Confused About the Ending of Inception? Dig for a Deeper Question

Spoilers of Course

Kev07
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Inception contains a wonderfully intricate plot that leaves the viewer with many many questions. Like the movie, I like to look at the different questions as deeper and deeper layers of thought. It is safe to say that just about every viewer walking out of that theatre will be left questioning the ending but here is why I think that you should dig to deeper questioning instead of dwelling on the surface riddles of the ending to Inception.

The topic of the ending of Inception sparks a generous question. Did Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) finally get back to "reality" or was he still stuck in a dream? Or rephrased, was Cobb the sane one, or was his wife Mal (Marrion Cotillard) right all along, meaning that "reality" is still another dream level away? Responses go both ways with evidence such as:
-Cobb's kids in the end did not age at all and were wearing the same clothing as in his dreams (+1 for Mal)
-The director (Christopher Nolan) would not have created such an intricate plot just to have it meaningless in a concept as simple as "it was all a dream" (+1 Cobb)

-Someone else (possibly Cobb's subconscious) was performing an inception on Cobb (+1 Mal)

-The top didn't stop spinning in the end (+1 Mal)

-The top started to wobble (+1 Cobb)

-The top spinning or not doesn't matter, what does is Cobb doesn't care about what is "reality" anymore (+1 Cobb) (?)

... and the list goes on.

With all of this going back and forth and no way of finding out Nolan's true intent for an ending, I propose this concept that would render questioning the ending pointless.

As we all know, when you go deeper into the dream world, your mind processing things faster and five minutes become an hour; this we know as a fact. Assuming Cobb was sane, and the "reality" that he lives in at the end of the movie really was "reality", then great, the movie followed the plotline and we can move on to the other enigmas of the movie. On the other hand, if Mal was right all along, meaning that Cobb's "reality" was actually just another dream level and Mal successfully killed herself in the dream level to wake up in "reality", then we are left with a nagging feeling. This nagging feeling however, does not matter because even if Mal was right all along, the only thing that would have happened is that Cobb would have eventually woken up and went back to the real world anyways. The best part about this is that in Mal's "reality", it would have only taken (yes I did the math), 1,460 hours, or 2 months for him to wake up in Mal's "reality" assuming he lives for another 50 years. Without a strong sedative, no one can sleep for 2 months straight, not to mention basic needs such as food, water and a bathroom. Therefore, if Cobb is not sedated, he would be woken up by an urge to run to the bathroom and if he is sedated, Mal in the real world would pull the plug on his sedative or give him a "kick". Mal and the kids would likely wait no longer than a few hours for him to come back to reality.

Through this logic, who cares if Cobb's "reality" is actually the "reality" or not? I'm more curious as to what happened between Ariadne (Ellen Page) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and their kiss.

Just kidding, I'm not that much of a romantic, but I'd rather not delve into the deeper under-the-surface questions of Inception.

Published by Kev07

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1 Comments

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  • Nicholas Joseph10/1/2010

    The top wobbled, meaning it was going to fall. I like to believe it was a happy ending, lol

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