12 More Movies You Didn't Realise Stupidly Broke Their Own Rules

8. Arthur Should Wake Up - Inception

The Rule:

The only way to get out of a dream - other than dying - is to experience a kick that jolts the dreamer out of sleep. These can be being dunked in water or falling, and in the final multi-layered dream a kick has to wake the sleepers up for them to get back "up" a level.

The Breaker:

Despite how important the logic of inception is, Christopher Nolan missed a detail.

In the first dream level, when the van driven by Yusuf goes off the edge of the bridge, strictly speaking, Arthur should wake up. He's the dreamer in the second level, and is experiencing a kick in the first level, meaning he should wake up. He doesn't need the same synchronised kicks the others need, because he didn't go deeper.

Somehow though, he doesn't wake up until the others do, which is just sloppy.