It seemed very dream like that after his wife committed obvious suicide, they were in two different hotels no matter what she planted cameras and eyewitnesses would exonerate him quickly, but instead somehow he is suddenly suspected of murder and when he gets home conveniently there is a guy with the government there all ready with tickets to get him away from a situation where he might realize he is awake.

To those of you saying that the entire movie was a dream and that his wife was right all along, explain why the totem falls when we first see him in the hotel room, and (most importantly) why Mal only shows up when he "goes under" into a dream. If she was that rampant in the dreams she would be just as rampant in what is displayed as reality. I honestly don't believe the top was his totem, I think it was a reassurance that he was awake. If you pay attention during the movie, he has a wedding ring on only when he is in a dream and it doesn't look as if he has one on at the end of the movie. I think the ring is the totem and the top was just a way of double checking.

Yeah, I agree that there probably isn't a definite answer. My point mostly was that I enjoyed it regardless.

SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!

But was it a dream? Are you sure? I dont think theres supposed to be a definite answer.

Still great movie though!

I just didn't like Vanilla Sky because once you find out everything after the first 20 minutes has been a dream, the rest of the movie is totally invalidated. None of it mattered.

To some people, a good movie is about not being able to predict it at all. And that's what makes it enjoyable, the fact that it surprised them and they couldn't figure it out.

However, about it being an original story: I have it on good authority that Scrooge McDuck did it first:
http://videogum.com/208132/caught-inception-rippe…

And in pointing this out, all I can think is "SIMPSONS DID IT!"

You see it fall when he's in the hotel room in Kyoto and I think there's one other time. But once they put him under in Yusuf's basement, you never see it fall again.

Both movies are similar, but they're still pretty different in terms of story. Some fans are crying "rip-off of Paprika" though. It's kind of crazy. Have you seen Paprika by any chance?

I actually shared some thoughts on the "Hollywood Stealing Ideas From Anime" debate. You can read them at:
http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/875442822/incept… (Part 1) http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/893440300/incept… (Part 2)

They built an entire 100 foot long hallway connected to multiple rings, and they rotated it around, hoping I guess that the actors didn't kill themselves. For the "floating" scenes they just rigged up cables.

Someone in an interview basically said the two lines that go into people are both a drip with the chemicals and a line that goes into the nervous system. so spot on.

I have to say, I really enjoyed reading your response. I agree about the true core of the movie and how Cob is now happy regardless of whatever is the truth. I think that in a way, how you perceive the ending shows what type of person you are. It's sort of a glass have full or empty thing, but with FAR more options! It's definitely fun to think about, and isn't that what story telling should be?

At a guess, his children.

He comes home, where his kids:

– haven't aged
– are both home
– are both in the backyard
– are both playing together, not seperately
– are both positioned in the same tableau as his memories

If it's meant to be real, it's one *hell* of a coincidence. Though you could argue the ending of the movie is actually the beginning, and his memories throughout of his children are actually that moment, hence 'going home'.

I didn't understand the hype, and was disappointed. If anything, it over-explained simple concepts, to the extent my friend and I both said "Get on with it already!" Given the subject matter, the type of ending was exactly what we expected.

Yeah, I like to think it also has something to do with bio feedback. Getting each certain waves of each persons brain in sync. I use to go to sessions where it was used and I learned to ease the severity of my migraines with it among other things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio_feedback

Hehe, I made a post pretty much the same as this a couple weeks back.
http://www.just1randomguy.com/2010/07/go-see-this…

The ambiguity is a good thing though… maybe…

Couple of things: I thought, at least, the twist was incredibly obvious. But beyond that, I had a couple problems with the logic that really irritated me.

The totem is clearly a plot device. The top behaves completely differently from all of the other totems, and I feel like the other totem's were introduced in order to justify the top's existence.

The "kick" mechanic is also poorly done. 2 things: When the van rolls over on the highway, why doesn't that kick Arthur out? Further, why doesn't the first intentional kick wake Arthur up?

As for the whole movie being a dream, I agree that that was the intention of the film. One of the strongest pieces of evidence for this was that when the wife commits suicide, you neither see nor hear the result, no sound at all except for Leo.

Also, the wife's suicide was unnecessary from a purely game theory standpoint. There are two options: Suicide(a) and living(b). There are two possible scenarios: reality(1) or dream state(2). The wife chose a. This is the incorrect choice. If a and 2 are true, yes, she is fine. But if a & 1 are true, then she is dead. B is the correct choice because if b&1 are true, obviously you can't wake up again. and if B&2 are true, when you die of old age you wake up anyway. B has much less loss than a.

