Christopher Nolan is the phenomenal director of the decade, often credited for getting under his audience’s skin with time-confusing movie plots. Thirteen years ago, ‘Inception‘ was released and it blew the audience’s mind with its unique concept and most definitely its cliffhanger ending. From ‘Memento’, ‘Interstellar’, and ‘Tennet’ to ‘Dunkirk’, Nolan has played with Time, with each movie portraying a unique significance of time.
Similarly, in ‘Inception’, time is shown as an illusion and the only thing dividing it from reality is a totem. But it is the ending of the film that got on the fan’s nerves. Finally, Nolan decided to let the fans out of their misery and 13 years later decided to tell the correct answer to ‘Inception’s’ ending.
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Christopher Nolan Finally Addresses The Most Asked Question
‘Inception’ follows the story of a group of criminals who perform a heist within somebody’s dreams. Although the movie consists of an elaborate plot, the ending which seems fairly straightforward is indeed twisted. Dom Cobb has finally let go of his demons and returned home after years to his children. He spins his totem and abandons it.
The movie has made it clear that if his totem keeps spinning, he is still dreaming and nothing is real. But the movie ends with the totem still spinning, leaving the fans to wonder if Cobb is still dreaming.
Finally, the fan’s questions have been answered. In the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, Christopher Nolan said he was asked a lot about the final shot of the film, “I went through a phase where I was asked that a lot”. Nolan finally answered it saying “I think it was [producer] Emma Thomas who pointed out the correct answer, which is Leo’s character…the point of the shot is the character doesn’t care at that point. It’s not a question I comfortably answer.”
Recently during a conversation with Wired, Nolan admitted that there was actually a darker interpretation of the ending of Inception, but again it remained irrelevant because of Dom’s characters. The director told, “There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.”
Christopher Nolan on the ‘correct answer’ to the #Inception ending
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) July 21, 2023
“The point of the shot is Leo’s character doesn’t care”
“He’s moved on and is with his kids, the ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity” pic.twitter.com/YhKE13ovDp
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The End Of ‘Inception’ Is Very Unique
Although the fans cribbed about the ending of ‘Inception’, for Christopher Nolan, it was truly a pleasure watching the moviegoers in distress. But for Nolan, Dom Cobb has finally made it home to his kids, his emotional journey is over, so it really does not matter to him if the totem keeps spinning or falls off. Hence it has no effect on the emotional conclusion of ‘Inception’.
“In terms of sitting with a crowd and experiencing the end of the film, ‘Inception’ was a very unique type of ending. If I would sneak into the back of the theater when it was playing, and we would get to the end, there would be a tremendous sort of gasp, groans, and frustrations — it was an incredible mixture and I would feel very much like I need to get out of here before anybody notices I’m there.” Christopher Nolan admitted to having liked moviegoers in utter frustration at the end of ‘Inception’.
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