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Inception

January 09, 2024

For other uses, see Inception (disambiguation).

Inception is a 2010 science fiction action film[4][5][6] written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased, as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.[7] The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page,[a] Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao and Michael Caine.

Inception
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChristopher Nolan
Written byChristopher Nolan
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyWally Pfister
Edited byLee Smith
Music byHans Zimmer
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • July 8, 2010 (2010-07-08) (Odeon Leicester Square)
  • July 16, 2010 (2010-07-16) (United States and United Kingdom)
Running time
148 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States[2]
  • United Kingdom[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$160 million[3]
Box office$839 million[3]

After the 2002 completion of Insomnia, Nolan presented to Warner Bros. a written 80-page treatment for a horror film envisioning "dream stealers," based on lucid dreaming.[8] Deciding he needed more experience before tackling a production of this magnitude and complexity, Nolan shelved the project and instead worked on 2005's Batman Begins, 2006's The Prestige, and 2008's The Dark Knight.[9] The treatment was revised over six months and was purchased by Warner in February 2009.[10] Inception was filmed in six countries, beginning in Tokyo on June 19 and ending in Canada on November 22.[11] Its official budget was $160 million, split between Warner Bros. and Legendary.[12] Nolan's reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film's US$100 million in advertising expenditure.

Inception's premiere was held in London on July 8, 2010; it was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters beginning on July 16, 2010.[13][14] Inception grossed over $837 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2010. Considered one of the best films of the 2010s,[15] Inception won four Oscars (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects) and was nominated for four more (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score) at the 83rd Academy Awards.

Plot

Cobb and Arthur are "extractors" who perform corporate espionage using experimental dream-sharing technology to infiltrate their targets' subconscious and extract information. Their latest target, Saito, is impressed with Cobb's ability to layer multiple dreams within each other. He offers to hire Cobb for the ostensibly impossible job of implanting an idea into a person's subconscious; performing "inception" on Robert Fischer, the son of Saito's competitor Maurice Fischer, with the idea to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to clear Cobb's criminal status, allowing him to return home to his children.

Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: a forger named Eames, a chemist named Yusuf, and a college student named Ariadne. Ariadne is tasked with designing the dream's architecture, something Cobb himself cannot do for fear of being sabotaged by his mind's projection of his late wife, Mal. Maurice Fischer dies, and the team sedates Robert Fischer into a three-layer shared dream on an airplane to America bought by Saito. Time on each layer runs slower than the layer above, with one member staying behind on each to perform a music-synchronized "kick" (using the French song "Non, je ne regrette rien") to awaken dreamers on all three levels simultaneously.

The team abducts Robert in a city on the first level, but his trained subconscious projections attack them. After Saito is wounded, Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would usually awaken dreamers, Yusuf's sedatives will instead send them into "Limbo": a world of infinite subconscious. Eames impersonates Robert's godfather, Peter Browning, to introduce the idea of an alternate will to dissolve the company.

Cobb tells Ariadne that he and Mal entered Limbo while experimenting with dream-sharing, experiencing fifty years in one night due to the time dilation with reality. Mal refused to return to reality, and Cobb instead performed inception on her to convince her. After waking up, Mal still believed she was dreaming. Attempting to "wake up," she committed suicide and framed Cobb to force him to do the same. Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children behind.

Yusuf drives the team around the first level as they are sedated into the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur. Cobb persuades Robert that Browning has kidnapped him to stop the dissolution and that Cobb is a defensive projection, leading Robert to another third level deeper as part of a ruse to enter Robert's subconscious.

In the third level, the team infiltrates an alpine fortress with a projection of Maurice inside, where the inception itself can be performed. However, Yusuf performs his kick too soon by driving off a bridge, forcing Arthur and Eames to improvise a new set of kicks synchronized with them hitting the water by rigging an elevator and the fortress, respectively, with explosives. Mal then appears and kills Robert before he can be subjected to the inception, and he and Saito are lost in Limbo, forcing Cobb and Ariadne to rescue them in time for Robert's inception and Eames's kick. Cobb makes peace with his part in causing Mal's death. Ariadne kills Mal's projection and wakes Robert up with a kick.

Revived into the third level, he discovers the planted idea: his dying father telling him to create something for himself. While Cobb searches for Saito in Limbo, the others ride the synced kicks back to reality. Cobb finds an aged Saito and reminds him of their agreement. The dreamers all awaken on the plane, and Saito makes a phone call. Arriving in Los Angeles, Cobb passes the immigration checkpoint, and his father-in-law accompanies him to his home. Cobb uses Mal's "totem" – a top that spins indefinitely in a dream – to test if he is indeed in the real world, but he chooses not to observe the result and instead joins his children.

