Christopher Nolan Finally Reveals Fans Have Been Looking at Inception Ending the Wrong Way Since 13 Years
Inception is renowned for being a landmark film in the genre of mind-bending flicks. Christopher Nolan’s knack for making critically acclaimed complex projects made the 2010 movie one of the most memorable films. Besides the complex storytelling, the Leonardo DiCaprio movie’s ending is also one of the most-discussed topics to date. As per the recent statements by the director, the ending of the movie is quite different from what the fans think.
Movies like Inception, Interstellar, Memento, Following, and Tenet established Christopher Nolan as a master weaver of complex stories. Inception starring an ensemble cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, and many others focuses on an extremely complicated topic of dreams and has continued to fascinate viewers over the years.
Christopher Nolan explains the ending of Inception
The Inception follows the character of Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio who is a professional thief who steals information from people’s dreams. As weird as it sounds, ardent movie lovers know how the blockbuster turned out to be a pop culture phenomenon over the years. The plot followed Cobb pulling off a grand dream heist with a team to make his name clear off all records and live a peaceful life with his family.
The team members were played by many prominent actors such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dileep Rao, Tom Hardy, and Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page). After completing the multi-layered heist and clearing out his name from the wanted list, the character of DiCaprio was shown to have a happy moment with his children at the end. But the ambiguity persisted as the director kept it a mystery if they were still in a dream or reality. Christopher Nolan didn’t directly reveal if it was a dream or reality but commented that it isn’t even important for the character.
“I mean, the end of Inception, it’s exactly that. There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.”
After the arduous journey that Dom Cobb had throughout Inception to return to his family, nothing was important to him anymore other than his newfound peace. As the screen cuts to black with the Totem spinning without Cobb’s notice is indicative of the fact that he moved on from everything and he found the conclusion of his journey.
Adding to his statement, Christopher Nolan also stated that there’s an interesting relationship between the ending of Inception and his upcoming Oppenheimer.
Will Oppenheimer also have a complex ending?
From Christopher Nolan’s statement to WIRED, it seems that we might get another complex Nolan story in the form of Oppenheimer. The biographical thriller is centered on the Father of the Atomic Bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer who will be played by Cillian Murphy. The plot will focus on the Manhattan Project and consists of an ensemble cast of Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, and several others alongside Murphy. As per Nolan, the ending of the upcoming movie is complicated and has some “complicated feelings”.
“It’s funny, I think there is an interesting relationship between the endings of Inception and Oppenheimer to be explored. Oppenheimer’s got a complicated ending. Complicated feelings.”
The Insomnia director also added that the movie has an intense theme and some audiences were left devastated after watching the early screenings. It is also to be noted that this will be the only movie along with Insomnia to get an R-rating. Christopher Nolan also added that another filmmaker even felt it was a horror movie. Now it will be seen if the movie can match the anticipation and if the ending can match the same status as Inception.
Oppenheimer will hit the theaters on July 21, 2023, while Inception can be rented on Apple TV+.
Source: WIRED
