The Dark Knight Rises Ending is Only Sorta Open-Ended

[savingpeople]

I've been reading/hearing people like this guy say that it's possible the end of The Dark Knight Rises with Alfred seeing Bruce is some kind of Inception-like dream.

Hate to break it to you, but you must not have been paying close attention. That is false.

While John Blake's ending is open for interpretation, the moment in the Italian cafe has lots of foreshadowing that back it up as true.

• Lucius Fox is told that the autopilot was fixed long before The Bat flew out over the water with the bomb
• Martha Wayne's pearl necklace is mysteriously missing
• Selina begs Bruce to leave Gotham with her
• Bruce and Selina have the Rykin Data technology

Those bits of information tell us that Bruce was able to escape the blast, that he made sure to grab the pearls for Selina, and they were able to make a fresh start for themselves outside of Gotham City.

If Alfred was just still daydreaming, why the reveal about the autopilot to Fox? How/Why would the pearls disappear?

Nice try, but it ain't a dream, y'all.