10 Infuriating Movie Cliff-hangers You Didn't Realise Had Answers

Inception is arguably now the most famous ending that debates whether the final scene takes place within the walls of a dream or not, but it certainly wasn't the first. Coming almost two decades earlier was Total Recall, a movie and cliff-hanger that played with the audience's mind long before Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan.

The story of Total Recall sees Arnold Schwarzenegger's Quaid pay for fake memories of being a superspy and heading to Mars. Throughout the events of the movie however, it is at different points suggested both that he actually is a superspy, and conversely that he is within the dream he essentially paid for.

There is never a clear answer given, leading to debate among fans as to what actually happened. Unfortunately, there has been an answer given by the director, Paul Verhoeven, and it isn't straight forward. Neither school of thought is wholly right, as the ending was always intended to portray both possibilities as true.

Essentially, both realities exist parallel to each other in something akin to Schrödinger’s Cat. Whereas the famous feline was both alive and dead until the box was opened, Arnie's experience was both real and manufactured. This wasn't a case of one or the other, it was both.