Michael Caine ended the argument … or did he?
As reported by The Independent, during a Film 4 Summer Screen showing of Inception on August 10, Caine took to the stage to discuss the film, his relationship with director Christopher Nolan, and what Nolan told him about being able to differentiate between reality and dreams in the film.
“When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it and I said to him… ‘when is it the dream and when is it reality?’” said Caine. “[Nolan] said, ‘Well when you’re in the scene it’s reality.’ So get that: if I’m in it, it’s reality. If I’m not in it, it’s a dream.”
The primary scene of debate is the final sequence of the film, after protagonist Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is reunited with his children. He spins his totem on a table – in the rules of the film, if it spins on forever, he’s in a dream, and if it eventually falls, he’s in reality.
There have been many arguments for why the ending was a dream or reality. Some claimed that because the top appears to waver in the final shot of the film, that Cobb isn’t wearing his wedding ring, and that the audience can see his children’s faces, it was reality. Well, because his father-in-law, played by Michael Caine, was also in the scene, perhaps it can now be put to rest that it was, in fact, reality.
Nolan has always preferred that the ending remain somewhat vague and subjective, refusing to answer the question of if the ending is actually a dream or reality. Caine’s speech should be taken with a grain of salt. It is possible what he was told isn’t necessarily the full explanation. Still, his speech at the Film 4 screening was heartfelt, and he praised Nolan for what he has done for his career.
“I regard him as my lucky charm because when I got to an age of about 70 and the world started closing in on me, he came to me with one Batman Begins and he restarted my acting life,” said Caine.
“Because from then on when I thought you get to 70, 75, and you think it’s all over I then made seven of the best movies I was ever in.”
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