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Quotes

Cobb: We create the world of a dream. We bring a subject into that dream and they fill it with their secrets.

Ariadne: Then you break in and steal it?

Cobb: Well, it's not strictly speaking legal.

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Mistakes

When Arthur is fighting the projection in the hallway and begins to strangle him using the projections arm, we see his arm is covering his mouth.However in the next shot his arm is around his neck and his mouth is uncovered. See more...

Trivia

When Cob asks Ariadne to draw a maze, she draws several that are "too easy." She then draws a circular maze which Cob deems difficult enough. However, this maze is actually impossible to solve. If you pause and try, you will see it is just a dead end. [Technically a mistake, but the movie needs to be paused, so doesn't really count. Worth a look regardless.] See more...

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Inception (2010) - 30 corrections

Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Tom Berenger, Tom Hardy (add more)

Genres: Mystery, Sci-fi

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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Updated recently Throughout the movie, we are shown that the "kick" used to wake someone is done outside of the dream. When it's the scenario of a dream in a dream, the kick is delivered in Dream A in order to pull the person out of Dream B (e.g. Cobb was woken from the Japan Dream B by falling in South America Dream A). However, the final "riding the kicks" sequence at the end of the movie showed Ariadne waking up from each dream by falling WITHIN the dream instead of outside of it. She woke up from Cobb's apartment by jumping off the building, then she woke up from the snow fortress by falling through the collapsing floor, then the hotel by falling in the elevator. If the movie was consistent in its logic, Adriadne should have been woken up from each internal dream by falling in the outer dream. [Completely wrong. They have to wake up by receiving a kick in the most current dream layer they are in and then go backwards. That's why Cobb is still asleep after the van crashes in the water, because he didn't kick himself out of limbo with Ariadne. It's also why the person hosting the dream can't advance into the next dream layer.]
Edit Corrected by Serious B
After Cobb and Ariadne wake up after talking at the cafe in the dream, Arthur asks Ariadne if they should have another five minutes. Ariadne then says they were talking for at least an hour and Cobb replies by saying in a dream the mind functions more quickly therefore time seems to feel more slow. Arthur then says "Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream". If five minutes is an hour in the dream then that would mean one minute in the real world would be 12 minute in the dream. So anything that happens in the dream is 12 times longer than in the real world. Later in the movie when the six are talking the plan out, Yusuf says "Brain function in the dream will be about 20 times normal. And when you enter a dream within that dream the effect is compounded". Then they say it's three dreams, that's 10 hours times 20 - a week first level, six months second level and ten years third level. No it's not 20 times longer, it's twelve times longer like what happened earlier in the movie. And Ariadne couldn't have been wrong because five minutes they were asleep times the 20 times longer in the dream would have been at least an hour and a half. She would have noticed that. The correct way around would have been: Three dreams, 10 hours time TWELVE would be just under six days in the first level, the second level would be three months and the third level down would have been two years and four and a half months. So really this is a pretty big mistake knowing that it expands throughout the entire movie. [Incorrect. In the earlier section of the film when Ariadne is first experiencing the dreaming, they were using what were presumably the standard chemicals used by the device. For the inception attempt, they're using custom-formulated drugs that Yusuf has created to ensure the stability that they need to go as deep as the inception requires; these have at least one side effect, that if one dies in the dream, one doesn't wake up, but instead falls into the limbo state. Given that, it's entirely reasonable that the real-time to dream-time ratio might be different.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
When Eames clings to the back of the snowmobile, he knocks out the driver by smacking his head on the handlebars. But the driver is wearing a helmet, which smashes on the handlebars with a very distinct clunk, this wouldn't harm him in any way. [While the helmet would protect the driver from any significant damage, the impact force is still considerable and could easily stun the driver for long enough for Eames to push him off the snowmobile.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
In the staircase paradox scene, when Ariadna and Arthur were at the end of the staircase, it seems that the staircase is moving upwards but in real the staircase is static its just the camerawork. You can also see that the railings of the upper part of staircase is not matching with the railings of the lower part. [This scene shows Arthur explaining to Ariadne how the trick is created within a dream; it's all done within the context of the film's world. It's not accidentally revealing how the shot was created for the movie because even for the characters in the film the staircase was meant to be an optical illusion.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius Time
Saito ages but Cobb doesn't. In level 3, Fisher dies before Saito. Cobb gets to level 4 while Fisher is still young, so, Saito must still be young as well. Yet in later scene, Saito is aged, but not Cobb. [This is deliberate. It represents Saito's previous allusion of becoming an old man filled with regret.]
Edit Corrected by Serious B
At the very end when Cobb finally gets home, Michael Caine goes outside to get the children and says, "Look who's here." When the children come in, Cobb pick ups up his daughter first and the son is on the ground. The camera then goes to Michael Caine for a second. When it goes back, Cobb's daughter is on the ground and Cobb's son is in his arms. [He put down his daughter and took his son with him on the way back to standing up straight. Quick and easy.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
Towards the end of the movie Ariadne is riding the kicks through the dreams, while waking in dream 4 we can see in the wide shot that there are no gloves near her but in a close-up shot we can see gloves next to her head. [You can not see the gloves next to her but you can see them slide of the edge.]
Edit
In the scene were Cobb is in the first dream level the train tears the ground behind it leaving tracks but as the scene continues the tracks disappear. [Cobb drives over the torn up tracks and onto another street. They don't disappear, he drives away from them. The train was only on that one street so there shouldn't be any damage on any other road.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius Time
