INCEPTION Discussion Thread (***Spoilers!!!***)

[EXOTICLEX]

Man Nolan really missed out with a great way to mess with people's minds....

 

[CelticPredator]

What if it at the end credits, Arnold comes out, and knocks the top off the table, and says "NAwt Bad Kid..nawt bad at ahll."

 

[EVILFACE]

Naw, a better ending would be having the black bum from Batman Begins tell Cobb "nice ride".

 

[CelticPredator]

Nice Coat....*flys away*

Uh....thanks....as well?

 

[DinoLast]

Or after the credits Nick Fury walks into Cobb's house and wants to talk to him about the Avenger initiative

 

[EVILFACE]

 

[Maglor]

The two most jarring jump cuts in the film are (1) at the very beginning where we switch from Cobb and Old Saito in limbo to their younger versions in what we later surmise is dream level two, and (2) the jump (again) from Old Saito and Cobb in limbo to the airplane. I am just suggesting that it's possible that we never left limbo through the entire film. Like a dream, it shifts from limbo to two hours of dreams and memories and then back again at the conclusion. He is in limbo on the beach, and then his mind takes him on a journey that leads him to accept the choice of settling down with his children at peace. The limbo bookends are very significant to me and say a great deal about the fat chunk of story that is presented between those two scenes. However, whether the ending is real or not, the story ends with Cobb walking away from the top and embracing his children. That's a satisfying conclusion for me regardless of how we choose to interpret its meaning.

Limbo as it's presented in the movie is quite different than the dream states. Limbo feels even less real.

The world's that Cobb is in throughout the film vary dramatically, from a hotel, to a snowy landscape. The limbo that Mal and Cobb were in for a lifetime was always the same city. Sure they added buildings to it over time, but they never left that place.

I could see someone saying that an architect made the final dream world for Cobb to live in at the end with his children (although no such thing is explicitly implied in the film), but there is nothing about that place that feels like limbo

 

[Maglor]

 

[Kuzeh]

Finally got a chance to see it...
What a brilliant film!!
Loved it!! !

 

[Maglor]

 

[Seditionary]

Saw this yesterday. Really great movie. I was really hooked and didn't think about the length for a second. Definitely a great experience seeing it in Imax also.

There were a few moments of my brain feeling like it was going to boil but ultimately I think if you just go with it, instead of reminding yourself what exactly is going on, the more fun it is. I think the movie is pretty straight forward though..

 

[CelticPredator]

Holy ____, I love Xibit.

 

[plasmid303]

This is really funny, even funnier knowing that Xzibit apparently hates the Xzibit Pimp My Ride meme.

 

[CelticPredator]

Well....this blew my ____ing mind...

It is NOT a dream: The WEDDING RING gives it away.

I have now seen this movie three times. The first time I saw it I thought it was not a dream and he was home. When I saw discussions to the contrary, I saw it again looking for any clues to tell whether he is dreaming the whole time, and questioned the ending thoroughly. It was not until I saw a post about someone saying he is only wearing a wedding ring when he dreams. Multiple people shot it down saying that they saw him wearing it in reality or that he was not wearing it in this dream or that one. My third viewing had me looking for the ring in almost every shot, seeing if his totem ever falls in a dream (Something someone said happened), looking at his children's faces to see if they are the same, etc.

My analysis as follows:

The Wedding Ring:

We start the movie with Cobb in limbo with Saito, he is wearing a ring. Step back to the beginning, he is trying to convince Saito to let him into his mind to help protect it, this takes place in a dream two layers down. He is wearing a wedding ring. Things go south and we wake up in the apartment, where we think an angry mob is really coming down the street. They threaten Saito's life with him thinking it is reality, only for him to discover otherwise. In this entire scene Cobb is wearing a wedding ring. Wake up on the train, NO WEDDING RING. In the hotel suite on the phone with his kids, NO WEDDING RING. On the roof talking to Saito, NO WEDDING RING. France, the architecture university, NO WEDDING RING. The coffee shop in Ariadne's first shared dream, Cobb is wearing his wedding ring, she freaks out. They wake up in the workshop, NO WEDDING RING. They go back under and Ariadne explores the physics of the dreamworld, again Cobb is wearing a wedding ring.

Cobb goes to see Eames, the entire time not wearing a ring. He meets the new chemist, still no ring. The chemist gives him a quick taste of his latest potion, in that scene we get a quick glimpse of his hand with a WEDDING RING. Wakes up, no ring. See the pattern?

So finally, the inception. We are on the plane, we clearly see is not wearing a ring. Level 1, WEDDING RING, Level 2, WEDDING RING, Level 3 WEDDING RING, Limbo he is wearing his WEDDING RING.

After he meets Saito as an old man, the conversation continues past what we saw in the beginning, yet even here he is wearing a WEDDING RING still. Then, when Saito reaches for the gun, we are on an airplane. He is not wearing a wedding ring here.

HERE IS THE KEY. As he is walking through the terminal, no ring, as he is greeted by father in law, no ring, when he gets home and spins his totem, no ring.

In his dreams he is married to Mul still, as she can still exist there. In reality, he knows she is dead and does not wear a wedding ring as he is no longer married. A simple yet easily unnoticed way to test which parts are reality.

