Inception

[NYRangers360]

Hahaha do you mean me?
If so, I wanted to be subtle because I know how annoyed everyone here gets at those "Hey guys I'm back!!!!!!" threads, and I was just stopping in during my lull of a summer. College has really found a way to monopolize my time :-p
Edit: Regardless though, I really love this topic and want to stay on it, hahaha

[warhol]

Tibiazak:

Ahh, you make a good point. However, remember back to the beginning of the movie when Cobb and Ariadne were dreaming. Cobb's projections began turning on Ariadne and he was screaming at them to let her go, and they wouldn't. So actually, he can't control his own projections. He actually explains that.
Ariadne: Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?
Cobb: It's my subconscious, I can't control it.

People would often expect the worst from their dreams. You know those parts in your dreams where something happens, and you're like, I hope this doesn't happen, and it does happen? I imagine it to be like that too in Cobb's mind.

[tibiazak]

I find it funny that I'm defending an interpretation that I don't agree with, but since I can't actually refute it...
NYRangers:

While that's true, that only means he can't CONSCIOUSLY control his projections, and who said anything about actually controlling them? The idea is that the projections exist and were created with certain personalities, not that Cobb has to control them. Think of it like his subconscious created a bunch of video game NPCs and Cobb is the only player character, only he doesn't KNOW he's the only player character.

[NYRangers360]

As many ways as you can put the "Cobb could be dreaming" argument, it still wouldn't make sense that he was killed in limbo and returned to another layer of a dream. It would make every single rule they make and operate by in the movie obsolete, and if that's the case, why make the rules or better yet, why make the movie? Nolan spent 10+ years with this movie in the works and I doubt he would make a throwaway movie

[tibiazak]

As many ways as you can put the "Cobb could be dreaming" argument, it still wouldn't make sense that he was killed in limbo and returned to another layer of a dream. It would make every single rule they make and operate by in the movie obsolete, and if that's the case, why make the rules or better yet, why make the movie? Nolan spent 10+ years with this movie in the works and I doubt he would make a throwaway movie

I disagree. It's not that being killed in limbo brought him to another dream layer, it's the "what good would killing yourself in limbo do?". No one except Cobb and Mal knows anything about limbo, since they're the only ones who actually got out of limbo (supposedly). Therefore, what if killing yourself in limbo brought you to a different layer of limbo? ALSO, you have to remember that they were in dreams within dreams when they got into limbo in the first place, how do you know it's not different for them if they didn't get brought there by dying? Since no one can fully explain limbo and its rules, I still say that the dream theory is viable.

[vedicardi]

I disagree. It's not that being killed in limbo brought him to another dream layer, it's the "what good would killing yourself in limbo do?". No one except Cobb and Mal knows anything about limbo, since they're the only ones who actually got out of limbo (supposedly). Therefore, what if killing yourself in limbo brought you to a different layer of limbo? ALSO, you have to remember that they were in dreams within dreams when they got into limbo in the first place, how do you know it's not different for them if they didn't get brought there by dying? Since no one can fully explain limbo and its rules, I still say that the dream theory is viable.

"Therefore, what if killing yourself in limbo brought you to a different layer of limbo?"
Therefore? WTF it was already explained how killing yourself got me out of limbo. Unless the deeper layer of limbo was EXACTLY how life was before they went into a dream it's impossible since they already did get out of limbo. It's not supposed at all, they DID get out of limbo.

"ALSO, you have to remember that they were in dreams within dreams when they got into limbo in the first place, how do you know it's not different for them if they didn't get brought there by dying?"

Again the first time they got out they were already two dreams deep at least if memory serves so it was really just a repeat of the first time he got out

[jdawg]

MIND BLOWN

I need to see this again

[NYRangers360]

There are too many "if this was exactly right" and "maybe if something was exactly something else" statements and factors going on here for the entire movie being a dream to be plausible. It's possible in the way that the earth possibly being sucked into a black hole IF the solar wind was exactly right at the same time as the Perseids and IF a stray meteor HAPPENED to make it through the atmosphere and alter the gravity in EXACTLY the right way by passing over a specific city in Delaware and - no, it's not going to happen.

[warhol]

There are too many "if this was exactly right" and "maybe if something was exactly something else" statements and factors going on here for the entire movie being a dream to be plausible. It's possible in the way that the earth possibly being sucked into a black hole IF the solar wind was exactly right at the same time as the Perseids and IF a stray meteor HAPPENED to make it through the atmosphere and alter the gravity in EXACTLY the right way by passing over a specific city in Delaware and - no, it's not going to happen.

You forget that people win the lottery in movies. And spiderman exists.

[NYRangers360]

You forget that people win the lottery in movies. And spiderman exists.

I did see Spiderman run down the beach in Maryland TWICE this year...

But the point is, using astronomically small odds as a plot device isn't something Nolan would do.

[OzzyOzrock]

What I never could understand was when the woke up in the plane. Why did they wake up underwater in the car? That was the first dream part, no? Wouldn't it wake them up fully?

Bah, I need to re-watch it.

[vedicardi]

1. u dum
2. use spoilers

waking up in the car was the last kick but they only needed kicks within the dreams, the sedative just wore off over time which is what ultimately woke them up. a kick WITHIN a dream will only get you out of the previous dream. it'd take a kick within the plane to wake them up

[anthman852]

LOL

[vedicardi]

well that backfired

for the record I put and s at the end of my spoiler ("[spoilers]") tags thus making them not work and making me look like an idiot

[NYRangers360]

What I never could understand was when the woke up in the plane. Why did they wake up underwater in the car? That was the first dream part, no? Wouldn't it wake them up fully?

Bah, I need to re-watch it.

Actually, the reason Saito and Cobb never woke up in the van is because they were still in Limbo. When Saito shot himself and Cobb, they died in limbo and it brought them directly back to reality, just like when Cobb and Mal did the same thing with the train.