Inception: Ending Explained

At the end of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, was Cobb dreaming or awake? We get to the bottom of it. Support ScreenPrism on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=7792695

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Transcript provided by Youtube:

00:04
How we understand the ending of
00:06
Christopher Nolan’s Inception
00:07
has everything to do with this spinning top.
00:10
We’re told the top is Dom Cobb’s totem,
00:13
it helps him differentiate dreams from reality.
00:16
If he’s in a dream it spins endlessly.
00:17
But if he’s in reality,
00:19
the laws of physics make it topple over.
00:22
As the film comes to an end,
00:23
we think Cobb has resurfaced,
00:25
back up through the many onion layers of
00:27
dreams we’ve witnessed, to reality.
00:29
But then…
00:30
[The camera moves over to the spinning top]
00:32
[and just before the spinning top]
00:33
[appears to be wobbling there’s a cut to black…]
00:37
Nolan deliberately cuts to black
00:38
before we can tell if the top’s about to stop.
00:42
So let’s look at all of the evidence and theories
00:44
out there to finally decide
00:45
whether Cobb is still dreaming or not,
00:48
and how much it really matters.
00:50
Before we go on, if you’re new here,
00:52
be sure to subscribe and click the bell
00:54
to get notified about all of our new videos.
00:59
To determine whether they’re awake or in a dream,
01:01
Cobb’s team uses small,
01:03
charm-like objects – totems.
01:05
[You need a small object, potentially heavy,]
01:08
[something you can have on you all the time]
01:09
[that no one else knows.]
01:11
Cobb’s totem is different in some key ways
01:13
from other people’s totems,
01:14
and this is one reason
01:15
unpacking the ending
01:17
based on the top gets so complicated.
01:19
Most totems — like Arthur’s loaded die
01:21
and Ariadne’s bishop — have an irregularity,
01:25
so they are unique in reality,
01:26
but turn ordinary in dreams.
01:28
The point of having an abnormal totem
01:30
is that if you’re trapped in someone else’s dream,
01:33
the object’s normalcy will be a giveaway to you,
01:35
but the person in control of the dream
01:37
won’t know it.
01:38
Cobb’s spinning top is the opposite —
01:40
it’s unique in dreams,
01:42
and ordinary in reality.
01:44
And this is problematic —
01:45
because if he’s in someone’s dream,
01:47
they’d assume a top spins normally too,
01:49
so that means he could be in a dream
01:51
controlled by someone else without ever knowing it.
01:54
Even if the top does fall over right over
01:56
after we cut to black, then,
01:59
it’s still not conclusive proof
02:01
that Cobb’s not in somebody else’s dream.
02:04
And there’s another key way in which Cobb’s totem
02:06
is different from the others.
02:08
The features of the totem aren’t supposed
02:09
to be shared with anyone.
02:11
[I can’t let you touch it,]
02:12
[that would defeat the purpose –]
02:13
[see, only I know the balance]
02:14
[and the weight of this particular loaded die.]
02:17
[That way when you look at your totem,]
02:19
[you know beyond a doubt]
02:21
[that you’re not in someone else’s dream.]
02:24
So it should raise our suspicions
02:25
that both Ariadne and Cobb’s late wife, Mal,
02:28
know how his totem works.
02:30
The top actually belonged to Mal first.
02:33
[This one was hers.]
02:34
[She’d spin it in a dream]
02:35
[and it would never topple.]
02:37
[Just spin and spin.]
02:40
So theoretically, Dom could be trapped
02:42
in Ariadne’s or Mal’s dreams.
02:44
But that would mean
02:45
either that Ariadne betrayed Dom,
02:47
or that Mal isn’t really dead —
02:49
and the scene where she killed herself
02:51
actually took place in a dream state.
02:54
Some argue that if the top
02:55
originally belonged to Mal,
02:56
it can’t be Cobb’s totem
02:58
because a totem can only belong to one person.
03:00
But while we’re left to wonder
03:02
what Cobb’s totem was before Mal died,
03:05
we’re never told that taking the totem
03:07
of someone who has died is a problem.
03:09
He’s not sharing it with another living person.
03:12
According to one theory,
03:13
the top spins endlessly in dreams
03:15
because Cobb forces it to,
03:17
by concentrating on it.
