The ending of "Inception" explained.

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

WARNING: Major spoilers. Duh.

I'm not trying to belittle anyone. I'm quite sure the vast majority of the people on this forum are rather intelligent. Nevertheless, I've heard a number of misunderstandings regarding this movie (not on this forum, but from people around my way). Should any of you be wondering what exactly is up with the ending, let me clear it up for you.

The ending is very straight-forward. You can toss out all of your complicated hypothetical explanations, like Leo was dreaming the whole time, or Juno is actually his psychiatrist, and the entire movie was Leo's therapy. Though I can understand why people think stuff like that, I'm afraid you'd have to skip over some pretty important details to reach those false conclusions.

At the time of the grand climax, Leo and Juno are three levels deep in dream-land. They have to get a kick to return to level 2. From level 2, they need a kick to return to level 1. From level 1, they need a kick to return to reality. Juno takes her kick. Leo chooses not to take the kick. This guy is like Yoda of the dream-walking world. He knows what he is getting himself into.

By not taking his kick, he never "woke up" in dream level 2, and thus, of course never "woke up" in dream level 1. Dream level 1 is the one in which they were in the white van, getting chased around by all those machine-gun weilding defense-mechanisms.

Okay, anyway, when they had barely entered dream level 1, it was clearly explained that they won't wake if they die in the dream. In a normal dream, they wake up when they die. But in this instance, they are heavily sedated, and if they die, they will stay in dream-land for what is basically an eternity.

At the very end of the movie, we see Juno go through the necessary kicks to get back to dream level 1. She, and all the others, escape from the van, after it has fallen into the water. All except for Leo. It is quite clear that he drowns and dies in this dream level 1. And it has been clearly established that if you die in this highly-sedated dream level, you stay in dreamland.

So then, we see Leo come back to America and reunion with his kids. Except he spins the totem. Some people think the totem shows signs of tipping over, just before the end of the movie. Poppycock! Leo knows the specific gravity of this totem. He doesn't need to watch it for 30 seconds to know whether or not he is in his dreamland. He spins it, and knows instantly. At the climactic finale, he chose to stay in his forever dreamland, and the very last scene is of him "reuniting" with his kids in his dreamland.

There can be no debate to this. That's how it is. And, though I'm not as big a fan of this movie as a lot of people are (I'll at least give it a solid A-), I do think the ending and closing image are PERFECT.
 
I don't think you can say that with such confidence, unless you have Christopher Nolan backing you up.
And you're missing a huuuuge detail, that you probably never even noticed. You can hear the totem spinning over the end credit music and you hear it slow down at the end of the first song.
So I'm not sure if he's dreaming or he's not dreaming.
I do know one thing for sure is that Christopher Nolan used one of the best film making tricks to keep people talking about this movie for years. He made it so ambiguous so that way no matter which way people look at it there are dozens of different stories that people saw.

No one can ever be sure. There is a lot of room for debate. I don't mean to say that you're wrong or anything, for all I know you can be completely right. But for all you know, you can be completely wrong. Only Nolan knows for sure... Maybe..

Also you keep saying that Leo won't wake up if he dies on the 1st level. Even though it says that they will go to "limbo". But Leo knows that, and he's been to "limbo" before and got out of it. What's stopping him from doing it again?
 
Kenpaffu said:
And you're missing a huuuuge detail, that you probably never even noticed. You can hear the totem spinning over the end credit music and you hear it slow down at the end of the first song.
So I'm not sure if he's dreaming or he's not dreaming.
Click to expand...

Wow. Actually, that is quite huuuuge. I did, in fact, completely miss that (sorry, didn't stay for the credits). I'll have to watch (listen) for that the next time around (and I do like the movie enough for there to be a next time around).

Kenpaffu said:
Also you keep saying that Leo won't wake up if he dies on the 1st level. Even though it says that they will go to "limbo". But Leo knows that, and he's been to "limbo" before and got out of it. What's stopping him from doing it again?
Click to expand...

Good point. I'd say that's more a fault in the screenplay than anything. I don't think that really has a bearing on how you interperet the end of the movie.

Regardless, your first point is enough for me to admit maybe it ain't so straight-forward. I'll wait a little longer before I drop the gavel!
 
Well no Leo didn't miss the other kicks because he didn't need them. Each level was someone elses dream, they were used as the catalyst. So once they wake up that dream is gone. So Leo now was only left with Limbo.

Saito was old in limbo and Leo wasn't because they stated that time is relative in the dream world and takes effective how on perceives for themselves.

