I also think Nolan was deliberately murky about this.

I don't think the "someone else's dream" is a valid situation. I think dreaming is dreaming, whether it's your dream or someone else's. It's strictly two situations. I think the top really comes frequently into play when you are either stuck in limbo or are in someone else's dream. Two situations where you don't realize you are dreaming.

And the end, it's for us to figure out if Cobb is awake or dreaming.

Actually, here's something else I noticed (or noticed more) the second time through -- There is never a mechanic supplied for how dreams are shared.

I mean, they're all strapped up to that machine, but so? By the visual indications supplied in the film, all that box does is supply the drugs, but even if it does more that that, how exactly does it do that? Ultimately, it's a MacGuffin -- it doesn't matter. It's not important. And yet, it kind of is, in determining what's a dream and what's not. And, of course, not providing that info makes the waters murkier yet again.

And of course you can dream up the mechanics to make you share a dream deeper.

I don't think the "someone else's dream" is a valid situation

Why not? You can be in someone's dream, or you can be in your own.

Now I wish that they'd done something with a totem being compromised.

Why not? You can be in someone's dream, or you can be in your own.

I'm not seeing how the totem would act differently in your own dream or someone else's. If Cobb was the dreamer, or along for the ride, would his/Mal's top act differently? Am I completely misunderstanding? Totally possible, considering the little shit I only just caught.

Now I'm curious, what do other people think the mechanic for shared dreaming is?

I'd like to note the irony (or whatever) that the Blu-Ray special edition of the DVD will apparently come in a mini-PASIV case... and with a top. Uhhhh.... (the case would be neato, though.)

I'm too tired to work through the totem logic right now. If I were to have one, it might be the necklace I wear everyday. It's pretty unique and the pendant is double-sided, which isn't obvious since I rarely take it off. So if it weren't, I'd be in someone else dream.

Okay, giving a try. If it's your dream, you will either wake up eventually or end up in limbo. In the first case, you're awake. In the second, your totem would not behave (I'm assuming since limbo is not anyone's dream). Unless your enemy keeps you permanently sedated and dreaming alone, in which case you're totally fucked unless you realize you're dreaming and kill yourself to get out. The reason you want to know if you are in someone else's dream is to guard against extraction and inception .

One thing we never learned - how does one designate the dreamer and the dreamee? The PASIV? Different compounds?

Maybe the dreamer doesn't intake drugs so much as send their own cortical fluids into the other participants? Maybe a more "realistic" approach would be if they'd all had two lines going in and out of them, one a sedative and one an intake from the shared machine, except for the dreamer, who has the sedative and an output line?

Or maybe I just really need to figure out my cable box and vcr...

Now I wish that they'd done something with a totem being compromised.

it's for the fanfic.

Or the sequel.