12 Movies That Tricked You Into Thinking They Had Happy Endings
7. Inception - Cobb Just Destroyed A Business Empire With No Moral Motivation
The Allegedly Happy Ending: After the longest spell of dreams not involving sex ever, Leonardo DiCaprio makes it home to his estranged kids. Unable to see them after his crazy wife did crazy stuff, One Last Job (registered trademark) allows him to wipe his criminal history clean and live happily ever after.
Maybe; after melting out minds with the films multiple dream levels, the ending teases that this world hes in may not actually be reality. But it doesnt matter that much; Leos happy.
The Depressing Truth: There's actually a much more ambiguous element of Inception's ending that no one ever comments on. What was that one last job that allowed Cobb to swing away a murder charge? The motivations are brushed over, but essential C.E.O. Saito wants his rival Fischer to be tricked into disbanding his business empire. And given Saito is a man with no qualms about killing, it doesn't seem like he's the most moral guy.
Still, without a thought the team, through a series of shared dreams, completely mind-fudge a neglected young man, destroying his one positive relationship and convincing him to throw away his fortune, they could actually be doing something with utterly irreversible damage on the world. But ooh, look at the top spin.