Which, as a note, is what cheapened the film for me anyway. Even if Leo is wrong and it all is just a dream, he's going to wake up eventually anyway, and everything is going to be just fine in the long run.

holy shit.

At first I was CERTAIN that scene was filled on a vomit commet. Now Im not so sure.

I assumed the machine was a combination of sleep inducing chemicals and electrical systems that shared the brain impulses from each dreamer.

An interesting note to think about is does Saito still have the same motivations AFTER spending a good 50 years in limbo? Is he the same man that hired Cob to break up Fischers company? Does he even care any more?

Weird. I guess since you never see the younger ones faces you dont really notice.

The movie really made me think of Vanilla Sky, which is funny because that bombed and this is a major hit. The basic premise is the same, with dreaming and not being sure if you're awake, and the ending is similar, where there's a vague sense of, "Is this awake? Is this still a dream?" I'm really annoyed that none of my friends have seen Sky, because "OH GOD TOM CRUISE I HATE HIM SO MUCH" sort of responses.

Zero-gravity JGL.
Wouldn't mind dreaming of that.

No, seriously, Christ Nolan is welcome to fuck my mind anytime.

Oh and I just thought I'd throw this out there, it's not exactly an original story. I've been hearing it get compared to the movie Paprika by some Podcasts I listen to. I've heard if you like Inception you'd like Paprika.

I think the ending was kind of a let down. Not because it left the actual resolution ambivalent, but because it doesn't actually matter that much. If the totem falls, then the movie is about letting go, settling things with your past, "getting over it".

Then again, if the totem keeps on spinning, the central message of the movie is "Choose your children over your wife", because that's what DiCaprio's character essentially does.

Movie was a good action flick with some pretty awesome visuals, but it was no Matrix, no si-ree.Then again, I'm not 15 anymore, so I doubt anything can be matrix again.

[now come some major spoilers of Shutter Island]

I saw Shutter Island couple of days later, and I can't help but compare the two movies. I mean, Leo is basically playing the same character, with same background and problems!
That movie had a deeper meaning. In the and the (apparently sane, after all) DiCaprio's character chooses to get lobotomy, because he can't live with his past. That movie says some things in the past can't be forgotten and can't be lived with. The allusion to death camps certainly plays along with that.

The Inception was a better, more enjoyable and more intriguing movie, though. No complaints there.

The 'twist' we got was perfect. It was set nicely way after the actual resolution of the story. It was ambiguous so it might not be a twist (merely a question to the audience – so, do you really know what';s real, and does it matter). And most importantly, if it is a dream – it matters, but doesn't invalidate things.

The core of the story was Cobb learning to forgive himself, and allow himself peace. If that happens in the real world, great, he is both at peace and with his children again in the real worl,d his children get their father back.

If it's in a dream world, then great, he is at peace and whith his children again, and his children always had their mother back.

Either Saito was a businessman who might have been set to forge an evil empire and perhaps would have been mellowed by the experience, or perhaps he was a dreamer sent by Cobb's wife to bring him back (falling plane for a final kick to the real world) who failed, and Cobb bought himself as much of a happy ending as possible by 'rescuing' Saito to a more acceptable level of the dream.

Who knows! But the ending only means you look at the story differently, not that the story is sudden'y unimportant.

That's my take, anyway 🙂

When I envisioned THAT ending, I got chills. Unlike the *actual* ending, which was like, “so what was the freaking point of the last two hours?”

(I’d been hoping for a final twist/revelation in which the last dream is a trick by Saito or somebody to avoid having to pay Cobb, or perhaps someone on the team really working for Cobalt Engineering, but her ending had the advantage of needing no changes to the film’s budget or running time, and allows the viewer to project their own conspiracy theories as to the reason for Caine doing the toppling.)

Claire Geare … Phillipa (3 years)
Magnus Nolan … James (20 months)

Taylor Geare … Phillipa (5 years)
Johnathan Geare … James (3 years)

It may not have been conveyed clearly, but they were very definitely supposed to be older in the final scene.

Maybe edit your comment with a SPOILER tag if you can.

In that regard they didnt make it clear how long Cob had been away. I assumed several years but perhaps it was only 6 months or so.

Yeah I assumed he took over her totem and learned its characteristics. We learned its deeper meaning later but I think it would still function for Cob's purposes.

Wait, the totem worked fine for the Japanese dude. I think the idea is to intimately know what the totem is supposed to do so that nobody can fake its behavior if somebody else is controlling the dream.

I still find myself thinking about it. A lot. Also, I find myself occasionally wondering what my "totem" would be. Perhaps a pen. A customized pen. Hmmm…