"Perhaps, all levels of reality are valid."

The spinning top at the end of "Inception" in 2010 left many viewers puzzled, frustrated even, if the final scene was ever a dream. Before the movie was cut to black, Dominic Cobb, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, was seen to have bypassed government authorities despite being wanted for murder. He made it back to his two children but spun his personal totem to check whether he actually got out of a seemingly impossible dream heist.  

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Five years later, director Christopher Nolan essayed an indirect explanation to what actually transpired after the screen blacked out. During his speech before a graduating class of Princeton University, Nolan insisted on the validity of all layers of reality. For the British filmmaker, reality is subjective and its varying forms for different people cannot be discounted.

"The way the end of the film worked, Leonardo DiCaprio's character Cobb - he was off with his kids, he was in his own subjective reality. . . He didn't really care anymore," The Guardian quoted Nolan.

The Academy Award-winning director of "The Dark Knight Trilogy" further argued that in a wider scale, reality is often regarded as "the poor cousin" to human dreams. In the crowd of students about to step into what is called the real world, Nolan insisted that dreams, each person's virtual reality, is but a subset of reality. In the same speech, Nolan also shared how he used to go the back of the theater to avoid people from confronting him about the reality of his films. An article by Film News highlighted on the filmmaker's intent to let the audience think about what is real. 

Nolan emphasized that dreams and reality co-exist, instead of the common notion that these exist in complete opposition of each other. He used this thought as a launching pad for his advice to the young listeners. Rather than giving the conventional encouragement of going after one's dreams, Nolan said his that they must pursue their realities. 

"In the great tradition of these speeches, generally someone says something along the lines of 'chase your dreams,' but I don't want to tell you that because I don't believe in that. I want you to chase your reality," The Independent cited Nolan. 

TagsInception, Christopher Nolan, Inception Ending