this doesn't mean what you think it means
This doesn't mean what you think it means:
I know there's been a lot of speculation based around this cap, and the fact that there were two sets of kids used in the movie, but I don't think it means what everyone else thinks it means. This is just my take, obviously, but:
There's a scene in the movie (when Cobb is explaining to Ariande how Mal died, in the first layer of the dream after Saito gets shot) where you see, for a brief moment, Cobb and Mal fighting over whether or not their lives are real. Mal's screaming that those kids aren't her kids, and you see him dragging kids away from her. He's carrying the little boy, and he's got the little girl by the arm. Now, I'm not 100% sure, because I've only seen the movie twice, but I think that those kids are the younger set of kids listed. They'd have to be younger than the kids that he keeps seeing everywhere, because the memory that most bothers him is from after Mal is already dead. The kids he sees at the very end are the exact kids from his memory. They're not any older.
Also, in the scene early on in the movie when he calls home, the kids that he talks to are clearly older than the kids in his memories. I know there's no other set of kids listed on IMDB, but the voices on the phone (especially that of the little girl) are much, much older than 5.
I'm not using this as a way of trying to persuade people that the last scene is all a dream. I'm not going to compile facts or try to refute arguments. There's a lot of speculation and a lot of evidence on both sides to say "yes, it's a dream" or "no, it's reality." There's the kids and their clothes, the top and the wedding ring, and it's very, very open to interpretation.
But here's the thing I've taken away from the ending more than anything else: it doesn't matter whether it's a dream or not. In the end, Cobb walks away from his totem: he doesn't really care. He's got his family back, and that's the closure that he needed, even if it's technically false. Plot-wise, there's no purpose for the scene in Mumbai in Yusuf's basement with all the dreamers other than to illustrate this point: for some people, the dream is reality. For them, the dream is the real world. "And who are you to say otherwise?" There's a reason, when Mal and Cobb face off for the last time in Limbo, that she says, "You don't believe in one reality any more. So choose to stay here with me."
Nolan's not an idiot. Even if you don't like him, you have to give him credit enough that he knew what he was doing with the last scene. There's not supposed to be an answer as to whether it's reality or not. There's going to be concrete evidence on both sides, because that's the point: it doesn't matter whether it's a dream or whether it's reality. It's whatever you want & need it to be. For Cobb, it's everything he's wanted for the last however many years, and his salvation/redemption is more important than whether or not it's "real".
I know there's been a lot of speculation based around this cap, and the fact that there were two sets of kids used in the movie, but I don't think it means what everyone else thinks it means. This is just my take, obviously, but:
There's a scene in the movie (when Cobb is explaining to Ariande how Mal died, in the first layer of the dream after Saito gets shot) where you see, for a brief moment, Cobb and Mal fighting over whether or not their lives are real. Mal's screaming that those kids aren't her kids, and you see him dragging kids away from her. He's carrying the little boy, and he's got the little girl by the arm. Now, I'm not 100% sure, because I've only seen the movie twice, but I think that those kids are the younger set of kids listed. They'd have to be younger than the kids that he keeps seeing everywhere, because the memory that most bothers him is from after Mal is already dead. The kids he sees at the very end are the exact kids from his memory. They're not any older.
Also, in the scene early on in the movie when he calls home, the kids that he talks to are clearly older than the kids in his memories. I know there's no other set of kids listed on IMDB, but the voices on the phone (especially that of the little girl) are much, much older than 5.
I'm not using this as a way of trying to persuade people that the last scene is all a dream. I'm not going to compile facts or try to refute arguments. There's a lot of speculation and a lot of evidence on both sides to say "yes, it's a dream" or "no, it's reality." There's the kids and their clothes, the top and the wedding ring, and it's very, very open to interpretation.
But here's the thing I've taken away from the ending more than anything else: it doesn't matter whether it's a dream or not. In the end, Cobb walks away from his totem: he doesn't really care. He's got his family back, and that's the closure that he needed, even if it's technically false. Plot-wise, there's no purpose for the scene in Mumbai in Yusuf's basement with all the dreamers other than to illustrate this point: for some people, the dream is reality. For them, the dream is the real world. "And who are you to say otherwise?" There's a reason, when Mal and Cobb face off for the last time in Limbo, that she says, "You don't believe in one reality any more. So choose to stay here with me."
Nolan's not an idiot. Even if you don't like him, you have to give him credit enough that he knew what he was doing with the last scene. There's not supposed to be an answer as to whether it's reality or not. There's going to be concrete evidence on both sides, because that's the point: it doesn't matter whether it's a dream or whether it's reality. It's whatever you want & need it to be. For Cobb, it's everything he's wanted for the last however many years, and his salvation/redemption is more important than whether or not it's "real".