I agree that the scene in which he sees his children's faces is suspicious -- everything after he wakes up is a bit convenient. Cobb breezes through customs, M

I agree that the scene in which he sees his children's faces is suspicious -- everything after he wakes up is a bit convenient. Cobb breezes through customs, Michael Caine's character is right there waiting for him, and his kids are right where he left them. It's certainly plausible that Cobb is lost in a dream. But I don't think the top is evidence of that. At the level of reality in which the plane ride occurs, we've seen the top fall. Consequently, it seems clear that, in the last scene, the top will fall, and we do see it start to wobble before it cuts to the credits. The question, then, becomes whether the top actually is the reliable indicator of reality that Cobb thinks it is. If the top really is a totem, then Cobb made it back to the real world. But where did the top come from? He got it from his wife after she died. If his wife really did escape from a dream by dying (if Cobb was dreaming the whole time, this is possible), then Cobb acquired the top in a dream, and whether it falls or not proves nothing. I'm pretty sure that I'm reading too much into the ending of the movie. Personally, I think he made it back to the real world. But the director has made other movies that invite a similar degree of scrutiny, so who knows?