an inception characters use totems to determine whether or not they're dreaming. Here's Arthur to explain the totem. You need a small object, potentially heavy, something you can have on you all the time that no one else we know needs to be more unique than that. This is a loaded die. I can't let you touch it. That would defeat the purpose. He only I know the balance and the weight of this particular really die. That way, when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt that you're not in someone else's dream. Throughout the film, Cobb uses a spinning top as his totem. But pay attention at this scene. I was working on my totem, actually. Here, take a look. So you're learning, huh? An elegant solution for keeping track of reality. Was it your idea, knows smalls, actually? This one was hers. She spinning the dreamy would never talk. Spinning the spinning top used to belong to Mall Cobb's deceased wife. That changes everything. The whole point of a totem is that it only works if you're the only

one who's used it. So, if Cobb is using Mal's totem, it becomes unreliable, especially when you consider the other clues before the events in the film. It's explained that Cobb and Mal were both trapped down in limbo together. After about 50 or so years, Cobb can no longer go on living in limbo, knowing that it's not real, so he plants the idea that their world isn't real in Mal's mind. The very first example of Inception. The idea takes hold, and Mal and Cobb killed themselves to wake up. But even after they awaken, Mal can't fight the feeling that they're still dreaming. Cobb assumes that the inception just worked too well and that the idea followed Mal into the waking world. But what if Mal was right? What if they were still dreaming? Cobb explains to Ariadne that Mal came up with the idea to use totems and that the spinning top belonged to her. So, what if Mal came up with the idea to use the spinning top right before she and Cobb.

were trapped down in limbo. We never see Cobb with the totem of his own. Mal locks her totem away because she doesn't care if this world is as long as she and Cobb are together. So when Cobb and Mal killed themselves, they never actually woke up. They're still in a dream. They've just gone up one level. But because Cobb has no way to test this reality, Mal's attempts to convince him that they're still dreaming don't work. Mal then comes up with a plan to force Cobb's hand. Mal kills herself again, actually waking up, but Cobb is still stuck in the dream, believing Mal's dead. Cobb is then forced to run to evade capture for the rest of the film. Cobb is still dreaming. Even Cobb's father-in-law tries to wake him up, come back to reality, but Cobb never does. [Music]

Inception Film Theory | Mal's Totem

Inception Film Theory | Mal's Totem