In the dream level where they are in the snow after the forger fights the guard and shoots him he is seen sliding down the hill past the main building however in the next shot he is standing next to it planting the bomb on that same building he just slid past. [He obviously stopped himself and went over to the building to place the bomb.]
Edit Corrected by 09mcateero
In 1st layer of the dream, Cobb pulls over so Ariadne could leap into the car, then it gets slammed by the train. The car stops perpendicular to the street, but in next shot it gets slammed in its side. [That makes perfect sense. If the car is perpendicular to the road, its side would be facing the oncoming train which is running parallel to the road.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
In the scene where the Van is rolling, whilst Arthur is about to fight the black security guard with the gun, he forces the gun out of his hand as he gets it out and it is left further down the corridor. Next when they slide into the room the gun slides in with them through the door even though it was dropped much further up the corridor. [Actually, there are two guns in the hallway; when Arthur goes to hide, he pulls out a gun but is disarmed, when he and the black guy are fighting you can actually see both guns for a brief second. Obviously the second gun is closer than it should be, but I think Arthur's gun is the one that enters the room with them.]
Edit Corrected by nbafanscw
When the team begins Inception, in the first level, Saito and Arthur pull over in a taxi to pick up Fischer, this is when Eames is seen running up to the taxi. But, half of Eames' suit shouldn't be soaked because he wasn't in the rain for very long. [The film already stated that when you first go into the dream it is somewhere in the middle and you are already doing someting as you enter it (as in the second level of dreaming where Fischer was sitting as a table talking to a girl (Eames).]
Edit
When Cobb, Saito and Eames meet Yusuf, Cobb tells him that there are five of them who will be entering the shared dream, and Saito corrects him that there will be six. The only way that either number could have been reached is by including Ariadne, and it is subsequently made clear that she was never intended as a participant, and only enters the team when Cobb refuses to tell Arthur about his own subconscious. [There are five intended to go into the dream - Cobb, Arthur, Eames, Yusuf and their target, Fischer. Saito adds himself, making six. Ariadne is added at the last minute for a total of seven.]
Edit
The music heard in the dream(s) played on characters' earphones, to give them a hint the jerk was coming, should be time-distorted. If 5 minutes of reality is much more minutes of dream-life then the time of music played in reality and the time of music played in dreams should differ likewise. The music in the dream would be heard at slower tempo, and the music in the dream within a dream (or the dream within a dream within a dream) would be distorted massively and perceived probably only as a widespread rumble. [You're assuming that things work that neatly. They don't. It's clear that outside stimuli are incorporated into the lower level dream, but there's no particular suggestion that the time distortion consistently comes into play. For example, Cobb being slapped in the face at one level sends him flying to the ground in a lower one. If the time distortion applied, that wouldn't happen - Cobb would feel pressure on his face drawn out over a period of time, not a sudden slap sending him to the ground. Some form of stimuli occurs at one level - the dreamer's brain picks it up and manifests it in the lower-level dream. How it manifests can vary. That's just how it works.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
The scene when Arthur and the projection are fighting in the hallway and then in the hotel room is being called "zero gravity", when really, if there was absolutely no gravity, Arthur and the projection would be floating just as Arthur is doing when the van goes off the bridge in the first dream level. [The van wasn't in freefall at that moment. It was rolling sideways down a hill. The image of the dream "rolling" sideways as well is perfectly accurate.]
Edit Corrected by Greenman37
In Arthur's dream, everyone keeps making the point that there's no gravity. This is false, as even if you were a million miles from the nearest particle, gravity would still be affecting you. Technically, they are not even in free-fall, since wind resistance is still applicable. On a non-anal note: When Arthur is fighting the projection in the hotel hallway, gravity appears to shift multiple times, throwing the two against the ceiling and wall. After Arthur defeats the projection, he enters the hotel room and he is again floating. [While it may not be technically accurate, saying "no gravity" works perfectly well for the characters to explain their situation and is a reasonable statement to make.]
Edit Corrected by Jason Hoffman
As Adriane is so sure they are still in a dream, why doesn't she simply kill Cobb with a gun or poison etc? [Question, not a mistake. Learn the difference.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
The totems let you check if you are dreaming and if someone is constructing your dream, like the Fulham, that no one would construct like it really behaves. But how can you use a normal top as a totem then, which every constructor would construct toppling over. In every constructed dream it would topple over, except your own real dreams, which are not dangerous. [The Fulham, in dreams, never stops spinning. That's an strange behaviour, which proves that you're in a dream. The normal-top totems would act strangely too, not in the same way, but strangely. For example, a dice. If you threw a dice in a dream, it would never stop rolling, or something like that. It doesn't have to be a non-normal top to be a totem, it could be anything. You just have to prove that it doesn't behave normally.]
Edit
In the scene within the "dream limbo", Cobb convinces his wife to kill themselves by lying down on the railway track and getting by a train. This would be impossible because they were in limbo, there should have been no one else there to drive the train. [It's a dream, where they've been creating entire elaborate buildings that simply spring into existence according to their whim. Creating a train that runs on automatic would be a simple task by comparison.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
In the scene where Saito is shot and he is laying on the ground, his shirt is unbuttoned, and you can see the edges of the blood pack that is underneath his shirt. [This is not a bloodpack, it would be a form of plaster - you can hear Arthur ask for anyone on the team who has First Aid training, therefore they would not simply let Saito bleed out - they would try and help stem the flow of blood. Otherwise why would his shirt be unbuttoned?]
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