Inception Ending

The greatest mystery for all of us is the ending (Climax) of Inception.

Whether the totem (spinning top) has fallen down or continued to spin. Well! You cannot answer that question for sure, It is not shown in the movie. You can only guess. But Nolan didnt leave us without any clue.

Forget about Michael Caine's version of ending or any of the ending you have read so far.

Here we break down the movie into pieces (not entirely!! but atleast the parts which we need to break)


What Climax do you want???


One would prefer to think of two Possibilities for an ending
Either Cobb has come to real life or
He has gone into Limbo

There is a third possibility which is very close to the first but not really the first.

Read further!! You would find justifications, you cannot deny or atleast it is hard to deny.

Just a brief for the benefit of han.. (me to explain properly)

The story starts with Cobb meeting Old Saito.

Then comes a sequence in which Cobb attempts to steal a secret from Saito. It is finally revealed that it is a dream within a dream which leaves Saito impressed!!

So far so good.

Saito turns to Cobb with a job of implanting the idea in Fischer Jr's mind which would destroy the business empire which his father built. Here comes the concept of Inception.

Haven't gone worse.

Cobb and team plans on a 3 layer dream to implant the idea into young fischer(which is to stand on his own efforts, not his father's)

Then the rest of the movie pans till Fischer taking the idea from the safe.

The confusing part starts after the synchronising kicks perfomed but Cobb not still awake. Cobb has gone to find Saito into further layers. Did he find?? Yes! He found a Old Saito and insists to come back with him to the real life. Saito slowly moves his hand towards the gun. Then Cobb wokes up in the plane.

Here we start to analyze!!!

What would happen if he shoots Cobb and himself. They would still remain in a limbo. So, option discarded. (Nolan told this to us!!)

They would need a kick to come back to Snow level. Very liberally, lets assume that they managed to get a kick and somehow came to Snow level. We would argue that the synchronous kick they have originally planned would bring them to real life.

Only in dreams, my dear!!! It is already over. You could tell that there is always more time deep down there for Mr. Cobb.. If you have 1 sec left for the kick, then we have 1 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 x 20 secs deep down in 5th level. If you have Zero secs, then at any level it is f**king Zero. The other guys have already came back out of dreams using the synchronized kick. So, Cobb can noway use it.

Then what?? Why are you staring at me. Ask questions to yourself.

So, am I convincing you that, Cobb has gone to Limbo dreaming within dreams and finally dreaming his (likely to be) real world?? Absolutely not!!


So, here I reveal !!

The entire movie is Cobb's dream while travelling back to his home in Los Angeles. When I say dream, from now on think only a normal dream that you and me will have without any connecting wires as shown in the movie. A normal dream when you sleep like a pig in the plane.
Cobb wakes up from that dream and things look strange for him, as if the events really happened. You notice his reactions till the end. It is just like we feel when we woke up from a dream which was very thrilling.

Alternatively, if he has been doing Inception and if he is so called " Trained extracter" and all, then I would expect reactions from him, just like others who were with him. It isnt that way.


Here I list common doubts that we get after thinking in the above said possibility of the story ending.

1. Why did Saito make a phone call (he has promised to clear Cobb's entry to US)?
He would have called an escort agency!! Why bother?? This could be for anyone and not for Cobb's sake.

2. Why would Arthur make a face as such a task has been done successfully?
You ask for yourself, Why didnt Eames and Saito didnt respond too much. Eames if you notice, he didnt even care to notice much on Cobb. Adriadne and Yusuf just behaves as fellow passengers would normally do when you part each other having seen each other for 10 hours in the journey.

3. How did they allow Cobb into US?
For gods sake, what mistake has he done. It was all said in the dream that he is in 'wanted' list for killing his wife and he hasnt seen his kids till now. That was just a dream.
I'll tell u!! Kids can't identify his dad and hug him as shown in the movie, if they havent seen him before.

So, now why we should we care about the totem. It was just a thing he carried with him in real life which he dreamt (I mean a normal dream that you and me would have in real life) to be helping him to identify whether he is in a dream.
So it will definitely fall down in real life (Is there anything else other than real life?? NO)

4. What happened to Cobb's wife (Mal)?
Cobb's wife possibly died but not as said in the movie. Cobb doesnt wear any ring in the end, which would suggest this. She didnt die because of planting an idea and all. We have already reasoned out.


So guys, enjoy the movie one more time with less complications!!

Keep writing if you have alternate ideas on this ending I have put here.