Thread: Inception ending, finally explained? Wrong...

Well, it's just a matter of checking whether he loses the ring immediately after letting go of his wife, or if it first disappears once he supposedly wakes up.

If you watch until the end of the credits, you hear his totem fall over.

He is not dreaming.

Case closed, Watson.

you guys are all inceptioned/trolled
doesn't matter because he is happy

closed-er.

Originally Posted by Moose

If you watch until the end of the credits, you hear his totem fall over.

He is not dreaming.

Case closed, Watson.

I tried this when I watched it in the theater. There was no totem falling over.

Or maybe it's an ambiguous ending that one should personally assign meaning to depending on how one views the character. This has probably been said already, but The Lady or The Tiger?

Edit: This is directed at the people who are picking apart every scene to try and find the "real" ending, not the lovely fellows who understand and accept that the ending was ambiguous on purpose.

I'm confused as to why this debate is still going on. Near the very end, you see the totem wobble, which means it's going to fall over. In a dream, unless picked up, it'll keep spinning without wobbling. So no, I don't think he's dreaming.

Originally Posted by kookyinc

Or maybe it's an ambiguous ending that one should personally assign meaning to depending on how one views the character. This has probably been said already, but The Lady or The Tiger?

Edit: This is directed at the people who are picking apart every scene to try and find the "real" ending, not the lovely fellows who understand and accept that the ending was ambiguous on purpose.

Exactly.

I have the correct explanation. It is correct, I don't just believe it is correct. If it is incorrect, there's a hole in the plot or I missed something that I've searched for for a week. It's pretty obvious, actually. I don't want to spoil anything, though... :/
But still I do. He tries the sedative in Yusuf's basement. The strong one that sends you to limbo if you die when it's used. Cobb dies in the dream on the rails. He "wakes up". What makes it EXTRA obvious is that when he tries to spin the spinning top, he is interrupted and he can't spin it. We never see the spinning top fall again. He is dreaming by the end. Limbo starts in Mombasa and Mombasa and outwards is a dream.

Can anyone prove me wrong?

I figured it out myself

Originally Posted by MBakke

Can anyone prove me wrong?

Yes.

If he died in that dream, he would have gone straight to limbo, not a dream version of Mombasa. Very good thought though, I'm not just trying to cut you off.

Also, something strikes me. I can't think of any time you DO see the top fall except for the scene after the failed job in the beginning, which was done to illustrate a point. Perhaps another instance of deliberate ambiguity, although this time for a different reason.

Originally Posted by Moose

If you watch until the end of the credits, you hear his totem fall over.

He is not dreaming.
Case closed, Watson.

*runs to get Inception DVD*

Well, Limbo is "stored" on that dream sharing device that they use. I don't remember what it's called. They say so when they are attacked by DCs in the rainy city and Saito is dying. Cobb isn't using that device when he tests the sedative. No Limbo is stored in whatever device he uses then. So Limbo can just as well be a dream version of Mombasa

I want to be proven wrong, though, so there is hope that the ending isn't a dream ^^

[Edit]
"Limbo" isn't a beach, it's whatever you want it to be. Bot on the other hand, "unconstructed dreamspace" would least likely be Mombasa... But he can't spin the spinning top. What other explanation can there possibly be? A hole in the story? Either that he didn't go to Limbo or that he did, and somehow Limbo was whatever he thought reality was.

Originally Posted by MBakke

Well, Limbo is "stored" on that dream sharing device that they use. I don't remember what it's called. They say so when they are attacked by DCs in the rainy city and Saito is dying. Cobb isn't using that device when he tests the sedative. No Limbo is stored in whatever device he uses then. So Limbo can just as well be a dream version of Mombasa

I want to be proven wrong, though, so there is hope that the ending isn't a dream ^^

[Edit]
"Limbo" isn't a beach, it's whatever you want it to be. Bot on the other hand, "unconstructed dreamspace" would least likely be Mombasa... But he can't spin the spinning top. What other explanation can there possibly be? A hole in the story? Either that he didn't go to Limbo or that he did, and somehow Limbo was whatever he thought reality was.

Stored? Mal and Dom used that thing in flashbacks and that's where they built that city, are you saying that the team is using the same one that Mal and Cobb used... Come to think of it.. How did they, two civilians, get ahold of one anyway? Also, call me an idiot.. But why exactly was Cobb offered that job in the first place?.. This is sounding ridiculous and "dreamy"... hmmm...

Well, yes, I think so? Cobb worked for Cobol. He has used the same device since then. It is probably very expensive, so it wouldn't surprise me if they used the same one. Cobb was no civilian, though. We are not told whether he worked for Cobol back then, too, but if he did, that's how he got the device. Cobb was offered the job (which one?) because he is the most skilled extractor (which is why Cobol hired him) and because he did good on Saito's audition on the train, even though "it was obvious". There are many holes in the story. Not holes that can't be filled in, but holes created by having to limit the length of a movie.

