Ground Rules and How They Are Broken

4. "So now you notice how much time Cobb spends doing things he says not to," says 
Arthur to Ariadne. The movie does well to establish some ground rules so we better understand the movie. So here they are:

A. The dream machine can take people into dreams, with or without sedatives.

B. Up to four (including Limbo) levels can be constucted.

C. Shared dreaming often requires several people: a Monitor (to remain with the machine); an Architect (to construct the level); a Dreamer (who controls the level); a  Subject (who populates the level); and the Mark (who is usually the target of the Deception or Inception).

 










D. Limbo is unconstructed dream space, shared by whoever is dreaming at the time.

E. Limbo can be reached by killing oneself when sedated, or simply "consciously" dreaming into it.

F. When not sedated, one can kill themselves, or another, to wake up into the next level.

G. When sedated, one requires a "kick", or falling sensation to wake up into the next level.

H. A dream level will affect the first level underneath it, potentially by gravity shifts, general shaking, or weightlessness.

I. Limbo can be escaped using a kick.

J. Projections attacks the dreamer once they sense someone messing within the subject's mind.

K. Projections can be trained and develop to ward off intruders.

L. An architect can construct a safe or bank vault, which the subject populates with information it wants to protect. Ariadne uses a hospital to insert Fischer's father into a dream.

Mal and Cobb's Limbo

The list goes on, but that's all you need to understand my next point.

Cobb and Saito never leave Limbo! Here's why.

Before Cobb washes up on Saito's beach, we see Ariadne and Fischer both undergo a series of four kicks up into Yusef's level. She throws herself off the building, thus waking up to fall in the snow level, then falling in the elevator, then waking in the van. Cobb and Saito never undergo this process! Meaning, when Saito reaches for the gun near the ending, he would have killed them, sending them underneath rubble from the snow hospital.

So what did happen? One could argue the sedative wore off and they woke up, but then there would be no need to be fearful of Limbo! Since Limbo traps the mind, not the body, Cobb was forced into a loop: straight into another "Limbo". He imagined himself back on the airplane, and meeting his children (who were conveniently in the same position with the same clothes).

"But what about the TOTEM??? It wobbled... and stuff."

And my next point. Cobb's totem was not simply the top.