Ok, all. Here's my theory about how kicks work.

It's true that a kick done to you while you're sleeping will pull you out of your dream: i.e., when they push Cobb into the bathtub, he's pulled out of his dream and he wakes up.

But I ALSO think that a kick you do to yourself will pull you out of your dream (i.e. you throw yourself off a building). Because it doesn't matter whether you are in a "higher" or "lower"dream level when applying the kick; the feeling of falling is the transition point between them.

To illustrate: when you or I have a dream in which we're falling, the feeling is real. We wake up. However, we aren't ACTUALLY falling in real life. We just FEEL like we are. We're actually safe and sound in our beds.

I think the kick works both ways. It IS possible to "kick yourself out of a dream".

So what does this mean? It means that the sequence of events went like this:

Level 4: Ariadne and Fischer kick themselves out by throwing themselves off the building. It is arguable whether this is a kick or suicide. Either way, they wake up in Level 3.

Level 3: Ariadne, Fischer and Eames kick themselves out by blowing up the fortress. Remember when Eames said to Cobb and Ariadne he'd blow it all up even if they didn't get back in time from limbo? It's because it's the only way back to Level 2 and the kicks must be synchronized. Anway: they all wake up in Level 2.

Level 2: Arthur and co. are kicked out by the "falling" in the elevator shaft. (Notice that as we follow Ariadne through the sequence, her eyes open right before the kick in each level.) They all wake up in Level 1.

Level 1: Everybody, except Cobb and Saito, wakes up in the van underwater.

So then you ask, what was the point of Yusuf driving the van off the bridge? Well, Dileep Rao says himself that this was the van's failsafe (http://www.nolanfans.com/forums/viewtop ... dileep+rao). It's a failsafe in case they all found themselves awake and stuck in Level 2. However, it is crucial that they wake up before the van sinks. Otherwise, they'll drown and get sent to limbo. That's why this whole scene is intercut through the movie, because it's like a ticking time bomb. They had to get everything done before they hit the water, and that's what made it incredibly suspenseful.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Thoughts and disputes are appreciated!

The whole final sequence seems kinda FUBAR, the rules for kicks seem to be you get kicked by someone in a higher level than you, and suddenly in the last sequence, it's almost as if Nolan can't decide whether they are being kicked by someone in a higher level, or if they are all kicking themselves. The idea of a self kick is never explored in any of the film's extensive explanatory scenes earlier in the movie.

Honestly, the movie does not give adequate explanation of what happens in the last sequence of kicks, and it's up to the viewer to come up with their own excuse for how the kicks work, which is kinda annoying.

I admit that the final sequence is a bit hazy, and I agree that the "self kick" thing isn't seen earlier in the movie. But I think that on seeing it again a few times it would all make sense. I remember while watching it that it made sense, it's only after I thought about it for a while that I started asking questions and getting myself confused.

I think that so far there are generally two major theories about kicks:
1. The kick HAS to happen in the level above you. You can't kick yourself out. And there's an extra kick somewhere.
2. You need two kicks to get out of a level.

I used to be adamantly stuck on the first one, since the second one seems too arbitrary to me. But I think that my theory covers another ground by using real-life logic (the fact that when we fall in dreams, our real selves wake up). I just don't want to give up on Nolan yet and say that there's a plot hole...I believe that he really did cover all his bases, but maybe the dialogue was passing too fast for us to catch everything.

A kick works by making you feel as if you're falling IN THE DREAM. Therefore, if you make yourself fall in the dream itself, it's the same thing. There's no contradiction. Note that when Leo gets wet in one level, he gets wet in the other.

paladinryan wrote:A kick works by making you feel as if you're falling IN THE DREAM. Therefore, if you make yourself fall in the dream itself, it's the same thing. There's no contradiction. Note that when Leo gets wet in one level, he gets wet in the other.

This is a very good way to put it. Now the question is: was there any mention of this earlier in the movie (other than this one example)?

Also: is my theory right about the van as a failsafe?

I took the van hitting the water not as a fail safe, but as an important kick that couldn't be missed. It seems everyone is being kicked both in the level that they are in, as well as the level above them. Therefore, if the van didn't hit the water, they would have not woken up from the level 2 hotel dream. At least that's how I took it. The last sequence is still making me scratch my head.

Now the question is: was there any mention of this earlier in the movie (other than this one example)?

Yes, this is why they talk with Yusef about the fail safe kick of the van hitting the water. I need to listen to the dialogue again but I'm pretty sure it's explained there.

The way to look at it is this: every level has a fail safe kick. If Eames doesn't blow up the supports, then Arthur will blow up the elevator. If Eames blows up the supports but Arthur doesn't blow up the elevator, then Yusuf will wake them up when he hits the water. They're just trying to protect themselves from getting caught in one level.

I think it's impossible to know for sure unless an official explanation comes out. For a movie with so much explanation, that last sequence of kicks is pretty vague.

steveportee wrote:The whole final sequence seems kinda FUBAR, the rules for kicks seem to be you get kicked by someone in a higher level than you.

This is never explicitly stated in the movie.