Inception

[Illusions]

Spoiler:

Cobb's dream. He had Mal's totem the whole time, but never his own. His kids didn't age. Neither did Michael Caine. All the projections were his, trying to find a way to deal with his wife's suicide. Because he felt responsible or guilty.

I think?

Is it true that at the end credits you can hear Mal's totem stop spinning and fall over?

Spoiler:

Someone else on the internet pointed out that Cobb's tradition of violating his own rules extends to his totem as well, in that he never wears a wedding ring in the real world, but has one present on himself in the shared dream spaces, so his totem is not in fact an actual real physical object, but the absence of one. He uses Mal's totem primarily to check to make sure he isn't in his own dream, because if he was he'd be able to will the top to spin forever, where as in reality it would eventually fall over no matter how much he willed it to spin. He has this extra totem because he regularly uses the dream share device by himself.

[GGT]

Spoiler:

Someone else on the internet pointed out that Cobb's tradition of violating his own rules extends to his totem as well, in that he never wears a wedding ring in the real world, but has one present on himself in the shared dream spaces, so his totem is not in fact an actual real physical object, but the absence of one. He uses Mal's totem primarily to check to make sure he isn't in his own dream, because if he was he'd be able to will the top to spin forever, where as in reality it would eventually fall over no matter how much he willed it to spin. He has this extra totem because he regularly uses the dream share device by himself.

Spoiler:

ooooh I didn't notice his wedding ring!

What's "his totem"? I never saw it....it was always Mal's. A thing he stole. A projection? How could using someone else's check for reality--a dead person to boot--be a check for one's own reality? That's why the whole thing might be just his own dream plus projections.

*No way his absence of a totem is his totem, when everyone else has to have one. Well, unless the whole thing is his dream and things don't jive*

Then what about the after-credits where Mal's totem stops spinning and falls over? I didn't stay that long to see if it's a movie myth or not. Did you?

[Angel_Mapper]

The totem doesn't have to be unique to one person, he could have started using it just fine as long as nobody else knew how it worked.

[GGT]

Spoiler:

I remember it differently---the totem was to be a personal and explicit thing---that NO ONE ELSE should even touch.

Although, Cobb could have started that whole notion as an extension of his dream, and a projection that he didn't really want to share with others, where Mal was concerned. Too private and personal. That's when Ellen Page (what was her screen name?) came into being important.

[GGT]

This kind of movie drives me nuts. Basically, it means we'll have to rent/watch it again and look for continuity errors, assuming everything technical represents everything conceptual.

We could probably all figure it out by reading the screenplay, if we had access. The footnote might say "keep them guessing, keep them watching, because it's really all just a bunch of confusing bullshit disguised as a deeply intellectual plot. hahaha let's laugh our way to the bank".

[Hazir]

I think people keep forgetting a totem can be spoiled; if another person knows that totem's qualities, it will do exactly the same as for the original owner.

[Angel_Mapper]

But the original owner is dead, only Cobb knows how it works now.

[Loki]

http://videogum.com/208132/caught-in...-and-spinoffs/

[Draco]

^^What the hell, is that for real?

Anyway the guy still did a good job making it into an actual film.

[Hazir]

But the original owner is dead, only Cobb knows how it works now.

Well, that's assuming that we have seen reality on any level at all. Which I doubt even more now that I've seen it for a second time.

[Illusions]

Spoiler:

Told you so...

[Dreadnaught]

Plausible, though I don't quite understand the logic. Clearly the whole point is that Cobb can project people in his dreams who aren't even alive (like his dead wife).