Cast

 
The cast at a premiere for the film in July 2010. From left to right: Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, and Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a professional thief who specializes in conning secrets from his victims by infiltrating their dreams. DiCaprio was the first actor to be cast in the film.[16] Both Brad Pitt and Will Smith were offered the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter.[17] Cobb's role is compared to "the haunted widower in a Gothic romance".[18]
  • Ken Watanabe as Saito, a Japanese businessman who employs Cobb for the team's mission. Nolan wrote the role with Watanabe in mind, as he wanted to work with him again after Batman Begins.[19]: 10  Inception is Watanabe's first work in a contemporary setting where his primary language is English. Watanabe tried to emphasize a different characteristic of Saito in every dream level: "First chapter in my castle, I pick up some hidden feelings of the cycle. It's magical, powerful and then the first dream. And back to the second chapter, in the old hotel, I pick up [being] sharp and more calm and smart and it's a little bit [of a] different process to make up the character of any movie".[20]
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb's partner who manages and researches the missions. Gordon-Levitt compared Arthur to the producer of Cobb's art, "the one saying, 'Okay, you have your vision; now I'm going to figure out how to make all the nuts and bolts work so you can do your thing'".[19]: 7  The actor did all but one of his stunt scenes and said the preparation "was a challenge and it would have to be for it to look real".[21] James Franco was in talks with Christopher Nolan to play Arthur, but was ultimately unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.[22]
  • Marion Cotillard as Mal, Cobb's deceased wife. She is a manifestation of Cobb's guilt about the real cause of Mal's suicide. He is unable to control these projections of her, challenging his abilities as an extractor.[23] Nolan described Mal as "the essence of the femme fatale," and DiCaprio praised Cotillard's performance, saying that "she can be strong and vulnerable and hopeful and heartbreaking all in the same moment, which was perfect for all the contradictions of her character".[19]
  • Elliot Page[a] as Ariadne, a graduate student of architecture who is recruited to construct the various dreamscapes, which are described as mazes. The name Ariadne alludes to a princess of Greek myth, daughter of King Minos, who aided the hero Theseus by giving him a sword and a ball of string to help him navigate the labyrinth which was the prison of the Minotaur. Nolan said that Page was chosen for being a "perfect combination of freshness and savvy and maturity beyond [his] years".[19]: 8  Page said their character acts as a proxy to the audience, as "she's just learning about these ideas and, in essence, assists the audience in learning about dream sharing".[24]
  • Tom Hardy as Eames, a sharp-tongued associate of Cobb. He is referred to as a fence but his specialty is forgery, more accurately identity theft. Eames uses his ability to impersonate others inside the dream world in order to manipulate Fischer. Hardy described his character as "an old, Graham Greene-type diplomat; sort of faded, shabby, grandeur—the old Shakespeare lovey mixed with somebody from Her Majesty's Special Forces", who wears "campy, old money" costumes.[25]
  • Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer Jr., the heir to a business empire and the team's target.[19]: 10  Murphy said Fischer was portrayed as "a petulant child who's in need of a lot of attention from his father, he has everything he could ever want materially, but he's deeply lacking emotionally". The actor also researched the sons of Rupert Murdoch, "to add to that the idea of living in the shadow of someone so immensely powerful".[26]
  • Tom Berenger as Browning, Robert Fischer's godfather and fellow executive at the Fischers' company.[27] Berenger said Browning acts as a "surrogate father" to Fischer, who calls the character "Uncle Peter", and emphasized that "Browning has been with [Robert] his whole life and has probably spent more quality time with him than his own father".[19]: 11 
  • Michael Caine as Stephen Miles, Cobb's mentor and father-in-law,[19]: 11  and Ariadne's college professor who recommends her to the team.[28]
  • Dileep Rao as Yusuf. Rao describes Yusuf as "an avant-garde pharmacologist, who is a resource for people, like Cobb, who want to do this work unsupervised, unregistered and unapproved of by anyone". Co-producer Jordan Goldberg said the role of the chemist was "particularly tough because you don't want him to seem like some kind of drug dealer", and that Rao was cast for being "funny, interesting and obviously smart".[19]: 11 
  • Lukas Haas as Nash, an architect in Cobb's employment who betrays the team and is later replaced by Ariadne.[29]
  • Talulah Riley as a woman, credited as "Blonde", whom Eames disguises himself as in a dream. Riley liked the role, despite it being minimal: "I get to wear a nice dress, pick up men in bars, and shove them in elevators. It was good to do something adultish. Usually I play 15-year-old English schoolgirls."[30]
  • Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer, Robert Fischer's father and the dying founder of a business empire.

Production

Development

 
Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan answer questions about Inception. The husband-and-wife team produced the film through their company Syncopy. Nolan also wrote and directed it.

