THIS TEXT IS TO WARD OFF ANYBODY HOVERING OVER THE THREAD. LALALALALALALALALALALALALALAL DON'T WORRY I WON'T RUIN IT FOR YOU
EDIT: MORE WARDING PLEASE DON'T HOVER OVER THIS THREAD YOU'LL RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOURSELF I'M TYPING THIS AS FAST AS I CAN TO SAVE YOU OH MY GOD
Spoiler
Now then, is he awake or in a dream? I think he's awake. I don't really feel like posting all my ideas right now, so I'll let this thread run for a while.
Kabanaw Wrote:THIS TEXT IS TO WARD OFF ANYBODY HOVERING OVER THE THREAD. LALALALALALALALALALALALALALAL DON'T WORRY I WON'T RUIN IT FOR YOU
EDIT: MORE WARDING PLEASE DON'T HOVER OVER THIS THREAD YOU'LL RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOURSELF I'M TYPING THIS AS FAST AS I CAN TO SAVE YOU OH MY GOD
Spoiler
Now then, is he awake or in a dream? I think he's awake. I don't really feel like posting all my ideas right now, so I'll let this thread run for a while.
FelixTM Wrote:He's awake. Though I do quite like how he left the ending like that, allowing us to maybe think he's dreaming. That would be quite depressing.
Excellent movie, too.
I'll spoiler my answer as not to ruin it for anyone who has yet to see it.
Spoiler
Agreed. If he was still in a dream, the top would have remained in a constant spin like it did in all other scenes without falter. Though his children being the same age and wearing the same clothes definitely gave some room for probable doubt. Since they never really addressed to how long he had been gone, there's no way that could be a valid basis for believing it's a dream.
Yeah, it beginning to wobble was my main reason to why he's not dreaming. It was masterfully done though. The entire audience was like, "IT HAS TO STOP!!:!>!" I saw it at midnight. I wished for like 15 mins more to give the secondarys more depth, but it was already such a long movie.
1) He's awake. He finally is able to see his children turn around and the totem actually falls over. If the totem were to continue spinning, it would have contradicted a totem earlier in the movie while they were in "reality."
2) He's still in a dream. But he's accepted the reality of his dream. When he wakes up on the plane, everyone looks at him. This could either be the "hey, we completed the mission" sorta look or the stare from projections knowing that there is an intruder in the dream much like the bar scene in the second layer(?). Before he even sees if the totem will topple, he rushes over to grab his children. It's like even if he's in the dream, he's going to just live there. Plus, the totem is not even his, it is his wife's. If it's his wife's, does that mean that it should or shouldn't work?
Off on a side note, there's a bunch of little things that are interesting too. I liked how each dream, up until the 4th layer(?), had a certain color scheme. The first layer had this sort of blue steel color, the second was a bunch of warm red tones and the last was just white. Also, the name choice of Ellen Page's character, Ariadne, was interesting too. Ariadne was the character from Greek mythology that gave that one guy a ball of red thread so that he could find his way out of the minotaur's maze. In Inception, Ariadne is the architect, the maze maker, and in the fourth layer, I remember Cobb asking for a shortcut through the maze.
And I wonder how the second layer was actually filmed.
I dunno, just my two cents. I'd have to watch it again to understand it more.
But honestly, one of the best movies I've seen. Movies that inspire any type of discussion are great.
It might be fun to argue he was dreaming. Then everything we watched *could* have been some portion of the dream. Which means we could pick apart what all of the other characters represent and craft a lovely meta-story to the story. I can't be the only one who enjoys doing stuff like that for the sake of doing it? But no, I don't think he was dreaming.
@John
As long as no one else has the proper feel for the totem, then it's good. His wife is dead, so no one else knows how to recreate it within a dream, which allows him to use it to discern reality.
After seeing it a second time, I'm quite positive he was dreaming...Not the whole time, but the majority of the time. He never woke up from testing the sedative. He goes to spin the top, but upon someone's entrance to the room, he dropped it; never seeing if he was in reality. After that you never see the top spin and fall down.
1. The Asian man had spun it, and thus knows the properties of it (at least in the dream world). Both he and the main character were still in limbo at the time, so it's possible that he changed the nature of the dream.
2. The top faltered, but did not stop spinning. The children were wearing the exact same outfits and sitting in the exact same place.
3. The main character specifically emphasized "suddenly being somewhere" when talking to the female protagonist when describing the nature of dreams. There was a jump from the airport to the main character being at home with no ride home, etc (granted, this would be time consuming and add little to the story, but worth noting)
4. It's a sequel hook. If he's dreaming, they can do a new movie where the idea did/did not plant successfully and exploring what happens when he wakes up.
I'm skeptical @ above, as that would mean he was in a dream 4 layers deep (actually, 5, counting limbo). I HIGHLY doubt that, mostly based on the fact that this would mean time would go by exceedingly slow for him (and between him and his wife being stuck in limbo for 50-odd years, I don't think there's a way for them to alter time, despite their ability to alter any other aspect of physics...)[/COLOR]
Just saw it today. The ending drove me crazy. I'm really not sure. I think the others got out safe, but he didn't. Anyway, this movie was Oscar worthy.
The more I consider it the less certain of my answer I become. The only thing that keeps me resolute in it is that rather than being treated as a threat by the people (or projections, if he is in fact dreaming) in the end, he is welcomed warmly by not only his father, but his children as well. We know from early in the story line that the deeper he goes the more fragile the dream is and the more likely the projections would be to simply attack and kill him. Something also worth noting is that the only projection to actively interact with them (aside from trying to kill them) is Moll. His family embraces and even hugs him at the end. Certainly not the same aggressive projections we saw throughout the rest of the movie.
[COLOR="Magenta"]Oh god I knew this thread was coming!! Here's my thoughts that I can coherently put together at 4am.
Spoiler
To be honest, I really don't know which way to go with this. I WANT to say that everything was successful yay happiness he has his life back, but that god damn ending omg. The ENTIRE theatre was like AWWWWWW at the very end. I lol'd because i've never seen quite the reaction. I'll prolly add more thought to this later, I can barely type.
