Inception Ending Explanation

Inception [2010] ending explanation?!

Inception 2010

Although Cobb stayed in Limbo to find Fischer, I think he just said that he would stay so that Mal would let fischer go. After Ariadne and Fischer left Limbo, Mal died in Cobb's arms and Cobb got over his wife's death. 

Then, the camera shows the rest of the team exiting the van which is underwater. Arthur flails questioningly at Ariadne as if saying "What about Cobb? Don't we have to get him out?" and Ariadne shakes her head. I assumed that Cobb died in the van-- so he died in a higher dream level and re-washed up on the shores of Limbo. 

As to Saito being older: As Yusuf put it, "it could be decades, infinite-- I dunno!" Limbo is also unconstructed dream space, so it is highly unstable. Time passes faster in dreams because everyone's minds function at different speeds. It may have just been that in a coma state like Limbo, without the Somnacin/sedative to effectively regulate the rate of time in the dream, Saito's mind operated faster than Cobb's, so by the time Cobb re-washed up, Saito was considerably older (and uglier) than Cobb. 

As to why Saito's projections found Cobb: Cobb washed up very close to Saito's Japanese Castle because he entered Limbo with a purpose focused in his head: to find Saito. Lucid Dreaming experiments prove that focusing on something before a dream can influence your dream. 

Saito's projections found Cobb because of two reasons: Saito's subconscious is most likely militarized. He may have gotten training after Cobb's attempted extraction. Also, in Limbo, Saito's subconscious may have been expecting Cobb to wash up, so his projections are probably guarding the shores of Limbo and waiting to see if an intruder shows up. 

Inception explanation?

But okay, the main character's name is Dom Cobb. He is an extractor, or someone that 'extracts' ideas and secrets from your dreams. At the beginning, he's attempting to extract something from the Asian man-- Saito--'s dream. Why, it is not told. 

Afterwards, Saito is impressed and offers him a job: he will guarantee that Cobb can get back to his children in America if he can perform a task for Saito. That task is inception, or the PLANTING of an idea in someone's head instead of extracting it. 

Now, the reason Cobb CAN'T go back to his kids any other way is because the U.S. government thinks he murdered Mal, his wife, when in reality, she committed suicide and made it look like he killed her. The reason she did this is because she truly believed she was still in a dream and that reality wasn't real. You find this out later, but the reason Cobb knows inception is possible, and the reason he feels so guilty, is that HE PLANTED THIS NOTION IN HER HEAD. He was selfish and wanted her to be only his in the dream world, so he performed inception on her. However, it all went wrong. 

So Cobb accepts the job and assembles a team, including Ariadne, who is the 'architect'. In other words, she's assigned to build the dreams so Cobb's projection of Mal doesn't know the dream. Because the dream Mal is still haunting him and is dangerous in the dreams. 

Most of the movie is about setting up the dream to perform inception on Fischer, the son of the head of Saito's buisness rival. The point of the operation is to get it into Fischer's head that he wants to not follow in his dying father's footsteps and build his own company. (Therefore removing Saito's competition.) 

They schedule the flight with him and make sure they have the right sedatives and other tools needed, etc. The dream is confusing because there are so many different levels, I know, but basically all of that is one big dream (and dreams within the dream.) 

So, even though a lot happens in the middle, Cobb and his team accomplish the task. At the end part that's like the beginning, Cobb goes back into Limbo and gets Saito back because Saito died. 

Then, at least if you want to believe it, Saito arranges for Cobb to go back to his kids and he sees them again and it's a happy ending. 

.... That is, until the very end where the top keeps turning. And that's where all the confusion sets in. You could say that it was really reality, or you could say it was a dream, but then wouldn't the whole movie have been a dream? It's kinda up to you.


Question 1: When the movie began, Cobb was unconscious on the beach, correct? Wouldn't that mean he'd only be dreaming deeper inside the dream? (((Some movies are designed in the "Fate" order, which puts the end of the story first...kind of like the movie, Go, or movies like that....in this sense, we are shown the end (almost the end) of the movie with Saito being stuck in limbo. So, yes, he went down to the third dream level to find Saito)))

Question 2: Why has only Saito aged? (((Because he was the only one that died while they were attempting the Inception...remember he only aged in 'dreamland'..not in real life...)))

Question 3: Saito spun Cobb's totem, but doesn't that defeat its purpose since only the dreamer can be aware of the weight and composition of their totem? (((Don't quite know about this...)))

Question 4: How come when some people become aware that they are dreaming (Saito and Ariadne), everything starts shaking and crumbling, but in other characters dreams, their projections start getting violent? (((Mastery in Lucid Dreaming stops these sorts of things...when a person realizes they are dreaming, they often wake up...I guess in this case, the perceived world (reality) they thought was real crumbled when they realized they were dreaming....in Saito's case, I think once he realized he was dreaming, his defense mechanisms started attacking the foreign - Cobb and the others)))

Question 5: How does Dom's projection of Mal go off and do her own thing? For example she went and told Saito about the invasion of his mind, but doesn't Dom control his imaginations? (((That was his guilt...he was riddled with guilt over her death so whenever she appeared, it would be to sabotage him, sort of retribution for tricking her)))

Question 6: Doesn't Dom contradict himself when he says "Dreams seem real while we're in them" but then instructs Ariadne to make the mazes seem real so the subject doesn't realize he or she is dreaming? (((I suppose...when we're dreaming - unless we train to lucid dream - we pretty much accept whatever our dreams throw at us - pink cats, oversized heads etc - we accept them...however, sometimes, we can figure out we're dreaming (lucid)...Dom wanted to construct a world where the dreamer would be totally convinced they were real)))

Question 7: Why isn't one kick enough? If there is a kick in level 1, then they would wake up in level 2. If they wake up in level 2, they would wake up in level 3. Why does there have to be a kick in each level? (((I think that's backward...I think the kicks force them up a level, not down...so a kick in level 3 would push them to level 2, a kick to level 2 would push them to level 1 and a kick from that point would waken them...we saw that when his assistant was level 1 sleeping and the chair was kicked from him, prompting him to wake)))

Question 8 (and this is a big one): When Mal shot Fischer, he entered limbo. So Dom and Ariadne followed him, but by hooking themselves up to the machine. Isn't limbo only accessible by dying within the dream? (((I guess it's supposed to be possible that, by hooking oneself up to that machine, you will enter whatever level the dreamer is in....limbo is only supposed to happen during extreme sedation so even if a person dies, they would still wake up...but in their case, they were using sedatives which compounded the time)))

Question 9: Dom and Mal escaped limbo by killing themselves. So why can't everyone just do that? Why would they need to wait for the sedatives to wear off? ((((GOOD QUESTION...IN FACT, IF THEY WERE IN LIMBO, WOULDN'T DEATH AT THAT POINT FRY THEIR MIND BEYOND COMPREHENSION???)))) **Excellent Point**