Michael Caine might have finally revealed
and explained what the ending of Inception
really means.
If you’re not familiar with the debates
about Inception’s ending, the final scene
sees Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb
pull off the dream heist and finally, seemingly,
return back to his children.
Before he goes to greet them, he spins his
infamous totem on the table.
As the film revealed previously, if the totem
keeps on spinning and never stops, then whatever
is happening on the screen is all dream - it’s
not real.
But if the totem does finally stop spinning
then what we see transpire in front of us
is all real.
Those are the rules of the movie, as established
by Christopher Nolan.
Of course as well all know by now, that final
scene lingers on that totem, which keeps on
spinning but then the movie abruptly ends,
and we never truly get to find out if the
totem ever actually stopped save for a faint
sound right when the credits roll.
This has turned Inception into easily one
of the most talked about films and endings
over the past several years.
But Michael Caine may have finally spilled
the beans.
The last scene also features Caine’s character,
Miles, Dom’s father-in-law.
As reported by The Independent, Caine revealed
Nolan actually told him how to tell which
scene is reality and which scene is a dream.
And that is, if Caine is in a scene in the
movie, then it’s all reality, if he’s
not there, then it’s most likely a dream.
Since we do see Caine’s Miles character
greet Dom at the end in the house, then we
can assume that Dom indeed actually does get
to see his kids, and that totem does eventually
stop spinning.
This is what Caine had to say during a recent
showing of Inception, “When I got the script
of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it and
I said to him... 'when is it the dream and
when is it reality?'”
“[Nolan] said, 'Well when you're in the
scene it's reality.'
So get that: if I'm in it, it's reality.
If I'm not in it, it's a dream.”
Of course while this is definitely a pretty
big piece of evidence, as I don’t think
Nolan would lie to a veteran actor like Michael
Caine, especially someone who’s worked with
Nolan countless of times, this may not be
the full explanation.
There may be some story elements Nolan did
not disclose to Caine.
But at the end of the day, Nolan still prefers
the film’s ending to be vague and hotly
debated, and this is because he doesn’t
believe it actually matters: if the final
scene is real or not.
The real focus of Dom’s story and the resolution
that audiences should care about is that Dom
was finally able to move on from his past
and his wife killing herself.
Whether or not Dom actually seeing his kids
being a real, he’s still brave enough to
confront his children.
He’s let go of whatever guilt he’s had,
as he’s no longer chained to his past and
is able to live in the present.
He’s able to own up to being a father and
face his children.
That’s the real crux of the story and its
resolution, forgiving his wife, his loved
one.
This is also the whole main plot of the dream
heist that’s being pulled off in the movie.
Cillian Murphy’s character, Robert Fischer,
hates his father and he must find a way to
forgive him, to let go of whatever happened
in the past between the two, and move on from
his life and his father’s death, all with
the help from Dom and his crew of course.
Either way, whether the ending is a dream
or not, we can all assume Dom still finds
peace.
