INCEPTION THEORY #2: The Ending is Utterly Real

Inception is my favourite movie… And if you’ve seen it, you’ll know why… It’s monstrous ball of inconclusive plot points, all of which intend to confuse. Which makes it so much fun to attempt solving. There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense, especially the ending… Which is why I’m here today to continue my journey on the truth of this movie.

MUSIC USED:

All of it’s from Epidemic Sound.

WHATEVER TOPIC THE THEORY IS ON WAS NOT CREATED BY ME. ONLY THE THEORY WAS, HOWEVER I HAVE RIGHTS TO THIS VIDEO. I DID NOT CREATE THE MUSIC EITHER. PICTURES ARE MOSTLY FROM GOOGLE.

[oliviapete]

Cobbs totem is his wedding ring. Whenever he's in a dream he's wearing the ring and when he's awake he isn't. When Ariadne asks him "why dreaming is so important" he replies with "In my dreams we're still together" and briefly looks down at his hand. He doesn't have the ring on at the end of the movie so it proves as more evidence that he is indeed awake

[ralphtijtgat]

I’m just amazed at how Christopher Nolan even pulled this off. How do you even dream this up, or write it down? And then go ‘sell’ this whole thing to a studio to help them make this film? How the f is this even possible? Absolutely unbelievable, truly a feat of pure inspiration and creativity at it’s finest. Unbelievable storytelling, how do you even do this?

[swiftfox]

Finally someone pointed out that the top wobbling so much would mean it's gonna topple.

[salviadavis]

I think the beginning of the movie showed what was about to happen at the end of the movie. Cobb told Ariadne he was going into limbo to find Saito to remind him and help bring him back. Saito picked up the gun and killed Cobb and himself so that they both could wake up.

[oscarfoley]

No the reason saito was older was that time passes a lot faster in limbo so the few seconds that saito was in limbo when DiCaprio wasn't made the age difference

[xDrucciMane]

Am I the only one who had absolutely no doubt that the ending of the movie was real the second the top wobbled? I've never understood why anyone questioned it. It quite literally PROVED that it was real. I've never even questioned it once since the moment I stepped out of the theater.

[belenmeier]

hi, I always believed that his kids (faces) were his totem ...
he only sees the back of their heads in his dreams. in the end seen they finally turn around. what do you think?

[twilightkaur]

So this is my theory.
The totem kobb has, isn't his at all.
It belonged to Mal at some point.
It was Mal's totem
As we see in the movie, Mal and Kobb were living their dream life together. Choosing how they want it to be. Everything was perfect. But Mal always had this secret of hers, in her safe. It was always hidden, even amongst all the happiness they were experiencing. Kobb fit these lines into Mal's subconscious:
You are on a train.
You know where this train will take you,
But you don't know for sure.
This led Mal to believe that she's spending her dream life together with Kobb. She knows they're going to be together forever. But she believes it isn't for sure. She thinks Kobb might leave her. So she hides her totem in the safe, to drag Kobb's attention to it.
As the lines in the movie are said,
"Don't think about elephants.
What are you thinking about now?"
"Elephants."
It's this trick the mind plays on us, that when we know we'll not be granted access to something, we're more eager to know it.
This led to the totem catching Kobb's attention.
The totem links to Mal.
Mal is always present in Kobb's subconscious. Whenever Kobb has a dream, Mal always appears to destroy the purpose he has come to accomplish. Kobb spins the totem whenever he wants to check if he's in a dream or not. If he's in reality, the totem topples. If the totem keeps spinning, he's in a dream. Mal is related to the totem, and therefore makes this connection between her and the totem in Kobb's mind. When the totem spins, it symbolises Mal's ability to reach to Kobb, it's almost like the spinning totem gives her power. When the totem topples, she loses all her connection with Kobb. Hence the totem is the only way She can get to Kobb.
But, throughout this movie, we realise that Mallerie isn't even real. She doesn't exist at all. Except for the shots where she jumped from the building, everything is unreal. Mallerie has always existed in Kobb's mind. Mal in Kobb's dreams is always possessive and destructive. Kobb imagines this version of her, because of the betrayal she had done to him, that he gets arrested for killing her while she jumps off. Mallerie just doesn't exist now.
The connection she's trying to make to him through the totem in his dreams is also his imagination.
Kobb imagines that Mal's memories/Mal's version in his head will never let go of him that easily, and will always come back for him.
The totem disfigures his own wants and will. Because he is always subconsciously reminded of Mal when he sees the totem, he becomes obsessed with it. He wants to see the totem topple cause that to him, symbolises the inability of Mal to reach his thoughts.
The ending scene of the top still spinning, but Mal not appearing shows that he has successfully removed Mal's negative memories and the spinning top, no longer awakens the memories of her, because now he find fulfillment in his children:)

[RYLIK_]

I would completely agree with you, if his son didnt say "we're building a house on the cliff" the one you see in Limbo.

[DrownedLamp]

"we're building a house on a cliff", how do the kids know about that?

[drdoomsday]

There’s a point in the movie before the whole plane thing where Cobb tells Adriane (i dont know if spelling is right) how his totem works right after he tells her never to tell anyone how her totem works.

For me I’ve always seen his kids as his totem. If he can see their faces then he is in reality but if he can’t then he’s in a dream, because in all the dream scapes he sees his kids but they turn around it’s only in the end that they turn away.

[nathansummers]

Do a theory on where the wild things are

[FireurchinProductionsByzantium]

Bane's totem is his mask. When he's dreaming, nobody cares who he is until he puts it on.

[michaelscott]

Awww happy ending for cobb. Nice. I always thought the ending was real. They all did wake up in the plane after all. Also, having cobb find Saito and NOT wake up would have been such a slap in the face and anticlimactic as hell. Great movie.

[mtballa]

Pretty sure it was made pretty clear years ago that cob wore his ring in the dreams and didnt in rl, so u know that at the end of the movie when he has his family back, hes not wearing his ring thus it is rl.

[entertainmentculture]

Another theory is Dom was in Mr Saito dream, after being impressed by the dream within a dream technique, he trapped Dom in his dream and planted the idea that he can see his kids, got a new artitec, who explore his deep secrets and used fischer heist to extract back the confidential information Dom took from saito mind, without him noticing, got the artitec to kill his memory of his wife to move another level up to consciousness where he can see his kids again, that's why everyone involved in heist was looking at him, because they was projections from saito mind consciousness, which saito had trained his mind up before dom's inception, and used Dom as his totem to wake up at the end, plus Dom's son mentioned a house on the hill, which is Mr saito fictional home right before it ends

[Garfield.]

Hello, yes, theory
Theory machine fixed
FINALLY

[ryanseitz]

What fascinated me about the movie was the real world applications that might eventually become possible.
Specifically, the scene where lots of people go to be put under and dream, and the time when Cob and Mal grew old together.
In, the future, we might be able to control lucid dreaming more. If we do, we can spend lifetimes dreaming and being happy. If the dream is your current reality, then it might as well BE real. (to you). In essence, this is a way to live longer, escape death.

[nukemboy]

The wedding ring is Leonardo DiCaprio's totem. In the dream leo has it on and when he's in the real world he doesn't have it on

[yfukuyama]

That's the theory I lean towards too myself, however, like you mentioned, the totem isn't his, and even if it was and it did fall, totem's only tell you whether you are in somebody else's dream, not your own. Also, interesting hearing the kids at the end saying they are building a "castle on a cliff", just like Sato's? and soo much more...this is my favorite movie ever :)