Inception(Spoilers: Don't open if you haven't seen the movie)

[Graham]

Ok guys theories on Inception? I know there are tons out but I figure a few of the better minds here can enlighten some of the lessers like myself. I think that the top did fall and the end was reality. I think the movie implied that but left a hint of doubt to give the audience the ability to create their own ending. Your thoughts?

[Blacksheepboy]

Mine's short. The spinning top fell. Loved that they put that in though. Creative to the end, albeit there's really only two things you could have done with that spinning top though. Fall, or not fall. I guess someone could have picked it up

[p0ppin]

Haha I thought it was going to keep spinning.  There was a point, in that basement at the chemist's store (with the 10-12 people on the heavy sedation), where he tried to spin his little top thingy but it fell off the sink.  So I had in the back of my head "maybe everything after this is a dream" and he'll wake up in the basement at the end...  which would be pretty damn crazy. 

Best movie I've seen in a long time, bravo. 

[zyxstand]

i liked it except for some of the things that didn't make sense... like why did ellen page jump off the building (not that it matters, but they made it seem crucial). it's not like she'll wake up from falling IN a dream.

[Graham]

If you die in a dream you wake up.

[Lord Frunkamunch]

Unless you're Asian or the heir of a corporation; then you go to limbo when you die instead of waking up.

[Graham]

They were already in limbo though.

[jerich]

What are the rules of the totem? No one else can touch them. In Cobb's case, it was not only someone else's top he is using, but 3 people touched it in the movie (Saito, his guard, Mal his wife). This is an indicator that the top is indeed not a totem to Cobb. This leaves us to figure out what the totem is. What is something that Cobb has that no one can take away from him? Exactly. The only time he sees his children is at the end of the movie. It is reality because his memory only remembers seeing his kids and leaving without saying goodbye. His children's faces are his totem from distinguishing reality from dream. Also, if you notice, some scenes are shown with his wedding ring, and other scenes do not. This can indicate which scenes are real or not.

Overall, I liked the movie but it didn't give me the mindf*** in the end I wanted. Instead it left with interpretations which diminishes the value of the movie to me. But I guess it's because 4 people get inception in the movie. Mal, Fischer, Cobb, and the audience.

[Gucci]

You did see the top swivel a little at the end, so naturally, you'd think that the top fell. BUT. What if it was the outside world shaking Leo's body ever so slightly and the top swiveled in the dream world? BAM.

Just a suggestion, but Jerich's explanation is more likely lol

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

Unless you're Asian or the heir of a corporation; then you go to limbo when you die instead of waking up.

You go to limbo when you die if you're too heavily sedated.  This happened to the Asian guy and the main character; the heir died but was resuscitated.

i liked it except for some of the things that didn't make sense... like why did ellen page jump off the building (not that it matters, but they made it seem crucial). it's not like she'll wake up from falling IN a dream.

...That's the whole point of the falling thing! The whole freaking point! You need a kick to wake up, and falling within that dream wakes you up! And no, Graham, she didn't die within the fourth dream; she just fell.

What are the rules of the totem? No one else can touch them. In Cobb's case, it was not only someone else's top he is using, but 3 people touched it in the movie (Saito, his guard, Mal his wife). This is an indicator that the top is indeed not a totem to Cobb. This leaves us to figure out what the totem is. What is something that Cobb has that no one can take away from him? Exactly. The only time he sees his children is at the end of the movie. It is reality because his memory only remembers seeing his kids and leaving without saying goodbye. His children's faces are his totem from distinguishing reality from dream. Also, if you notice, some scenes are shown with his wedding ring, and other scenes do not. This can indicate which scenes are real or not.

Good catches.  I'll have to rewatch it with all that in mind.  On the other hand, how can the kids' faces be Cobb's totem? Just because he had never seen them until he was in the "real" world doesn't mean he couldn't have seen them in the dreams.  I think I remember in one of his dreams that his wife called to the kids and they turned, but Cobb refused to look at them.  If he hadn't averted his look, would that have made that dream real?

