surrounding the fortress, Fischer finally reaches the safe. But just then Mal appears as a projection of Cobb’s subconscious. Cobb and Ariadne see Mal but Cobb hesitates to shoot her, because he can’t convince himself that she isn’t real. Mal shoots Fischer. Cobb then shoots Mal, but it’s too late. Everybody gathers around Fischer and Cobb says it’s all over — they’ve failed, because with Fischer dead, there is no way to implant the idea in his mind. But Ariadne says there’s still a way — they must follow Fischer into limbo, implant the idea there, and then improvise a kick to get out of limbo. They know Fischer must be in Cobb’s limbo — the world he built with Mal — because Mal is a projection of his mind.
Eames stays behind as the monitor on the third level, and Cobb and Ariadne enter a fourth level, limbo. This is the world Cobb and Mal built and inhabited for 50 subjective years. They enter one of the houses Cobb and Mal built and find Mal sitting in the kitchen. Mal accuses Cobb of abandoning her, telling him he had promised they would grow old together. She tells him this is reality and that he should stay here with her and their children. Cobb tells Mal that she isn’t real and that he has to get out of limbo to get back to their real children, whom she left by killing herself.
Mal tries to convince Cobb to stay by making him question what is reality. She says, “You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?” He responds, “Guilt,” and explains to Ariadne the truth behind Mal’s death. The brass top was originally Mal’s; she had locked it away in a safe. When they were stuck in limbo together, Mal believed it was reality. To convince her otherwise, Cobb performed inception on her — he broke into the safe, left the top spinning there, and planted the idea in her mind that this world (limbo) was not real. Mal finally agreed to come back to reality. She and Cobb lay on the train tracks, and when they died, they woke up back in their house after decades in limbo. But the idea Cobb planted, that her world was not real, stayed in her mind and came to possess her. She killed herself in real life, thinking it was still a dream and that death was the only way out. This is how Cobb knew inception was possible — he had already done it on his own wife.
Now, Cobb tells his projection of Mal that she is not real and that he has to get back to the real world, where their children are. He tells her that even though she doesn’t remember it, they did grow old together when they were in limbo. Now he has to let her go. Cobb tells Ariadne to find Fischer and push him off the balcony as an improvised kick. Cobb must stay to find Saito, who is somewhere in limbo after dying in the third dream level. Ariadne pushes Fischer off and then jumps herself, warning Cobb not to lose himself with Mal.
Dream level 3: Eames uses a defibrillator to revive Fischer, who wakes up and goes into the vault inside the fortress. He finds his dying father lying in a hospital bed. His father whispers, “disappointed,” and Fischer says he knows he is disappointed that Fischer couldn’t be like him — but his father corrects him, saying he is disappointed that Fischer even tried to be like him. He wants him to be his own person. Fischer opens the safe beside the bed, takes out the will, and turns back to his father, who has just died. He begins to cry. Outside the vault, Ariadne wakes up from limbo.
Dream level 2: Arthur has pulled everyone into an elevator and uses explosives to send it into free-fall, providing the next kick.
Dream level 1: The van hits the water, providing the final kick. Everyone wakes up except Cobb, and they swim to the surface. Ariadne explains that Cobb stayed behind to find Saito. Arthur thinks he will be lost there, but Ariadne insists he will be all right. On the shore, Fischer tells Browning (Eames) that he will break up his fathers company.
Back in limbo, there is a repeat of the opening scene, with Cobb washing up on the shore and being taken to the old man. It is Saito, and though he has only been there for a few hours of real time, it has been many years in limbo. Cobb shows him the top and says he is there to remind Saito of “a secret he once knew but chose to forget” — that this world is not real. He tells Saito to come back to reality so they can be young men again, and convinces him to honor their arrangement. Saito takes the gun in his hand.
Then everyone is waking up on the plane as it lands in Los Angeles. No one speaks at first. Cobb gives Saito a long, sharp look, and after a moments hesitation, Saito picks up the phone and makes the call to get the authorities off Cobb’s back. Everyone disembarks. Cobb goes through security and customs without a hitch. He sees the other team members collecting their luggage. Miles is there to welcome Cobb and takes him to his old house, where he sees his children playing in the backyard.
Cobb spins the top to see if this is real or another dream, but just then the children turn and see him and run toward him, shouting, “Daddy!” Without looking to see if the top has fallen, Cobb goes outside to hug them. The camera focuses on the top. It is still spinning but wobbles slightly, as if it were about to topples.
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