[Movie] Inception - Page 32

My theory is that Saito tricked Cobb into Limbo with him. He may have planned to get shot all along. Saito was double-crossing Cobb all along.

In the scene, where old Saito picks up the gun, you never see him fire. You are instantly shown to a scene where Cobb wakes up, which tries to imply at first thought and glance that Cobb was shot and woken up. But how about you think about the alternative? That Saito shoots himself first, hence world collapses and Cobb is trapped alone in limbo.

At this point, two possible outcomes can occur : The collapse of the world shocks Cobb into creating his own happy ending or Saito himself planted his own inception into combs mind having reached the root of consciousness, limbo. The latter is more likely because Saito has shown that he has greater knowledge of the art of extraction than other people of his like would know. This may be the true reason why he chose to tag along personally.

The main reason that lead me to believe Saito was behind the whole ending, was the crucial scene where having woken from heavy sedation, Cobb was furiously washing his face and spinning his totem to perform a reality check. Then Saito walks in to the bathroom unexpectedly, and Cobb's totem, the metal top ,drops off the sink and and is in plain sight of Saito's view. Cobb hurriedly picks up and puts it back into his pocket.

From a normal person's point of view, the top may not have meant much, probably would only result in either confusion or curiosity of such a trinket. However, Saito seems quite knowledgeable of how extractors work and probably recognized the top for what it was to Cobb. Remember, a person's totem is extremely important and should be kept only to one's self. This is because the totem acts like an anchor to reality as the totem's properties are known only to that particular person. Hence, no one else can accurately define/manipulate how that object reacts in the dream. So, if the properties of the totem is displaying seems off, then that person knows that they are still inside a dream.

With knowledge of Cobb's totem in hand, Saito can simply implant a false totem to mask the fact that Cobb is in a dream. I believe this is what happened, as I believe that was the whole purpose of that scene where Saito barges in on Cobb in the bathroom.

What does that entail for Cobb and the team then in real life, one may wonder? If one were to recall, Saito had the entire section of that plane under his control, if not of the whole plane itself. I would conclude that the whole team were to be imprisoned or killed. (Except for Fischer of course).

That final scene in the movie, may have been the final moments of Cobb's life or could have continued to completion of his dream lifetime through a coma state in the real world.