but the kids when they phoned him sounded within their teens. and at the end they were still 4 and 2. Also it wasn't his thingamajig it was his wives. he kept it after she died. or after he believed she died. He didn't have a totem of his own. Therefore it can be questioned whether or not he was dreaming everything or not. Everyone else had a totem but we didn't see how they worked. Only cobbs, and his totem wasn't his.

we also saw juno a novice architect who hasn't really been dream sharing, being really experienced at what she did (manipulating dreams and what not) and also constantly throwing ideas into cobb's mind as in to forget his wife, it wasn't his fault, he should let go, etc etc etc etc basically incepting him.

While the kids might look similar, they are actually a bit different.
Of course they had them in the same spot as in his memories, but they actually wear different clothes, that just look very similar to his memory.
But they never mentioned how long he was gone. It could just be months or a year, which would be enough for them to not age THAT much. But as I said, they didn't tell on purpose.
There was supposed to be a grandmother that watched over the children, but we never get to see her in the end, which could mean it is indeed his imagination.

For me I say it's that BOTH endings are true. Both are possible to be true from what we know from the movie. There is no definite ending, no flaw in each theorie that makes it wrong. Nolan did quite a good job with keeping both things possible. And seeing how people are discussing it, he clearly succeeded in what he wanted to do. We will obviously never get an answer on this from him, just like he never answered anything about "Memento"...

it does seem a lot like a dream and not reality.

But I don't think this is really important. I think the ending here is not whether he woke up or not, but that he forgave himself, one way or another, and found redemption in his mind. This was the most important part of the movie.

true, but after second viewing you really aren't feeling it. even after the first viewing. you're like yeah! yeah! he did it. awesome. and then awwwwwww! yes the spinning top shows he don't care anymore whether or not it's real, cuz he let go and can finally be with his kids. but the audience is led to believe that we're meant to care whether or not it's a dream. it's all just arrgh. one sec you're like yay and then fuck off.

to me it seemed like everyone knew what was up except for cobb. and it just seemed weird. saito showing up at convenient times to gain cobbs trust. juno knowing far more than cobb's lead to believe. it was weird. like everything was set up for cobb to go further and further within the levels.

I had a strong vibe that this whole thing didn't actually happen, but was all in his brain. What with the "one last mission" before he goes home, and it was implied he has had similar such "one last missions" before that, and the goal being to return to his children, it felt like he was fighting his subconsciousness to return to reality or awake from a coma. But not sure about this point of view anymore.

the thing is... all theories and possibilities fit into this movie and each theory nullifies the other theory and in the end you're stuck... basically the whole movie was about a man trying to go back home. did he get there? no. did he get close? maybe. as audience are we satisfied more with the story or with the style and the visuals? Both if you don't stress your head.

also at first i heard like... the dreams were gay as shit. not at all imaginative. and that's the consensus with a couple people who disliked this. and the dreams were realistic because they weren't meant to be dreams. they're meant to appear as reality. if people realize that... then the whole movie makes sense. you'll never know which part is real and which part isn't because the entire movie is a con. we believe they're conning the scarecrow, but they also could be conning cobb and we won't know and do we need to know? the journey was awesome. the ending was vague but not for the character. he was happy and satisfied.

chyea. the more ithink of this movie the more i like it.. simply because it makes my brain melt.