Still debating over the ending of “Inception” with family, friends and random strangers?
Well, we’re here to put the debate to rest.
Or maybe not.
Warning: SPOILERS ahead for “Inception.” If you haven’t seen it, stop reading now.
At the end of the movie, Cobb is finally reunited with his children and sets the top to spinning. If it’s a dream, it will keep spinning, if it’s the real world it will stop (as was established early in the film). Before we find out what it does, the film cuts to black.
So, is it a dream or is it real?
Actor Michael Caine has the answer.
“”[The spinning top] drops at the end, that’s when I come back on. If I’m there it’s real, because I’m never in the dream. I’m the guy who invented the dream,” Caine tells the BBC.
So, does that clear it up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Wha? Clear as mud.
Clear as day. I was pretty sure it dropped at the end anyway.
If you were paying attention to the top, instead of Leonardo and his family (which is where the director wanted you to focus), you would see in last second before the film cuts to black, that the top started to wobble.
Most people were paying attention to Leonardo and his family, not the top.
no man… the camera actually focusses on the top. The family is blurred, so I’m pretty sure everyone saw what the top did. It started to wobble, then gained stability again, and fade to black, roll credits.
Agreed. In a dream the top would remain spinning and completely unaffected.
Cobb’s father-in-law invented the technique and process for dreaming. Cobb was his brightest student, and Ariadne was even better.
Caine appears at the end of the movie greeting Cobb at the airport after The Job is finished, and takes Cobb home to finally be reunited with his children.
In the dream state, the top doesn’t wobble at all.
It’s spookily rock steady.
At the end, it isn’t steady. It looks like a top looks when you spin it and the spin starts to degrade.
Can’t wait for the DVD (I wonder if there’s going to be a Director’s cut?)!
I think that the thing people also need to remember is that the spinning top was not his original totem, it belonged to his wife. He stressed how important it was that no one else touch the totem or it loses its power to keep its owner grounded. As well who else touched his totem for it to be spinning in front of the asian man in that part of the dreamworld. It all becomes a point where you can take it however you want, is he dreaming or awake, I think it all depends on what satisfies you best.
DiCaprio’s character had been away from home for a couple of years. How come the kids never aged…
Its a dream.
Focus on the children, they are the exact same age as they were the last time he saw them. Do you really think they had not aged in all those years he was gone? The top wobbles but never falls, and has been pointed out it was not his true totem.
I can’t wait to they come out with a sequal.