10 Sci-Fi Movie Mysteries That Can Never Be Solved

8. Inception

Blade Runner Deckard.jpg
Warner Bros.

Christopher Nolan back again to leave us perplexed and confused, this time involving the complicated dream logistics of 2010's sci-fi thriller Inception.

This high-concept film focuses on a group of detectives who construct elaborate dream scenarios and worlds to infiltrate people's minds.

As the plot thickens, the logic becomes even more complex to the point where we are questioning what is a dream and what is reality?

The final scene drops the biggest bombshell of all, and cuts to black before we get a definitive answer. We're presented with this idea of a "totem" in the film, something that signifies whether we are in the real world or not and we are led to believe that Cobb's (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) totem is the spinning top, which when he is in the "real world" stops spinning and topples over. The final scene leaves us with this lingering image and cuts before we see whether the top stops spinning or not.

Some fan theories have gone further into this and speculated that Cobb's wedding ring is actually his totem, but the film certainly doesn't help us out in resolving this one!

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I have been writing about film for almost 5 years, contributing to sites including WhatCulture, JumpCut Online, Cineworld, and Zavvi. I also host a couple of podcasts, JumpCast and Let's Jaws for a Minute. You can often find me on the internet evangelising about Disney or why Jaws is the greatest film ever made...