Is Inception Movie’s Ending A Reality or Dream? - Shaun D'souza.
- Unfiltered
- May 5, 2020
- 5 min read
After watching Inception have you ever wondered or asked anyone about whether the end was reality or a dream? You might deny it, but every one of us have been in awe to know the truth regarding whether the end was a reality or a dream shown to us by the director. Did the totem fall or did it keep spinning? The mystery of the wedding ring worn by Cobb, etc are the theories that had flooded the internet after the movie released and it still floats around on the internet and in people’s mind. So, in this post let’s try to answer and decode whether the end was a reality or a dream.
Christopher Nolan’s 2010 science fictional movie inception was one of the most thoughtful and engaging movies of all time. It revolved around Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He is offered a chance by Mr Saito played by Ken Watanabe to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of his ideas into another person’s subconscious. During the entire course of the movie, we are totally immersed as to what is this inception and how will they plant this idea into Fischer’s subconscious played by Cillian Murphy. Towards the end, we see everything going as per plan and Fischer’s ideas are completely changed, Cobb gets back to his children; happy ending indeed…. Well, this ending of Cobb getting back to his children and the totem spinning towards the end is what got the fans hyped and confused initially. With a lot of reruns of the movie and observing every detail given to us by the directors, people got divided as to whether the end was a dream or a reality. Some of the most famous theories given by the fans included the totem towards the end, Cobb’s wedding ring, his children’s face, the role of Prof. Stephen Miles in the movie and the whole flight journey towards the end. So, let’s just break each and every single theory and see for ourselves whether the whole movie is a dream or reality.
1. The role of Prof. Stephen Miles in the movie- In an interview, Michael Caine who played the role of Prof. Stephen Miles had discussed his time working in the film and specifically when he had received his script. One of Cain’s question after seeing the script were, which scenes were a dream and which ones were real. Christopher Nolan explained to Michael that whichever scene his character was present was reality and the others were a dream. And as we all know that in the end scene, we could see Michael’s character i.e. Prof. Stephen Miles guiding the children to their father. If Cain is correct here, then that confirms that the ending was a reality.
2. The whole end of the flight journey/ Last scenes of the movie- In the whole movie, we were explained how, if we are in dream’s we do not remember the starting of the dream. But towards the entire ending scene which follows Cobb waking from the dream in the flight, him meeting Prof. Stephen Miles at the airport and then meeting his children, he remembers all of the journeys from start to finish symbolising that the end is a reality.
3. Cobb’s children- Cobb’s children were another part of the whole inception story’s ending being real or a dream. Watch the whole movie another time, but pay close attention to Cobb’s children. They never show us their faces for the entire movie except towards the end, which shows that the end is real. Also, to prove this point if we check the actual cast of the movie there are 2 separate child actors playing the roles of Phillipa and James in the movie, further proving that time has passed away and that Cobb is actually in reality with his children growing up. Also, their outfits are slightly changed from the dream scene and the end scene.
4. Cobb’s wedding ring- One of the most famous fan theories was that Cobb’s wedding ring is his actual totem and not the spinning totem as we had learnt during the course of the movie that the spinning totem that was with Cobb was actually Mal’s totem played by Marion Cotillard who played the role of Cobb’s wife. No one could come up as to whether this theory was true or not, but interesting this theory gave rise to the fact that whenever we see Cobb in a dream, he always has his wedding ring on his fingers and whenever he is, in reality, the ring is not present in his finger indicating the fact that the ending is real and not a dream. Also the entire movie we could see Mal’s projection brought in by Cobb’s subconscious in every dream sequence as he had the guilt that he killed his wife but towards the end we see him with his wife shot by Ariadne in the dreams and him ending the guilt of killing his wife, rescuing Saito from limbo and waking back from the dreams. In the limbo scene with Saito, we could see the wedding ring stating the fact that he was dreaming but as soon as he wakes and goes to show his passport, we can see that there is no wedding ring on his finger. All of these sequences followed by the fact that the guilt from his mind ended of killing his wife, we can say that it is reality and not a dream.
5. The totem- This was one of the most-watched and researched matter by every fan of the movie as to whether the totem stopped or continued to spin. For this to be understood we need to understand how the totem functioned. Whenever Cobb would be in a dream the totem would keep on spinning and whenever he was, in reality, the totem would stop spinning after a while. In the end moments of the movie, when Cobb spun the totem kept on spinning for a while until the screen faded to black, so people got curious about this situation and started to break down the entire movie. It can be clearly understood by how the movie was explained to us, it is real and not a dream. But how you might question yourself? The simple answer is that if you observe the movie closely, whenever the totem was spun in the dream it would keep on spinning without any shakes or interruption. But when Cobb towards the end spins the totem it can seen as well as heard clearly that the totem started to lose its momentum and was about to stop, stating that the end was real and not a dream.
So, all of these points just prove the fact that the entire Inception movie’s ending was actually a reality and not a dream seen by Cobb. Hope you liked the complete breakdown of this movie and got the explanation of every confusion that you might have had while watching this movie. Next time you watch Inception, check on all the details mentioned above and have an enjoyable movie session. Thank you, guys, for reading.
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