Over a decade on, the way to figure out the true ending in Inception has been revealed, and the newly crowned Sir Christopher Nolan has even weighed in on the ‘correct answer’.
Now, to begin with and address the obvious, this article is going to have heavy spoilers for Inception.
That said, it is a 14-year-old movie, and so if you read any further, that’s on you.
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The film takes place jumping back and forth between a world of dreams and the real world, with the characters ‘incepting’ themselves into other people’s slumber.
The main character, Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, uses this ability to steal secrets, and throughout the movie is plagued by his wife’s death.
At the end though, he is shown to finally have accepted it, and goes off to join his kids and leave behind the world of incepting into people’s dreams.
Throughout their time in various dreams, the characters have ‘totems’, anchor devices that tell them whether they’re in dreams or the real world.
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One which Cobb uses is a spinning top. In the real world, it spins out and falls, whereas in the film, it spins perpetually.
Cobb spins the totem as he goes to join his kids, but refuses to turn back and look at it, and the movie ends with it not being clear if it will spin out or not.
Fans on Reddit, however, have figured out what the true answer is.
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Due to his wife dying, Cobb doesn’t wear his wedding ring in the real world, however, he finds out that she is still alive and kicking in the dream world.
Thus, when he is incepting, Cobb wears his wedding ring.
See if you can spot in this scene therefore whether he’s in the real world or not.
As Cobb isn’t wearing it in the final scene, fans confirmed that, in actual fact, it’s a happy ending and he is with his kids in the real world.
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One commented: “Dom's wedding ring is his real totem, whether he knew it or not. When Arthur doesn't let Ariadne hold his die, he makes it very clear that a totem has to be an item that is unique to you.
“The spinning top was Mal's totem. Dom only wore his wedding ring in his dreams because that was the only place he could still be with Mal.”
You might now be asking, if fans figured that out, what did Sir Christopher Nolan have to say about what the ‘correct answer’ is?
Does he dispute the wedding ring being the true totem? Is there something we missed?
Nolan’s answer is a bit less complicated than that.
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When asked about the ‘correct answer’ for the ending, he said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast: “I went through a phase where I was asked that a lot.
“I think it was [producer] Emma Thomas who pointed out the correct answer, which is Leo’s character…the point of the shot is the character doesn’t care at that point.
“It’s not a question I comfortably answer.
“There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids.
“The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.”
Michael Slavin