Inception

[MikePizzoff]

Just picked this up on Blu Ray at Blockbuster for $7. Saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I heard/read a great deal of people saying they didn't understand the ending. I don't know what there is to understand? It all made pretty clear sense to me...

[Neil]

I heard/read a great deal of people saying they didn't understand the ending. I don't know what there is to understand? It all made pretty clear sense to me... Yeh! The ending of the film was perfectly clear to me too! Directed by Christopher Nolan Written by Christopher Nolan Leonardo DiCaprio ... Cobb Joseph Gordon-Levitt ... Arthur Ellen Page ... Ariadne Tom Hardy ... Eames Ken Watanabe ... Saito Dileep Rao ... Yusuf Cillian Murphy ... Robert Fischer Tom Berenger ... Peter Browning But joking aside... What did you think happened at the end then?

[Neil]

I heard/read a great deal of people saying they didn't understand the ending. I don't know what there is to understand? It all made pretty clear sense to me... Yeh! The ending of the film was perfectly clear to me too! Directed by Christopher Nolan Written by Christopher Nolan Leonardo DiCaprio ... Cobb Joseph Gordon-Levitt ... Arthur Ellen Page ... Ariadne Tom Hardy ... Eames Ken Watanabe ... Saito Dileep Rao ... Yusuf Cillian Murphy ... Robert Fischer Tom Berenger ... Peter Browning But joking aside... What did you think happened at the end then?

[MinionZombie]

ha, lol... Here's my thoughts on the ending:   Clearly they all got out of the dream just fine, Cobb did get back into America, and he was re-united with his kids. We saw earlier in the film - in Mol's safe - that the spinning totem would spin with perfect balance and no wobbles at all, which clearly shows that it's spinning in a dream - so when Cobb does it, and it very clearly wobbles quite quickly after spinning, he's obviously in the real world. It's just that they delibertely cut to black before it falls over completely - a bit of a cheeky way to cut out, which is a more visually interesting way to cut to the credits that hang around and wait for it to fall over totally. But as Nolan has himself said, the important thing about the scene isn't that the totem is spinning in the real world in a real way, but that Cobb doesn't feel the need to look at it anymore. You could read a whole bunch into the fact that his kids are wearing the same clothes (or seem to be anyway), but again I think that's only there to deliberately provide speculation. I think it's pretty damn clear that they all got out of the dream(s) - I re-watched it last week and paid close attention to the levels of the dream, and how people get to where they are. If you pay attention to what's going on in Inception, it's quite easy to follow ... but it's definitely easier to follow the second time around. In summary, and for added definition - they all got out of the dream, Cobb got home in the real world, and he got his kids back - it was a happy ending, and all the better for it. One thing that makes me giggle about Inception is the gag that the entire first level of the dream heist is pissing it down with rain because the chemist dude needs a pee.

[bassman]

It's not the ending with the top that confuses me. That I get fine. It's up to the audience to determine whether or not he really made it to his kids. But as MZ says, the important part is that Cobb doesn't even care if it's real or not - he's there. The part that confuses me is how did Cobb get back to reality(if indeed, he did)? He missed the second to last kick in the "rain" level. If he didn't get kicked out of that level, how then did he get kicked back to reality on the plane? Anybody got an explanation for this one?

[MinionZombie]

It's not the ending with the top that confuses me. That I get fine. It's up to the audience to determine whether or not he really made it to his kids. But as MZ says, the important part is that Cobb doesn't even care if it's real or not - he's there. The part that confuses me is how did Cobb get back to reality(if indeed, he did)? He missed the second to last kick in the "rain" level. If he didn't get kicked out of that level, how then did he get kicked back to reality on the plane? Anybody got an explanation for this one? The kicks don't matter when you end up in limbo, so it read to me. Like when it happened to him and Mol, they killed themselves using a traintrack and a train ... so, although we don't see it, Cobb and thingymyjig (name escapes me right now) would do themselves in in Limbo, but first Cobb had to go there to help him remember to honour the agreement - because, as they say earlier in the film, being in limbo so long he'd forget there ever was an agreement. Anyway - so they'd have topped themselves, which we know from the flashback to Cobb & Mol, but it's not important to see that. So that's how they got out.

[bassman]

I see. But how did he get from his own Limbo(that he created with Mal) to Sato's? I was under the impression that everyone makes their own limbo? Maybe I should see it again...

[MikePizzoff]

I'd have to watch it again to explain how he got out of the limbo, but I understood it the first time around. Foggy memory. The thing about the top is what really got me.   So many people saying he was still in a dream and that's why the movie cuts to credits as the top is spinning. However, you clearly see the top wobbling, which it never did in the dream worlds.