It's not odd for an American student to study abroad. Why was Cobb's father in America at the end of the film? He was visiting his grandchildren.
<br> This is true. In any other film I wouldn't question such things. I'm obviously reading way too much into this, but it still seems odd. I mean the school year is definitely still in full swing. It makes little sense for a professor to just leave...
Seriously, what is hard to understand about either of those things? American studying abroad. Father-in-law was aware of the Cobb's plan and knew he'd be on that flight to L.A.
After Tinseltowning it up yesterday -- since I sure as hell wasn't going to pay another $9.50 again (even for Inception) -- here are my thoughts: I was still semi-tripping balls following everything because the first time through, I was watching it merely for the entertainment value. 1) A few sites mention the interesting point that Cobb got his totem from Mal - at least the only totem that we know of that's his for sure. That being said, that makes the ending irrelevant before we even see it since Mal could have cast some sort of gypsy magic on it and Cobb's totem is not actually a very accurate way to tell reality from a dream at all. 2) The movie starts in the middle of a dream (now this one I still didn't pick up on until looking at another site after the movie, lol). Cobb: you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of whats that's going on... so how did we end up here? Ariadne: Well we just came from the uh... (no my memory's not that good, I'm typing this while watching the cam again online ) This could suggest the entire movie is a dream from the very start and then we just simply go deeper and deeper into various levels in the dreams, etc. 3) This is more of a question, but what exactly went on with the Fischer subconscious deal? While they're in Fishers dream and then go into his subconscious, how the hell does Cobb go into another level of subconsciousness to rescue Saito/Fischer from limbo? Am I even interpreting that right?
I think you are confused by the concept of the totem. The whole point is that only you can know the properties of it because once you are in somebody else's dream, like the architect at the beginning who didn't get the carpet in the apartment right, they won't know the exact weight and feel of your totem. So unless Cobb is in Mal's dream, there's no way she can affect the totem for him. If I remember correctly, Mal could only bear being in limbo if she believed it was real, so she changed the properties of her totem, the same way they built buildings with their minds, to react how it should in the real world. Cobb stole that one planted a new one that would keep spinning to remind her this was a dream and to get her to wake up with him.
Cobb never replaced the totem. He simply spun the one she locked up originally and left it for her to find.
I saw this on tuesday and loved it, as for the ending, I think by keeping it a cliff-hanger Nolan is saying that it doesn't matter whether or not its a dream, being happy is whats important.
Great movie but really didnt find it confusing at all. They explain everything pretty well except for the ending.
So everything was clear to you except the ending, which more or less effects/dictates everything you've seen for the first 147 minutes of the movie...
I can't wait for Inception 2. Maybe we'll get to enter Arthur's dream next time and he'll take us on a spinning hotel ride filled with villains.
It'll be a prequel. That's when we'll get the real kick back to reality, learn how Cobb got his 'powers' and figure out what really happened to Mal.
Watched it over the weekend...loved it. I need to watch it again. I was going to say same thing that the grandma could have made the call for the son. I'm undecided if the whole movie was a dream...
Important parts I noticed.. When Cobbs first gets a small taste of the chemists' potion, he wakes up and goes to the bathroom. He's about to spin the top when he gets distracted and drops it.. we never know then whether he is still dreaming or in reality from that strong potion. That potion he drank, if you recall was to be used to put people into 3rd dream stages... Another point, people at the airport staring... And the kids never aged throughout the movie, they wore the same clothes too at the end as his memories... does this mean he's still dreaming?