Initially, Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about dream-stealers.[8] Nolan had originally envisioned Inception as a horror film,[8] but eventually wrote it as a heist film even though he found that "traditionally [they] are very deliberately superficial in emotional terms."[31] Upon revisiting his script, he decided that basing it in that genre did not work because the story "relies so heavily on the idea of the interior state, the idea of dream and memory. I realized I needed to raise the emotional stakes."[31]

Nolan worked on the script for nine to ten years.[16] When he first started thinking about making the film, Nolan was influenced by "that era of movies where you had The Matrix (1999), you had Dark City (1998), you had The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and, to a certain extent, you had Memento (2000), too. They were based in the principles that the world around you might not be real."[31][32]

Nolan first pitched the film to Warner Bros. in 2001, but decided that he needed more experience making large-scale films, and embarked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.[9] He soon realized that a film like Inception needed a large budget because "as soon as you're talking about dreams, the potential of the human mind is infinite. And so the scale of the film has to feel infinite. It has to feel like you could go anywhere by the end of the film. And it has to work on a massive scale."[9] After making The Dark Knight, Nolan decided to make Inception and spent six months completing the script.[9] Nolan said that the key to completing the script was wondering what would happen if several people shared the same dream. "Once you remove the privacy, you've created an infinite number of alternative universes in which people can meaningfully interact, with validity, with weight, with dramatic consequences."[33]

Nolan had been trying to work with Leonardo DiCaprio for years and met him several times, but was unable to recruit him for any of his films until Inception.[23] DiCaprio finally agreed because he was "intrigued by this concept—this dream-heist notion and how this character's going to unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life."[34]: 93–94  He read the script and found it to be "very well written, comprehensive but you really had to have Chris in person, to try to articulate some of the things that have been swirling around his head for the last eight years."[9] DiCaprio and Nolan spent months talking about the screenplay. Nolan took a long time re-writing the script in order "to make sure that the emotional journey of his [DiCaprio's] character was the driving force of the movie."[16] On February 11, 2009, it was announced that Warner Bros. purchased Inception, a spec script written by Nolan.[10]

Locations and sets

Principal photography began in Tokyo on June 19, 2009, with the scene in which Saito first hires Cobb during a helicopter flight over the city.[8][19]: 13 

The production moved to the United Kingdom and shot in a converted airship hangar in Cardington, Bedfordshire, north of London.[19]: 14  There, the hotel bar set which tilted 30 degrees was built.[35]: 29  A hotel corridor was also constructed by Guy Hendrix Dyas, the production designer, Chris Corbould, the special effects supervisor, and Wally Pfister, the director of photography; it rotated a full 360 degrees to create the effect of alternate directions of gravity for scenes set during the second level of dreaming, where dream-sector physics become chaotic. The idea was inspired by a technique used in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Nolan said, "I was interested in taking those ideas, techniques, and philosophies and applying them to an action scenario".[35]: 32  The filmmakers originally planned to make the hallway only 40 feet (12 m) long, but as the action sequence became more elaborate, the hallway's length was increased to 100 ft (30 m). The corridor was suspended along eight large concentric rings that were spaced equidistantly outside its walls and powered by two massive electric motors.[19]: 14 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Arthur, spent several weeks learning to fight in a corridor that spun like "a giant hamster wheel".[31] Nolan said of the device, "It was like some incredible torture device; we thrashed Joseph for weeks, but in the end we looked at the footage, and it looks unlike anything any of us has seen before. The rhythm of it is unique, and when you watch it, even if you know how it was done, it confuses your perceptions. It's unsettling in a wonderful way".[31] Gordon-Levitt remembered, "it was six-day weeks of just, like, coming home at night battered ... The light fixtures on the ceiling are coming around on the floor, and you have to choose the right time to cross through them, and if you don't, you're going to fall."[36] On July 15, 2009, filming took place at University College London for the sequences occurring inside a Paris college of architecture in the story,[8] including the library, Flaxman Gallery and Gustav Tuck Theatre.[37]

Filming moved to France, where they shot Cobb entering the college of architecture (the place used for the entrance was the Musée Galliera) and the pivotal scenes between Ariadne and Cobb, in a bistro (a fictional one set up at the corner of Rue César Franck and Rue Bouchut), and lastly on the Bir-Hakeim bridge.[19]: 17  For the explosion that takes place during the bistro scene, local authorities would not allow the use of real explosives. High-pressure nitrogen was used to create the effect of a series of explosions. Pfister used six high-speed cameras to capture the sequence from different angles and make sure that they got the shot. The visual effects department enhanced the sequence, adding more destruction and flying debris. For the "Paris folding" sequence and when Ariadne "creates" the bridges, green screen and CGI were used on location.[19]: 17 

Tangier, Morocco, doubled as Mombasa, where Cobb hires Eames and Yusuf. A foot chase was shot in the streets and alleyways of the historic medina quarter.[19]: 18  To capture this sequence, Pfister employed a mix of hand-held camera and steadicam work.[19]: 19  Tangier was also used as the setting for filming an important riot scene during the initial foray into Saito's mind.