Overall, I liked the movie but it didn't give me the mindf*** in the end I wanted.

Yeah, for me it wasn't a mindscrew either.  But it was very, very cool: one of the best movies I've seen in a long while.

[zyxstand]

i liked it except for some of the things that didn't make sense... like why did ellen page jump off the building (not that it matters, but they made it seem crucial). it's not like she'll wake up from falling IN a dream.

...That's the whole point of the falling thing! The whole freaking point! You need a kick to wake up, and falling within that dream wakes you up! And no, Graham, she didn't die within the fourth dream; she just fell.

while.

except when they were explaining the kick concept with Arthur Joseph Gordon-Levitt), he was sitting in a chair in reality and he got a kick in REALITY that made him wake up from his DREAM.  So falling in reality wakes you up (as they explained it), not falling in a dream.  (The scene were they kept tipping him to make him fall in different directions).


My explanation would be that you wake up from a dream if you fall in either reality OR dream.  Same reason why in real life when you sleep and you roll off your bed you wake up, AND if you're dreaming of falling you wake up.  except there are a few technical issues with that, namely:  free-falling means that you feel weightless essentially.  The truck falling in the first dream-layer should also should then be a kick.  Further, if being weightless in one dream-layer makes you weightless IN a dream (ie: the next dream-layer), then shouldn't they be weightless in all following dream-layers?

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

Well, falling in real life affects your perceived balance as much as falling in a dream.  However, falling within a dream is more important; after all, that's how they got out of each layer (most notably the elevator one).  The fall off the bridge wasn't enough of a kick, so they had to retime it for when they hit the water.

[Dascoo]

Someone was performing an Inception against Cobb. I'll elaborate later...

[zyxstand]

The fall off the bridge wasn't enough of a kick, so they had to retime it for when they hit the water.

I'd sincerely disagree:  falling of the bridge made them perceive weightlessness... i don't think you can fall any better than a freefall - afterall it's that temporary weightlessness that makes you feel like falling.

[Dascoo]

Best analysis?

http://chud.com/articles/articles/24477/1/NEVER-WAKE-UP-THE-MEANING-AND-SECRET-OF-INCEPTION/Page1.html

It's pretty long.

[a-4-year-old]

The fall off the bridge wasn't enough of a kick, so they had to retime it for when they hit the water.

I'd sincerely disagree:  falling of the bridge made them perceive weightlessness... i don't think you can fall any better than a freefall - afterall it's that temporary weightlessness that makes you feel like falling.

the kick is bullshit anyway, they all would have woken up when the van flipped if the director gave a shit about continuity.

[Mittsu]

the movie was full of nonsense

its overrated, but still pretty fun to watch

i liked Shutter Island more


edit,

http://chud.com/articles/articles/24477/1/NEVER-WAKE-UP-THE-MEANING-AND-SECRET-OF-INCEPTION/Page1.html

ok, that would explain the nonsense

[Dascoo]

Since you mention Shutter Island, I heard Leo pretty much played the same character from that movie.

[Mittsu]

yeah, it was pretty similar

[Svirin Kerath]

Have you ever had a dream where you were trying to find or see someone, and you never quite manage to see all of them? No matter what you do, you can't actually glimpse them, especially their face. Especially if it's someone you knew or saw a long time ago, and your brain simply can't imagine what they would look like currently, or in the context of the dream- or if they're made up, but are ascribed so much significance in the dream that if the details of their features are too vague, it would destroy the impact?

This is the only aspect of the movie that I felt related to my own dreams at all. Nothing in the movie seemed especially dreamlike to me, even limbo, it was all very organized and precise and clear, like a hyper real action movie. But the way you never quite see the faces of Cobb's children, every single time they are remembered, reminded me exactly of a dream. You want to see it so badly, but your brain simply can't fill it in.

The instant you see their faces it's proof that he's no longer dreaming, at least in my mind.