Inception

The greatest thing about this movie, is when you take away all the spectacular things, all of the action and flash, there is the core of it all...what is the most important thing in the entire world? Your family.

Spoiler:

sometimes the characters could kill themselves/die and wake up in the next level, and sometimes it was said that they could not die or they end up in limbo. Does this have something to do with weakening sedation, or what level they were on, or what? I was also confused about the timing. They were not in the first level for a week, or the last level for ten years, but when they woke on the flight it seemed to be the end of the ten hour flight. How could this be? Shouldn't they have woken up much earlier, since their plans were spoiled and they had to move quicker?

Spoiler:

The reason they could not die sometimes and die sometimes is because as they proceeded father into the mind, they had other realities to fall back on. However, the very first was the end of the line. Dying there would send them back on the plane where they would still be under heavy sedition which would have left them in limbo. But if they die in say the snow fortress they would be moved down to the hotel dream. The reason one of the characters would be left in limbo is because he was shot and wounded in the first dream. Hence when he died then he would in all the others and since it was the first dream and still under sedation he would be left in limbo.

As to the time weirdness. They were not shooting for 10 hours, they wanted that time however just in case they were unable complete the mission in the time that they wanted. The last two characters could have been in limbo for those whole 10 hours, while their partners were out quite a while ago. They do not look like they just woke up after all.

Spoiler:

When Mal killed Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) on the snow level Fischer went to Limbo. The only way to get from the snow level to the elevator and then to the van was with a kick.

The way I understood it was that it all depended on the sedative they used.

In the beginning they only went two levels deep, so they could either wake up by dying or with a kick. Later on the chemist guy developed a more powerful sedative that allowed them to go three layers deep without waking up. The set back was that you could only prematurely wake up with a kick. If you die you go to limbo.

As for when they woke up on the plane, no one received a kick from the first layer (with the van). They all woke up normally. The way you can tell was because the stewardess had already removed the sedative machine.

Spoiler:

Why was the architect allowed to kill herself on the fourth level? This only makes sense if squall's description of dying in the fourth level bringing her back to the third was valid.

Spoiler:

Ariadne didn't kill her self in the fourth layer. She pushed Fischer off the ledge and then jumped, which gave the two of them the kick back to the third layer.

Spoiler:

In the last moments of the film, was Dicaprio in a dream or not? I actually was actually thinking he wasn't because the turning thing looked like it was about to fall... but hey, maybe it was my eye playing a trick on me...

Spoiler:

I don't know.

I left feeling as though it was just a dream...but then was forcing myself to believe that it wasn't. For his children's sake.

The open end could be interpreted as just that, an open ending...or was it? Was that extended period of unended spinning, with the lack of info of how he got back, supposed to represent that he was in a dream? I mean, no matter how long the director let that scene go, when it ended wouldn't we wonder if it would have toppled just a moment later?

Spoiler:

I think it is left to the will of the viewer. I have to say though, I hate not having closure.

It reminds of the book, The Giver. Ended the same as Inception, really screws you over, I find.

So I guess, as a viewer seeing an open ending, I have just decided to see it as not a dream, the twirdle was to topple and that it was real.

The thing is with that movie is that you never know what is a dream or not... kind of like Shutter Island...