Filming moved to the Los Angeles area, where some sets were built on a Warner Bros. sound stage, including the interior rooms of Saito's Japanese castle (the exterior was done on a small set built in Malibu Beach). The dining room was inspired by the historic Nijō Castle, built around 1603. These sets were inspired by a mix of Japanese architecture and Western influences.[19]: 19 

The production staged a multi-vehicle car chase on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, which involved a freight train crashing down the middle of a street.[19]: 20  To do this, the filmmakers configured a train engine on the chassis of a tractor trailer. The replica was made from fiberglass molds taken from authentic train parts and matched in terms of color and design.[19]: 21  Also, the car chase was supposed to be set in the midst of a downpour, but the L.A. weather stayed typically sunny. The filmmakers set up elaborate effects (e.g., rooftop water cannons) to give the audience the impression that the weather was overcast and soggy. L.A. was also the site of the climactic scene where a Ford Econoline van runs off the Schuyler Heim Bridge in slow motion.[38] This sequence was filmed on and off for months, with the van being shot out of a cannon, according to actor Dileep Rao. Capturing the actors suspended within the van in slow motion took a whole day to film.

Once the van landed in the water, the challenge for the actors was to avoid panic. "And when they ask you to act, it's a bit of an ask," explained Cillian Murphy.[38] The actors had to be underwater for four to five minutes while drawing air from scuba tanks; underwater buddy breathing is shown in this sequence.[38]

Cobb's house was in Pasadena. The hotel lobby was filmed at the CAA building in Century City. 'Limbo' was made on location in Los Angeles and Morocco, with the beach scene filmed at Palos Verdes beach with CGI buildings. N Hope St. in Los Angeles was the primary filming location for 'Limbo,' with green screen and CGI being used to create the dream landscape.

The final phase of principal photography took place in Alberta in late November 2009. The location manager discovered a temporarily closed ski resort, Fortress Mountain.[19]: 22  An elaborate set was assembled near the top station of the Canadian chairlift, taking three months to build.[34]: 93  The production had to wait for a huge snowstorm, which eventually arrived.[8] The ski-chase sequence was inspired by Nolan's favorite James Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969): "What I liked about it that we've tried to emulate in this film is there's a tremendous balance in that movie of action and scale and romanticism and tragedy and emotion."[34]: 91 

Cinematography

The film was shot primarily in the anamorphic format on 35 mm film, with key sequences filmed on 65 mm, and aerial sequences in VistaVision. Nolan did not shoot any footage with IMAX cameras as he had with The Dark Knight. "We didn't feel that we were going to be able to shoot in IMAX because of the size of the cameras because this film given that it deals with a potentially surreal area, the nature of dreams and so forth, I wanted it to be as realistic as possible. Not be bound by the scale of those IMAX cameras, even though I love the format dearly".[16] In addition Nolan and Pfister tested using Showscan and Super Dimension 70 as potential large-format, high-frame-rate camera systems to use for the film, but ultimately decided against either format.[35]: 29  Sequences in slow motion were filmed on a Photo-Sonics 35 mm camera at speeds of up to 1,000 frames per second. Wally Pfister tested shooting some of these sequences using a high speed digital camera, but found the format to be too unreliable due to technical glitches. "Out of six times that we shot on the digital format, we only had one usable piece and it didn't end up in the film. Out of the six times we shot with the Photo-Sonics camera and 35 mm running through it, every single shot was in the movie."[39] Nolan also chose not to shoot any of the film in 3D as he prefers shooting on film[16] using prime lenses, which is not possible with 3D cameras.[40] Nolan has also criticized the dim image that 3D projection produces, and disputes that traditional film does not allow realistic depth perception, saying "I think it's a misnomer to call it 3D versus 2D. The whole point of cinematic imagery is it's three dimensional... You know 95% of our depth cues come from occlusion, resolution, color and so forth, so the idea of calling a 2D movie a '2D movie' is a little misleading."[41] Nolan did test converting Inception into 3D in post-production but decided that, while it was possible, he lacked the time to complete the conversion to a standard he was happy with.[8][41] In February 2011 Jonathan Liebesman suggested that Warner Bros. were attempting a 3D conversion for Blu-ray release.[42]

Wally Pfister gave each location and dream level a distinctive look to aid the audience's recognition of the narrative's location during the heavily crosscut portion of the film: the mountain fortress appears sterile and cool, the hotel hallways have warm hues, and the scenes in the van are more neutral.[35]: 35–36 

