10 Awesome Fan Theories That Improve Already Great Films

2. Cobb's Totem Is Actually His Wedding Ring - Inception

The Theory: There's countless theories out there where certain parts of the story were all just a dream, but here's a brilliant one that points the other way. With its multiple dream levels all having the same naturalistic feel there was ripe opportunity for Christopher Nolan to pull a last minutes twist to his immensely complex heist movie. Instead he played the old ambiguity card, leaving it seemingly up in the air if Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb was awake or not at the the end. There is a potential solution out there, however; he's awake. You see, the iconic spinning top isn't actually Cobb's totem (an object that tells him whether he's dreaming or not). As Arthur says early on it was Mal's; Cobb's is his wedding ring, which only appears in dreams and is clearly absent in the final sequence. How It Improves The Film: It doesn't really matter too much if Cobb's awake or not at the end; as the film's been building to for the past two and a half hours it's what he chooses as reality that's important. But it does act as a great symbol of Cobb's mental state; he's still unable to move on from his dead wife, not even recognising what his totem really is.