INCEPTION (2010) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, & Ending Explained

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In just a 5 year period I have no idea how Nolan released Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight and Inception all back to back

Robert may have been "conned", but one of the nice things about this movie is that ultimately I think it's fair to say that he'll probably live a happier life because of the inception. Breaking up the company means destroying the monopoly, but it will still leave him with more than enough money to do pretty much whatever he wants in life and he'll now have a certainty at the deepest core of his being that his father loved him and wanted him to pursue his dreams, which is way, way better than the alternative he was facing.

I think in hindsight, Nolans filmography in general will be heavily regarded for his use of time and perception. The Dark Knight will be mentioned most because of what it did for the Superhero genre but Memento, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and The Prestige all have refreshing takes on non linear storytelling and the human experience dealing with time.

Inception is my favourite Nolan movie. The characters, the mind bending story, Hanz Zimmers' score, the excellent practical effects, the deep, intricate scenes filled with Easter eggs that have kept us talking for a decade. This. Is. Cinema.

I think Cobb being the target makes Inception infinitely more interesting, with every character being in on it, including the faux target. Ariadne is recommended to Cobb by his father-in-law, and she’s ultimately the conduit through which Dom is guided. She inspires him to move on very directly by telling him to do it, under the guise that she’s just viewing his situation for the first time, and her “genuine” reactions force him to be introspective. In a way, it’s a very clever version of “don’t think of an elephant”. She tells him to think of an elephant, and since he has no reason to believe she’s attempting inception, he does, and accepts it as his own agency.

Blows my mind the level of detail Nolan put into this film and thanks to channels like this we get to appreciate them.

I always thought Cobb's 'real' totem, the way he knew whether he was dreaming or awake, was actually the faces of his children - over and over in the film, we see him almost catch the faces of his kids, but never quite, and it's clear this moment torments him. But when they do finally turn around and he does actually see their faces, he knows he's not dreaming - and he's finally left the nightmare that was his life from Mal's death until that moment behind.

I’ve always been film junkie. I remember seeing memento, the prestige, and insomnia and loving them all not realizing they were all directed by Nolan. When I made the realization I decided he was my favorite director. Little did I know he would continue to make more of the greatest movies of all time.

This will always be my favorite movie ever made. The visuals, the acting, the sets, the storytelling...it was just a perfect movie. I dont think ive ever rewatched a movie as much as i have this one...and everytime i feel like i catch something i never did. So amazing.

I always thought that Mal's insistence it is all a dream was Cobb's fault. She invented the idea of a totem and used the top - it's her totem (see below). Cobb went and spun it himself, and when she saw it was like that it made her think it was a dream, which was his intention. But since she didn't plant the idea herself, it didn't stop after she woke up. This is why Cobb has instilled the idea in his team that nobody can know how the totem works except the person that made it, because otherwise it makes you lose track of reality when others mess with it. Also why he knows inception is possible. I don't even think Mal created the totem idea intentionally. I think Cobb's regret is that he realized she depended on it, finds it in a safe (as shown earlier in the movie - might have been a safe that he prompted her to create), then uses it to manipulate her to agree to commit suicide in order to exit limbo. Cobb took those concepts and developed the totem concept from that. His ring is a totem but unintentional - he tries to use hers, but he's uncertain.

I have always assumed that Cobb made it home because 1) The wedding ring 2) He finally sees his children’s faces 3) The top is beginning to wobble as the screen cuts to black and for a brief moment after the black screen hits you can hear the top being unstable and “ticking” out of time. If the top would spin endlessly in dream world, then the audience shouldn’t ever see/hear it slow down or wobble. Because that’s exactly what we see, the only logical conclusion is that Cobb made it back.

I think Cobb made it home and the ending is reality because Cobb only remembers his kids faces before his exile, and at the end his kids are a bit older, and he couldn't have created them using memory since he couldn't look at their faces ever since his wife's death... Also his kids are credited as being played as two different ages proving the time had passed since he last seen them

I don’t know why people were confused by the ending. He can’t see his children’s faces in his dreams. Period. So in the end when they turn around and he sees their faces, you know it’s reality.

5. Old souls 2. We built our own world 8. One simple idea 4. Radical notion 9. Dream within a dream 1. Half remembered dream I see what you did there Nolan.

Michael Cane has also said Nolan told him if he's in a scene its the real world. Since he's in the end scene its the real world

To me, the spinning top at the end is an indication that Cobb getting together with the kids, was in a sense Mals final dream. The wobbling indicating that it also means her tormenting Cobb will come to an end.

The character names initials don't only spell out DREAMS PAY but also A DREAM SPY. I thought another detail that was going to be mentioned was the final part of the first dream where Robert Fischer tells Peter what his dad wanted. After the camera pans around Robert, you can see Eames again. I didn't even notice this until I watched the movie again.

Can’t believe it’s been 13 years since this masterpiece was released

I always thought that what gave away the ending was not a dream was that he was able to see his children's faces, as he was not capable of seeing them in memories or dreams