HERE BE SPOILERS

I loved Inception, and I’m convinced that, unlike many movies that leave questions unanswered, there exists a single correct explanation of what happened (I reckon Nolan does know the answer, and will have placed enough evidence throughout the movie to allow others to find it). Here’s my theory. I plan to re-watch the movie to see if this holds water, and I’ll update this post as I gather more evidence (and perhaps change my mind entirely).

Is Reality a Dream?

I say yes! Cobb’s “reality” is a dream of his own making. There are lots of clues during the movie that this is the case, from Miles (his father-in-law) telling him to “wake up” to Saito appearing out of nowhere to pull him into a car in Mombassa to the chase that saw him squeezing through a narrowing gap to him suddenly appearing in different places and so on. It’s a popular theory, and I’m subscribing to it. The entire movie is a dream.

The only time we see Cobb actually having a dream of his own, rather than entering someone else’s, is when he visits Mal (his wife) in their apartment. Ariadne follows, and chides him for recreating reality. Because that’s exactly what his “reality” is; a perfect recreation within his own dream, so believable that he’s convinced himself it is real.

But What About the Totem?

Cobb proves to himself that he’s not dreaming by using a totem (a spinning top) and watching it fall over. This reality test seems to suggest that he’s not dreaming. But that’s a red herring!

You see, we’re told that a totem is something personal that nobody else should hold, and that you need to be familiar with its weight and feel. Throughout the movie Cobb uses the spinning top, which was his wife’s totem. The clue is that we’re also told that other people’s totems won’t work, so the spinning top cannot be trusted. Remember that Cobb has presumably never held his wife’s totem “in real life”; he’s only held his imagined version of it in his dream. Therefore, it will behave exactly as he expects it to behave, because he can control what happens (subconsciously or not – think about the level of control Ariadne has over her dream world).

So where is Cobb’s true totem? He must have had one once. I think it’s his WEDDING RING (an object that’s intimately familiar to him, and which nobody else has held). In each of the dream levels, Cobb is wearing his ring, but, in his “reality”, he wears no ring (I never spotted this while watching the movie, but I’ve seen many forum posts that mention it). We are never told why he has no ring in “reality”. The big hint is what his wife does with her totem; she hides it from herself to prevent herself from realising that she is dreaming. Cobb has done the same thing with his totem.

Because Cobb uses his wife’s totem in a dream of his creation, he is able to control it, causing it to fall by concentrating hard (notice how he really focuses on it each time he performs a reality test). At the end of the movie his attention is distracted, which explains why it doesn’t fall (he’s in his own dream, and isn’t concentrating on the spinning top, so it keeps on spinning).

How Will Cobb Wake Up?

So Cobb is stuck in his own dream. Ariadne and Miles are attempting to rescue him. In “proper” reality the three of them are dreaming together. When Cobb witnessed Mal commiting suicide, he created a complicated dream world in which he was on the run, exiled from his country and unable to see his children. Ariadne and Miles (and perhaps others) need to make him realise he’s dreaming by leading him to his real totem. They do this by constructing an elaborate scenario that allows them to perform inception on Cobb – making him truly believe that he is able to finally return home.

Once Cobb finds his wedding ring, he’ll be able to prove to himself that he’s dreaming, and will wake himself up (presumably by suiciding). The wedding ring must be with his children at his home (either that or his children are another reality test – this is hinted throughout when he glimpses them in the various levels). This is why Miles so triumphantly reunites him with his children at the end of the movie – he and Ariadne have succeeded in their mission, and Cobb is about to discover that he is actually dreaming.

I’d love it if Cobb’s daughter was wearning a necklace with his ring on it at the end of the film, when she turns around. I must watch out for that next time I see the movie.

Why Doesn’t Mal Appear?

All of this begs the question why Mal, Cobb’s wife, never appears in his “reality” to let him know that her suicide worked. She appears in each of the levels as a projection of his, but never in his “reality”. Why doesn’t she just enter his dream and fix everything directly? Well, this is because his “reality” is a dream world of his own creation, and, as he believes it so deeply, and believes that Mal is dead, he simply cannot abide her presence. That is, if the real Mal entered Cobb’s dream, he would not allow himself to see her.

However, we know it is possible, with practice, to appear in a dream as somebody else. Therefore, I believe that ARIADNE IS MAL, in a different form. Cobb’s wife has entered his dream, with her father, and they are working throughout the movie to guide him out of it. This explains why Ariadne is constantly attacked by the projection of Mal. And it explains why Ariadne works her way so deeply into Cobb’s subconscious, ultimately convincing him to let go of the projected Mal.

I remember the moment when Ariadne used the mirrors to create a bridge that Cobb recognised (quick flashbacks showed him on the bridge with Mal – perhaps they met there). This scene is also evidence of the “Ariadne is Mal” theory. In that scene, Cobb warns Ariadne that building places from memory is the quickest way to lose track of what’s real and what’s a dream, and she says something like “is that what happened to you”. At that point, Mal’s projection knifes her (because Cobb, subconsciously, cannot accept the fact that Ariadne might be telling the truth).

Phone Call

One really fascinating moment is when Cobb receives a call from his kids. This is a man who’s on the run, yet his infant children can manage to call him up when he’s in some unknown location? What’s more interesting is that the kids on the phone sound older than those we see at the end of the movie, and that there’s someone else present during the call: their grandmother (Cobb’s mother-in-law, Mal’s father and Miles’ wife). We never meet her, but we can hear that she has a French accent. How about this for blowing your socks off:

• Mal and Cobb live in America with their two kids.
• Mal’s parent’s live in Paris, where her father lectures at the University.
• When Cobb doesn’t wake up from his dream, he’s admitted to hospital in a “coma”, and Mal’s parents travel to America to help.
• While Mal’s mother minds the kids, Mal and Miles stay at the hospital where they enter Cobb’s dream to attempt to wake him up.

So far, that all fits in with my theory. Now, imagine this. While Cobb is sleeping, the kids either talk to him Cobb directly, or over the phone (imagine Mal holding it to his ear). Cobb can hear his kids within his dream when they speak to him, in the same way that Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien is used as a signal to the dreamers (they hear the song within their dream when headphones are placed on them in real life). Within his dream, Cobb explains away the fact that he can hear his kids by imagining that they call him on the phone.

Further evidence in support of this theory (that Mal’s parents are helping to rescue Cobb): Miles, the father-in-law, seems to exhibit no emotion at all over his daughter’s death. He’s happy and friendly and helpful, not resentful of Cobb at all, even though he could rightly blame Cobb for her death. Not to mention the fact, of course, that he pleads with Cobb to “come back to reality”.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Cobb is dreaming, and Mal (in the form of Ariadne) and Miles are working to wake him up (and they succeed). I think it’s a pretty consistent and believable explanation, and, like I said, I plan to watch the movie again to see how much evidence there is in support of this theory. Keep an eye on this post for updates!

Also, yes, I’m a tad obsessed with this movie.