Nolan has said that the film "deals with levels of reality, and perceptions of reality which is something I'm very interested in. It's an action film set in a contemporary world, but with a slight science-fiction bent to it", while also describing it as "very much an ensemble film structured somewhat as a heist movie. It's an action adventure that spans the globe".[43]

Visual effects

For dream sequences in Inception, Nolan used little computer-generated imagery, preferring practical effects whenever possible. Nolan said, "It's always very important to me to do as much as possible in-camera, and then, if necessary, computer graphics are very useful to build on or enhance what you have achieved physically."[19]: 12  To this end, visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin built a miniature of the mountain fortress set and then blew it up for the film. For the fight scene that takes place in zero gravity, he used CG-based effects to "subtly bend elements like physics, space and time."[44]

The most challenging effect was the "Limbo" city level at the end of the film, because it continually developed during production. Franklin had artists build concepts while Nolan expressed his ideal vision: "Something glacial, with clear modernist architecture, but with chunks of it breaking off into the sea like icebergs".[44] Franklin and his team ended up with "something that looked like an iceberg version of Gotham City with water running through it."[44] They created a basic model of a glacier and then designers created a program that added elements like roads, intersections and ravines until they had a complex, yet organic-looking, cityscape. For the Paris-folding sequence, Franklin had artists producing concept sketches and then they created rough computer animations to give them an idea of what the sequence looked like while in motion. Later during principal photography, Nolan was able to direct DiCaprio and Page based on this rough computer animation that Franklin had created. Inception had nearly 500 visual effects shots (in comparison, Batman Begins had approximately 620), which is relatively few in comparison to contemporary effects-heavy films, which can have as many as 2,000 visual effects shots.[44]

Music

Main article: Inception: Music from the Motion Picture

The score for Inception was written by Hans Zimmer,[27] who described his work as "a very electronic,[45] dense score",[46] filled with "nostalgia and sadness" to match Cobb's feelings throughout the film.[47] The music was written simultaneously to filming,[46] and features a guitar sound reminiscent of Ennio Morricone, played by Johnny Marr, former guitarist of the Smiths. Édith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I Regret Nothing") appears throughout the film, used to accurately time the dreams, and Zimmer reworked pieces of the song into cues of the score.[47] A soundtrack album was released on July 11, 2010, by Reprise Records.[48] The majority of the score was also included in high resolution 5.1 surround sound on the second disc of the two-disc Blu-ray release.[49] Hans Zimmer's music was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Score category in 2011, losing to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of The Social Network.[50]

Themes

Reality and dreams

 
Penrose stairs are incorporated into the film as an example of the impossible objects that can be created in lucid dream worlds.

In Inception, Nolan wanted to explore "the idea of people sharing a dream space... That gives you the ability to access somebody's unconscious mind. What would that be used and abused for?"[16] The majority of the film's plot takes place in these interconnected dream worlds. This structure creates a framework where actions in the real or dream worlds ripple across others. The dream is always in a state of production, and shifts across the levels as the characters navigate it.[51] By contrast, the world of The Matrix (1999) is an authoritarian, computer-controlled one, alluding to theories of social control developed by thinkers Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard. However, according to one interpretation Nolan's world has more in common with the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.[51]

David Denby in The New Yorker compared Nolan's cinematic treatment of dreams to Luis Buñuel's in Belle de Jour (1967) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972).[52] He criticized Nolan's "literal-minded" action level sequencing compared to Buñuel, who "silently pushed us into reveries and left us alone to enjoy our wonderment, but Nolan is working on so many levels of representation at once that he has to lay in pages of dialogue just to explain what's going on." The latter captures "the peculiar malign intensity of actual dreams."[52]

Deirdre Barrett, a dream researcher at Harvard University, said that Nolan did not get every detail accurate regarding dreams, but their illogical, rambling, disjointed plots would not make for a great thriller anyway. However, "he did get many aspects right," she said, citing the scene in which a sleeping Cobb is shoved into a full bath, and in the dream world water gushes into the windows of the building, waking him up. "That's very much how real stimuli get incorporated, and you very often wake up right after that intrusion."[53]

Nolan himself said, "I tried to work that idea of manipulation and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have. Really the script is based on those common, very basic experiences and concepts, and where can those take you? And the only outlandish idea that the film presents, really, is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and share the same dream as someone else."[31]

Dreams and cinema

Others have argued that the film is itself a metaphor for filmmaking, and that the filmgoing experience itself, images flashing before one's eyes in a darkened room, is akin to a dream. Writing in Wired, Jonah Lehrer supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film-watching and sleeping. In both, the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic, deliberate analysis, and self-awareness, is quiet.[54] Paul argued that the experience of going to a picturehouse is itself an exercise in shared dreaming, particularly when viewing Inception: the film's sharp cutting between scenes forces the viewer to create larger narrative arcs to stitch the pieces together. This demand of production parallel to consumption of the images, on the part of the audience is analogous to dreaming itself. As in the film's story, in a cinema one enters into the space of another's dream, in this case Nolan's, as with any work of art, one's reading of it is ultimately influenced by one's own subjective desires and subconscious.[51] At Bir-Hakeim bridge in Paris, Ariadne creates an illusion of infinity by adding facing mirrors underneath its struts, Stephanie Dreyfus in la Croix asked "Is this not a strong, beautiful metaphor for the cinema and its power of illusion?"[55]

