The End of ‘Inception
If the measure of a great movie is that it confuses, divides, and causes endless debate about “what it all means,” then “Inception” may be the best flick to hit theaters in a good, long while.
The Christopher Nolan-directed film, about a man (Leonardo DiCaprio) who invades people’s dreams to steal their secrets, has earned strong reviews from critics. But not everybody agrees about the ending. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want any spoilers, leave now.
Still here? OK, so, at the end of the film, things appear to be all aces for Leo’s character. He emerged from the dream, found his kids, let go of his wife’s memory, and pulled off the seemingly impossible job he was hired to do. But did he really do it, or was it just another dream?
Leo’s character uses a metal top to stay grounded in reality. It’s the only way he knows what’s real and what isn’t, because it keeps him from confusing the dreams he invades with reality.
At the end of the film, Leo spins the top, and then walks away. The movie ends before the audience discovers if the top fell or stayed spinning.
Now, if the audience believes the top continued to spin, then the insinuation is that Leo is still stuck in la-la land. After all, tops don’t spin forever in reality. If the top falls, then he really did pull off the perfect crime and made it out with his brain intact. Alas, Mr. Nolan, prankster that he is, rolls the credits before we find out.
Fortunately, the Web is full of theories. Screen Rant offers up an exhaustive interpretation of the movie. Writer Kofi Outlaw writes that during the film, Leo’s character is obsessed with his spinning top. But, at the end, rather then wait to see the top fall (which would prove things are real), he just walks away. Why? Slashfilm speculates that he “could care less about… ‘true reality’ anymore. He just wants to be with his children, in whatever place he can be with them.”
Cinema Blend hosts what has to be the aboslute definitive FAQ for confused fans of “Inception.” On whether or not the top keeps spinning, they believe it keeps spinning (meaning Leo’s character is still dreaming). Why? The blog notes that the “kids haven’t aged. They match exactly his memory of them. A memory which must almost surely by now be out of date, since he’s been away from them for many months.”
One of “Lost”‘s creators, Damon Lindelof, recently tweeted that he may have solved the ending of “Inception.” On the whole spinning top issue, Mr. Lindeoff tweeted: “There is a THIRD possibility — It neither stopped…nor kept spinning. The story ended before either could happen.”
And speaking of “Lost,” an article from Time magazine brings up the interesting point that “Inception” shares many of the same traits as the TV series “Lost.” Both “were stories constructed on one level as puzzles—mind-pretzeling constructions that required the viewer to simultaneously juggle multiple narrative threads and timelines.” And both left many scratching their heads and wondering if what they had witnessed was a great story or just a big con.
Despite the fact that there is no right answer, the ending has inspired a flurry of searches. Web lookups for “inception explanation,” “what does the end of inception mean,” and “inception spoiler” have all soared since the film opened last Friday. Even Mr. DiCaprio admitted to SlashFilm in a February interview that the movie “didn’t make sense to many of us when we were doing it.”
Months later, it still might not make perfect sense. But the ending did get people to talk, tweet, speculate, and breathlessly blog. In our version of reality, that’s no small feat.
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