think that's another way of looking at it - that it doesn't matter whether the top fell.
That Cobb is walking away from the top before he could see the result indicates that he doesn't care whether he's in reality or in a dream - he was content with whatever state of mind he was in, because he was with his children.
Even if it wasn't "reality", it doesn't matter for him - he is done trying to find whatever alternate (reality or dream) there may be.
I thought someone else had to touch your totem in the real world for them to recreate it in a dream. The whole idea of the totem was that someone in the dreamworld could touch it but they don't know the actual "physical properties" of said totem. So if Saito was recreating a totem for Leo it would just be an educated guess of what the totem actually felt like and that was what the totem was designed to defend against in the first place.
I thought someone else had to touch your totem in the real world for them to recreate it in a dream. The whole idea of the totem was that someone in the dreamworld could touch it but they don't know the actual "physical properties" of said totem. So if Saito was recreating a totem for Leo it would just be an educated guess of what the totem actually felt like and that was what the totem was designed to defend against in the first place.
This is a critical post. Saito touched the token in a dream. That has no effect on the totem's functionality. The post above incorrectly postulates, in a fair attempt, that when Saito touched the token that could have changed the game, but this post does a great job at explaining why that's not the case.
If the totem was a projection from Cobb, in which he matched the characteristics with that of the real world totem, would it matter where Saito touched the totem? This is of course assuming that all parties in limbo would have some control over being able to create things, since he washed up on the shores of Saito's conscious.
Anyway, it's long, but here is the theory I think is true. I was forwarded this from a friend, so I won't take credit.
INCEPTION THEORY:
The idea of ‘Inception’ is to be a story crafted in the architecture of the mind – Cobb’s mind. What people perceive to be real isn’t 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, Saito’s limbo.
What happens next is something that is meaningless the first time a viewer watches the film. Saito is seen handling Cobb’s 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 Cobb’s 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 that’s 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 hasn’t been yet. He’s been in limbo ever since he got there with Mal. Ever since then, he’s 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 Mal’s totem, put the idea in her head that she was in the dream world. She was, she just hadn’t realized it yet. What the viewer forgets is that all knowledge of limbo comes from Cobb’s character. To think that Cobb is 100% accurate about it is absolutely wrong. He wouldn’t 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 didn’t 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. Saito’s 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 Cobb’s mind the entire time. It’s 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. It’s 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. It’s even how Cobb’s 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 Cobb’s 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 Cobb’s journey through his own mind: INCEPTION
Again, sorry for the length, but I think it is worth a read and no way does it deserve a diary.
how do u explain the fact that he spun his totem after he went into the dream with ariadne and the totem fell? ya, he never spun it again after going to sleep after getting the chemist dude. but to the idea that the whole story was a dream: i just dont think so. a big point ive been seeing with most people who share this idea is that he just magically got to the places he needed to go. and so i ask you: if it was a 2.5 hour long movie, why would u waste more time needlessly watching him travel from place to place/all the other transitions that are posited throughout the movie?
as for the idea that saito wouldnt actually be able to make one phone call and get him out of trouble: well....the dude owns an airline. i imagine if the owner of an airline called his lawyers, they could get an (technically) innocent man free.
I think your theory on the top is a good one. In the end, Cobb finally found his catharsis. Whose reality that catharsis was found in was irrelevant for him at that point. He finally surrendered to the reality that brought him contentment, namely, seeing the faces of his children again (and everything that comes with that). In the same vein, Mal was trying to get that place where she found her catharsis the entire time as well. Whether that was a dream world or the "real" world was beside the point. She wanted to return to the place she found contentment. It really is, after all, an incredibly basic human story.
Some other thoughts: Was Saito the mastermind the entire time? Was this the only way he could fulfill his debt to Cobb after the job was done?
This, in terms of story and character arc, is a great point when thinking about the ending:
This also leads to a bigger question. If Cobb is happy at the end, then regardless of where he is, is this not his 'reality' even if it is a dream state? It's all in the perspective of the person.
we have followed this character for two and half hours who needs to reconcile his wife's death. this is Cobb's internal goal (story). regardless of the outcome of the external goal (plot) -- he needs to do this one last job so he can return home -- we feel satisfied because his journey has an ending. the character's arc is now complete, he's lets go and recognizes he needs to move on, forgives himself for being responsible for her death. so, whether the top stops spinning or not, Cobb has completed his goal and his story ends.
however, if there's one ding on Inception it's that, with all the beautiful swiss-watch-like crafting of the plotting and construction of the world, special effects, and all-out-badassery, it's that this moment of realization is not emotionally satisfying. Cobb explains to her: i can't imagine you like you are with all your complexities, you are only a figment of my imagination and i've done the best i can. in a way, its that swiss-watch precision -- it makes logical sense for an emotional resolution, but its written in a sterile, clinical fashion with all the warmth of Ikea instructions.
but again, that's just how my beard feels about it.