The final seconds of Christopher Nolan’s 2010 Academy Award winning film, Inception, are perhaps its most powerful. A small totem designed to help distinguish the dream world from reality spins on the table. If natural entropy causes it to fall, then real world physics are at play, but if it continues rotating endlessly, then dream rules apply. But when the cut to credits leaves the fate of the spinning top unresolved, the question remains: did Cobb return to his family, or is he still living in his subconscious?

With Inception now streaming on Netflix for audiences new and old, the prevailing fan theories have resurfaced, some with more merit than others. The important thing to remember, of course, is that it shouldn’t matter what the answer is. The fact that Leonard DiCaprio’s character walked away from the totem before seeing it fall means he no longer cares if...