INCEPTION explained

Here is my explanation on how Chris Nolan's "Inception" ended.

The spinning top is a cinematic conceit to confuse the viewers into believing that perhaps Cobb was still in a dream. It was real.

Cobb woke up inside the plane as it was about to land.

The story is structurally straight narrative. It begins with Cobb in limbo (with Ken Watanabe's character, who was likewise stuck in limbo) and the gun on the table was their "kick" to rouse them from sleep.

The totem revealed by Ken's character in the beginning, which belongs to Cobb's wife, was the "wake-up call" that Cobb needed to tell him that he was still dreaming and had to wake up. This realization prompted the lengthy flashback to tell us how Cobb got stuck in limbo ---- which explains why the movie had to return to this very scene later in the story to tell the viewers that Cobb was about to wake up.

There. Feel free to disagree.