Inception observances

I finally ordered Inception from Amazon and they gave me a free VOD rental and since I had President's Day off I decided to give it a 2nd and 3rd watch-through.

Okay so, at the end is Cobb still dreaming or not?

First we'll assume that he's not dreaming, then essentially the movie was simplistic and happened exactly as it appeared. He wanted to see his children, succeeded with Fischer and Saito, and the top falls after the credits.

Very clear cut, plenty of evidence to support it. The movie, as most view it, is compelling enough to prove it's point...it is after all a love story about Cobb, Mal, and their children.

Now we'll assume that he is dreaming by the movie's end, and that the top continues to spin. Of course we can never know this, but neither will Cobb because for this one time he was not looking at the totem. This is our last indication that it could be a dream, all the other times when Cobb emerged from dreams and thought he was in reality he would sweat and frantically check the top(even sweating and bathing in a sink once). Now when he's finally out, he spins the top and looks away indicating that he no longer cares. This shows not that it's a dream, but rather that he no longer cares about whether or not it's a dream and he only wants to be home. So where could such an idea come from?

In the dream Mal preached to him that he had the power to do this, in limbo she said that they could be together forever and tried to show him the children but he refused then. So what changed? Ellen Page's Ariadne character could very well have been a member of an Inception team(or Saito too) which may have been what Mal was implying. Mal mentioned how Cobb appeared to be chased throughout the world by corporations, the cause being his failure in the beginning of the film.

So let's evaluate the chasing. We see what Cobb perceives as the real world(not including the ending) a number of times in the film. Most of those times they're secluded in a warehouse, a school, or the first class section of an airplane. When we do see them outside Cobb is being chased by a team of guys who could be 1) working for Cobalt 2) his subconscious security 3)a team of extractors. Unless I am mistaken there is no other time when this occurs as the train, plane, and car scenes are far too limited. So when Cobb is evading the men none of the other "filler" people really pay him any attention, especially with the people standing outside of the bar where Cobb tries to order something and avoid detection. Likewise, no one seems to pay Eames any attention in the bar and when Saito comes along there's no time to tell.

So based on this, we cannot assume that Cobb is dreaming at the ending unless 1) Cobb is stuck in limbo and has fabricated the entire movie(which we can't evaluate anyway because there's no exterior reference point) 2) The movie happens as described up until the lead into the limbo scene with Ariadne.

The limbo lead in:

Ariadne is featured rather prominently in the movie and she convinces Cobb to allow her to come on the mission and then mentions to him, and he then convinces himself, that they have to go save Fischer and Saito. If she were somehow able to project Mal unto Cobb or Mal were alive and sharing a dream with them then the explanation that Ariadne was there to bring Cobb out of his dreamlike state would make sense...but that does not appear to be the case either.

The evidence for the ending being reality is concreted by the lack of evidence of it being a dream, by criteria defined by movie itself. Keep in mind though that Cobb is not a reliable narrator, and as such makes everything suspect. The idea of a totem is ridiculous, that you can define something from the real world that will hold true in the dream realm(and for all members of the shared dream) is ridiculous...especially since he uses Mal's totem. What if he only thinks he succeeded with Inception on her? What if she beat him out of the dream and he was stuck in limbo the entire time and then constructed the rest of the movie? The idea of the totem is not as important as the determination of viewing it, as it determines the state of the mind and that's what the entire movie is about. So if Cobb doesn't care by the end, then what does it mean and more importantly where would he get the idea? From himself, from limbo, from Ariadne...which is really the only theory with enough credible evidence to support the ending being a dream, but it still doesn't make enough sense so he's got to be awake.

Thoughts?

Edit: When I was going to bed last night I remember one final thing. When Cobb goes to recruit Eames, Eames says that Arthur needs more imagination but they both agree that he is the best. Why does Arthur fail to notice the dream security, to notice that Fischer had extraction training? If we're told that a character is the best, and we were about 3 times, then how do they make such a disastrous mistake? Sure the plot dictates it because otherwise the ending would have been too easy, but for plots' sake we have to assume that Arthur got it wrong either 1) on purpose or 2) because they weren't in Fischer, they were in someone else...Cobb perhaps. That could be the single biggest clue in the entire movie about whether or not it the ending is a dream or not(that not it really matters to Cobb).

2nd Edit: Now a lot of people have probably noticed that there are Inception music comparisons on Youtube(like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM). Now if someone were able to watch the movie and find that there was an underlying soundtrack for the entire film and that the BRAAAAAMs lined up with the musical timings then that would be the best definitive proof(short of Nolan himself saying, sure he's voiced what he thinks happened as a viewer but never as a writer/director).