
In Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi film, Inception, the characters are constantly in and out of the subconscious state of being in a dream. However, a large argument has sparked due to this, debating about when they are in a dream. On one hand, people argue that the entire movie is Cobb’s dream. On the other hand, people argue that the characters do, in fact, go back and forth from the real world to the dream world. This argument is very crucial to the plot of the movie, which is why Nolan used a few visual motifs to help the viewer understand better. He doesn’t think either argument is right. He wanted the movie to create such an argument, letting the viewer decide how they see it. Reality, according to Nolan’s film, is what an individual perceives it to be. By looking at Nolan’s use of totems, kicks, and Cobb’s projection of Mal, we can see the difference between a dream and reality which is important because of the large argument that has sparked from this film.

Nolan’s use of totems is the most important aspect for interpreting whether or not the character is in a dream state or reality. There are a few specific scenes that accurately indicate how the totem is used. A great demonstration on how the totems are used is the scene immediately after Cobb and Arthur fail at extracting information from Mr. Saito’s subconscious on the train. Cobb is sitting in his hotel room and he takes out a spinning top and a gun, checking to see if it is loaded. This spinning top is Cobb’s totem, as each of the other characters have their own, as well. He spins the totem, slowly putting the gun up to his head. What is this scenes significance? Cobb is facing the fact that he failed the job, double-checking to see if it was really reality or if it was a dream. The reason this is so significant is because if it were a dream, he could shoot himself and he would wake up, as we know that dying in a dream wakes you up. The totem begins to wobble and finally stops, so Cobb puts the gun back on the table because he has been reassured that he is in reality. If it had continued spinning, that meant he was trapped in someone’s dream. Deciphering between what is reality and what is a dream has possessed Cobb. In order for him to recognize which state he is in, he uses the totem for reassurance. So, if he killed himself, he wouldn’t wake up. This happened to his wife, Mal. She was convinced that she was still dreaming once her and Cobb came back to reality, so she killed herself and didn’t wake up. This is the consequence of not having a grip or an intuitive understanding of corporeal reality.  We can clearly see how these totems can tell the difference between dreams and reality, which can inevitably decide life and death. The closing scene is the most controversial and argued scene in the entire film. It truly leaves the matter to be interpreted however the viewer wants to interpret it, which is why it is such a well-rated movie. Cobb was accused of killing Mal, which is why he had to leave the US. He took this last job from Mr. Saito so he could get his name cleared and return to his kids. With the job now completed, Cobb is able to return home. Ironically, once he returns to his ultimate reality, he spins the totem and walks away towards his children. The camera zooms in for a close up on the spinning top, which begins to slightly wobble before the camera cuts to black. Did the totem fall or remain spinning? That is the big question, of course. One speculation is that Cobb no longer cares about the difference between a dream and reality because he had finally gone back to his children, which was his personal reality. The rest of that scene was blurred out, which could signify everything else in Cobb’s life. Nothing was significant enough to interfere with his reality that he was finally able to return to. Nolan wanted to encourage the speculation of whether this scene was reality or just another dream. We have already learned that reality is what an individual perceives it to be. This sense of ambiguity raises questions towards the rest of the movie. Was the entire movie a dream? It doesn’t matter because the viewer has the power of opinion and the totems allow them to make the attempt of differentiating between a dream and reality. 

Nolan does an excellent job at differentiating the real world from the dream world through Cobb’s wife, Mal. The first time Mal is introduced is during the first few scenes, when Cobb and Arthur are extracting information from Mr. Saito on the train. What we haven’t learned yet at this point is that Mal is dead. She committed suicide because she thought her reality was still a dream and killing herself would wake her up. However, that didn’t seem to be the case. Now, during every dream Cobb goes into, Mal appears as a projection of his subconscious. The viewer is officially told Mal’s role when Cobb is training Ariadne to create dream worlds. Mal, as a projection, is trying to convince Cobb to come back to her, which she persists is reality and that he is living a lie. In nearly every dream throughout the movie, Mal sabotages the plan in some way. In the first appearance, she tells Mr. Saito that Cobb and Arthur are attempting to extract information from him. As much as Cobb tries to keep Mal’s projection out of the dream, he can’t hide his guilt over her death, allowing her into the dream. Mal is the reason that the team’s attempt at inception on Fischer almost failed. In the snow level of the dream with the hospital, Mal appears while Fischer is moving towards the chamber where his father is being kept. Cobb sees Mal rappel into the room from the roof, as does Ariadne. Cobb takes his eye off the scope of the sniper rifle, but Ariadne warns Cobb that Mal is just a projection and that Fischer is real, meaning that if he died, he would fall into limbo, which is unconstructed dream space. Under such a powerful sediment and so many levels deep in the dream, dying would not wake him up. Cobb then tells Ariadne: “How do you know?” Before Cobb is able to shoot Mal, she shoots Fischer, causing Cobb and Ariadne to go into limbo in order to get him back. In French, Mal means “bad”. This context refers to the idea that Mal’s projection is trying to sabotage every chance Cobb gets to return to their children. She believes they are his projections and that if he died, he would return to his reality with her and their real children. Her presence only occurs in the dream state, since she is dead. The audience can use Mal to easily determine that the characters were in a dream, rather than reality, being that the dream state is the only place she exists in.  

The “kick” is a complex idea that is used to awaken the characters from a dream. In the movie, Cobb describes it as: “It’s that feeling of falling you get that jolts you awake. It snaps you out of a dream.” Since time is compounded every additional level of the dream, having a multiple level dream requires a synchronized kick, which takes crucial forethought and planning. In a multiple level dream, a synchronized kick allows the person to experience a kick on the lowest level of the dream and on the highest level. In other words, the person experiences a kick to the dreaming self on the lowest level and the physical, sleeping body on the highest level. Using the sedative, just one kick would not be enough to wake them, hence the synchronization. If the viewer sees a kick happen to one of the characters, then they know that character is dreaming.

Inception is a fantastic sci-fi thriller that requires the viewer to be very involved. The movie can be confusing at times if one is not paying full attention, trying to tell what is a dream and what is reality. The idea of multi-level dreams are decoded by the synchronized kicks the characters experience as a dreamer and to the sleeping body. Mal is only able to appear as a projection of Cobb’s subconscious, meaning that whenever the viewer sees her, they can tell it is a dream because she is dead. What’s most important in differentiating the dream state and reality is the totems, which were created for that single purpose. The whole sense of ambiguity in the film is what keeps the audience engaged. They have to choose how they want to perceive the argument of what is reality, which is exactly how Nolan wanted it to be. The visual motifs are what assist the viewer in establishing a clear, cut opinion.