Inception - Movie Discussion - Spoilers Within!

[ThermoNukePanda]

So I finally saw Inception at home last night (don't ask, but I didn't download it).

I'm a little confused. Great movie, but slightly confused. Anyone care to talk about the movie, specifically the ending?

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, AND DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS, GTFO NOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!

[spawn622]

What's confusing you Chris? The movie overall is pretty cut and dry. Let me know what your questions are and I'm sure I can answer them from my point of view. I saw the film 5 times so far and understand it pretty well.

It's also Nolan's take on the movie going experience, which is a whole other conversation.

[ThermoNukePanda]

Am I correct to assume that Cobb is still dreaming at the end of the movie?

What happened with that Asian guy at the end? Mr. Saito? It's like Cobb went deeper into Limbo to try to save Saito (at least that was what he was saying he was going to do since Saito died in the dreamstate).

He woke up on the beach again, like at the start of the movie and was taken in there and Saito grabbed the gun and suddenly Cobb woke up on the plane with everyone, back in first class again, and Saito woke up too. and smiled at him.

Cobb went home, saw his dad and kid's faces finally, and yet the spinner was still spinning which means he's dreaming still?

[spawn622]

At the end of the film, Mal's totem was spinning, but you never saw it stay spinning or fall. That's left up to the viewer to decide.

However, he FINALLY saw his kid's faces and if you notice, the kids are in different clothes and are older. Different actor and actress play the kids at the end of the film. While it COULD be still a dream...We were NEVER in Cobb's dream other than the time we saw Adriadne go in.

As for limbo....Limbo is the same but different for everyone. It is what you make it. My take on the ending is that Cobb finally gets home after bringing Saito back from limbo, much how he did Mal. The final "kick" for them was just like being hit by a train. They woke up on the flight, Saito stayed true to his word, and the plan went through as they wanted.

Keep in mind though, the film is left to the viewer to interpret. Knowing Chis Nolan, if the whole thing was a dream or taking place in Cobb's mind he'd view that as a cop out in storytelling and honestly, NONE of his films have ever copped out in the story department.

If you want to get in to the deeper meaning of the entire film, I'll type a wall of text about that.

[ThermoNukePanda]

Well, I had read this last night and thought it was a good synopsis of the whole thing even though it didn't answer a lot of questions.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/07/inception_theory.html

You're right though, it IS left up to the viewer to decide what is/has/was really happening.

I thought it was a great movie. I should have seen it in the theatres but we've just been way too busy and Coy is always working. So, I got fed up last night and was bored cause she went to bed early and ended up watching it online.

[cow]

My interpretation of it is that it's all Cobb's dream.

Mal appears in in the dreams even though Cobb isn't meant to be the dreamer. She could only appear if this is all in Cobb's head.

Also, when they are driving through the City, they are in the driver's dream, but you see a train driving down the street, the same train that ran over Cobb and Mal in their dream. Once again, this shouldn't happen since all projections in the dream are from the dreamer's sub-conscious (The Driver in this case).

Also remember that the spinning top isn't Cobb's totem. His Wedding Ring is his totem.

[spawn622]

My interpretation of it is that it's all Cobb's dream.

Mal appears in in the dreams even though Cobb isn't meant to be the dreamer. She could only appear if this is all in Cobb's head.

Also, when they are driving through the City, they are in the driver's dream, but you see a train driving down the street, the same train that ran over Cobb and Mal in their dream. Once again, this shouldn't happen since all projections in the dream are from the dreamer's sub-conscious (The Driver in this case).

Also remember that the spinning top isn't Cobb's totem. His Wedding Ring is his totem.

That's the same thing I thought after the first time I watched it, however after watching it again, it is said that each person in the dream brings in their own projections, their own memories, and baggage. We see this at every level of the main sequences.

In the first level, as you point out Yusuf, we see Robert Fischer's bodyguards that he brings in to the dream. Also, Adriadne's maze of a city is created in this level.

In the second level we are in Arthur's dream and we still see Robert's bodyguards, as well as the maze of the hotel that Adriadne created, and the zero gravity feeling of the van falling from the first level.

In the 3rd level we are in Fischer's dream which is then populated with, again, Adriadne's "snow base" (For lack of a better term) of a maze.

In all 3 levels, as well as in limbo (Which is Adriadne's dream, which is populated with Cobb and Mal's "creation" of limbo) Cobb's "projection" of Mal as wanting revenge on him is so strong that no matter how much he tries to lock her away in his mind, she still breaks through and is populated in every dream world that Cobb is a part of.

As I said before, it's all up to the viewer's interpretation but I wanted to give my thoughts on why the whole thing wasn't in Cobb's mind. It really is a mindf*ck of a film that I could talk about for a very very long time.