Inception Ending Explained - Spoilers

These Inception ending spoilers were taken from the end credits and from Inception ending clues found all over the internet.

At the end of his travels through various dream/real states, Dom has chosen a spinning top - a "totem" - to represent his connection to reality. The character has been told that if the top keeps spinning, the dream world is still in effect. But if it stops, he's living in reality. Nolan stops short of telling the audience what exactly happens to that top, but we have an idea.
There is a THIRD possibility -- It neither stopped... nor kept spinning. The story ended before either could happen.

Is Cobb still in a dream?

To me, the top seems almost to be a bit wobbly. I think it is very likely it will eventually fall and he is indeed in a "real world". Still, it is just as likely that he might have never woken up on the plane as the top continues to spin for eternity. Either way, I propose that whether the top falls does not matter. In fact, this whole journey, starting from the very beginning, takes place in a dream. Cobb has been caught in limbo for such a long time that his perceived reality is actually still in a dream.

Even in Cobb's "real world", there are many dream-like qualities. The movie cuts between scenes rather abruptly. We never see Cobb or anyone going from one environment to the next. They simply end up at the next destination, jumping from the train to the hotel to the lecture hall to the warehouse to the bar to India to the plane and finally to Cobb's home. There are many other situations common to dreams. For example, when Cobb is trying to escape from corporate assassins, he gets stuck between two buildings; this is a really common anxiety in dreams. Additionally, when Cobb is in the basement of the chemist, Yusuf (Dileep Rao), he takes a really strong sedative, but immediately wakes up. Time inconsistencies is yet another logical fallacy only possible in dreams.

Several theories are being spread around the Internet. One theory is that Cobb stays in the dream to find Saito, wakes him up, and they somehow hook up with Michael Caine and live happily ever after with the kids.

The other more plausible theory is that Cobb was actually in a dream through the whole movie! The thoughts of his wife were the result of her trying to pull him out of the dream. This is why he keeps spinning the top, to see if he's in reality or not. At the end when the top works for him, it's because he has let her memory go and given in to the idea that he was in a dream. Only then would he be able to wake up and leave the dream, and rejoin his wife.

Was Cobb still dreaming at the end?

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