03:18
So even if it is about to topple in the last scene,
03:21
it could be just that he‘s looked away from it
03:23
and isn’t concentrating on it anymore –
03:25
so again he could still be in a dream.
03:28
And then, there’s a fan theory
03:29
that Cobb’s real totem isn’t the top at all,
03:31
but his wedding ring.
03:33
Cobb only wears his ring
03:35
in dreams and not in real life —
03:37
from what we see of other totems,
03:39
they seem to move with the owner
03:41
between waking and dreaming life,
03:43
although hypothetically there’s nothing to say
03:44
a totem can’t only appear in dreams.
03:47
Wearing his ring only in dreams is still important,
03:50
because it symbolizes
03:51
that he’s close to Mal in dreams
03:52
and distant from her in reality.
03:55
In the final scene,
03:56
we don’t get a clear shot
03:57
or close-up of Cobb’s hand,
03:59
but we can see that he’s not wearing the ring
04:01
when he goes through
04:02
airport security on his way home.
04:04
So even if the ring isn’t his totem,
04:06
its absence does support the argument
04:08
that he’s back in reality.
04:10
Overall, given all these evidence and diverse theorizing
04:13
it seems likely
04:14
that the top is Cobb’s real totem —
04:16
the way Nolan talks about the movie
04:18
makes it seem like he’s thinking of
04:20
the top as the totem as well.
04:22
[But at the end of the film,]
04:24
[there’s a spinning top that’s spinning,]
04:26
[if it falls, or doesn’t fall,]
04:28
[is the key idea,]
04:29
[is it a dream or is it the reality.]
04:31
And in the final shot
04:32
it does look like the top is starting to slow down,
04:35
about to eventually fall over.
04:37
So all of this is all slightly
04:38
in favor of its being reality.
04:40
At least there’s not enough evidence
04:42
to declare otherwise.
04:44
But Nolan intentionally cuts out
04:45
before we see if the top falls
04:48
because he does not want to give us that answer.
04:50
So for a better more full answer
04:53
we have to look around at all of the other evidence,
04:56
besides the totem.
04:59
One reason people believe
05:00
Cobb’s in a dream is that there’s some confusion
05:03
about how exactly people get out of limbo.
05:06
During the Fischer inception job,
05:08
Ariadne resurfaces from limbo to reality
05:10
dream layer by dream layer.
05:12
But in flashbacks Cobb and Mal
05:14
seem to go straight from limbo to reality.
05:17
So this could be an indication
05:18
that Cobb and Mal only go one layer up
05:20
from limbo and Cobb’s
05:22
been in a dream this whole time.
05:24
But the difference may well be
05:25
that Ariadne is just riding a kick —
05:28
that is that she’s triggering the falling feeling
05:30
which will wake her up in the next dream layer.
05:33
While Cobb and Mal actually kill themselves in limbo,
05:36
which whisks them straight back up to the real world.
05:39
Some viewers are also suspicious
05:40
of the Mombasa chase scene,
05:42
where the walls close in on Cobb
05:44
in a way that just couldn’t happen in reality,
05:47
as well as how characters repeat certain lines:
05:49
[I’m an old man.]
05:51
[Filled with regret,]
05:52
[waiting to die alone.]
05:54
So it’s hard to know if Nolan
05:56
is just toying with us or if all this craziness
05:58
is a sign that Cobb really is in a dream.
06:02
At the end of the film,
06:03
Cobb studies his home to make sure
06:04
that everything is as it should be,
06:06
and he doesn’t notice any
06:07
physical signs that something’s off.
06:10
We have a solid understanding
06:11
of how Cobb wound up back home,
06:13
while people in dreams are usually confused
06:15
about the lead up to an event.
06:17
[How did you get here?]
06:23
[We’re dreaming?]
06:26
We know that each detail of a dream has to be perfect,
06:29
right down to the carpeting,
06:30
[Stained and frayed in such distinctive ways.]
06:36
[But very definitely made of wool.]
06:41
[Right now…
06:43
I’m lying on polyester.]
06:46
The dream world also isn’t stable —
06:48
it has giveaways like spontaneous explosions,
06:51
warped terrain, and bizarre weather.
