After I first saw Inception my first reaction was to marvel that anyone could convince anyone else to make this film. While all films are ambitious in their making, Inception is wildly so. The answer: Christopher Nolan wrote, produced, and directed it himself. Therefore, only Nolan knows exactly what he had in mind.
I suspect, however, that Nolan actually had more than one thing in mind.
On its face, the film's conclusion is the culmination of the content of the story. It's a happy ending. Cobb achieves inception, rescues Saito from limbo, and cruises through immigration on his way back to his children. He spins Mal's totem to check whether he's still dreaming, but goes to his children before he sees it topple. In the last moment of the film, it's wobbling slightly but we never see it fall.
There are many clues that suggest that Nolan wants us to question the ending. The film is actively attempting to achieve inception in the minds of its viewers. The viral idea? "See Inception." And that may be all it is.
But I doubt it.
As Nolan was writing this, he took a relatively simple idea- a horror film about dream thieves (see Paprika)- and developed it into an Ocean's 11-type heist film. From there, he spent a whole lot of time developing the story as deep psychodrama- which is what got DiCaprio involved. The two spent months discussing the story before filming began. In order to commit to the dominant explanation, the two had to commit to the face-value interpretation. Along the way, however, I'm sure they were tempted to discuss alternatives.
Let us suppose that, to some incomplete degree, the final scene is definitely meant to be read as being a dream. Two possible scenarios arise. One: this is the only time the "top" level of reality is actually a dream. In other words, Cobb really did fall asleep on a 747, but hasn't actually woken up. His ascent from limbo is an illusion.
Two: everything that transpired in the film was inside a dream. If that were the case, we could then ask several more questions.
1. Whose dream is it? Who is the architect?
2. For what purpose?
3. Who's real and who isn't?
1. It could be that the entire story comes from Cobb's mind and that all characters are projections of his subconscious. If so, there's only one place- within the film's mythology- that it could happen: limbo. Cobb would be the architect, and the objective of the scenario would be to convince himself to finally accept the reality of the dream. In this reading, no one is real. Perhaps not even the original Mal. For all we know, the person of Mal was never in the dream with him.
The overt reading of the film says that she was really with him in the beginning, that the ascended to wakefulness together, and that she then killed herself, leaving Cobb behind.
But what if he descended to limbo alone? According to the mythology of Inception , he wouldn't remember the beginning of the dream. Would he create a projection of Mal to keep him company? Probably.
That's one possibility.
Here's another. And this brings us to the second question.
First, let's suppose that the prima facie reading is correct. Let's say that Mal really was with Cobb down in limbo- where they were the architects- that they grew old together, and that they then escaped. Let's suppose, however, that when they woke up, they ascended to a reality where neither of them were the sole architect and could not, therefore, change the dream to prove its nature without the full consent of the other. Therefore, they could not tell whether or not they were still in the dream. However, let's suppose that the original architect was Mal, and that she had some advantage. Let's say that she knows that the world isn't real... because, long long ago, she made it. So she is able to wake up, but he isn't.
Here's a different scenario to consider. Let's say that Mal never descended to Limbo. They were experimenting, using sedatives, with layered dream states. He went down, she didn't. She was left in possession of the upper dream state- the top level in which the film takes place. But when Cobb went down into timelessness, he brought a projection of Mal with him. He convinced himself that she'd come down to rescue him, and then, to be with him, and then, eventually, that he had to rescue her.
When Cobb descended to limbo, he was lost in infinite space. There was no way to find him. Rescue was impossible. But he did eventually find his way back... only, he had someone, or something, with him when he returned. He had a competing projection of his wife.
Let's keep running with the scenario. Why couldn't Mal, the original architect, change the dream and convince him that he still needed to wake up? Because he couldn't see her, even when she was right in front of him. Her projection superceded her. In fact, even her totem was a projection. It toppled every time because Cobb- in a reprisal of DiCaprio's character from Shutter Island, believed that the dream was real. She couldn't change the dream because anything she did would be over-projected by his powerful, talented, deeply rationalized delusion. He prevents her from doing it. All she can do is move toward convincing him that she could jump. His respect for her individuality- even the individuality of his projection- allows the real Mal to take herself, and the overlaid projection, off the ledge and into wakefulness. Mal doesn't expect to convince him, but that's just the beginning of her plan. When she jumps, Mal wakes up. The dream persists.
In order to rescue her husband, Mal must reenter the dream and work with the conditions that exist therein to achieve inception in Cobb's mind.
In this reading, there are only two layers to the dream. Everything below the first layer- where Cobb is on the 747- exists on a single plane, despite having the appearance of being multiple. This is because the architect of the second-layer is Mal, in disguise as the character Ariadne (Ellen Page), who follows him all the way down, and who is able to mess with not just the spatial physics, but also the temporal physics. While urgency never relents, there is also always enough time. The van takes 3 seconds to fall 60 feet- an abrogation of the laws of gravity. Arthur stacks, packs, and ships the other sleepers- among many other things- in only two minutes (it should only have been one minute according to the conversion rate quoted in the film). Time expands to accommodate what needs to be done. And what Cobb takes to be projections of Fischer's subconscious- the armed security that keep him acting, not thinking- are actually all part of the architecture. Everthing exists to achieve a specific result. And what is that?
Cobb needs to have a reason to return to limbo because only there can he begin his journey back up to reality. Saito's death and descent is probably an allegory to whatever caused Cobb to fall into limbo himself. The entire plot of the film- achieving inception on Fischer- exists only to bring Cobb to his own inception, which is the realization that he arrives at, in force, when he faces old-man Saito, that he is in a dream.
Do I think this is what Nolan had in mind? Not really. I think it probably crossed his mind. I think the film supports it as a possibility. Try watching it with this reading in mind, and see whether any paradigms shift.
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