Cinematic technique

See also: Cinematic style of Christopher Nolan

Genre

Nolan combined elements from several different film genres into the film, notably science fiction, heist film, and film noir. Marion Cotillard plays "Mal" Cobb, Dom Cobb's projection of his guilt over his deceased wife's suicide. As the film's main antagonist, she is a frequent, malevolent presence in his dreams. Dom is unable to control these projections of her, challenging his abilities as an extractor.[23] Nolan described Mal as "the essence of the femme fatale",[19]: 9  the key noir reference in the film. As a "classic femme fatale" her relationship with Cobb is in his mind, a manifestation of Cobb's own neurosis and fear of how little he knows about the woman he loves.[56] DiCaprio praised Cotillard's performance saying that "she can be strong and vulnerable and hopeful and heartbreaking all in the same moment, which was perfect for all the contradictions of her character".[19]: 10 

Nolan began with the structure of a heist movie, since exposition is an essential element of that genre, though adapted it to have a greater emotional narrative suited to the world of dreams and subconscious.[56] As Denby described this device: "the outer shell of the story is an elaborate caper".[52] Kristin Thompson argued that exposition was a major formal device in the film. While a traditional heist movie has a heavy dose of exposition at the beginning as the team assembles and the leader explains the plan, in Inception this becomes nearly continuous as the group progresses through the various levels of dreaming.[57] Three quarters of the film, until the van begins to fall from the bridge, are devoted to explaining its plot. In this way, exposition takes precedence over characterization. The characters' relationships are created by their respective skills and roles. Ariadne, like her ancient namesake, creates the maze and guides the others through it, but also helps Cobb navigate his own subconscious, and as the sole student of dream sharing, helps the audience understand the concept of the plot.[58]

Nolan drew inspiration from the works of Jorge Luis Borges,[8][59] including "The Secret Miracle" and "The Circular Ruins",[60] and from the films Blade Runner (1982) and The Matrix (1999).[60][61] While Nolan has not confirmed this, it has also been suggested by many observers that the movie draws heavy inspiration from the 2006 animated film Paprika.[62][63][64]

Ending

The film cuts to the closing credits from a shot of the top apparently starting to show an ever so faint wobble, inviting speculation about whether the final sequence was reality or another dream. Nolan confirmed that the ambiguity was deliberate,[56] saying, "I've been asked the question more times than I've ever been asked any other question about any other film I've made... What's funny to me is that people really do expect me to answer it."[65] The film's script concludes with "Behind him, on the table, the spinning top is STILL SPINNING. And we—FADE OUT".[66] Nolan said, "I put that cut there at the end, imposing an ambiguity from outside the film. That always felt the right ending to me—it always felt like the appropriate 'kick' to me... The real point of the scene—and this is what I tell people—is that Cobb isn't looking at the top. He's looking at his kids. He's left it behind. That's the emotional significance of the thing."[65]

Caine interpreted the ending as meaning that Cobb is in the real world, quoting Nolan as telling him "'Well, when you're in the scene, it's reality.' So get that — if I'm in it, it's reality. If I'm not in it, it's a dream". While reiterating that he was uncomfortable with definitively explaining the scene, Nolan in 2023 credited Emma Thomas as providing "the correct answer, which is Leo's character ... doesn't care at that point".[67] Mark Fisher argued that "a century of cultural theory" cautions against accepting the author's interpretation as anything more than a supplementary text, and this all the more so given the theme of the instability of any one master position in Nolan's films. Therein the manipulator is often the one who ends up manipulated, and Cobb's "not caring" about whether or not his world is real may be the price of his happiness and release.[68]

Release

Marketing

Warner Bros. spent US$100 million marketing the film. Although Inception was not part of an existing franchise, Sue Kroll, president of Warner's worldwide marketing, said the company believed it could gain awareness due to the strength of "Christopher Nolan as a brand". Kroll declared that "We don't have the brand equity that usually drives a big summer opening, but we have a great cast and a fresh idea from a filmmaker with a track record of making incredible movies. If you can't make those elements work, it's a sad day."[69] The studio also tried to maintain a campaign of secrecy—as reported by the Senior VP of Interactive Marketing, Michael Tritter, "You have this movie which is going to have a pretty big built in fanbase... but you also have a movie that you are trying to keep very secret. Chris [Nolan] really likes people to see his movies in a theater and not see it all beforehand so everything that you do to market that—at least early on—is with an eye to feeding the interest to fans."[70]

