Blog that aggregates theories about the ending of the movie Inception

“…I believe it tells us that this is Cobb’s story. He is the only multidimensional character, capable of understanding the complex layers of the human psyche. The other characters are mostly one dimensional, and play specific functions within his heroic journey.

But what exactly is Cobb’s story? What is Cobb’s journey? What is the point of it all?

In a word…Cobb’s word…CATHARSIS.

Everything in this film, from start to finish, is a dream. The whole story plays as a loop – like the staircase without beginning or end. In the movie, dreams are described this way too. Furthermore, the use of the totem points to the dream world as well. In the story, each person had his or her own totem – their own link to reality – which was only to be familiar to that person alone. Cobb, however, did not have his own totem…and therefore, did not have his own reality. Instead, he had Mal’s totem, meaning that HIS reality was actually HER reality. And since she is dead – and I do believe she is dead – he is unwilling to accept his reality, and has instead claimed her world for his own. Essentially, Cobb is consumed by his deceased wife…in the emotional, rather than in the zombie sense.

So where does the catharsis come in?

After the mission is finished; that is, after he has reconciled his feelings about Mal and rescued his father-figure (Saito) he is finally able to return his children and see their faces. But as the movie ends, we are led to believe Cobb is still dreaming because of the spinning top totem. I would argue that he is, in fact, still dreaming, and that the purpose of the entire episode is as follows:

Mal, Cobb’s wife, is dead. We don’t know how she died, but we can assume it was suicide…though perhaps not as is shown in the film. He is, of course, torn up about it. He feels responsible and guilty for what happened, and as such, he cannot bear to face his children (in the emotional sense), having in his own mind deprived them of a mother. (Note how Cobb also has no relationship with his own mother). He feels like a terrible father, and is convinced that reconciliation between a father and his children is not possible given such circumstances. However, through his Heroic Journey, Cobb undergoes a transformation. By the end of the trials, having delved deeper and deeper into his subconscious, he is finally able to forgive himself for Mal’s tragedy and he lets her go. He also reconciles with the father figure, Saito, proving to him that fathers can rebuild relationships with their children. He then awakens (from the dream within the dream) to find himself back where he wants to be: with his kids, and at peace. And while we never actually see Cobb wake up to the real world, we can infer that when he does, he will have achieved the peace within his own psyche to be a man transformed.

In short, this entire movie was a dream sequence in which a man, wrought with guilt and suffering under the burden of feeling utterly incapable as a widower-father, seeks peace with his own emotions in order to pick up the pieces and finally begin to live again.”

-http://torytattler.blogspot.com/2010/07/inception-theory.html

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“…Beyond Levels

It has been suggested in a number of blogs that Inception can be seen as an allegory for movies. Cobb seems to be more controlled by the timing of the audience than the timing of the movie. At one point, he tells Eames that he has “one hour” to accomplish his mission. Exactly one hour later (from our perspective, not the movie’s) Eames is sitting on the bank of the river with Fischer, mission accomplished (one blogger actually timed this).

But the truth is that there is an even deeper allegory going down here. The allegory that Cobb, in a sense, is just as imaginary as we are. The allegory that we are characters in a movie. Our existence is an allegory in and of itself.

And that, even deeper than that, because it is an allegory that comes from the only real thing, from G-d, then it is real for that very reason.

A movie is real because it exists in the minds of viewers and the creator. Cobb, to us, is very real.

And we are real because G-d imagined us. Because, if G-d is all that is real, then surely his dreams, surely his imagination are real too.

The truth, then, is not that everything is an illusion because it is a dream. No, the truth is that everything is real because it is G-d’s dream.

All that we need to do, like Cobb, is let go of the top, already.  Forget about that last shot of the movie.  Let go of the fake totems and hold onto the real ones, the ones that remind us that although this world is a dream, we can realize its true existence by connecting to the G-dliness around us. By raising the Saitos. The G-dly sparks. By helping to create a movie that is full of beauty and wonder, with no Cobal Engineering, or Crazy Mal #2′s.

Until we have completely spread the word, shared the G-dly truth with everyone, and helped them realize that although it is all a dream, it is a beautiful, true dream, straight from deep within G-d’ mind.”

–http://popchassid.com/inception-dream/

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