Surely this movie is another brilliant piece by Christopher Nolan. You can take it in so many different directions and really enjoy each one as a separate experience.
In this article, I will explain what I personally took away from the movie, how I reached my conclusions, and hopefully find out if anyone out there shared this "dream" as well.

CAUTION! If you have not seen the movie, this may influence your experience.

• Does the spinning top fall at the end? In other words, are we still dreaming?
• Does the millionaire, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), actually dissolve his fathers company?
• Is Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) still dreaming?
• Was Leonardo in limbo the whole time?
• Was it actually some other characters dream? Whose?

To skip the build-up and reveal my answers and the Moral of the Story click here..

The movie is a paradox maze embedded in a multi-level dream...dreams within dreams.

An expert Extractor is hired to execute corporate espionage by stealing and planting ideas through multi-level dreams and shared dreaming technology, a concept called Inception. The deal is, that if the Extractor is successful in his mission, he will be rewarded with a way back to his home and family.

Leonardo's Role:

An Extractor who can perform Inception.

Leonardo's Solution to the Mission:

By digging deeper into his own sub-conscious he finds the exact combination to solving his own issues. Piece by piece, dream by dream, he saves Saito (Ken Watanabe) from Limbo, "Incepts" the idea in the millionaires mind, while letting the memory of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), free, and winning his ticket back home.

Below I will list the motifs and then further elaborate on the interpretation of each one:

• The Projections
• The Forger's Multiple Identities
• Dreams Objective: The Solution to each dream maze
• The Kick
• The Totem
• The Secret Combination
• The Safes
• The Kick Music
• The Stairs - Penrose_stairs
• Water, drowning, sand castles, and beach
• The Train
• Repeated Phrases: Leap of faith, dying old man

The Projections:

Totems:

• The Spinning Top
• The Dice
• The Casino Chips
• The Pawn

The Forgers Multiple Identities:

• The godfather, Peter Browning (Tom Berenger)
• The blond at the bar
• The millionnaire father
• Leonardo's father

The Safes / The Secret Combination:

A combination, as in the moral of the story, represents the exact steps necessary to complete the mission and achieve success, for if even one digit in the combination is wrong, you have to start entering it all over again.

• Saito's safe
• The wife's safe
• The millionaire's safe

Leap of Faith:

This emphasized statement is an important reference to hope, courage, and timing.

Hints, Clues, and Repeating Motifs:

The key to identifying the clues is telling the difference between the dreamers projection, planted projections, actual characters, memories and dreams within the multi-level dream mazes. The difficulty obviously being the fact that the whole movie is one big, complicated multi-level dream maze.

Clues:

• The Forger defines the strategy, "start with the relationship of the father" - Both the millionaire and Leonardo have complicated relationships with their father.
• In the elevator Leonardo says: "I need to change one thing..."
• Saito does not have a Totem - This explains why he continues to live in limbo in which he ages up until Leonardo is able to convince him to come back to reality and wake up.

Dream Levels:

Whose dream is it and how do they solve the maze to escape...

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