I also like this interpretation of Inception. It covers the whole movie, not just the ending. The nice thing about this one is this theory can co-exist with others. It’s just another layer of subtext and plays into the idea of the filmmaker (Nolan) as dream maker. After all, he’s built his career creating fabulous, cathartic illusions. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
“‘Inception’ is first and foremost Christopher Nolan’s symphony about the art of making movies. As Devin Faraci of chud.com outlines it, each character in the film represents a key player in the moviemaking process. Cobb is the director. Arthur, who does the research, is the producer. Ariadne, the architect, is the screenwriter. Eames is the actor. Yusuf is the technical expert. Saito is the studio chief. Fischer is the audience.
It doesn’t matter if the ending is a dream or not; Nolan’s primary goal is to take us on a journey about the process of filmmaking.”
Okay, I need to stop obsessing about this movie. But that spinning hallway fight scene. Holy crap!