10 years on, ‘Inception’s’ ambiguous ending continues to baffle audiences

Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, ‘Inception’, was released in theatres a decade ago. Yet, even after 10 years, fans have been debating over the final seconds of the film - is the top moving, or not?
The top (totem) was the instrument the team used to check whether the characters are in their dream state or in reality. As the final scene showed DiCaprio’s character, Dom Cobb, finally reunited with his kids, he walks into his house to see his kids playing in the garden.Before walking towards them, he spins his totem to check if he is dreaming or not and in classic Nolan fashion, the director cuts to the end credits before the fate of the totem, or Dom, is revealed.
While Nolan has not given a straight answer to the question, he has time and again brought out the “subjective” nature of the ending. Talking to a group of graduates at Princeton University in 2015, he said, “The way the end of that film worked, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Cobb he was off with his kids, he was in his own subjective reality. He didn’t really care anymore, and that makes a statement: perhaps, all levels of reality are valid.”
It’s not just the fans who are confused over the ending. The lead actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, is also unsure of his own character’s fate. While appearing on a podcast talking about the film, DiCaprio exclaimed, “What happened, I have no idea”. He added that while he always tries to understand the depth of his characters, “when it comes to Chris Nolan and his mind and how that was all pieced together, everyone was trying to constantly piece that puzzle together.”
Sir Micheal Caine, who played the mentor to Cobb, has also commented on the difference between the dream world and reality. He said that he too was confused over when the characters are dreaming and when they are living and that Nolan gave him the key to finding it out, “If I’m (Micheal Caine) in it, it’s reality”.
Image credits: IMDB