But you need to realise that a kick is the feeling of falling that snaps you out of a dream. Therefore an explosion does not mimic a sense of falling. Ariadne and Fischer jumping of the ledge was necessary as it is considered a kick to wake up in the 3rd layer of dreams.

Eames planting the c4's all over the buildings in the 3rd dream layer was an indicator that Ariadne and Fischer were about to receive the kick from Arthur in the 2nd dream. So they had to be awake in the 3rd dream to experience the kick from Arthur. So by jumping of the ledge, they got to wake up in the 3rd dream just before Arthur's kick. And the van falls in river resulting in the team to wake up from the elevator dream into the 1st dream. Only Saito and Cobb did not wake up because they did not receive any kicks in their particular stages of dreams. So both are in Limbo at the stage. I think.

"Yes. There was no kick to wake them up from level 1. So they were in level 1 very briefly until the sedative wore off. I guess they timed it right, because it seems like it wore off shortly after they got kicked into level 1. Funny, because they said level 1 was a week long."

Yeah, that's weird. The flight they're on was 10 hours, and they were asleep basically the whole time during it, and yet dream #1 didn't seem very long. All that happened in it was a car chase, a short while in the warehouse, and another car chase. Seems like the entire dream process shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes.

My very simple interpretation. He never got out of Limbo in the first place.

No but seriously, the logistics of it are less important than the theme of how we create lives for ourselves where we feel secure and happy, but really its a dream and we are really just waiting for the train (death). These constructs are unstable, reality can be shattered with doubt or an idea, whether that be your wife's uncertainty regarding what life she really wants, or your father's deathbed disappointment or whatever is for you. The moral seems to be these things don't matter as long as in that moment, real or unreal you are happy.

Wyatt wrote:"Yes. There was no kick to wake them up from level 1. So they were in level 1 very briefly until the sedative wore off. I guess they timed it right, because it seems like it wore off shortly after they got kicked into level 1. Funny, because they said level 1 was a week long."

Yeah, that's weird. The flight they're on was 10 hours, and they were asleep basically the whole time during it, and yet dream #1 didn't seem very long. All that happened in it was a car chase, a short while in the warehouse, and another car chase. Seems like the entire dream process shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes.

Oh dear great big plot hole alert.

Yeah, that's weird. The flight they're on was 10 hours, and they were asleep basically the whole time during it, and yet dream #1 didn't seem very long. All that happened in it was a car chase, a short while in the warehouse, and another car chase. Seems like the entire dream process shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes.

It was supposed to be longer but they rushed it immensely because Saito got shot.

zexy wrote:

Yeah, that's weird. The flight they're on was 10 hours, and they were asleep basically the whole time during it, and yet dream #1 didn't seem very long. All that happened in it was a car chase, a short while in the warehouse, and another car chase. Seems like the entire dream process shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes.

It was supposed to be longer but they rushed it immensely because Saito got shot.

Yep you're right nice one

Level 1 was supposed to be a week long, till Fischer's militarized projections complicated things and speed everything up. Even the van plunging into the river was sped up, and hence JGL had to improvised at the hotel. Note that as they get deeper, 10 minutes in level 1, mean days in level 2.

zexy wrote:

Yeah, that's weird. The flight they're on was 10 hours, and they were asleep basically the whole time during it, and yet dream #1 didn't seem very long. All that happened in it was a car chase, a short while in the warehouse, and another car chase. Seems like the entire dream process shouldn't have been more than 10 minutes.

It was supposed to be longer but they rushed it immensely because Saito got shot.

They were still asleep for 10 hours long, so regardless they would have been dreaming in level 1 for a week (as per the effect of the sedative). They just moved on faster to higher levels. Regardless, they still needed a kick from the airplane unless they wanted to wait in level 1 until the end of the week.

Right, so are we to assume that they hung out in level 1 for an entire week after swimming ashore?

Wyatt wrote:Right, so are we to assume that they hung out in level 1 for an entire week after swimming ashore?

yea, there's no "correspondent" in the plane, so they will have to wait for the drug to wear off....coz even though the flight crew can off the machine for them, but they don't know if the team is ready to be booted out...