my reply
Spoiler
Agree. Also, he spends a lot of time in dreams and his own memories, where we know things feel much longer. So he was probably only gone for a year or so, but to him that could feel a great deal longer.
Cannot wait for this on DVD/bluray. A MUST SEE FILM.
O.k. I guess I’ll give my interpretation. At first it will seem like I’m just making really rash assumptions but watch it again with this in mind and everything points towards it. I had this notion in my head the seconds the movie started, so all of the details pointed in this direction. Could be my mind searching for things to validate my assuption but it could be that this was the point of the movie.
[spoiler=]So I believe that Cobb is in a dream state and all of the people he interacts with are projections. The movie jumps a few times and I believe this is to try to simulate what happens in typical dreams. So I believe that Cobb’s wife in the real word (our world if you will) is in a coma. And he is in her mind. Basically the exact details I can’t explain but some way he put her into this coma and so he blamed for this happening to her. He joins her dream and has been there ever since. Because of the incepted idea that her world isn’t real, she woke herself prematurely sticking her permanently in limbo. He keeps trying to fix this but he hasn’t been successful.
Like in the movie Vanilla Sky he is told by his subconcious several times to wake up, return to reality, or that he is dreaming. Mal tells him this in the end, but I think the one that really pushed me to think this way was his father (the professor). He readily supplied him with a compliant student who immediately took to it. I considered and still consider that this student is his daughter having aged. There is no mistaking the bond he has with this character as she is in such a short time closer to him than any other character in the movie.
The wife points out to him that he travels the world often, is pursued by several different entities (Cobal, the police, God knows how else), and he can’t get home. This often happens to those in a dream. The object of desire is unattainable. How many times have you had a blueberry pie in front of you in a dream but you haven’t been able to eat it? How many times have you tried to catch something that stays just outside of your reach? His desire was to be with his children and he was unable to.
He eluded that he had been on the run for a while…yet at the end his children were of the same age. What is more curious is that the Grandmother of the children allowed him to talk to the children. The movie never says which parent she is. If she was the mother of Mal she would most likely be bitter and under the misconception that he killed her daughter. She would likely not allow him to talk to the children at all, yet she did. If she was Cobb’s mother, she would probably allow him to talk to the children but wouldn’t be so sardonical. She would have more of a bond with her son on the run and would most likely not be so crude hanging up in his face and what not. Then the professor (I don’t know where I got that it was his father, but somehow my subconscious left with that idea) tells him to return to reality which we are to assume he means going back to the states. He murdered his wife in their eyes which means he would do life in prison. No father/good friend would advise him this way when he possibly has the means to fix the situation. It’s like choosing possible solution vs. guaranteed problem.
Cobb had some serious limitations. He couldn’t know things because mal would get in the way of them. I believe this is because all of the people are projections yet they are still in Mal’s mind. Consider that not everyone populated the dreams. There was always a designated person, yet no matter what if cobb was there, mal had the possibility of being there also. I plan to watch this again tonight so it isn’t all over the place. I’ll have a more finite/collected opinion after my second watch of this. [/spoiler]
No, they don’t. Don’t be a douche bag.
Everyone needs to see this film, it’s way too good, instant buy for me when it comes out I can’t wait
I really feel like, at it’s core, this movie is about two things; [spoiler=]Cobb’s guilt and getting back to his children.
I found the entire thing with his wife both touching and incredibly tragic. That scene where she jumped was so raw. Here’s this person you love that has become so deluded, or intoxicated with what she helped create, that confuses herself into thinking everything is just a ride and there are no consequences. Reality isn’t enough for her so she tries to create a scenario where Cobb has to come with her, and the exact opposite happens. She thinks that there aren’t any consequences, that everything is a dream and leaves her children without a mother AND a father.
He really feels guilty about what happened with his wife, but he also has this really deep seeded animosity towards her for leaving his kids. I feel like that’s the emotional core of this movie. He constructed those dreams out of his memories to not just try and remove the guilt, but to try and forgive her. I do think that he was in reality at the end, but that wasn’t the point. At least not to me. The point was that his character had gotten past the guilt AND forgiven his wife, so he could move on.
I really have to hand it to DiCaprio. I know the guy doesn’t have kids, but his portrayal of a father in this and in Shutter Island really gets to me. It’s obvious dude puts a lot of thought into how he moves, his reaction, etc. Leo’s mannerisms in all of the scenes were great, but the ones with his wife were the craziest. Leo just might be my favorite actor.
I do like the theories in this thread, but I think focusing on whether or not it was all a dream, is still a dream, reality, etc isn’t really the point. The point becomes that Cobb moved on. The kids were his goal, and what reality they were in is irrelevant.
Also, as a caveat, I think that he’d know what the fuck was up after he walked back inside. If the top was still spinning, then he’d know. We weren’t shown the top staying up or falling down because that wasn’t the point. [/spoiler]
I’ll probably see this again next weekend.
[spoiler=]I agree with you on the point of the ending is that Cobb has forgiven himself and allowed himself to move on. But from a directing point of view he would’ve failed conveying this with the way he ended it imo. As you can see, most people are more concerned with whether he was dreaming on in reality at the end and not really point out that it didn’t even matter to Cobb himself anymore based on him spinning it and simply walking off to hug his children[/details]
This needs to come out on Blu-ray NAOW.