Not done there, I investigated another thing, Cobb's totem:

I have seen many posts of people saying his totem falls when he is in others' dreams. This is simply not true. People say it wobbles and falls over in the beginning. I watched and listened closely, Saito spins the top and we hear it spinning as the scene cuts to the young Saito. Then, in the end when we see him old again, he looks down and it is still spinning, he knows he is not in reality and goes for the gun.

When Cobb uses inception on Mul, it continues and never stops. In the hotel after the failed Saito mission, it falls. A funny thing to note is that every scene in which the top spins endlessly he is wearing a WEDDING RING. In the scenes in which it topples, he is not.

Now, the awakening scene. Looks an awful lot like a dream right? Not really. He wakes up on the plane surprised, but everyone is smiling. They woke up from the sedatives, but Cobb and Saito were down in limbo. When they got back, everyone is happy to see he made it, Saito looks just as stunned only backing up the fact that he really snapped back to reality. They are all getting bags, going through customs, etc. Everyone looks at each other with a grin because they know inception worked and that Cobb is finally home. Not very dream-like except that it seems like a dream come true. Had the scene after he and Saito with the gun been him in his home, him on his way to his home, etc, I would think it is a dream. No, he awakens in EXACTLY the place he went to sleep to start inception. You never really know how you get to where you are in a dream do you? Then how does he know he is on a plane and just successfully completed inception on Robert Fischer, the man in front of him?

Finally, the home scene. Looks like a dream? In this case, yes it does. we see the children exactly where they were, doing the same thing, wearing the same clothes. They appear the same age. On my second viewing this was red flag that it was a dream. But on my third viewing I noticed slight differences, such as the kids looking slightly older. The cast list has two sets of kids listed, ones slightly older than the others. They are not voice casts but actual actors in the film. I especially noticed a difference as the camera pans towards the totem, I chose to focus on the back door with the kids. The girl is seen throwing herself on her father, in this scene she looks clearly older than the memory he has of her.

And of course, the totem itself. I watched each spin my third time through. It spun flawlessly for a while, began to wobble slightly, then started a hard wobble then fall. In the final scene it appears to be spinning smoothly for a long time, he probably gave it a lot of power. It starts to slightly wobble, and the screen goes black after it begins a HARD WOBBLE as if it is about to topple, not correct itself.

Conclusion: The movie isn't a dream, Cobb isn't caught in some "limbo that looks a lot like reality." Cobb spends the entire movie trying to get to his kids in reality, why would he settle for shades in a limbo? What proof is there that he is dreaming the whole time? If he is dreaming at the end, where is he dreaming? Limbo? So he goes from talking to Saito to just waking up on a plane, all as a part of a dream in limbo? Really? Think about it.

Nolan would never take the "eeet was aaaaalll a dreeeeaaaammmmm" cliche way out. But the fact that he cut the film before the top falls over does have a meaning. He is planting a seed of doubt in your mind. He uses inception on the audience to have them question the ending. The concept of the movie thus becomes reality to the viewer, a heavy thing to think about and something that hasn't been done before.

But all the evidence points to reality.

 

[meth head]

Well....this blew my ____ing mind...

Why did that blow your mind bud, i thought thats what we were all coming down on, thats certainly how i see the movie now, nothing there that threw any suprises

 

[CelticPredator]

I never heard of any of those theories. I never saw the ring.

 

[blakus939]

Me neither, I don't think it's that big a catch.
I really liked this, not as much as I thought I would and it's not the best movie I've seen, but god damn, kudos for making an original film with a fantastic concept. I think 3D really would've pushed it over the edge though and it makes the special effects feel incomplete without it.
Confusing at times and the ending definitely is a mindf*@#). Either way, there is no undisputable answer, although it is clear that he says it'll only spin perfectly in a dream and there's also the strong emphasis of dreams within dreams. I kind of like that idea as It does beg the question as to what anyone's life really is and it fits with the whole idea and concept flawlessly.

 

[CelticPredator]

Me neither, I don't think it's that big a catch.
I really liked this, not as much as I thought I would and it's not the best movie I've seen, but god damn, kudos for making an original film with a fantastic concept. I think 3D really would've pushed it over the edge though and it makes the special effects feel incomplete without it.
Confusing at times and the ending definitely is a mindf*@#). Either way, there is no undisputable answer, although it is clear that he says it'll only spin perfectly in a dream and there's also the strong emphasis of dreams within dreams. I kind of like that idea as It does beg the question as to what anyone's life really is and it fits with the whole idea and concept flawlessly.

WHATTTTT??????????? No.....lol

 

[Rock83]

Spoiler

I never noticed the ring either,but now we know the end is reality then.I never cared about it being a dream or reality though.

One thing though,that i might have missed...What was the explaination to Cobb's memories interfering with other People's dreams?Like Cobb's wife and kids were in other people's dreams that Cobb was a part of.I need to watch this again as im sure it was explained

 

[MarfMaster]

One could argue that since Cobb was able to let go of his wife, the dream-state projection of himself is now wedding ring-less, and the end was still a dream