06:55
[Strange weather, isn’t it?]
07:01
Anything that happens in the dreaming person’s
07:03
physical reality will disrupt the dream.
07:06
So if a person is airborne on one dream level,
07:09
their dream self on another level defies gravity.
07:12
Overall, the lack of these signs
07:14
and the peace and normalcy of the film’s final scene
07:17
point to it being reality.
07:19
And of course the biggest disrupter
07:20
of the dream world is a person’s subconscious.
07:22
[Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?]
07:25
[It’s my subconscious –]
07:27
[remember, I can’t control it.]
07:28
The projection of Cobb’s subconscious guilt
07:30
is usually Mal.
07:32
She constantly appears in dreams
07:33
and sabotages his work.
07:35
[Your guilt defines her.]
07:37
[It’s what powers her.]
07:39
But in this last scene,
07:40
she’s nowhere to be found.
07:42
So this indicates again
07:43
that there’s no reason to believe
07:45
he is in a dream.
07:46
Likewise, if he were asleep
07:48
and someone were trying to perform inception
07:50
or extraction on Cobb,
07:52
we’d probably see signs of his subconscious
07:54
trying to attack that person,
07:56
like in the Fischer inception job.
07:58
[Fischer’s had an extractor teach his subconscious]
08:00
[to defend itself so his subconscious is militarized.]
08:04
[It should have shown in the research.]
08:05
But we see no evidence
08:06
that there’s anything to attack.
08:08
There’s also the fact that in dreams before this,
08:11
Cobb only sees his children
08:12
with their backs turned.
08:13
Here he sees their faces.
08:15
And while the children look a lot
08:17
like they did in the dreams,
08:18
for this scene Nolan actually
08:20
used slightly older child actors
08:22
and different clothing to show the passage of time.
08:24
So, given all of the miscellaneous evidence together,
08:27
we’d say it’s more likely that Cobb is awake.
08:30
But because we can’t arrive at an airtight answer
08:33
through the facts,
08:34
it’s actually more revealing to look at
08:36
what Nolan is getting at thematically
08:38
in his ending.
08:43
More striking than the factual question
08:45
of whether he is dreaming or awake,
08:47
is the fact that Cobb doesn’t seem to care
08:49
about the answer to this question.
08:51
He spins the top,
08:52
so he clearly has some doubts about
08:54
whether he’s in reality.
08:56
But then he gets distracted by his kids
08:57
and stops looking at the top —
08:59
the camera cutting to black
09:00
is Cobb no longer looking to his totem
09:03
to tell him what’s real.
09:05
The symbolism is that the legitimacy
09:06
of his reality isn’t his main concern anymore.
09:10
Earlier in the film
09:11
Cobb is totally fixated on the distinction
09:13
between dreams and real life,
09:15
to the point where it’s taken over everything.
09:18
If he thinks he’s stuck in a dream,
09:19
he’ll shoot himself in the head
09:20
to get out of it.
09:21
But after he confronts his guilt personified
09:23
in Mal and returns home at last,
09:26
Cobb feels that this world is real.
09:30
Nolan himself has said:
09:31
[The way the end of that film worked,]
09:33
[Leonardo DiCaprio’s character,]
09:35
[Cobb, he was off with his kids,]
09:37
[he was in his own subjective reality,]
09:40
[and didn’t really care anymore.]
09:41
[And that makes a statement that perhaps]
09:43
[all levels of reality are equally valid.]
09:46
So on one level Nolan’s choice not to confirm
09:48
what’s a dream and what’s waking life
09:50
is preventing us from
09:52
writing off the importance of dreams.
09:54
The film reminds us again and again
09:56
that the emotions of a dream are unbearably real.
10:01
[If it’s just a dream then why are you covering your–]
10:03
[Because it’s never just a dream, is it?]
10:05
[A face full of glass hurts like hell –]
10:07
[when we’re in it, it feels real.]
10:09
The only reality we know is what we perceive.
10:12
[They feel real while we’re in them, right?]
10:14
[It’s only when we wake up]
10:15
[that we realize something was actually strange.]
10:18
This is why Cobb’s decision to perform
10:20
inception on Mal is a huge mistake.
