How the trick ending to Inception was tricking you into thinking it was a trick ending

[grey_bard]

Tonight I finally got over my dislike of Leonardo DiCaprio and Leonardo DiCaprio doing angst enough to go see Inception. I liked it a great deal, but that doesn't change the fact that the trick ending is not as confounding and clever as it looks on the surface.

Allow me to present my explanation in the form of an infographic, since those seem to be so popular with Inception fans.

SPOILERS LIKE WHOA

The possibly eternally spinning top (which only spins eternally in dreams) at the end seems to hint that OH MY GOD NONE OF IT WAS REAL and/or HE IS STILL TRAPPED IN DREAMS OMG! So edgy! So dark! Hah. No.

Let's take this apart logically, shall we?

The Top is A Lie - A Cranky Inception Infographic

 

As far as I can figure it out, either Nolan came up with a visually awesome trick ending, the writing undercut it,  but he decided he didn't care, or, actually, he liked the happy ending but wanted an ending that people would talk about that wouldn't genuinely undercut that Cobb wakes up. The possibility that he just didn't bother to think it out all the way is possible, but seems unlikely, given how smart the movie was and the fact that he spent months working on this.

Therefore the implied horror/ Twilight Zone "Or is it?!?!" of the top is a lie.

Not that I mind everyone getting the happy ending of waking up.