[spoiler=1]Well if you consider this, the architect is supposed to make mazes/dream structures that prevent the projections from interrupting the infiltrators’ attempts to exist in the dream. However imagine the opposite. What if the architect can construct the dream in order to focus a projection’s involvement, essentially planning it? It was shown in the beginning with the nash projections rioting and coming closer and closer to the room in order to scare Saito into giving up the information by providing an air of desperation. So we can imagine that in order to produce inception unto Cobb, Ariadne allowed Mal to get to Fischer to make Cobb choose between completing the mission or leaving his wife alone to wreck shit. Notice as every time before they enter each level of dream Ariadne seems to confront Cobb in order to say “Get rid of your fucking wife before she fucks shit up.” Doing the same exact sort of less subtle but similar multi-layered reinforcement of the message as they are doing to Fischer.[/details]
2
Spoiler
As I said before even though that might be the case, considering the contacts he’s made and the reputation he’s earned, it seems to me that this equates into years being away from home and not a short time. Especially when the reputation is one of being a thief, something that seems to have happened after Mal’s death.
OC
Just saw this and damn was it a good movie. Makes me wish you could really have the level of control and awareness of your dreams.
[spoiler=] On the totem I think that he does end up in reality at the end. Every time that his Totem is seen in the dream world it doesn’t wobble one bit yet it clearly wobbles in the final scene and the movie has the CG budget to make sure that it won’t wobble if they want it to. Just my take at least. [/spoiler]
Pretty much the movie I’ve been waiting to see. I hope this encourages Hollywood to continue to take chances.
you’ll see me riding a unicorn while drinkin milk from a mermaid before that happens
so i just saw it last night (and i’m about to see it again in Imax tonight) and i must say that its the best movie i have seen in a very very very long time. My girl loved it as well. with this movie i feel that Christopher Nolan has set the bar not only for comic book movies but for movies in general. its a masterpiece
Just came back from seeing it on IMAX…Nolan is a GENIUS! soooo much shit is happening at once yet you NEVER lose track of anything, it’s fuckin remarkable…consider my dick officially BLOWN OFF…this is what summer movies should be about!
This shit was incredible, EVERYONE needs to see it!
here is what i think
hehehekekeke
Spoiler
final scene is a dream, i think that everyone lives but leo is stuck in limbo death. mainly because why the hell would his kids not have aged at all? and i just dont believe he got out of the final level of his dream that had watanabe. he just drowned in level 1 and he somehow kept dreaming…
DONT HATE
My thoughts exactly. I think the film is just about pointing and laughing at nerds who like to use confusing words, like writing obscurely, and love hip French theorists. I don’t think the film was about that philosophy stuff, but it’s about a great action movie.
Ok. So watched it again last night and I feel even more strongly the way I did after watching it the first time.
[spoiler=]So not only was the professor confirmed to be the grandfather of the children Cobb’s father he did very clearly say to him “come back to reality”. When Cobb mentioned his children. His wife said to him several times “you know what you have to do to come back to me”. Indicating that he needed to kill himself in what he thinks is reality in order to get to reality and meet her. I also find it very peculiar that Cobb is the only one who can’t architecht…he also refuses to admit she is dead for 95% of the movie. Any time someone asks him “Is she dead” he ignores it and moves on. Her mind is in Limbo, and he has locked it in prison within this limbo.
Chronologically: They share a dream, he takes her deeper and deeper into the dream. They get too deep and almost forget that they are dreaming. Cobb realizes it and decides to save his wife, by planting the idea that they are dreaming into her head, using her totem. She realizes it and eventually they kill themselves via train and go up one level, NOT TO REALITY. At this level the wife realizes they are still dreaming and trys to convince them both to go up another level (this doesn’t have to be reality, but it doesn’t matter anyways). Cobb refuses to, and she makes it so that he has to out of love for him. He chooses to go on the run, where he has been ever since. Still in this dream world. Now his subconcious is projecting Mal everywhere. To keep her from what he believes is the real world he locks her in a dream prison, this is why she hasn’t begun to appear in what he believes is the real world.
I’d also like to point out that he doesn’t answer the question when asked “do you still dream?”. I like that the guy is hinting at him that it is happening to him also very covertly by stating “who are you to say otherwise?”. I’d also like to point out how obviously all characters in the story (projections) revolve around him. Somehow saito believes inception is possible though the only successfull inception was performed by Cobb, yet noone knows this. I like that Saito makes a call to clear Cobb’s charges and 20 minutes later Cobb’s father is at the hotel waiting for him. They arrive and get to the house where his children are wearing Identical outfits.
Lastly Cobb showing his wife that they aren’t in the real world was not inception. Inception is to place a very basic idea in someone’s head and make them think they thought of it themselves. This clearly wasn’t the case as when they were on the train he gave her the lines and pretty much convinced her to take that leap of faith. The faith was in him…By spinning the totem in her safe all he did was show her. Otherwise we would call his rescue of saito another inception, which it clearly wasn’t. I find it interesting that saito was quoting lines that Cobb’s wife had made even though he had no way of knowing these lines. That also bolster’s my original theory. [/details]
I hate being wrong, so can someone please show me some evidence that points in the opposite direction?/
Am I wrong in saying that the film never indicates how long he was away from his family for?
Man I feel that this is the movie that I have to smuggle food into for the first time in I don’t know how long. Can’t wait til this weekend.
No, you’re not.
end
Spoiler
The only real indication we’re given is in the credits. There two sets of actors for the two children. Both sets are at different ages. 1 set of children are aged 3 years old and 20 months old, and the other set is aged 5 years old and 3 years old. Judging from that, 2 years must have past since Mal’s death.