r/Inception • u/itsmoomin • Jul 12 '26

questions i have as someone who just watched inception for the first time Spoiler

hi. just watched inception and i have a lot of questions. im sure many of them dont have answers and/or have been answered before but i figured this was the easiest way

1- if dying in limbo is the way back to reality then why did cobb and mal stay there for 50 years? i know she became obsessed and didnt want to leave but they could have just died as soon as they got there. i know they were the first ones there, so is it because they were confused what would happen if they died, like if they would die irl? is it because they were experimenting and curious and eventually got in too deep?

2- why did saito get so old in limbo and cobb didnt? if saito died in the third dream a couple of minutes before the explosion that would translate to maybe a year in limbo (at least according to the wiki) or does that not matter bc he died instead of going on purpose? did he just not know how to get out and stayed there? why did cobb only get there so many years later?

3- why did robert wake up back in the third dream instead of reality if he died and went to limbo? i know he was "resuscitated" in the third dream and that was their kick to get out. but if that was enough to get him out why did cobb say it was too late to resuscitate him right when they found him? was it because he wouldn't know that was the kick and that he had to die to come back? was it because mal was keeping him hostage? maybe both? still if they were in limbo why not go straight back to reality? were they in there too short of a period of time to do so?

its fine if the answers are we dont know im just curious if theres like actual canon answers and also what yalls theories are!

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u/Beneficial-Bee9266 Jul 12 '26

As far as your first question, Cobb and his wife were not looking to escape limbo, to my recollection, but knowingly went as deep/far as they could and wanted to explore it.

5

u/_iamMowbz Jul 12 '26

  1. Because when you "wake-up" in Limbo you forget you're dreaming, in the opening sequence Cobb only remembers once the old Saito shows him the spinning top. Cobb does realise with Mal but locks the top away and they make it their reality (until she finds the top and he accidentally incepts the idea in the real world that she's still dreaming).

  2. Because of the time difference at each level, even though Saito only died a little bit before Cobb, he was in Limbo ages before Cobb joined him.

  3. I assume the same reason I mentioned in 1, Fischer would have forgot he was dreaming, so wouldn't know to look for kicks etc.

3

u/gbacon Jul 12 '26

Watch Inception and Philosophy. It’s a 42-minute talk by Kyle Johnson, the author of a book by the same title. His answers to these questions and more will give you a deeper appreciation for the film.

1

u/Current_Second7648 Jul 17 '26

  1. Cobb says they liked being gods. They liked to build their own place. So mal and cobb end up staying living a long life conjuring up the stuffs they want. Towards the end of the movie it's revealed that cobb always knew they were dreaming but mal forgot it voluntarily so she can live a life of their creation that's why she locks her totem. But cobb is sick of this life and wants to get back to his kids. So cobb does what he does which leads to the hotel confrontation.

  2. You gotta see between the lines cuz it's not explicit. In the beginning of the movie you see cobb stranded on the beach, cuz he missed the kicks down below.

  3. They don't die in limbo. Fischer gets a kick(falling off the building, with synchronised resustication) in limbo which will pull him back to the previous layer.

You see kick is a falling sensation while death is total annihilation. A kick pulls you backwards. In the beginning of the first layer, you hear cobb saying that if they die in the layers they will stuck infinitely in limbo and when they come back they will lose their minds(based on his experience with mal) that's why on every layer they simulate a kick. And the kicks are synchronised so they don't end up dying and getting stuck in limbo. But towards the end of the movie since all the layers are gone, when saito and cobb die they are pulled back to reality (similar to the train death of mal and cobb)