In Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi film, Inception, the characters are constantly in and out of the subconscious state of being in dream. However, at times it gets hard to elucidate what is a dream and what is reality, causing confusion in the viewer’s mind. Are they in a dream or reality? Deciphering whether or not the characters are in a dream or reality is very important; so important that Nolan uses a few standout motifs to help the viewer understand the story better. 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 this film has sparked a large argument on when are they in a dream or reality. 

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 truly demonstrate how the totem is used. One of these scenes is right 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, which is his totem, and a gun, checking to see if it is loaded. He spins the totem, slowly putting the gun up to his head. What is this scene showing? Cobb is coping with his failed job, double-checking to see if it was really reality or if it was a dream. This is significant because if it were a dream, he could shoot himself and he would wake up. The totem begins to wobble and finally stops, so Cobb puts the gun back on the table because he is in reality. If it had continued spinning, that meant he was trapped in someone’s dream. The idea of what is reality and what is a dream has possessed Cobb, so he uses the totem for reassurance to show that he is in real life. 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. Once Cobb returns home after completing his last job, 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. Could it be 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. Everything else in the close up 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 speculation of whether or not this scene was reality or just another dream. Reality, according to the Nolan’s film, 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 their power of opinion and the totems allow them to make the attempt of differentiating between a dream and reality. 

Another aspect Nolan uses to differentiate reality and dreams is Cobb’s wife, Mal. The first time we see Mal is the first few scenes, when Cobb and Arthur are extracting information from Mr. Saito on the train. 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 in creating dream worlds. Mal, as a projection, is trying to convince Cobb to come back to her, which she persists is reality. 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 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, dying would not wake him up. Cobb then tells Ariadne: “How do you know?” In French, Mal means “bad”. This context refers back to the idea that Mal’s projection is trying to sabotage every chance Cobb gets to return back to their children because 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. Every time the audience were to see Mal in the film, it would be in a dream because that is the only place Mal can exist. 

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 one 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. It can be confusing at times if one is 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 see 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. All these motifs that occur in the film significantly assist the viewer in recognizing what is a dream and what is reality. 