Inception

Is it a dream or reality?

A mind-stimulating movie that made me wonder about the many layers and complexity that one can have in a dream. Have you ever had a dream within a dream, or worse, even more levels deep that might cast you into limbo? Is that how people in coma experience? Limbo?

Another psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio (he's been doing these lately like Shutter Island) who shone again in his performance. At first, one would have thought that it would be like Matrix, since it's about mind worlds. However, this is not science fiction but a psychological thriller that sits in your mind even after the show ends (inception!). "Inception", as so the movie is called, revolves around planting an idea in somebody's subconscious mind in such a form such that the person will think it is his own idea, and let the idea grow. Like planting a seed. It's difficult for me to describe the whole show due to its complexity. Well, at the end of the story, did Cobb (Leo's character) come back to reality or was staying in limbo? You can't really tell from how it ended, but after giving it some thought, I would go for the "no, he's still dreaming" theory. Reasons?

1) His totem (spinning top) - a totem is something that lets you know whether you're back in reality. Although the totem "wobbled", it did not fall. But you can't tell since these things can spin very long.But, obviously, it was meant to be a cliffhanger.
2) His children - the children should have grown a bit by then, especially if you recall the phone conversation, where the daughter sounded older than a toddler. And why would they be wearing the same clothes as he remembered them?
3) How could he awake since the many layers were destroyed (they went to 4 layers)? Unless the rest went back into the dream to get him. How would they deliver the "kick" for each level? Coz each of his team members had to wake at each level to get back to reality.

OR, could the whole inception project be part of his subconscious for him to come to terms with his wife's death, which was caused by the unintentional "plant" he put in her?

I just love this kind of thrillers. However, compared to Shutter Island", I preferred the latter.

Anyway, after writing all these, I found this page answering some of the questions that we would have.