A viral marketing campaign was employed for the film. After the revelation of the first teaser trailer, in August 2009, the film's official website featured only an animation of Cobb's spinning top. In December, the top toppled over and the website opened the online game Mind Crime, which upon completion revealed Inception's poster.[71] The rest of the campaign unrolled after WonderCon in April 2010, where Warner gave away promotional T-shirts featuring the PASIV briefcase used to create the dream space, and had a QR code linking to an online manual of the device.[72] Mind Crime also received a stage 2 with more resources, including a hidden trailer for the movie.[73] More pieces of viral marketing began to surface before Inception's release, such as a manual filled with bizarre images and text sent to Wired magazine,[74] and the online publication of posters, ads, phone applications, and strange websites all related to the film.[75][76] Warner also released an online prequel comic, Inception: The Cobol Job.[77]

The official trailer released on May 10, 2010, through Mind Game was extremely well received.[73] It featured an original piece of music, "Mind Heist", by recording artist Zack Hemsey,[78] rather than music from the score.[79] The trailer quickly went viral with numerous mashups copying its style, both by amateurs on sites like YouTube[80] and by professionals on sites such as CollegeHumor.[81][82] On June 7, 2010, a behind-the-scenes featurette on the film was released in HD on Yahoo! Movies.[83]

Inception and its film trailers are widely credited for launching the trend throughout the 2010s in which blockbuster movie trailers repeatedly hit audiences with so-called "braam" sounds: "bassy, brassy, thunderous notes—like a foghorn on steroids—meant to impart a sense of apocalyptic momentousness".[84] However, different composers worked on the teaser trailer, first trailer, second trailer, and film score, meaning that identifying the composer(s) responsible for that trend is a complicated task.[84]

Home media

Inception was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 3, 2010, in France,[85] and the week after in the UK and USA (December 7, 2010).[86][87] Warner Bros. also made available in the United States a limited Blu-ray edition packaged in a metal replica of the PASIV briefcase, which included extras such as a metal replica of the spinning top totem. With a production run of less than 2,000, it sold out in one weekend.[88] Inception was released on 4K Blu-ray and digital copy along with other Christopher Nolan films on December 19, 2017.[89] As of 2018, the home video releases have sold over 9 million units and grossed over $160 million.[90]

Putative video game

In a November 2010 interview, Nolan expressed his intention to develop a video game set in the Inception world, working with a team of collaborators. He described it as "a longer-term proposition", referring to the medium of video games as "something I've wanted to explore".[91]

10th anniversary re-release

Inception was re-released in theaters for its tenth anniversary, starting on August 12, 2020, in international markets and on August 21 in the U.S.[92] The re-release was originally announced by Warner Bros. in June 2020 and scheduled for July 17, 2020, taking the original release date for Nolan's upcoming film Tenet after its delay to July 31 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on movie theaters.[93] After Tenet was delayed again to August 12, the re-release was shifted to July 31,[94] before setting on the August release date following a third delay.[92]

Reception

Box office

Film Release date Box office revenue Box office ranking Budget Reference
United States North America International Worldwide All-time domestic All-time worldwide
Inception July 2010 US$292,587,330 US$578,205,319 US$870,792,649 No. 109 No. 80 US$160,000,000 [95]

Inception was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters on July 16, 2010.[96][97] The film had its world premiere at Leicester Square in London on July 8, 2010.[98] In the United States and Canada, Inception was released theatrically in 3,792 conventional theaters and 195 IMAX theaters.[96] The film grossed US$21.8 million during its opening day on July 16, 2010, with midnight screenings in 1,500 locations.[99] Overall the film made US$62.7 million and debuted at No.1 on its opening weekend.[100] Inception's opening weekend gross made it the second-highest-grossing debut for a science fiction film that was not a sequel, remake or adaptation, behind Avatar's US$77 million opening-weekend gross in 2009.[100] The film held the top spot of the box office rankings in its second and third weekends, with drops of just 32% (US$42.7 million) and 36% (US$27.5 million), respectively,[101][102] before dropping to second place in its fourth week, behind The Other Guys.[103]

