“Inception” is possibly one of the most cryptic movies ever made. The 2010 film, directed by Christopher Nolan – whose recent film “Oppenheimer” received the most Academy Award nominations of the year – tests the mental strength of his viewers at movie’s end by asking them to decide for themselves, what is real. 

“Inception” has a massive cast totaling 87 different members. With such a big cast, I personally think there are only a few of importance, such as Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb), Elliot Page (Ariadne), Ken Watanabe (Mr. Saito), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur). Leonardo is the star of the film but each actor/actress listed has a big role that leads to Nolans question, what is real?

Throughout the film Cobb and his team are hired to create and enter dreams with an intended target. Once in the dream with their intended target, they attempt to extract information their hiring party was looking for. Mr. Saito challenged Cobb and his team to place information inside someone’s mind rather than an extraction. In order to do this, Cobb and his team have to use a strategy known as inception which is when they make the target believe they came up with the idea on their own.

Every time I watch “Inception” I pick up something I have not noticed before. Helping me come to my own conclusion of Nolan’s cryptic ending question, what is real?  This question has left viewers arguing for over a decade now. The ending was left up to interpretation on purpose. In an interview with Christopher Nolan, he explains why he decided to end the movie the way he did. He states, “I choose to believe that Cobb gets back to his kids, because I have young kids. People who have kids definitely read it differently than those who don’t.” I believe there are numerous subtle clues that indicate Cobb being in reality that often go unnoticed. 

For instance, Cobb’s totem. A totem is the only way to know for sure if you are in a dream or reality. While in a dream totems do something they cannot do in reality. Cobb’s totem is a dreidel. If the dreidel stops spinning he is in reality; his feet are firmly on the ground. If it continues spinning, he’s living in a dream. And boy, as the film makes clear by the end, he doesn’t want to be there.                 

SPOILER ALERT: Nolan presents his cryptic question “what is real?” at the end of the film. Cobb spins his dreidel and the viewers begin to see it wobble slightly right before the screen goes black and the credits start to roll. Everytime Cobb spun the dreidel in a dream, it never wobbled. Not once. The only time it wobbles is when Cobb is awake. But at the end, there is that wobble…and if he is in a dream…that would have never happened.

 The dreidel is what fans argue about. Does the wobble point to Cobb being in reality? I think the dreidel’s wobble points to it falling stems from a conversation Cobb had with Ariadne. Adriane was hired by Cobb to create the layout of a dream used for their operations. Cobb can never create the layout of a dream. If he does, there is a strong chance his deceased wife will appear and ruin their operation.What’s not remembered is what Cobb stresses to Ariadne during a teaching lesson. How to create the layout of a dream. When you are in a dream you appear in the middle of it you do not know how you got there. Cobb says, “You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what’s going on…. So how did we end up here?” 

When the movie is coming to an end, we see the steps Cobb takes to go to his house. Getting on the plane, getting off, getting his bags, driving, and then finally arriving home. If Cobb was in a dream, we’d only see him inside his house talking to his father-in-law. Cobb clearly can trace back how he got to where he is, proving he is awake.

Another argument fans have is Cobb does not care if he is in a dream or not, which is why he walked away from the spinning dreidel and went to his kids. The argument is that Cobb just wants to be with his kids and does not care about the terms of the situation. To discredit this argument, Cobb would have never spun the dreidel in the first place if he did not care if he was in reality or not. He was excited to see his kids at the moment so he ran to them. Cobb spun the dreidel on the kitchen table. Somewhere he knew he was going to have to look again…

“Inception” can currently be watched on Peacock (Free with subscription), Amazon Prime ($3.79), and Apple Tv ($3.99)