He doesn't necessarily die in the first dream because at that point the kick that didn't take him out did ware off the sedatives I believe, and then once the sedatives are gone he can escape from limbo.
 
Blanc/Noir said:
I believe, and then once the sedatives are gone he can escape from limbo.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the point is that what is a few hours in the real world will be near-eternity in "limbo" dream-world. If he's in limbo at the end of the movie, he's there for a really long time.
 
Cracker Funk said:
Yeah, but the point is that what is a few hours in the real world will be near-eternity in "limbo" dream-world. If he's in limbo at the end of the movie, he's there for a really long time.
Click to expand...

Time is relative in limbo technically speaking. It's however your subconscious chooses to view it. Leo and Mal grow old together because in the film they do say "lets grow old together" so their subconscious's made them grow older. Limbo I think it a less restrictive version of the sleeping state.
 
Ok, I can't resist. Here's my rant:

I'm a very big fan of Chris Nolan's work. And, I've already said that I'll give "Inception" an "A-", which is definitely good. However, I think this is his weakest major production.

I don't like it when the audience has to debate the meaning of a movie. There are a lot of people out there who really like symbolism, and all that kinda stuff in movies, and that's fine. To each his own. For me, filmmaking is best when it is just straight-up storytelling. If, at the end of your movie, the audience doesn't completely know what has happened in your story, then you have done a poor job telling your story.

By comparison, at the end of "Usual Suspects", we ALL know who Kaiser Soze is, and it's wrapped up quite neatly. That, in my book, is good storytelling.

A few hours ago, I thought I knew, for sure, the meaning of the ending of "Inception". But then it was pointed out that I missed something. And now we've had a nice little discussion about a few different aspects of it. The fact that we're even having this discussion is, to me, not a testament to a strength in the screenplay.

The fact that there are plenty of people out there with more elaborate explainations, like he's been dreaming the entire movie, and/or Juno is actually his psychiatrist, to me that is a reflection of a weakness in the screenplay -- it's just not clear enough.

Nitpicking. Good movie.
 
Nolan has said several times that the best puzzles are those with missing pieces. In fact, if you choose that answer on the psych quiz menus of the Memento DVD, it opens the entire DVD for you.

Threads like this show that he's good at creating films that are very open to interpretation. I don't think that is "bad" storytelling. Not everything can be wrapped up in a neat little explanatory package, nor should it. Same is true for films that do wrap it up neatly - just because a story has a plausible explanation at the end doesn't make it good storytelling. Its one of those things that we're destined to disagree on - for example, I can't stand blatantly expository dialogue (one of my issues with "heist" movies like Inception). Not every story lends itself to an open treatment, but that doesn't make it an inherently bad story when one does.

IMHO: His remake of "Insomnia" was his worst film - if only because he agreed to be the guy who remade a very very very good, contemporary film from another country. ;) The original is soooooooooooooooooo much better.

Edit: Inception was not what I hoped it was - Pfister's work was top notch as usual, but as a film I left feeling disappointed. So much more could have been done with that concept, but I understand that concessions have to be made at that budget level in order to broaden audience appeal and maximize ROI.

OTOH, I'm the guy who thinks "Following" is his best screenplay. So, yeah, maybe I'm a bit odd - which I already knew. ;)
 
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I think you are thinking about this too literally. I think Nolan wanted it to be open to intepretation.. i understand your interpretation is straight forward, but that would just mock the whole movie if you look at it too literally!

This movie can't be truely understood and for the totem scene at the end.. i personally think it's trying to tell the viewers, it doesn't matter if hes dreaming, in therapy, dead or whatever.. he is with his children, which is what he is always wanted to be and therefore it doesn't matter.

Although if you go on the theory of him being dead then the ending scene could be him in heaven.. but that's just an idea.

And as for you referring to Ellen Page as "Juno" is stupid, because i'm sure everyone would normally refer to her as her actual name not the name of a movie she starred in.
 
Also to add to my comment.. Nolan clearly is a huge fan of symbolism and i don't think you should brand his screenplay as weak as he spent 7 years developing it and i don't think it could've been better!

Perhaps you're just too insecure to watch a movie that has no linear ending, maybe the movie has a little to much existentialism aspect too it :P
 
Damn, man, you just came here, and already you're calling me insecure and stupid. Welcome to the forums.

I love Ellen Page. She's one of my favorite new actresses. My style of writing is very jokey. I think it's kind of unfair for you to call me stupid. Call me what you want behind closed doors, but in a public forum, just a tad bit of basic manners might be nice.
 
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