Obviously, if you haven’t seen the film or if you have your own satisfactory theory for the end of “Inception” don’t read this story, because Michael Caine is putting an end to speculation about the end of the film.
Talking on BBC Radio’s The Chris Moyles Show (via ScreenRant) Michael Caine decided to drop some truth bombs about Christopher Nolan’s playfully open ended conclusion to his dream world blockbuster “Inception.” Caine says, “[The spinning top] drops at the end, that’s when I come back on. If I’m there it’s real, because I’m never in the dream. I’m the guy who invented the dream.”
Is your mind blown yet? Truthfully, this is pretty much what we figured (frankly, we would’ve preferred a darker ending) and confirms what costume designer Jeffrey Kurland said about the ending back in August.
are you retarded? how does one supporting actor's thoughts on the ending "put an end" to the discussion? it's one wholly unimportant opinion and you're treating it like Nolan himself said this. Caine's interpretation doesn't even make any sense. it reads like he said it when he was drunk.
you should really consider rewording this article because you sound idiotic treating this as anything but an unimportant comment from one of the players in the film that has absolutely no significance in the greater picture of "reading" the movie.
SRSLY????? I was so sure that he was dreaming, that he was stuck in limbo; the spin didn't drop in the cut of the film I saw in the theater, it was still spinning! WTF, this is a disappointment! The darker ending was way better :/
Just because he's a supporting actor doesn't mean he's going into the film dark. Nolan and the cast and crew probably talked exhaustively about the movie. Also, check the link re: costume designer Jeffrey Kurland. It's real. Get over it.
"I was so sure that he was dreaming, that he was stuck in limbo; the spin didn't drop in the cut of the film I saw in the theater, it was still spinning!"
You'd have to be an idiot to think that he was still dreaming. Anyone who followed the film even half paying attention could tell that the ending took place in the real world.
sk is kind of an idiot but also kind of right. Caine may have some insight into Nolan's intentions but the fact is that what Nolan released into the world was intentionally ambiguous. It's not some puzzle to be solved. Nolan's theory, at this point, is equally as valid as anybody else's, and that's a direct result of how he constructed the film. All theories can be backed up, each with as many plot holes as the next. There is no end-all, be-all.
Richard Kelly revealed his moronic intentions behind Donnie Darko, but because he created a deliberately open-ended film, I can still enjoy it for what I saw in it.
I'm all for auteur theory but Jesus people, have some respect for yourselves.
pzadvance has it about right. Ridley Scott thinks Deckard is a replicant in Blade Runner, Harrison Ford doesn't. It's one of the joys of a film like this — there's no such thing as a correct interpretation.
Totally true. The auteur theory ends at some point. I interpret the film the way i want to interpret the film however I AM disappointed if Nolan did intend for it to be a happy ending.
i truly won't believe it was anything other than a tragedy until it comes from his mouth, but there's at least two pieces of evidence to the contrary already.
What's more than likely: Nolan intended it to be open ended and did in fact want you to interpret it the way you want to interpret it.
But even that's slightly ruined by people like Caine and the production designer.
Well, if two very important members of the team who made this came out and said that it was all a dream would you dismiss it too? People will believe what they wanna believe. But fact is, the truth of the ending has very obviously been revealed. It's not as if the caterers said this.
Yes, John, but you can't judge it on intention, you can only judge on the text itself. M. Night Shyamalan intended The Happening to be scary, everyone else takes it as a comedy. The finished product is what's important.
Nolan cuts the spinning top where he does for a reason – to keep it ambiguous, and to makes sure that this kind of debate rages on three months from the film's release. And it means that those who find it a tragedy can be correct, and those who think it's got a happy ending.
Even if the script ended with with the line "And Cobb woke up: it had all been a dream," if it ain't in the released version, it's irrelevant.
"New Critics argued that that information or speculation about an author's intention was secondary to the words on the page as the basis of the experience of reading literature."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_fallacy
Actually, when we were drunk, Sir Caine and I started debating the merits of his 80's era choices and we somehow dovetailed into a semantics discussion about cloning dinosaurs during our third pitcher of Sangria, and he laughed and said, "Oy, mate, 'Jaws: The Revenge' is anti-cloning! Have I spoilt it for you?" "Educating Rita" indeed.
I think Nolan concluded Inception in such a way that people would feel free to impose their own final judgements. Whatever anyone feels, one way or the other, is an equally valid interpretation. With Inception's elegant closing scene, Nolan is revealed as a virtuoso filmmaker, at the top of his game.
I thought of the ending as just being sort of humorous. In my mind, the top probably does stop, but cutting to black was just being difficult to play with the audience. The audience I saw it with seemed to really enjoy that. There was this kind of collective "ohhhh mannn…" but it was in like a "okay, well played Nolan" kind of tone.
Totally appreciate your thoughts on the film, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the "happy" ending if that's what it really was. I would actually be really disappointed if it was a tragic ending. I feel like a tragic ending would have been almost too typical. But, as always, I enjoy your commentary.
One key fact that seems missing is the fact that Caine was a cast member in the film. He didn't watch the movie as a member of the audience and come to his own interpretation. He was there and therefore his view on the ending is a lot more accurate than an interpretation by someone who wants the films to have a dark ending.
Interpretation and facts are often not the same. It reminds me of the critics who found the audio in McCabe and Mrs Miller to be deliberately unclear as some kind of auteur touch by Robert Altman. When in fact the audio was unclear because Altman had a bad soundman.
At times interpretation is meaningless. With regards to Inception the top actually begins to wobble in a way that it never did in other scenes. But, yes, the fact that it cuts to the credits at that point does leave it sort of open. However, I'm siding with Caine and Kurland for obvious reasons.
Why is it soooo much better if the film has a dark ending? The whole film was dark! I'm pretty sure the film was meant to end with him waking from the dream world. SORRY that's so incredibly dissapointing, but it's especially obvious that he's awake since his children have grown older and are played by older actors in the end. And on top of that, why would anyone believe anything Michael Caine said was unimportant. EVERYTHING Michael Caine says is important, that's why he's Michael Caine…