False Start?

7. "He was delirious, but he asked for you by name. He was only carrying this."

 










Not surprisingly, what happens at the beginning is as significant as the ending. Cobb washes up in Saito's limbo, delirious. But the crucial thing we see first??? Cobb's children. In the same position. Cobb bows his head down as if he has remembered something. Remember that they are his point of reality. He is realizing he is not in reality (because they still run away from him). He is remembering his goal, to see their faces up above.

Cobb is taken to the aging Saito. (Saito has aged because he does not understand the difference between 5 minutes and 50 years in limbo, where as Cobb recognizes days can become years.) Saito slowly recognizes the two items, a gun and top. (Notice Cobb is wearing the wedding ring). He asks if Cobb is here to kill him, then spins the top. It continues to spin, perfectly. (QUICK HINT: The top is spun twice in limbo by two people who are not it's original owners!) Cobb looks up as Saito recites:

"I remember this. It belonged to man I met in a half-remembered dream. He was possessed of some... radical notions... Cobb..."

Both of these events (the top spinning and Saito talking) begin to jog the two's memories. Then, the greatest hint of ALL! A VOICE OVER!!! Cobb's voice carries directly over into the "beginning of the movie", where the two actually meet in the same room.

(Quick point, Saito's castle was apparently designed by Arthur (a brief hint made by Mal twice). Saito's mind populated it with Asian guards and guests. Yet, in limbo, Saito returns to the castle for an unspecified reason. His projections are much more militarized, and the room is empty and dark. Also remember this is the first time we've seen projections in "limbo", sans Mal.)

But what did this exchange mean? Why not start the movie with the young Saito? Why confuse us and put the scene back in at the end (shown without the children at the end, notice)?

Simple. The entire movie, whether or not it is a dream or not, is a flashback. Cobb is recovering his memories of how he met Saito and arrived at limbo. Whether or not those events are real or spun by his imagination, this is the clear answer to the main part of the movie.

And you thought it was easy to escape limbo?

(Another hint? Never does one person go into limbo alone. They always have a companion who seems to realize they are dreaming.)