MovieChat Forums > Inception (2010) Discussion > Cobb's totem is backwards.

Cobb's totem is backwards.

posted 8 years ago by jrobertfleming
5 replies | jump to latest

I got this from an article in Psychology Today.

The purpose of the totem is to determine whether you are in someone else's dream. For this to work, the totem must:

1) Be a recognizable object with expected properties (i.e., a die which would be expected to land on a random face).

2) The properties of the object must be modified by the owner in a manner known only to themselves (i.e., the die is loaded so that it always lands with the three face showing).

3) No one other than the owner may be allowed to handle to totem.

As a consequence, the totem will have a secret, nonstandard behavior in waking reality, but the standard, idealized behavior for that object in a dream.

Cobb's totem violates these properties. His totem is taken from his wife, has a nonstandard behavior (perpertual spinning) to indicate dreaming and has a standard behavior (the top loses inertia and falls over) to indicate waking reality. As a result, the totem doesn't actually test anything.

Cobb cannot realize he is stuck in a dream because his means for testing whether he is dreaming or not is false and reenforces a false consciousness.

[–] realbullet 8 years ago

This is true, but I think that Nolan was more interested in the symbolic representation of the totem rather than a literal representation.

The top spins forever in the dream. As such it is a visual representation of the resilient parasite of an idea. For the audience, the weight does nothing, but the visual is everything.

Cobb gave Mal one simple idea -- "this world wasn't real. The only way to return to that real world is to die." This Inception was represented by him opening the safe, spinning the top, and locking it away.

After her death, Cobb became obsessed with guilt over his role in his wife's death. This powerful guilt was represented by Cobb being obsessed with the spinning top. The first time we see it, he's holding a gun to his head waiting for it to fall. That is the sort of control this guilt has over him.

At the end of the movie, he spins the top, but he does not watch it. He is no longer obsessed with it. He still feels guilt over his wife's death, but that guilt is placed in perspective with other aspects of his life (especially his children.)

👿 I know something you don't know ... I am ambidextrous!

[–] Thornspike 8 years ago

Just one of the reasons why this movie fails to support its high rating by the public in my opinion.

[–] alexis-4012 8 years ago

Wrong all along, his Real totem is his wedding ring

[–] korbendallas-2 8 years ago

You are absolulutely right. And this has been pointed out many times already.

Any dream architect could/would just forge his totem as a normal spinning top (which would expectedly fall over) and thus deceive Cobb (intentionally or inadvertently) into believing that he is in waking reality.

Cobb's totem makes no sense whatsoever.

I wonder whether this is just an error. Or is it supposed to hide some extra meaning?

[–] realbullet 8 years ago

I wonder whether this is just an error. Or is it supposed to hide some extra meaning?

The meaning of the top is the same as many of the symbols in the movie, such as the Penrose steps and the infinite mirrors -- they represent the resilient, infinite parasite of an idea. The top spins forever in the dream.

In the case of Cobb's top, he took it from Mal, which he knows that he should not have done. (But Cobb always does things that he says never to do.) It's the same way that he gave Mal the idea that defined her and ultimately killed her. With her death, Cobb became infected with the idea of guilt. This guilt came to define him and control him just like Mal's idea.

One of the infinite mirrors is shattered, the Penrose steps are broken, and the infinite spinning top ...

It was definitely not an error.

👿 I know something you don't know ... I am ambidextrous!