Michael Caine Talks Inception’s Ending – Spoiler Warning!
Posted by Franciscoon 30. 09. 2010in News Chat
SPOILER WARNING – Inception is perhaps the best movie of 2010. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece regarding dreams was both loved by critics and a box office hit. Going back to it, one of the elements that make Inception so awesome is it’s ending – which is open to interpretation. In an interview with the BBC’s Chris Moyles, Michael Caine gave his opinion on the film’s ambiguous final shot. For those who haven’t seen the film, Caine’s opinion may or may not spoil the movie. With that said….SPOILER WARNING!!!
AICN reports:
Caine says that Leonardo’s no longer in a dream & that the final scene is real. I.e. the spinning top falls.
I personally think that Nolan’s intention was to spark discussion. One that grows right after you watch that ending. As the movie itself, the ending is really open to any interpretation out there. Caine’s ending, would be the “happy ending” one. Although I don’t mind it, because I knew it was a clear option as to what the ending meant, I think it’s the “boring” one. Personally, I’d go with the other clear option for the ending – the “he’s still dreaming” one. This makes the movie more serious, sad, and by far fascinating. I’m good with the final shot – I loved it. The movie was elevated to another level thanks to this ending. So, I personally believe the ambiguous ending is open to any interpretation forever. I don’t think that Nolan will EVER state what is the correct or wrong answer to this.
What do you guys think? What are your thoughts on Caine’s comments? What’s your interpretation on Inception’s final shot?
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That’s what I kinda figured. You can notice it too when after he goes to see his kids that when the camera pans back to the top still spinning, it starts to wobble but before it could fall over the screen cuts to black. I thought maybe it was done in editing to mess with people.
Look, that’s his opinion. Mine is the top stays spinning. The reason being that it is the exact same shot of his children that he has in other scenes.
No it is not, the little girl’s was wearing a white shirt in either the dream or the ending scene, you just have to watch it again. It was explained earlier by the costume director a while ago on this site.
I haven’t noticed that. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.
The top falls. In all of the dream sequences DiCaprio is still wearing his wedding ring, wheres when he’s awake he is not. In the ending scene he is not wearing the ring.
The alterations in the scene might only suggest that DiCaprio’s character evolved to the point where his happiness is no longer dedicated to the idea of a still functioning marriage. I don’t mean to suggest that the top either has to fall or doesn’t, only that because of these changes, it seems that the idea of his happiness has changed, one that doesn’t include the impossible task of holding on to a dead loved one.
The fact that he doesn’t watch the top points out that he doesn’t care if it’s real or imagined, and indeed, much of life is subjective in that way. He’s happy, and whether the moment is real or not, is not his emotion real enough?
i like the interpretation that the entire movie happens within Leo’s dream. Go with me, the idea is that he’s trying to get rid of the guilt/sadness/memory over/of his wife. But to do that, he has to have the original idea come to him–which happens at the end of the movie. What if the “inception” is this idea into his own head–or by his friends to help him move on? So the inception into the business guy’s mind was to distract Leo so that the actual inception of him letting go could occur.
Very cool interpretation…i’m impressed.
Yes that would be interesting. But wouldn’t he be in limbo? and wouldn’t he eventually find out and try to escape?
hes stock in the dream i think
Well think about it like this, leo spins the top then ignores it to be with his kids. So in a way he doesnt care if he is in a dream or not. If he doesnt care why should we? I personally think he is in a dream, because based on some reasons
1. What his wife said while they were talking at the end that he was “chasing imaginary organizations”
2. Kids wearing same clothes and in same position in the movie.
3. When michael caine introduces leo to the girl, her totem was a pawn from chess. Maybe she was a pawn for michael caine’s character, maybe he wanted to know how his daughter really died? Tagline of the movie is Your mind is the scene of the crime.
4. When leo first meets michael caine in the movie he talks him about his inception plans. Michael caine stares at him like he is crazy and tells him to come back to reality. I believe at that point they were in reality. Maybe michael knows he is in a dream and leo doesnt. Maybe he is in michael caines dream and maybe thats the reason he doesnt care to look at the totem at the end of the movie because he sees michael caine at the end and knows everything is alright.
The kids are in different positions
maybe it isn’t really one or the other. . .maybe nolan decided he didn’t know which way he wanted it to end or something and so which ever one you believe is thr right one for you.
I thought he was still dreaming. A comment was made that if someone died during the Inception that they will be in limbo until rescued, this will probably mess up their mind to the point that they won’t even know who they are. When Ken Watanabes character wakes up the first thing he does is make the call for Leo to be allowed to enter the US. I figured that he was in limbo for 30+ years and it will make sense that he forgot his part of the deal.
Maybe Leo reminded him of the deal before they woke up, but it makes more sense to me if Kens character was confused when he wakes up.
i personally think that not even Christopher Nolan knows if the top fell or not…he made it like that with no difinitive ending so that people would talk about it and if he had an ending in mind it would ruin any chance of interpretation…me personally i think that the top falls.
Ok this is my feelings on the subject…. at the end of every movie you have 2 types of people, those who like the warm fuzzy walk off into the sunset ending and those who want a twist….. This ending gives both types their ending… For all of the people who like the warm fuzzy ending the top falls and for those that like the mind trip ending the top keep spinning…
To me this is an FX movie that runs just as deep as my bathtub. Wether the top keeps spinning or not adds little or nothing to the concept as a whole. It’s a great ride just the same.
The top falls. My reasoning for this would be easier to explain why the top DOSN”T stay spinning.
