In the first "extraction" job in Saito's head when Arthur is shot by Cobb, he wakes up into Dream Level 1, not reality. This suggests that if you die, you wake up in the state closest to you. If you die in Level 3, you should not go to limbo, but just wake up in Level 2. Only if you die in Level 1 should you go to limbo (under the sedation). This is a major inconsistency that I never noticed prior. What it also means is that Mal and Cobb most likely only woke up in a previous Dream Level (lets say their Level 3 for consistency with the Inception job's levels). Perhaps, the ending was a dream.

I also think that this is not what was intended, just an inconsistency. I personally believe in the reality theory.

What do you guys think. Anyone else notice this?

But in the opening scene, they weren't under heavy sedation, just a regular form of it.

I assumed, possibly incorrectly, that the team was going under sedation at every level of the dream. In other words, they were sedated in the van and the hotel room in order to allow them to go even deeper into the dream. I could be wrong, but that's how I understood it. If this is the case then they can't wake up from the snow fortress into the hotel room because they are under sedation within the hotel room.

Oh, good point. That's also why they had to have each kick be a form of dropping/falling. The actual serum (is this the applicable word) /chemical was mixed with heavy sedation per each level so they can go under deeper and deeper, thus, they wouldn't be able to go into the next level and go into limbo.

That makes sense to me, I think.

That's true! So in a dream within a dream, dieing wakes you up--but only up one level. I didn't take notice of that at the beginning. Nice find.

However, I'm with Vader in that it doesn't apply to Fischer's inception dreams. Dom and the chemist makes it clear that while under heavy sedation, dieing only knocks you into limbo.

As it's explained, any time you die under heavy sedation, whatever level you're dreaming, you go into limbo. The team was not under heavy sedation in the opening sequence, so I don't see any inconsistencies here. Dying in level 2 would've sent Arthur to limbo if they had been under heavy sedation. You also can't assume Mal and Cobb would wake up from level in a previous dream level, or that they had to have dreams within dreams to reach limbo. Death under sedation leads you to limbo, but it's clear Cobb also knows how to get there simply by dreaming (he does this with Ari in the snow level ... dreams into limbo without having to die). Mal and Cobb could have very well figured out how to get there without intermediary stages.

You guys are overthinking it The form of sedation used in the various dream stages were just regular sedation, and it wasn't even "real" sedation. The only real sedation was the heavy sedation used in reality, and under this type of sedation, the dreamer could not wake up from the dream until it wore off. Death under heavy sedation leads to limbo; if anyone died during any stage, they would've gone to limbo because of the real heavy sedation they took in reality (doesn't matter what kind of dreamed sedation they used to get to the next stage).

Just the logic of it, means that if you die in level 3 you would wake up in level 2, not limbo. The sedative doesn't have effect on you until you try to wake up in reality.

bmneu wrote:Just the logic of it, means that if you die in level 3 you would wake up in level 2, not limbo. The sedative doesn't have effect on you until you try to wake up in reality.

not really, if that was the case then Fischer would be kicked to level 2, not further down

Len is right. Think of it this way: the mind is so heavily sedated in reality that it can't tell that it's sleeping (subconsciously) in any level of the dream. Therefore, when you die in the dream the mind thinks it's really dead. Hence, Limbo. And that applies to every level.