INCEPTION (SPOILERS)

[hamlet]

Its improbable but not impossible, and didn't they allude to Cobb being a master designer before the tragedy happened? I really need to see the movie again lol

[LUCY "KITTY" HARRIS]

Well, taking into consideration the imagination and fancifulness of the movie itself, I suppose you are somewhat correct that really anything is possible. However, I strongly believe that the set limit for levels of dreams is three. After that, I think limbo directly follows and we all know how that works. >.>

Also, it is true that the conversation between Miles and Cobb allude to Cobb having once been a master Architect, but if you propose that inception was being performed on him, then how could he have been the one designing the dream? If it was inception being performed on him, he wasn’t aware of it and therefore his skills in designing dreams could not have been used. Someone else had to have been behind it and not Cobb himself. You could argue that the one behind it might have been better than Cobb, but I still don’t think that whoever it was, if there was someone at all, was capable of creating that intricate of a dream.

Now, it would be a bit more plausible to argue that only the inception portion of the movie and not the entire movie itself was Cobb’s dream considering that there were three levels of the dream and that wouldn’t challenge the set point that the movie established. Also, it seemed that in every level of the dream, Cobb would reveal something about himself, much like Fischer did. Limbo might have been the furthest they could go to successfully perform inception on Cobb.

Though we might never know if it was reality or just an elaborate dream, I’m glad that we can all agree that this was a phenomenal film. So much so, that we even set up a discussion on it. That, my friends, is the difference between a good movie and a great movie. If days, or in my case weeks, after you’ve seen it you are still discussing it as enthusiastically as when the credits first rolled, you know you just witnessed something special.

[cuervo]

Went back today. Second viewing. Grabbed a handful of napkins and took notes blindly! This time, noticed a few things I hadn't before (like Eames in the airport...lol) Sometimes I wrote overtop of my own writing (shit!) but I could make out what's important...

So we know that Cobb brought a gun with him to limbo when he was after Saito, and we see Saito go for the gun when Cobb is asking him to come with him back to reality, so clearly they killed eachother.

One thing I'm not sure of is whether this sucessfully brought them out of limbo. One minor part that occured in limbo was when several people (guard, which is probably a projection, so he might not count and Saito) touched the spinning top when this happened (I don't know if this effects anything at all??)

I recall Yolanda mentioning that the totem was "unstable" because it didn't belong to Cobb. Nowhere in the movie does it say that this is the case. We do know that only the owner can touch their totem or it "defeats the purpose" but we never really know what that actually means. Since Mal is dead, she is no longer the owner. Perhaps ownership passed on to Cobb after she died. That might be a possibility.

ALSO...Cobb was the one who initiated the spinning thing, when he stole into her safe. So that concept wasn't even there until he screwed around with it and made it happen.

On INCEPTION:

On each layer of the dream they planted a new idea for Fischer. They clearly say it before they embark when they're in the streets all cool and posed (lol)

Level 1: I want to break up my father's empire.
Level 2: I want to create something for myself.
Level 3: My father doesn't want me to be him.

It is a sucess and Fischer comes out with this epiphany and we see that he wants to put that idea into action.

Another idea: I ran the idea in my mind that perhaps there was a double inception, but it wasn't planned, it was more of an accident...sort of things falling into place. I don't think there was someone else behind it or that there was someone who initially wanted to perform inception on Cobb. I think maybe through the help of others, especially Adrejane, that Cobb performed inception on his own mind. This is the only way I feel that it's possible for a double inception to have occured. ALSO...I read in the comments of the article I just linked you that Fischer might've been a projection from those who cared about Cobb, and that it was an inception on just Cobb...now...this might be plausible but how the hell do you fake something like this?

ALSO...I stand by my initial belief that the ending is real. The only thing that threw me off is the fact that his dad was at the air port waiting for him, but his dad did have knowledge of the mission and maybe Cobb informed him that they he was flying home and doing it on the plane. His father knew he wanted to get home anyhow.

EDIT: This article supports the ending being reality as well: worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=18512&count=0

Last thing I'm still not sure about: Aging in limbo. It's not shown. *groooan* So either Nolan did this because he didn't want it to become really, really revealed until the end or because their youth was Mal's perception and we were supposed to see this...

P.S. One question...what does Saito throw into the silver chute in the hotel? It's a black box thingy.