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Last Friday, Michael Caine introduced Inception, being shown at the Film4 Summer Screen event at Somerset House. He gave some interesting insights into the ending of the film that may make it a tad easier to understand!
Inception is one of those films you hear about a lot. It is constantly being described as a ‘masterpiece’ or just out-right ‘confusing’. Furthermore, a film that has a lot of scenes that are dreams within dreams, is going to get a little muddled in the eyes of the watcher.
Is the ending a dream or reality?
However, Caine has sorted it out a little for us. At least we hope. In his intro to the film, he said: “When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it, and I said to him [dir. Christopher Nolan], ‘I don’t understand where the dream is. I said, ‘When is it the dream and when is it reality?’ He said, ‘Well when you’re in the scene it’s reality.’ So, get that — if I’m in it, it’s reality. If I’m not in it, it’s a dream.”
"If I'm in it, it's reality. If I'm not, it's a dream. And it's been a dream for me." @themichaelcaine demystifies Inception for 2000 #Film4SummerScreen audience members, tonight at @SomersetHouse. pic.twitter.com/gFtVgegHB8
— Film4 (@Film4) August 10, 2018
Now, Nolan could have been saying this to Caine, so it was easier for him to play the role. The actors need to attempt to understand what their roles in a film are to play them. We love Michael’s honesty of how he too found the movie enticingly confusing.
Leo DiCaprio’s character uses a spinning top to distinguish if he is in the real world or in a dream. He begins to spin it after Caine’s character accompanies him from the airport to his house with his family. If what Nolan said to Caine is correct, then we should believe that the emotional scene reuniting Cobb with his family is real. However, the spinning top keeps spinning, suggesting it is a dream. Therefore, it is unclear, although it does give a little wobble right as it cuts to the end credits, providing the audience with a little bit of hope.