10:23
He wants her to doubt the reality
10:24
of their extended shared dream in limbo,
10:26
but he ends up making her distrust all her experiences.
10:29
[She was possessed by an idea.]
10:33
[This one very simple idea that changed everything.]
10:38
[That our world wasn’t real.]
10:42
[That she needed to wake up to come back to reality.]
10:45
As a result, Mal loses her bearings –
10:50
and her real life and loved ones
10:52
feel like a dream she can’t wake up from.
10:55
Cobb’s final mind state is a reversal of Mal’s.
10:58
She couldn’t trust in the reality of anything.
11:01
He decides to trust in what feels real to him,
11:04
without giving into any more worry and doubt.
11:07
But even if Cobb doesn’t care
11:09
if he’s dreaming or not, we clearly do.
11:12
Audiences care very much about
11:14
what’s really happening here.
11:15
[The question of whether that’s a dream]
11:17
[or whether it’s real]
11:19
[is the one I’ve been asked most]
11:21
[about any of the films I’ve made.]
11:23
[It matters to people enormously,]
11:24
[and that’s the point about reality.]
11:26
[Reality matters.
11:28
It won’t be transcended.]
11:30
And throughout, the film does alert us
11:31
to the danger of mistaking dreams for reality
11:34
or choosing to believe that dreams are superior.
11:36
[Why do they do it?]
11:39
[Tell him, Mr. Cobb.]
11:41
[After a while it becomes the only way you can dream.]
11:45
Reality is rich because we’re not in control.
11:48
Objective reality lets us be surprised
11:50
and amazed by other people.
11:52
[I can’t imagine you with all your complexity,]
11:56
[all your perfection,]
11:57
[all your imperfection.]
11:58
And in reality, we’re not suffocated
11:59
by our subconscious emotions and perceptions.
12:02
So yes, it does matter
12:04
if he’s back in reality or not.
12:06
This is the reason the ending
12:07
of the film is still so hotly debated —
12:10
whether Cobb is awake or asleep
12:12
changes our understanding
12:13
of what the story means.
12:18
Even though Nolan admits
12:19
that objective reality matters,
12:21
in Inception he’s also saying that
12:23
there is no such thing
12:24
as truly objective reality.
12:26
The problem is that,
12:28
even when we’re awake,
12:29
our realities are subjective.
12:30
Our experiences are sensory data
12:33
perceived by our eyes and ears,
12:35
interpreted by our brains,
12:36
filtered through our subconscious feelings —
12:39
so the result is going to be
12:40
different for everybody.
12:41
The “leap of faith” line
12:42
that recurs in the film–
12:44
[Do you want to take a leap of faith?]
12:46
[I’m asking you to take a leap of faith.]
12:49
could be interpreted by some as a sign
12:51
that Cobb’s in a dream…
12:53
but it’s also Nolan’s way of encouraging us
12:55
to live fully in our world
12:57
even though that world is inherently mysterious.
13:01
It’s not that all realities,
13:02
dream or waking, are equal.
13:04
It’s that no one can tell you for sure —
13:06
you have to figure it out for yourself.
13:08
It’s significant that all of the characters
13:10
in this movie are paranoid
13:11
that their dreams might be infiltrated
13:13
or controlled by others —
13:14
this is a bigger metaphor for the fear
13:16
that we’re living someone else’s idea of reality,
13:19
someone else’s dream,
13:21
and what could be sadder than that?
13:22
In our own lives,
13:23
we have to decide
13:24
what we believe is truly real,
13:26
and then commit to that.
13:28
So Inception leaves us
13:29
with two takeaways that might seem contradictory,
13:32
but are equally true.
13:34
Objective reality matters,
13:35
but at the same time reality
13:37
is what’s true to you.
13:39
We have to be detectives
13:40
of our own truth and figure out
13:42
what we feel in our bones to be real.
13:44
In the end, Cobb is awake in the life
13:46
that feels realest to him —
13:48
he’s living his best life.
13:51
[An idea that is fully formed -]
13:53
[fully understood – that sticks;]
13:55
[right in there somewhere.]
13:57
Hi guys, it’s Susannah,
13:59
and Debra here,
14:00
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14:01
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14:02
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