Inception is more/less complicated than you think.

After viewing Inception quite a few times, I really do have an answer to the question I had half way through the first viewing. Right then I wondered if it was all a dream. Of course it is an opinion and others have different views.


The short answer is that it is not all a dream. Cobb does get to be with his children at the end.


I listened to the Michael Caine interview on NPR for the one line statement that his character never appeared in a dream. I read the other actor interviews who all denied the complete dream theory.


There are subtle and not so subtle clues through out the movie such as Cobb's wedding ring. He only wears the wedding ring while in a dream. It is not a continuity error as the filmmakers highlighted the ring or lack of it in each segment.

The main argument I have heard for it all being a dream is that the children never seem to age and are wearing the same clothes. This falls down as all images of the children except for the last are supposed to be Cobb's memory. He has not seen them for two years and this is stylistically represented by not showing the children's faces except in the last scene. The children/dream theory cites the children's clothes as evidence. Problem with this is that their shoes change. The final nail in this theory is that the cast list shows two children played each child part and are listed as different ages. It is a red herring: it is less than it seems.

The top: does is topple or not? It sounds like it going to topple as it has before but it really does not matter. The token does not tell the character if they are in a dream or not. Clearly stated it tells them if they are in someone else's dream. The token is to be unusual enough that the architect of the dream would not be able to anticipate the token's irregularities.