Film Inception

[Sparx]

Spoiler

Red herring tbh, Cobb's totem is a total red herring the whole way through as when they explain what it's for, they say "you can't touch it as it would defeat the point" totems go by feel. The totem is used to see if you're in someone elses dream, the idea being they wouldn't know what your totem feels like so you can tell if it's fake. A totem falling over can be faked, as can a totem endlessly spinning so it's useless in its function *unless* it has a very specific feel when he spins it. If that's the case, then whether it falls or not is irrelevent.

That said, he does hold the gun to his head until it falls, so it's possible that this was just a mistake by Nolan, something overlooked.

Spoiler

also that totem wasnt actually his, it was Mals. He just took it when she died

 

[Ch3tan]

Spoiler

And aren't we told that another person's totem only works for them - so by touching her totem in the first place, he's ruined it?

 

[Krazeh]

Spoiler

And aren't we told that another person's totem only works for them - so by touching her totem in the first place, he's ruined it?

Spoiler

The reason you can't let anyone else touch your totem is because they'd then know how it acts and it would therefore act correctly in any dream they create. This means it'd no longer be possible to use it to detect if you were in someone else's dream. Now in the case of Cobb's totem the only other person who knew how it acted was Mal and she's dead so he doesn't have to worry about being trapped in her dreams.

 

[Yaka]

Spoiler

what gets me was what micheal cain said in an interview, he says he is the guy who invented the dream.

 

[Jiggs]

Two points had lazy scriptwriting for me, I guess Nolan figured the audience would go with it, seems most have/did. Apart from the sci-fi novelties it is a completely standard Hollywood narrative. well acted, really enjoyable overall. Loved the pull-back shots.

The ending is just a reminder that it's the writer/director's vision or dream that you see on the screen.