Inception talk - Spoilers inside - Do not read if you have not seen...

[Miaoww]

I think Cobb is in Limbo throughout the entire movie. He never leaves the world he enters with his wife, he just delves deeper into his sub conscious.

Basically he planted the seed in his own mind that the world that he perceives is real (with the team on the plane) is actually real. Whereas in actuality he's still dreaming. So he did the whole inception thing on himself.

I'd explain the spinning top as also being part of the dream. If you recall it was his wife's totem that he found in the doll house when they were both in Limbo, therefore, it was affected by the physics of his mind too. i.e. it toppled when he felt it should (when he 'knew' was back in 'reality'), and spun endlessly when he thought he was in a dream (i.e. when he 'knew' he was in a dream world stealing secrets). At the end it wobbles (and apparently is heard falling in the credits) because he truly buys into the fact that he's home with his children.

There's also clues in the conversations he has - like with the Architect girl (saying you can never remember how you get places in dreams, you just appear there. In the film he appears everywhere he needs to be - Paris, Mombassa etc with no indication of how he got there, almost as if he's dreaming), and how the Japanese guy just HAPPENS to turn up to save him when he's being chased by mysterious agents in Mombassa (his sub conscious turning on itself realising there's something strange about the dream perhaps?).

I believe it's called the 'unreliable narrator' in literary terms. Nolan used a similar method in Memento.

I'm probably wrong mind, but either way it's a head fug of a movie.

[pstall]

unreliable narrator is the perfect or easy out.

The totem is a key angle. Arthur told the arch girl not to let anyone else touch it because only you will know the weight and feel properly.

Did he get that from Cobb AFTER Cobb had gotten his wife's totem?

The more I think about it, Saito planted the conscience Inception. Michael Caine reinforced it. The arch girl delves into the contex of Cobb. She is aware of his instability of Mal finding her way into his dreams. Her projection was the reverse kick to put Cillian down so they could drill down yet again.

That moment forced them to improvise.

The fact the top was wobbling is enough evidence to me he was truly home. The payoff that he is in the real world is much better than he was simply dreaming.

[pstall]

How about this? Remember how Eames(sp) was able to convice Robert(Cillian) that he was Browning to get info from him?

What if Ellen Page was able to do that and pretending to be Mal to Cobb? OMG...I can't believe the levels of this film...

[Matt Foley]

I thought it was weird that he woke up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette at the end.

[Miaoww]

He got it from Cobb because Arthur wasn't real - at least the Arthur we saw (I'd imagine he was based on a real person, just like his wife was, but who knows).

In my opinion the whole film was in Cobb's head. He performed inception on himself - it's all just too convenient (a business owner who with one phone call can get him pardoned for murder? One who also happens to own his own airline AND be able to rescue him in Mombassa of all places? A crack team assembled on a whim?). He was so desperate to believe that it was real that his sub conscious went to great lengths to convince himself that it was. That's why the top wobbles at the end when he sees his children. He finally believes he's home in reality.

I know it's a movie, but I think Nolan used that to his advantage. As I said, normally a movie goer doesn't question how the characters get from one place to another (cutting from one scene to another). However, the main character specifically says that in a dream we just appear where we need to be without a memory of how we got there, which happens frequently in the film....just like in a dream.

[pstall]

The very movies theme was also done on the viewer. We all had an Inception planted on US. And we bought into it hook line and sinker.

[rodeo]

This is why I refuse to go to movies unless it's the matinee and I can pick out a nice spot near the screen without anyone close to me. Between conversations like this one, cellphones lighting up with text messages or worse...calls actually taken, and women opening up those damn plastic candy packages over and over again, it's hard to enjoy the movie experience in a packed theater.

next time make a little crumpled napkin earplug. muffles out all the theatre sound but leaves the movie sound untouched

[rodeo]

and i have to be inclined to believe he was dreaming at the end, because they never showed any kind of kick to explain them all waking up together on the plane.

[rodeo]

i loved the film, but they seriously could've taken out 20 minutes of blurry snow fighting and made it a normal length.

[pstall]

and i have to be inclined to believe he was dreaming at the end, because they never showed any kind of kick to explain them all waking up together on the plane.

Elevator explosion, van crashing into water. Those two took them back to reality.

The defillibrator was the lower level kick AFTER Robert(Cillian) was kicked off the balcony(The lowest, or first kick). Remember how the falling techinique was put into place?

Simply amazing. Directing this is one thing. To write AND direct? Just unreal.

[pstall]

i loved the film, but they seriously could've taken out 20 minutes of blurry snow fighting and made it a normal length.

Normally with a film going over the 2 hrs and 20 min mark I can find where 15-20 mins could have been taken out but honestly I thought the time on this fit perfectly in the context.

[Sapper]

I thought about the whole Ellen Page is in it to fix Leo idea but it (to me) is negated in one scene. If there was a ploy to incept Leo, then why have the scene with Ellen and Joseph Gordon Levitt?

She comes back and Leo called it. He shows her the inner workings of the maze and how to bend it. It's possible that both Leo and JGL aren't in the know but it makes the theory silly-complicated.

Why have scenes with characters interacting with each other (without Leo in them) and not talking about the inception of Leo? It makes sense in the viewership of the audience, but Nolan doesn't do that.

[pstall]

I would suggest avoiding IMBD. The boards there are like their own mazes. I have seen some wild theories out there.

[Sapper]

Oh I would never touch those boards...this is the first forum I have talked about the movie on.