Tailkinker

Answer: The gap between the window Cobb is in and the ledge Mal is sitting on doesn't appear to be particularly wide, so it would be unclear exactly where she fell from; if she was physically thrown from the window, which is the scenario she's trying to fake, she wouldn't fall straight downwards, so a position some distance out from the window would not be unexpected. Add to that her stated claims that he threatened to kill her and the very obvious signs of a struggle in the room, to say nothing of the fact that Cobb ran, and he comes out of the whole sad affair looking extremely guilty.

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Answer: The architect builds the levels, they don't populate them. Nash screwed up in a physical detail of the dream, the composition of the rug, which is the role of the architect, so he gets into trouble. Ariadne only designed the dream's architecture, the inhabitants of that dream are all formed from Fischer's subconscious and thus are not something she has any control over. Arthur was the one who was detailed to research Fischer's background, and thus should have picked up that he had been trained in the anti-intrusion tactics that manifest as the armed security force. He somehow missed it, so they get annoyed at him for putting them all in danger.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Yes, it's an ambiguous ending, so we can conclude whatever we want, based on our reading of the film. There are plenty of theories around the internet, so feel free to have a read and decide which one works best for you. However, according to Christopher Nolan it is supposed to signify how Cobb is leaving the dreams behind and doesn't care.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: The details are never explained in the depth, but all the dreamers are connected via the briefcase, so it seems likely that the briefcase acts in some way as a networking hub for them to share the dreamspace.

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Answer: No details are given within the film. However, Arthur's totem is a loaded dice, so it seems logical to assume that it will always come down on a specific side, one that only he knows. As for Ariadne's chess-piece, we only see her working on it, never using it. Probably it has some specific and unusual weighting built into it, allowing her to determine, in some unspecified manner, maybe by tipping it to a certain angle, or simply by feel, that it's the genuine article.

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Answer: Limbo appears to function somewhat differently from the upper dream levels. In the upper levels, the dreams are specifically constructed, the team uses a link system to tie themselves together in the dream and so forth. Limbo, the deepest level, doesn't appear to require this - it's simply a raw dreamstate automatically shared by those who venture into it. Cobb, Saito, Ariadne and Fischer are linked on all the prior dream levels, so they already exist in a shared dream state, thus they all cohabit the limbo level that lies beneath the constructed ones. As for Cobb and Saito, they provide the "kick" themselves, likely by using Cobb's pistol to commit suicide. As time travels so fast in the limbo state, almost no time has passed on the higher levels, despite the pair experiencing years in limbo. As such, they're able to ride the tail-end of the kicks used to extract the others, and eventually wake effectively simultaneously with the rest of the team in the plane.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: He's referring to the time spent there with Mal - remember that we see, towards the end of the film, a scene with the pair of them in their Limbo-built cityscape, both of them old-aged.

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Answer: Saito's rivalry is with Fischer's father, not with Fischer himself. With Fischer and his father not being on particularly good terms, it's hardly unreasonable that Fischer might be unfamiliar with his father's competitors. Equally, it's not particularly clear that Saito and Fischer Snr are necessarily bitter rivals - the whole reason for the inception is that Fischer's company is so much more powerful that Saito's that Saito needs Fischer to break up his father's corporate empire so that he isn't pushed out of the market. Saito may have a bee in his bonnet about Fischer Snr, as you'd expect from a smaller competitor looking at a more powerful opponent, but it's quite likely that Fischer Snr gave little thought to Saito, dismissing him as being little threat to his empire. In which case, there'd be even less reason for Fischer to recognise him on the plane.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No, he isn't. Everything in that room is out of Fischer's subconscious - as the film explains, the team design the dreams to include a secure area, a vault, safe, whatever, which the target will then fill. In the higher levels of the dream, the team have been surreptitiously guiding Fischer towards the idea of splitting the company up; this is the level where it pays off, where Fischer's own subconscious fills the vault with the things he needs to see or hear to make the idea real, to complete the inception.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The answer above is solid and I agree, but there's another plausible way of looking at it. It is implied at the end that Cobb could still be dreaming (we never see if the top stops spinning). If that's the case, then he would likely dream his children to be exactly how he remembers them.

jshy7979

Answer: The story really doesn't imply too heavily exactly how long Cobb has been on the run. Very few clues are given, so it could quite plausibly be less than a year since his wife's death, in which case their children would not have aged dramatically. Their voices on the phone seem compatible with children of the ages shown at the end of the film and Cobb shows no concern when reunited with them that they should be older than they are. Two sets of children are listed in the credits, of different ages.

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Chosen answer: Édith Piaf's "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien".

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