If the top does not fall that would mean the whole movie was a dream. If the whole movie is a dream then the whole “system” of dreaming (multiple levels, architects, projections, ect) would just have been dreamt up. If it is all dreamt up then the movie is not grounded in reality, Cobb may not have children, been married ect. Nothing would be real. Thus the movie would be pointless.
Pointless? it’s just a movie…
The spinning top is not Cobb’s totem – it’s Mals, therefore it doesn’t work for him anyway, whether it keeps spinning or not is a moot point. He’s dreaming.
of course the top works for him otherwise it would be pointless, and good movies are never pointless, i agree with MandarinOrange :)
That’s what I thought after all was said and done. It’s Mal’s, so it wouldn’t work for him anyway. However, there are too many holes in the movie if it’s all a dream. If it is how are all his partners, “projections” if it’s all a dream, helping out in the other levels giving him and others “kicks”? If they are not projections, but just friends come to help out, then why are they there? Why don’t they just convince Cobb that he’s in a dream, like Mal was trying to do? If they are friends and trying to plant an inception in his mind so he can pull himself out, then what was the inception? Did any of them really try to get him to question that he was still dreaming? Ariadne tries to get him to “confront” mal and overcome his subconscious , so maybe she is trying to plant an inception in his mind that he’s not quite out of reality then. But then why would everyone, including Ariadne, look so happy for him at the end when they had completed the job and he passed through immigration in the states. Wouldn’t they be sad that he hasn’t gotten it yet?
There are other problems with a ‘still dreaming’ ending. For instance, by Cobb’s rule, if you first realize you are in limbo and then die, aren’t you supposed to make the jump through how many other levels and arrive back in reality-reality? This was demonstrated with Saito and Cobb, and Cobb and Mal. They skipped whatever levels they needed to and arrived back at the “reality” in both instances. If the jump was not back to reality why would they arbitrarily skip 3 levels and land back in the the 4th (which still a dream)?
Also, how would he stay “under” so long if he was close to the surface or reality? Wouldn’t his time be up soon? And who is keeping the dream going? Is it Cobb’s dream? If that’s true, and his wife left back to reality, wouldn’t she re-enter the dream to try and convince him by telling him that she was right?
The only explanations that I can come up with about the ‘still dreaming’ ending, seem to to fall short.
What am I missing? I’m sure a lot. :)
With that said, I like the idea of the top still spinning at the end, but I don’t think it did or was meant to.
Though there is no clear evidence to point squarely at one theory, I believe that, at a minimum, the end of the movie is a dream. The 4 arguments for that opinion are:
1) Throughout the entire movie (with the exception of the beach scene in the elevator) James is wearing a plaid shirt and grey shorts while Phillipa is wearing the same pink dress. At the end of the movie, yes the kids are older (played by separate actors) however, the likelihood of the kids wearing the exact same outfits together is too slim to ignore.
2) The scene where Mal jumps to her death she is a building across from the honeymoon suite. Dom pleads with her to come inside and motions towards him. Being across the street makes no sense yet Cobb, and we the audience, accept it. Why is she across the street and why would he motion to come towards him, towards the direction of a suicide jump, instead of back into her room? Her room across the street has the exact same setup (white couch, brown lamp table, white door with molding) as the honeymoon suite too. It doesn’t make sense, just as a dream doesn’t make sense but we accept it. These details are too unusual to neglect.
3) On the hospital/Snow Fortress level, Dom and Ariadne go first into limbo. Saito goes later. So why then is Saito an old man and Dom is young when in fact is should be the other way around. The only explanation is that there are seperate limbos but if that were the case, how does Dom move from one limbo to another. This kind of stuff wasn’t explained in the movie.
4) Once Saito was shot he could not go back to the 747 reality because the sedative was too strong. His death would send him to limbo. So I am guessing this means a “kick” such as throwing him out of a window is out of the question too, otherwise the team would have done it. If the team had to wait for the sedatives to subside how did they go back after less than a day transpired in that first level of dreaming? They left the warehouse in a van and drove the van off a bridge. Maybe 6hrs or so transpired? The full 10hrs were spent asleep on the plane and that would require a week of existence in the first level of dreaming. The team can’t go back to the 747 reality after less than a day yet they do? It doesn’t make sense which is indicative of dreaming.
Some other oddities that can be interpreted either way:
1) The professor says, “Come back to reality Dom” and, “So you want me to let someone follow you into your fantasy.”
2) A totem should be an object that is so unique, someone who hasn’t held it could not know all of its properties yet Mal’s totem is not unique. Everyone knows the property of a gyro. A gyro eventually topples over. Any dreamer in this case could make a top eternally spin or fall after a period of time. They could not, however, know how Arthur’s die was loaded. The idea that if Mal’s totem falls over, she is not dreaming doesn’t fit the explanation given in the movie.
IMO 1 of 2 theories is possible. Either Saito and Dom died and are permanently living in limbo because their deaths were not sequenced properly on each of the levels (meaning the end was a dream) or that the entire movie is a dream where Mal reached reality, and is waiting for some sedative to wear off on Cobb. The latter is what I prefer to believe because it is a happier ending where Cobb will eventually return to reality with his wife and kids.
Isn’t it possible that it has been just an ordinary dream?
The whole movie is a dream. Aside from all the other clues mentioned many times (Michael Caine saying “come back”; anonymous corporations chasing Cobb around the world; the strange smiles of Leo’s team at the end and so on), how did Cobb, supposedly a brilliant architect, acquire the combat skills and athleticism of a Bourne, Bond or Batman? The action scene where he was being chased through Mombasa would be totally unbelievable in real life. The ease with which he avoids bullets from multiple shooters and disposes of professional hit men in hand to hand combat would be impossible for anyone but a very highly trained SAS soldier or martial artist unless it was a dream where you can create your own reality.