Allright, finally got around to watching this..
[spoiler]At what point do we actually see that totem fall? It annoyed the shit out of me that after 2 and a half hours we still don't know anything for certain. I tried checking up on imdb, and there they just list reasons for and against the whole thing being a dream.. it's interesting enough I guess, but.. how do we even know that Cobb's totem spinning does actually mean he's not dreaming? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH.[/spoiler]
Gonna copy pasta reasons for XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX in a spoiler
[spoiler]What is the evidence that show the whole film is a dream?
1. The kids at the end of the movie are the exact same age as those in his projections. It's as if no time has passed in the real world. However if this is a dream then it makes complete sense that the kids remain ageless (not to mention in the same position). (Also of note is the fact that talking to his daughter on the phone clearly demonstrates that she is significantly older than the daughter he meets at the end of the film. THis of course, complicates things even further...)
2. Repeated lines of dialog shared amongst the characters (Mal and Saito both tell Cobb to take a "leap of faith", Cobb predicts what Saito will say in limbo).
3. The line from the old man in the underground lab of Yusuf: "Their dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise?" or even Miles line: "Come back to reality, Cobb", or even James (Cobb's son) when Cobb asked: "What have you been painting? and he said at the end of the film: "We're building a house on a cliff".
4. We never get to see Ariadne or Arthur use their totem. Why so?
5. The clumsiness of the homicide police investigation regarding Mal's case and put the blame on Cobb entirely.
6. The spinning top at the end of the film. The top is a totem used to help verify whether Cobb's in reality or in someone else's dream, but it offers no verification against being in his own dream. He knows the exact weight, composition and how it should spin. So whether the top stops or continue spinning, it's not important as even when it stops, it could be that Cobb believes that he finally reunite with his family, hence his dream fully becomes his reality.
7. In Mombasa, in the bathroom after he tests Yusuf's sedative, you see the figure of Mal behind the curtains, if he was in "reality" then his subconscious could not be projecting her.
8. Cobb's totem was not Mal's top, rather one could suggest that Mal was his reality check, his 'real' totem. Yet throughout the movie he was directly or indirectly responsible for either killing her or imprisoning her, in essence losing his sense of reality and refusing to face up to the facts - which may be that he was indeed dreaming the whole time.
9. The musical score that is heard, is the slowed down playhead of "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien", which is the Edith Piaf song used for the musical countdown. The significance here is that the deeper you go into the dream, time slows, thus the music will slow too, mimicking the score. This musical design perhaps indicates that Cobb's reality was still very much a dream state too.
10. Numerous improbable or coincidental events that happened during parts of "reality". Cobb is saved by Saito coincidentally during the chase between Cobol Engineering agents and him, Cobb squeezing through the walls during the chase, to what certain extent the power that Cobol Engineering and Saito possess, etc.
11. Nearly the entire team is highly proficient with all types of weaponry, though certainly Cobb at least, does not appear to have had any particularized weapons training. How does Adriene know how to even fire a gun, much less hit anything? All appear to be highly capable in all sorts of militaristic tasks, from skiing, to explosives, to hand to hand combat, to sniping...
Alternatively,' the whole film is a dream' in the sense that Nolan is suggesting that what we think of as a waking state, or 'reality', is in fact just more dreaming.
Hinduism and Buddhism both share the idea that the world is 'maya', or an illusion and that we are on a journey of 'awakening from the dream'. This has been taught by such Indian saints as Sri Ramana Maharishi and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who call it 'Advaida', which means non-duality; the idea that all the universe is just one consciousness, connecting everything in it. We act out our lives like a play shown onto a movie screen. But only those who achieve Nirvana (a.k.a enlightenment, or becoming one with Nature) can perceive the illusion for what it is (a dream) and become aware of the 'screen' on which the great drama is unfolding.
According to the Advaida philosophy, it is only when we are in a state of deep sleep that we come close to the timeless, 'true' state of being that is the universal consciousness, which all Nature is part of. When we wake up, in effect we are waking into a world that is illusory.
A separate movement believes in the specific idea that humanity is collectively dreaming a dream of guilt and separation, from which we need to wake up by practising forgiveness. This is a metaphysic ideology given in A Course in Miracles and The Way of Mastery, which are spiritual texts purportedly channelled from Jesus in the 1970s and 1990s respectively. ACIM in particular has influenced most spiritual 'new age' authors and commentators today.[/spoiler]
Reasons against XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX in a spoiler
[spoiler]What are the evidences that show Reality exists during the film and Cobb is in reality at the end of the film?
1. The wedding ring on Cobb's hand that's present in dreams but absent in the real world.
2. Cobb's kids, Phillipa & James. The kids at the end of the film are different and are older compared to the younger ones we've seen throughout the film. Their clothes are slightly different. The girl has a white shirt underneath her red dress and his son was wearing shoes instead of sandals at the end. This is the most solid evidence. Observe carefully. Also if he was dreaming, he would not be able to know what his children's faces would have looked like turning around and seeing him seeing as how he cannot change a memory. He even said himself earlier in the film that no matter how hard he tried, he, "can't change this moment." He will never see his children's faces unless he gets back to them.
3. The top. There's a significant difference between the top that keeps spinning flawlessly when he's in a dream and the top that's spinning at the end of the film (it clearly wobbles, loses momentum and does sound like it is stopping.)
4. It is showed at the end that Cobb and Mal did grow old together for 50 years in Limbo with them walking the streets as old man and woman, two old hands hold together on the train tracks.
5. The rules, technical aspects of performing the Extraction and Inception in the film.
6. Cobb remembers exactly how he got to where he is, which he wouldn't know if he was dreaming.
7. The emotional depth of the film. If the ending is real, it shows that Cobb does go on an emotional journey, to take a 'leap of faith' to believe that Saito will honor their agreement so he could go home and see his kids and finally get over with his wife's death and guilt. The scene where Cobb talks with old Saito is significant as it shows they've grown and become friends, as Cobb had said to him: "Come back and let's be young men together." He's 'transformed' because of his leap of faith and he's rewarded by finally reuniting with his kids.
8. Cobb and Mal do not end up together. This could only be a factor of reality. If it were a dream, Cobb would have found a way of keeping Mal alive in the dream so that he could be with her.
9. Throughout the shooting script Nolan uses the simple transitional element for changing scenes, "and we-- CUT TO:" every time this occurs it's not cutting to another scene with in the 'present' reality, but it 'cuts to' either a higher or lower dream within the dream, or it 'cuts to' reality. So at the end of the shooting script Nolan writes "And we-- FADE OUT." By Nolan saying that it doesn't 'cut to' another level of the dream, or back to reality, but instead it simply 'fades out,' Nolan is letting us, the viewer, know that after reality there is nothing to 'cut to,' so Cobb is presently in reality. Nolan allows the viewer to make his/her own assumptions based upon their optimistic/pessimistic worldview, but Nolan's in one of optimism, as can be seen in all his other films. He's not a 'happy ending' director, but he's optimistic about the future...
Alternatively, Nolan is showing that what we commonly believe to be reality exists during the film, and that Cobb is indeed in what we'd call 'reality' at the end of the film. BUT, the spinning top is a clue from him - an inception to us, the audience - that our idea of 'reality' may in itself be the projection of a dreaming mind.... that collectively, we are all dreaming an outpictured 'reality' full of projected figures. For more on this idea and its spiritual origins and reasoning, see the previous FAQ (and others).[/spoiler]
The movie itself wasn't more than a 6/10 for me, but the research and thinking following sure can deserve a 9/10!
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