The End of INCEPTION *spoilers*

[Gyp Rosetti]

With the timer, I'm not certain if it's an automated thing or not, but remember on both the plane and the train, there was someone who never went into the dream world monitoring the dreamers and the sharing device - the flight attendant and the teenage boy on the train. So they didn't need a kick to wake up in the "real world" because they had these handlers there to wake them up/monitor how much time they had left. HOWEVER, I know for a fact that there was a timer during their tests when Ariadne was first learning the ropes. In fact, this is when they first explain the relation between dream time and real time. Arthur says "5 more minutes", Ariadne responds by saying something to the effect of "5 minutes? We were in there for at least an hour!" This is when Cobb and Arthur explain that "5 minutes of real time is an hour in a dream". When Cobb and Ariadne go back in, an Ariadne's meddling causes Mal to appear and stab her in the dream, she yells at Arthur, asking why he didn't wake her up. His response is "there was still time left".

In terms of the kicks, recall the opening dream sequence. Cobb had to be dunked in the tub to woken from the dream he was in, but he didn't wake up on the train when he hit the water, he woke up in the apartment. You wake up in the same level that the kick is performed. If what you're saying (or what I think you're saying) is correct, then the tub kick from the beginning of the film would've caused Cobb to wake up on the train, not in the apartment. The elevator drop woke them up in the elevator, the van kick woke them up in the van, and then the timer/handler is what wakes them up in the real world.

So once the van hits the water, they wake up in the van. At that point, they're free to swim to shore or whatever in that dream until the timer goes off/handler wakes them up in the real world.



...I think.












I'm definitely going to see it a third time as well very shortly, because I'm starting to confuse myself.

Gotcha. Sorry to confuse you and I think you're right. However, is the flight attendant the only handler or is their one at each level? The flight attendant is in reality. Then the "pharmacist" in the rain sequence? JGL in the Hotel room? Who in the snow sequence? The "forger"?

Or is it just the flight attendant?

Also, the acting is great in the movie. No one's a weak link. Page is nothing special but she plays her role well. Cillian Murphy who usually annoys me (except in 28 Days Later which is amazing) was superb I thought. The final scene between him and his dad was powerful as hell. It reminded me of Citizen Kane. I loved the end as everything builds to that point as well as DiCaprio and Moll. I loved the opening scene when Watanabe pulls out the gun as he feigns sleeping and DiCaprio then hits the tub in slo-mo. Hell, the opening shot of the ocean crashing in is maybe thee most gorgeous shot in the whole movie. Just stunning. Perfect light/time of day to be shot, camera angle, etc. It will obviously be up for Best Picture now that 10 are nominated and I would think has a solid chance to win. Although, I see The Social network becoming a major player in that regard.

 

[JJ Rage]

Gotcha. Sorry to confuse you and I think you're right. However, is the flight attendant the only handler or is their one at each level? The flight attendant is in reality. Then the "pharmacist" in the rain sequence? JGL in the Hotel room? Who in the snow sequence? The "forger"?

Or is it just the flight attendant?

Yusuf (pharmacist/chemist) would be the handler in the rain/van level, and Arthur (JGL) is the handler in the hotel. The snow level doesn't really have a handler, per se, as they didn't really plan on going into a 4th level/Cobb's limbo, and didn't really plan for a kick here. The closest thing to a handler here would be Eames the forger, but again he only takes on this role to be a failsafe should he need to "kick" the other 4 (Cobb, Saito, Fischer and Ariadne) out of limbo, hence the charges he places on the base (this is my assumption as to why he places the charges, anyway). As it was, Ariadne and Fischer were "kicked" out of limbo when they fell from the building, thus waking up back in the snow level, which is when Fischer opened the locked door and interacted with his father. Right after that, the hotel kick occurs, which pulls Ariadne, Fischer and Eames out of the snow level, but leaves Saito and Cobb behind as they didn't not receive a kick in Limbo and were thus trapped there. Then the van/water kick hits, pulling Ariadne, Fischer, Eames and Arthur out of the hotel level. When they level the van/rain level is anyone's guess, since we don't see the timer/handler that causes them to leave. We're left to assume they wake up in due time, as the action shifts back to Cobb in limbo.

Also, as I'm typing this, I'm remembering that Arthur and Eames both received musical countdowns. Arthur is seen placing headphones on Eames as he sleep in the hotel, and Yusuf does the same to Arthur while they're in the van. I believe these were simply designed as a way for the dreamers to know how much time they had left, but it may have also been a form of a kick.


Damn I really need to see this movie again.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Okay so I saw it again today and if I'm not mistaken, there's only one scene where the timer goes off and we see the person wake up in reality and that's on the train. Right away, we see JGL rip off the thing attached to his hand or arm. This seems as if would contradict your notion that these contraptions were pulled prior to the subjects waking up. Likewise, in scenes with Ellen Page and Leo where they're awakened prior to the five minutes being up or in other scenes, when they're awakened via "death", they too have the wires attached then. So?

Again, maybe I'm missing something but...

 

[Stickler]

It is pretty clear to me that Cobb is dreaming, at the end. The cut that occurs to move him and Michael Caine from the airport to the house is the same kind of cut that occurs in the dream sequences; a jump of space and time with no transition between. Caine takes his bag and says, "this way," and they take a few steps forward and they're in the house. Cobb looks over his shoulder with a confused look on his face, like, "How did we get here? Where did the airport go?" He then immediately takes out the top and spins it to test if it's a dream.

The top doesn't fall. He's clearly still dreaming.

I might re-watch the movie to see if I can catch the clues that will tell me where he got caught in the dream world. I'll be disappointed if it's no more complex than: He never came out of limbo.

 

[Safetydan]

Elements from the beginning also suggest he's in a dream. When he goes to tunisia to meet "the forger" he gets chased by nameless dudes, through alleys and at one point he gets stuck between two walls that become increasingly enclosed as you move on. To me, that seems like a dream like quality... anybody else?

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Elements from the beginning also suggest he's in a dream. When he goes to tunisia to meet "the forger" he gets chased by nameless dudes, through alleys and at one point he gets stuck between two walls that become increasingly enclosed as you move on. To me, that seems like a dream like quality... anybody else?

Perhaps.

That scene bothered me too because it's obvious he could fit between the walls quite easily if he slipped in directly sideways rather than sort of on a 45 degree angle. There looked to be a good 18-20 inches between the walls.

 

[roseparkjazzfan]

i think the whole movie was adream, or a dream in adream thing