I'm almost entirely convinced that the movie was a dream until the final scenes on the airplane. It really explains almost every plot hole in the movie.

Cobb is metaphorically incepting himself to get over the loss of his wife (we don't know if she's alive or dead, but we do know that he is guilty over losing her in some way.)

Think about the clues:

Cobb goes place to place without ever seeming to show how he got there throughout the entire movie and the players in his dream are simply people he notices sitting around him; they never speak in the end.

The longing to see his children manifests itself as his desire to do anything to return home to see them. To take this "leap of faith" to leave his work and return home.

Some of the dreamlike/unlikely sequences in Mombassa make sense. The chase by faceless armed private security represents how Cobb subconsciously manifests his feelings that his work is keeping him away from his children. The walls of the building closing tight around him show how he can barely escape his job. Saito showing up just in time is a manifestation of how following through with the "leap of faith" is his one way to get back to his children.

Similarly, the unexplained man handing Cobb tickets to leave is a manifestation of Cobb's dilemma between going on the business trip and staying with his children.

The seemingly disconnected conversation with his children represent his fear that his children are losing their attachment to him.

The top falls in his dream because he thinks his dream is a reality while he's in it. Remember, totems only work in someone else's dream because they don't know the properties of the object.

His kids would be the same age as he remembers them in his dream, as he probably hasn't been away for very long.

At the end, it doesnt matter to him if the top falls because he knows hes back in reality.

The obstacles that he creates in his dream are all self created manifestations of work obsession (the corporate goons coming after him in Africa, the perchance that Cillian Murphy has a built in corporate private army).

He casts his wife in his dream as trying her best to **** up his chances of seeing them again. She's a manifestation of how his guilt over his relationship with his wife is destroying his relationship with his children.

Frasier is a superlative version of himself; someone who is completely committed to his business; a man who controls a vast amount of the world's energy economy, but is uncomfortable with his situation. Frasier's dilemma is his own; whether to destroy his business. Ultimately Frasier chooses to do so, just as Cobb chooses to do so in order to spend more time with his children.

The dream sharing technology is so unexplained and its effect on society are almost completely absent. Hence, it makes sense that Cobb's dreamworlds are so similar to the real world.

The old people addicted to dream sharing represent Cobb's subconscious desire to escape from the real world into his dream world and his fear that he will grow old in an alien place (a basement inMombassa) substituting dreaming for the reality of being home with his family.

Miles was telling him to come back to reality in the "dream" reality as Miles is Cobb's his last remaining real life connection to his children.

The only question then is, why does Saito make a phone call if its not for Cobb? Is there any evidence that Saito and Cobb knew each other in real life and Cobb expected Saito to make a call for some other reason? Was it something he imagined before he completely awoke? We never see or hear Saito saying anything.

Hopefully, if that question can be answered, then this is the first truly theory is completely devoid of plot holes.

I think the final airplane shot is too much of a continuance from the other "reality" shots and of the whole premise of the inception.

Yeah but that doesn't change that there are scenes where Cobbs isn't even around and two other characters are talking. That wouldn't happen normally in a dream. I think its pretty straightforward and the ending isn't a dream.

Think of the last scene when we watch the top spinning. Do you remember how the audience reacted to the screen cutting to the credits? Everybody freaked out! That final cliffhanger must have significance. Saying "Dom woke up from a dream on the plane" means this isn't a cliffhanger at all. The final scene just wouldn't make sense: the filmmakers intended us to wonder whether or not he was still dreaming. In the same way Dom plants the seed of doubt in Mal as to whether she's in reality or not, the filmmakers plant the seed of doubt in our mind as to whether Dom is dreaming or not at the end of the film. You moved this final realization to earlier on in the movie, so the final top spinning scene makes no sense as a cliffhanger now.

In short, for any Inception theory to make sense, the final top spin scene must have the capacity to offer doubt in the audience's mind as to whether Dom's in reality or Dom's still dreaming. The "dreaming up until the plane" theory fails this.

I dont think so ... as the spinning top was the only reason ppl started to go "Back in Time" to know whether everything was a dream or until the plane or is it reality.

Its the final sequence which is still making us all post here so it did serve its purpose!

But i don have a definitive ending to the movie but at least would like to know what is the most probable one!

the end is real...nolan just wanted to confuse us with the last shot....