10 Sci-Fi Fan Theories That Make The Films Better

Now this one is legitimate enough in terms of onscreen evidence that we’re sort of surprised Dark Knight helmer Christopher Nolan never added in an explicit mention of it onscreen, but then, this infamous flick wouldn’t be the same mindf*** if he did, would it?

Throughout the film we follow Leonard DiCaprio’s tortured inception expert, haunted by the death of his wife as he assembles a crack team to infiltrate the dreams of an energy magnate’s son unbeknownst to said offspring. When our hero uses a spinning top as an example of a “totem”, he’s explaining that each member of his team needs to bring such an item in order to check whether they’re in reality or a dream at any given time. So naturally we presume the top is his totem, and when he sets it spinning at the end of the film, we have no way of knowing whether he is in reality or not as we never see it fall.

Right?

Sure—unless he was just using the top as an example, and the protagonist’s actual totem is his wedding ring, which only ever appears when he’s in a dream world and vanishes back in reality.