For such a widely-circulated, celebrated film theory, this particular Inception theory really does miss the point of the entire movie. The theory states that Cobb's totem isn't the spinning top, but is actually his wedding ring. Forget the fact that the spinning top is completely consistent with everything we know about totems that's all clearly Nolan's clever misdirection. You see, in every scene in which Cobb's hand is visible in the dream world, his wedding ring is clearly visible. But at the end, during the ambiguous scene with the spinning totem, it's not there so it's not a dream, right? It would be a fairly convincing theory if it didn't completely disregard what the film is actually about. Which is primarily two things: Cobb's attempt to get over his dead wife and his desire to be reunited with his children. The whole reason Cobb accepts the job from Ken Watanabe is in order to clear his name of murder so he can go back to his kids. Cobb is actually wearing his wedding ring in the dream sequences because that's where his wife Mal still looms large. In the dream, she's not dead, so they're still married. The ring not being there at the very end doesn't prove it's reality; it follows the dream scene in which Cobb chooses to let go of Mal, so regardless of dream or not, the ring would be gone. The most important thing, however, is that the reality of the ending doesn't even matter. We don't see whether or not the totem falls because Cobb is reunited with his kids regardless. That's all he ever wanted, that's all that matters and that's the narrative victory. Which other film theories totally miss the point? Share any more down in the comments.
