Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’: The Ending Explained

Christopher Nolan likes to play with the public, and the movie that best demonstrates this is ‘Inception’our favorite of the British director outside of his Batman trilogy (as we said in our ranking of Christopher Nolan’s movies, ranked from worst to best). A labyrinthine story in which it is difficult to know where we are in the different levels of reality and dream, the ambivalence reaches its peak with its iconic final shot. What does that spinning top mean and why is there a cut to black? Does the top stop spinning or not? What the hell is going on? To resolve these questions (or not), we are first going to establish the facts related by the tape.

Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an architect who works as an “extractor,” a man who sneaks into other people’s dreams to steal their secrets or, in the case of the film, plant ideas in their minds in a way that the dreamer think they are your own (it’s a manipulation done by a textbook narcissistic psychopath, but that’s another topic). Cobb’s mission is to introduce into the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) the idea of ​​dissolving his father’s empire, who is about to die..

Cobb is hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe), a direct competitor of Fischer’s father, who convinces Cobb to carry out this “impossible mission” by offering him a very important compensation for him: Cobb lives away from his children because his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) died under suspicious circumstances and he is the main suspect.. Saito promises to use his influence to clear Cobb of all suspicion so that he can return to his children; only if he can carry out the implantation.

To do this, Cobb hires an elite corps made up of soldier Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), forger Eames (Tom Hardy), chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and a rising architect named Ariadne (played by actor Elliot). Page prior to his transition), with the purpose of designing labyrinthine dreams within more labyrinthine dreams, like a Russian doll, to gradually penetrate Fisher’s subconscious.

But things go wrong, of course. Mal, Cobb’s dead wife, keeps showing up to torpedo the mission: she is a representation of Cobb’s subconscious, still haunted by what happened between them. In short: they entered “limbo” together, the deepest and most dangerous part of the subconscious; Cobb managed to extract Mal by doing an implantation, but when she woke up she was sure that she was still dreaming and she committed suicide thinking that she would wake up, leaving false evidence that incriminated Cobb so that he would follow her path. A key element to understand the ending: Mal used a spinning top as a “totem”, an object chosen to distinguish reality from dream; if the top did not stop spinning, it meant that she was still dreaming.

The end of ‘Inception’, is Cobb dreaming?

The idea that characters can be stuck in the subconscious forever as a side effect of this practice is spread throughout ‘Inception’, and the ending plays on her by suggesting that Cobb might still be in limbo.

When they manage to complete their mission (in an almost miraculous way, overcoming numerous obstacles and unforeseen events), Saito fulfills his promise and ensures that Cobb can return to the United States and see his children. In the last scene, Cobb uses Mal’s totem to check that he is not dreaming, but when he spins the top he decides to get away from her and reunite with his children.. The image cuts to black while the top continues to rolland the audience is left wondering if it actually stops spinning (meaning they’re in reality) or keeps spinning forever (which would mean Cobb is dreaming).

Explanation 1: It doesn’t matter

Before diving into the world of theories and assumptions, let’s make it clear what the scene means in the emotional sense. The truth is that Cobb does not care if he is dreaming or not, and that is the meaning of the end of ‘Origin’: he has decided that he is where he wants to be, with his children, and whether it is reality or a dream is irrelevant to him. Nolan himself explained it in 2015, when he gave a commencement speech at Princeton University: “At the end of that film, Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, was on vacation with his children, within his own subjective reality. He really didn’t care anymore [si era un sueño o no]and that sends a message: maybe all levels of reality are valid”. Or, as Calderón de la Barca said: “That all life is a dream, and dreams are dreams.” But that has not stopped the Internet from developing endless hypotheses over the more than 10 years since the premiere of ‘Origin’.

Warner Bros.

Explanation 2: It’s not your totem

In a deeper sense, Cobb leaving the totem behind also means that he is leaving behind his guilt over Mal’s death, something that has plagued him for years.. Because the totem, let’s remember, is not his but Mal’s, even though he has gotten used to using it. Which brings us to one of the most shared theories: it doesn’t matter if the top spins or not, because it’s not Cobb’s totem, that is, it doesn’t really serve as proof of whether we’re in reality or in a dream. (Some say Cobb’s totem is his ring, since he wears it in dreams but never in reality. “In my dreams we’re still together,” he explains.)

Explanation 3: Children’s clothing proves that it is reality

Another theory is that the ending happens in reality because Cobb’s children don’t wear the same clothes as in their dreams.. They wear similar outfits, which is disconcerting (how sadistic and twisted you are, Nolan), but not exactly the same. That would be for some a confirmation that Cobb is awake and the top is going to stop spinning at some point, even if the camera does not show it.

Explanation 4: The spinning top tumbles, so it is reality

There are two more reasons that lead some to think that Cobb is awake. The first, that the spinning top tumbled a little just before the image cut to black, which would mean instability that would lead it to fall, even if we don’t see it.

Explanation 5: If there is Michael Caine, it is reality

The other is taken from a statement Michael Caine gave at a screening a few years ago. Apparently Nolan gave him a clue when the actor told him that he didn’t fully understand the script. “When I received the script I was lost and I said to Nolan: ‘I don’t understand where the dream is and where the reality is’Cain confessed. “And he told me: ‘Look, when you’re on stage, it’s reality.’ So there you have it: it’s reality. If I’m not here, it’s a dream”. The truth is that Miles, his character, in addition to being Cobb’s father-in-law and the children’s tutor, is one of those responsible behind all the dream engineering that governs the film; so it would make (some) sense that he’s not in the dreams.

Everything indicates that the end of ‘Origin’ is not a dream, but reality. But we’ll never be quite sure because Nolan, damn it, wanted the denouement to function as a kind of “Schrödinger’s cat” in which it is impossible to decide for one thing or another.

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