Limbo isn't "stored" on the device. It is "stored" in the subconscious of whomever was the last person to go there (according to Arthur).

When Cobb and Mal came back, what was left of their experience in "Limbo" came with them. So, when Cobb did the Fisher Job, and he and Saito went to Limbo, they went to "Cobb's Limbo."

Maybe. They say they'll go to the limbo of who ever they are sharing the dream with that has been to limbo before, which is only Cobb. His limbo could be stored in his mind, or it could be stored on the device and they just used confusing words about it. Either way, in theory, Cobb did go to limbo in that basement, because he DID die in the dream, and he doesn't get to spin the spinning top. Has anyone considered the fact that MAYBE limbo could just change to whatever Cobb expects to see? Or that everything was an inception performed on Cobb to make him forget about Mal :J

If you say so. Personally, I believe that the further people go off of the literal narrative of the movie, the more the movie's true objective is accomplished. I believe the entire movie is based on the premise that people will take all of these "holes" (and by that, I mean: purposefully ambiguous events), and "form their own" opinions on what actually happened in the movie. The audience will, in effect go through what Cobb goes through.

But, in the end, I believe the movie ends exactly as the story is told: Cobb goes home - to the real world. What matters is that he doesn't care whether the top falls or not, though we are given just enough time to see that it doesn't just keep spinning, indefinitely. It wobbles, due to a decrease in speed. In this, though, I do agree with you: It's important to note that Cobb does get his own inception done on him. I don't, believe it was some planned conspiracy, though. The story is just not told that way. If that was the case, then the whole thing might as well have been put together by some evil Genie, in an attempt to lock people in some Matrix-type universe of dreams within dreams within dreams. (That is to say, it could be anything. And would completely cheapen the whole aspect of their attempting to be a cohesive story.) I believe it was just an all-important side-effect of the job.

(Just by the way) By holes I mean conflicts (like the sedative not sending him to limbo in Yusuf's basement) and stuff that isn't supposed to happen according to the script.

I think it's quite a feat to have cut off the end of the movie in such a way that it doesn't just seem ambiguous; rather it's ambiguous whether or not it was supposed to seem ambiguous.

Also Franklin; so, you actually watched the credits to the end did you? And that happened? No it didn't, and please don't become a detective.

ugh.

Now that I've seen the movie again and understand it a lot better...the ending is not ambiguous to me in the slightest. I can see how it would be the first time you see the movie though. And as Xei mentions, it was nice the way they maneuvered that.

Originally Posted by MBakke

(Just by the way) By holes I mean conflicts (like the sedative not sending him to limbo in Yusuf's basement) and stuff that isn't supposed to happen according to the script.

Why would the sedative send him into Limbo, in Yusuf's basement?
It wouldn't.

Originally Posted by Puffin

I'm confused as to why this debate is still going on. Near the very end, you see the totem wobble, which means it's going to fall over. In a dream, unless picked up, it'll keep spinning without wobbling. So no, I don't think he's dreaming.

Cobb explains purpose, origin and significance of totem to Ariadne.
Ariadne knows the layout of Cobb's home/memories.
Ariadne also knows the condition of Cobb's mental state.

If the totem falls or not in the end is irrelevant.

Ariadne's purpose was to take over where Cobb had left off.
Yes, it was a dream.

I believe from the beginning he was dreaming and the dream never ended. My synopsis regarding the end is that he was still dreaming. He was never actually in the waking world not one time throughout the movie. One main reason is because of his children, who had on the exact same clothes throughout the duration of each time he has seen them.

Edit: Well that blows my theory. From research I find out that the children are wearing different clothes on the final scene. Back to square one for me. :p

Originally Posted by greenhavoc

Cobb explains purpose, origin and significance of totem to Ariadne.
Ariadne knows the layout of Cobb's home/memories.
Ariadne also knows the condition of Cobb's mental state.

If the totem falls or not in the end is irrelevant.

Ariadne's purpose was to take over where Cobb had left off.
Yes, it was a dream.

Please elaborate.

Originally Posted by Ne-yo

I believe from the beginning he was dreaming and the dream never ended. My synopsis regarding the end is that he was still dreaming. He was never actually in the waking world not one time throughout the movie. One main reason is because of his children, who had on the exact same clothes throughout the duration of each time he has seen them.

Edit: Well that blows my theory. From research I find out that the children are wearing different clothes on the final scene. Back to square one for me. :p

Not only were they wearing different clothes, but they were completely different children (actors). The end of the movie was not a dream, it was waking life. The story played out exactly as it was told.

I just don't see what could have been done to allow Cobb to go home. It wasn't that he needed some kind of inception done on him, it was that everybody thought he had killed his wife. He was wanted for the murder, wasn't he? Inception would have had to have been done on everyone involved, including the police.

That having been said, we do see the top starting to wobble in the end, which it didn't do at any other time in the movie when he was dreaming.