Inception Forum

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Yes...I only just now managed to watch Inception. Happily, I also managed to avoid any discussion of it until after I saw it, so I went in totally unaware of what it was about. I totally loved it...but I have one question that I haven't yet found an answer for. And, of course, it's about the ending.

So the plan had been for them to spend close to a week on the first level, but Fischer's mental defences force them to do things quicker. So they end up spending only a few hours in the first level...but at the end, when Cobb and Saito wake up, the flight nearly over and they are about to land. Where did the rest of that time go? I mean, Yusuf wasn't driving around for a week...he could have only been driving for a few hours, tops. Hell it never even got dark in the first dream level. So when they woke up on the plan shouldn't it still have been the beginning of the flight? What am I missing?

When Cobb and Saito woke up everyone was already awake, you don't really know how much time passed in Saito's limbo but based on his looks, it could've been years or even decades.

Hmm, I had never considered that before. But I think Black Rose is right: we never know how long Cobb and Saito spend at the lowest level. Or, for that matter, if they ever actually made it out at all.

@PatVB said:

Hmm, I had never considered that before. But I think Black Rose is right: we never know how long Cobb and Saito spend at the lowest level. Or, for that matter, if they ever actually made it out at all.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

@PatVB said:

Hmm, I had never considered that before. But I think Black Rose is right: we never know how long Cobb and Saito spend at the lowest level. Or, for that matter, if they ever actually made it out at all.

YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND! I never thought about that, what if they didn't make it out?!

@Christina:That's why it cuts away from the totem before we see it topple or not. Who knows if they made it out?

@Christina said:

@PatVB said:

Hmm, I had never considered that before. But I think Black Rose is right: we never know how long Cobb and Saito spend at the lowest level. Or, for that matter, if they ever actually made it out at all.

YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND! I never thought about that, what if they didn't make it out?!

OR what if the entire movie is a dream that Cillian Murphy has when he falls asleep on a flight?

@PatVB said:

OR what if the entire movie is a dream that Cillian Murphy has when he falls asleep on a flight?

@VilhelmNielsen said:

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

@ElectricBoogaloo: It's been so long since I watched it, I remember thinking they made it out fine. I totally forgot about that ambiguous ending.

This thread makes me want to see it again. It was such a good film. While not the "best film of all-time" as my friends call it, but it certainly is a modern classic that people will be talking about for many years to come. Hopefully Nolan has many more mindfucking movies up his sleeve.

Usually when they wake up they still have the dream machine attached to them, but when Cobb wakes up on the plane he does not. Think about that.

@ElectricBoogaloo said:

@Christina:That's why it cuts away from the totem before we see it topple or not. Who knows if they made it out?

I believe that Christopher Nolan in an interview with wired.com said that the ending was pretty self explanatory and that everyone had made it out. I think Rorie and Alex even argued about whether or not Nolan should have said anything on one of the podcasts from last year.

@Buckwatters said:

@ElectricBoogaloo said:

@Christina:That's why it cuts away from the totem before we see it topple or not. Who knows if they made it out?

I believe that Christopher Nolan in an interview with wired.com said that the ending was pretty self explanatory and that everyone had made it out. I think Rorie and Alex even argued about whether or not Nolan should have said anything on one of the podcasts from last year.

That's exactly what I thought. I never doubted that they hadn't made it out.

@hrn212 said:

So the plan had been for them to spend close to a week on the first level, but Fischer's mental defences force them to do things quicker. So they end up spending only a few hours in the first level

From memory they don't plan on spending a week down on the first level. That is how long it will feel to them down there until the drug wears off. By doing the whole kick thing they boost themselves back up to reality whenever they like. This is made clear during the opening scene where Arthur pulls Dom out of the collapsing dream world early by dunking him in water. If they were to miss the kick on the other levels and not ride it back to the real world then they would be caught in the dream until the effects of the machine had warn off. 1 week on the first level, 6 months on the second and 10 years on the third.

You'd hate to miss the kick on the third. Anyway if you really want to go into the whole timey wimey part of inception I found this stupidly long explanation of it on Yahoo Answers

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101225210149AAnVLS3

Yeah I guess they could have not made it out...and I get that they weren't supposed to spend the entire week on the first level...but still the idea was that the whole flight would be a week on level one.

And yeah, I thought Cobb and Saito might have spent the whole time in limbo, but Cobb doesn't look older. He looks beaten up, but not older. So clearly he didn't spend much time there.

Also, thanks for the link.