Movie Endings Explained – Inception (video)

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Movie endings, they're usually pretty straight forward right? Everything pays off, the main characters learn something, and our heroes ride off into the sunset. Sometimes though, we don't get the typical ending from a movie, we get something much more nuanced, complex and open ended. The kind of endings that leave things up in the air for all of us to debate and theorise on until we're blue in the face. With Movie Endings Explained, we aim to delve into some of the more ambiguous and mysterious endings to films that have left audiences scratching their heads for years, and to attempt to explain them. In most cases, a definitive answer isn't really there, so we definitely want to hear from YOU on how you interpret the various endings we'll be discussing with this series.

For this installment of Movie Endings Explained we're featuring a film that arguably has one of the most discussed climaxes of the century. Christopher Nolan's masterwork INCEPTION wowed the world back in 2010 with its thrilling set pieces, mind bending visual effects and complex story that still some how (kinda?) seemed to make sense. The ending of the film sparked debate instantly and wild theories have been thrown around for years, while some people merely have one of two clear opinions on it.

The concept of reality versus the realm of dreams is the crux on which the film rests, and Leonardo DiCaprio's mind extractor Cobb uses a spinning top constantly, to check whether he's dreaming or awake. In the film's closing moments (uh … spoilers?) Cobb checks if he's in the real world or the dream world by spinning his totem on a table, the final shot of the movie focusing on the spinning top but cutting to black before we find out whether it topples or keeps on spinning endlessly. So, naturally, we take a look at the film's finale in the video below, as well as some of the clues that may or may not unlock the answer to the ambiguous final shot, and what the director himself has to say about it!