“If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead?”
Inception, one of Nolan’s hugely successful blockbusters is every cinephile’s favorite puzzle to debate on and ranks No. 1 among the Top 10 most confusing movie plots, according to Money.co.uk. It has been 12 years since the epic sci-fi thriller got released but still, the blogs, posts, and videos explaining the ending haven’t stopped and the eagerness to produce alternate theories seems to be never-ending.
SUMMARY
Dom Cobb is a high-end thief who infiltrates into people’s minds and steals the idea with his right-hand man Arthur using the experimental dream-sharing technology developed by the military. Impressed by his work, an elderly billionaire Saito hires Cobb and Arthur to plant an idea(inception) into the mind of his rival’s son to which they refused initially since the subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea. But Saito proposes a deal cobb couldn’t refuse and so he begins the heist accompanied by Arthur, his old associate Eames; an expert at deception, Yusuf, a chemist, and Ariadne a young architect who is a genius at creating spaces. One last job to free him from the criminal charge surrounding his wife’s suicide. And one last job to free himself from guilt and return to reality.
IS COBB STILL DREAMING AT THE END?
To plant an idea, one has to go into multiple levels of dream and there’s a risk too. If they go too deep, they might end up in limbo, a state where one can’t distinguish between reality and dream. To avoid this, the extractor/ Dreamer uses a totem, a privately held object, and a spiritual significance. In cobb’s case, the totem is a spinning top that when spun would come to rest in the real world, if it continues to spin, then he is still dreaming.
The movie ends with Cobb spinning the totem and walking away as it continues to spin. The much rather complex note of the top spinning and wobbling a bit leaves the viewer with an unsettling question on whether he is still dreaming. And the answer would be both Yes and No. But I believe that even though Nolan will never wholly answer the question, he has left some clues here and there to indicate that cobb has finally got back together with his kids.
NO, HE ISNT DREAMING
People often appear out of nowhere in dreams, but Cobb traveled to the United States in an airplane. So, there’s solid proof to suggest that he came back to reality
In dreams, cobb always has the wedding ring but in reality, he never wears it. Neither when he arrives in the United States to meet his kids nor when he spins the totem on the kitchen table, Cobb has no ring on his finger indicating that he isn’t dreaming anymore.
The movie demands your entire attention, even missing a fraction of a second could get one easily lost with the content. The original script may have concluded with the top continuing to spin but in the movie, if you hear carefully, you will hear the totem wobble a bit towards the end implying the idea of eventual rest which again confirms the fact that Cobb isn’t dreaming.
To be fair, Cobb doesn’t care anymore whether he is in reality or a dream because he finally gets to be with his kids which was his ultimate goal throughout the movie.
In one of the interviews, Michael Caine revealed that Nolan has told him that any scene with Caine in it, is a reality. In the final scene, Caine is present so once again a solid point to propose that cobb is awake.
CONCLUSION
Nolan once said in Princeton’s commencement ceremony, “The question of whether that’s a dream or whether it’s real is the question I’ve been asked most about any of the films I’ve made. It matters to people because that’s the point of reality. Reality matters. In Inception, Cobb was off with his kids, he was in his subjective reality. He didn’t care anymore, and that makes a statement: perhaps, all levels of reality are valid”
So, we can make our peace with the film by concluding Cobb doesn’t dwell on dreams anymore.
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