Warning! Contains spoilers for Apple TV+’s Dark Matter.

I, like everyone else, have always been baffled by Inception‘s ambiguous ending. However, I finally understand its real meaning after watching a new Apple TV+ sci-fi series. In Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb’s story is primarily driven by his desire to redeem himself and reunite with his children, who he had to leave behind after becoming a prime suspect in his wife’s apparent murder. To Cobb’s delight, a new assignment gives him the opportunity to work with a powerful man, Saito, who promises to help him clear his criminal record if he extracts some crucial information from an individual.

Even though Cobb is often troubled by the projections of his dreams and uses a totem to determine whether he is awake or dreaming, he and his team eventually succeed at getting Saito what he wants. As a result, Cobb finds himself at home in Inception‘s ending scene, where he spins his totem as he watches his kids from a distance. However, instead of waiting to see whether he is dreaming or awake, Cobb simply walks towards the kids. Inception‘s final shot presents one final look at the spinning totem but gives audiences the cold shoulder by not confirming whether Cobb is actually awake.

Dark Matter’s Portrayal Of Quantum Superposition Highlights One Crucial Inception Detail

Parallels Can Be Drawn Between The Schrödinger’s Cat Experiment & Cobb’s Inception Dream States

It has been over a decade since Inception‘s release, but I, like many, cannot help but wonder what happens to Cobb in the film’s final moments. Fortunately, Apple TV+’s Dark Matter might have some concrete answers. In its exploration of parallel worlds, Dark Matter riffs on the concept of quantum superposition. According to quantum superposition, a particle can exist in multiple states simultaneously until it is observed or measured. As portrayed in Dark Matter, this concept can be best explained through the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment.

The experiment imagines a cat enclosed in a box with a radioactive particle and a jar of poison. If the radioactive particle decays, the poison jar breaks and kills the cat. On the other hand, if the particle does not decay, the cat lives as the jar does not break. When the box is left enclosed, the cat remains both dead and alive at the same time because, according to quantum superposition, the radioactive particle is in both decayed and undecayed states simultaneously. However, only when an observer opens the box, the superposition collapses and the cat’s fate is revealed.

By adopting this concept on a macroscopic level, Dark Matter highlights how multiple versions of the same character, Jason, exist simultaneously and share the same goal of reuniting with their spouse and son after being taken away from them. Inception is not about parallel worlds. However, many moments in the Christopher Nolan movie question whether the dream world is any different from the real one, presenting one’s dreams as an alternate state of existence, which can be as tangible and vivid as the real world.

Dark Matter Highlights Why It Doesn’t Whether Cobb Is Awake Or Dreaming In Inception’s Ending

Cobb Is In Two States Simultaneously

Some humans in Inception‘s universe even use strong sedatives to stay in their dream states because it feels more real to them than their reality. Cobb, too, often struggles to distinguish between his dreams and reality and uses a totem to determine which state he is in. However, just like the cat in Schrodinger’s experiment and Jason in Dark Matter remain in multiple states simultaneously until the superposition collapses, Cobb remains both in a dream state and a waking state until his totem collapses his two alternate worlds into one. Since he avoids seeing his totem in the movie’s ending, he remains in two alternate states at once.

Owing to this, it does not matter whether Cobb is dreaming or awake because both states are “real” until he consciously chooses to observe the outcome of the totem’s collapse. Just like the cat’s fate in the Schrödinger’s Cat experiment can only be observed once the box is opened, Cobb’s ending can be determined through the spinning totem. However, since Cobb seems to care little about which state he is in Inception‘s ending and both the dream and real world seem the same to him, he remains in two states simultaneously, like Jason in the Apple TV+ show.

Dark Matter season 1’s finale is scheduled to be released on Apple TV+ on June 26, 2024.