INCEPTION (now updated)

*******SPOLER ALERT: If you haven't seen Inception DONT READ THIS, there are *spoilers* You have been warned*********************************



Ive seen Inception twice now (hoping to possibly see it a third time this weekend) and I love it. I love it not just because it was an awesome film, but because Nolan did what I think is an amazing job of balancing the possibilities for the cliffhanger ending. Adding up the evidence just doesn't lead to a clear solution one way or the other. There have been some very interesting interpretations like this one which suggests that, on an even deeper level, the whole movie is a metaphor for Nolan's art of crafting a movie to plant an idea in our head. There are also some really helpful articles which break down all the dream levels, rules, and players like this article.

I don't have any novel or groundbreaking interpretations to level at the movie but I do have some questions that I would love to hear some comments on. The fundamental question (or, I suppose, interpretation) of mine is in regards to the totems and the rules they operate by. So of course there is the big cliffhanger ending in which we will never know whether or not the top falls. Of course some argue that the top fell a few times at that "level" earlier in the movie, and the top "wobbles" in a manner different than when it is spinning perfectly in the dreamstate. All good observations. There are other clues, of course, like the fact that his wife in the hotel scene is mysteriously on the other ledge, or when Cobb sees his children at the end of the movie they are wearing and doing the exact same thing that weve been seeing them do (of course now we see their faces, and importantly they are different actors than the dreamstate kids, if you watch the credits closely). All of these are fated to remain ambiguous unless we were to learn the fate of the top, whether or not it fell, which of course we are doomed to never know.

However Im beginning to wonder if the totems are something of a red herring designed by Nolan to distract us, to possibly add to the air of ambiguity regarding whether or not Cobb is ultimately dreaming. The usual assumption seems to be that if the top fell, we would know he is awake, but I dont think thats true. The rule of the totem as its first stated is not that if the top falls Cobb isnt dreaming, its that hes not in someone else's dream. Youre supposed to have your own secret totem so no one else could dream it up and put you in their dream because you would know your totem is operating differently.

The thing is that even if the totem falls at the end of the movie (which again, well never know) it doesnt necessarily mean anything, I think Nolan designed it to make us think its more important than it is. Because if he is still dreaming, and all the levels in the whole movie are part of his dream, at every level the totem would operate in the way Cobb expected it to, so when he thought he was awake it would fall, and when he knew he was in a dream (like when he is in limbo) it would spin endlessly. This ambiguity in the totem would also explain why earlier in the movie the totem fell (which would make the cliffhanger fairly anticlimactic): because the point is it doesnt matter if the totem falls or not: if its all Cobbs dream it operates like he expects it to, and since he thinks hes awake at that level, it falls; if hes actually awake, of course it falls.. Either way the totems operation actually doesnt reveal anything. Well what if it kept spinning at the end of the movie, you ask? Thats a good question, but again Im not sure thats a possibility, not only has the top already fallen at that level of reality previously in the movie, but if it kept spinning it would mean hes in someone else's dream, and whoever that is we have no idea or Nolan forgot his own rule (which I doubt), because its vital to remember that the totems dont just mean you are or are not dreaming, they are meant to indicate whether youre in someone else's dream. Nolan is using the "cliffhanger" ending to trick us, but not in the way that you immediately think.

This would also answer an implicit question in the movie: if at the level of "reality" his wife was still doubting whether they were awake, couldnt she see that the totem would fall? If the rule was simply that the totem spins endlessly in a dream, it would seem that it would give a clear cut solution and an easy answer. But thats not the rule, the rule is it means youre not in someone elses dream. Well, normally it means that. In this case Cobb knew the rule of her totem so if he was the dreamer the totem would be rendered useless. She was still suspicious and obviously the totem was no longer enough to convince her otherwise. You could of course simply argue that since the idea had been implanted so deeply by Cobb it simply took over her reason, so of course the totem wouldnt convince her. But I think its also consistent to say (though, obviously, completely speculative) that she could have believed she was in Cobb's dream, and since he knew the rule of the totem (and she was probably aware of his knowledge) the way it functioned no longer mattered to her in relation to her suspicion, because she knew it would simply operate in the way Cobb expected, and since he thought they were both awake, it would fall. And clearly she was not the dreamer because unless Im mistaken her death would have started the collapse of the dream much like in the opening scenes of the movie.

On the other hand, of course, if Cobb is dreaming at that level, it is odd that through the whole movie they stress that Cobb can no longer control where the projection of his wife shows up, but she never bothers him at that "level" of reality, nor does he see projections of his children randomly. At any rate I cant say one way or another. Any other theories, suggestions? Did I get the totem rule wrong?

*UPDATE* My friend Ben and I had a discussion last night on this theory, and he agreed with me that the top is a distraction, and he suggested that what its precisely distracting from is the audience's attention to the fact that when Cobb is dreaming, he is wearing his wedding ring. However in the last scene, though it is not something that immediately catches your eye Cobb is no longer wearing the ring, indicating he has finally "gotten over" the death of his wife. So why the top "cliffhanger" at th end and the subtle non-wearing of the ring by Cobb? Using the top as the final sequence for a "cliffhanger" (which as I have argued is not really a cliffhanger, the top probably falls but its meaningless) but only slightly hinting at Cobb's catharsis over his wife seems to be a debate over the meaning of the movie and perhaps ultiamtely what the meaning of reality is. The totems were used as control, as a way to maintain your own hold on things, your own grip and precision (even though as we have seen they so easily fail). However it seems the truer theme through the movie is Cobb's attempts at catharsis, forgiveness, redemption so to speak. In the last scene Cobb gets that, and not just in the obvious way that he gets to see his children again and the charges against him have miraculously been dropped, but in the subtle, psychological way that the film has been getting at: namely his estranged relation with his wife. Thus in the juxtaposition of the two elements of the ending, the subtle bare ring finger and the much more pronounced top, perhaps Nolan is asking us to search for the true meaning of reality and seek redemption and catharsis which is more difficult to perceive, instead of control which is always the more obvious "solutions" we attempt to have regarding our reality (which the cliffhanger suggests we can never achieve). In the end then, Nolan is perhaps suggesting that redemption and forgiveness, and not control, is the only way to understand whats real.