Inception grossed US$292 million in the United States and Canada, US$56 million in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta and US$475 million in other countries for a total of US$823 million worldwide.[3] Its five highest-grossing markets after the US and Canada (US$292 million) were China (US$68 million), the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta (US$56 million), France and the Maghreb region (US$43 million), Japan (US$40 million) and South Korea (US$38 million).[104] It was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2010 in North America,[105] and the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2010, behind Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.[106] Inception is the third most lucrative production in Christopher Nolan's career—behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises[107]—and the second most for Leonardo DiCaprio—behind Titanic.[108]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 370 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart, innovative, and thrilling, Inception is that rare summer blockbuster that succeeds viscerally as well as intellectually."[109] Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[110] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[111]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Inception a "wildly ingenious chess game," and concluded "the result is a knockout."[112] Justin Chang of Variety praised the film as "a conceptual tour de force" and wrote, "applying a vivid sense of procedural detail to a fiendishly intricate yarn set in the labyrinth of the unconscious mind, the writer-director has devised a heist thriller for surrealists, a Jungian's Rififi, that challenges viewers to sift through multiple layers of (un)reality."[113] Jim Vejvoda of IGN rated the film as perfect, deeming it "a singular accomplishment from a filmmaker who has only gotten better with each film."[114] Relevant's David Roark called it Nolan's "greatest accomplishment", saying, "Visually, intellectually and emotionally, Inception is a masterpiece."[115]

In its August 2010 issue, Empire gave the film a full five stars and wrote, "it feels like Stanley Kubrick adapting the work of the great sci-fi author William Gibson [...] Nolan delivers another true original: welcome to an undiscovered country."[116] Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film a B+ grade and wrote, "It's a rolling explosion of images as hypnotizing and sharply angled as any in a drawing by M. C. Escher or a state-of-the-biz video game; the backwards splicing of Nolan's own Memento looks rudimentary by comparison."[117] The New York Post's Lou Lumenick gave the film a four-star rating and wrote, "DiCaprio, who has never been better as the tortured hero, draws you in with a love story that will appeal even to non-sci-fi fans."[118] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film a full four stars and said that Inception "is all about process, about fighting our way through enveloping sheets of reality and dream, reality within dreams, dreams without reality. It's a breathtaking juggling act."[119] Richard Roeper, also of the Sun-Times, gave Inception an "A+" score and called it "one of the best movies of the [21st] century."[120] BBC Radio 5 Live's Mark Kermode named Inception as the best film of 2010, stating that "Inception is proof that people are not stupid, that cinema is not trash, and that it is possible for blockbusters and art to be the same thing."[121]

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "I found myself wishing Inception were weirder, further out [...] the film is Nolan's labyrinth all the way, and it's gratifying to experience a summer movie with large visual ambitions and with nothing more or less on its mind than (as Shakespeare said) a dream that hath no bottom."[122] Time's Richard Corliss wrote that the film's "noble intent is to implant one man's vision in the mind of a vast audience [...] The idea of moviegoing as communal dreaming is a century old. With Inception, viewers have a chance to see that notion get a state-of-the-art update."[123] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt that Nolan was able to blend "the best of traditional and modern filmmaking. If you're searching for smart and nervy popular entertainment, this is what it looks like."[124] USA Today's Claudia Puig gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars and felt that Nolan "regards his viewers as possibly smarter than they are—or at least as capable of rising to his inventive level. That's a tall order. But it's refreshing to find a director who makes us stretch, even occasionally struggle, to keep up."[125]

Not all reviewers gave the film positive reviews. New York magazine's David Edelstein said in his review that he had "no idea what so many people are raving about. It's as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that Inception is a visionary masterpiece and—hold on ... Whoa! I think I get it. The movie is a metaphor for the power of delusional hype—a metaphor for itself."[126] The New York Observer's Rex Reed said the film's development was "pretty much what we've come to expect from summer movies in general and Christopher Nolan movies in particular ... [it] doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment to me."[127] A. O. Scott of The New York Times commented "there is a lot to see in Inception, there is nothing that counts as genuine vision. Mr. Nolan's idea of the mind is too literal, too logical, and too rule-bound to allow the full measure of madness."[128] The New Yorker's David Denby considered the film to "not nearly [be] as much fun as Nolan imagined it to be", concluding that "Inception is a stunning-looking film that gets lost in fabulous intricacies, a movie devoted to its own workings and to little else."[52]

While some critics have tended to view the film as perfectly straightforward, and even criticize its overarching themes as "the stuff of torpid platitudes", online discussion has been much more positive.[129] Heated debate has centered on the ambiguity of the ending, with many critics like Devin Faraci making the case that the film is self-referential and tongue-in-cheek, both a film about film-making and a dream about dreams.[130] Other critics read Inception as Christian allegory and focus on the film's use of religious and water symbolism.[131] Yet other critics, such as Kristin Thompson, see less value in the ambiguous ending of the film and more in its structure and novel method of storytelling, highlighting Inception as a new form of narrative that revels in "continuous exposition".[57]

Several critics and scholars have noted the film has many striking similarities to the 2006 anime film Paprika by Satoshi Kon (and Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1993 novel of the same name), including plot similarities, similar scenes, and similar characters, arguing that Inception was influenced by Paprika.[62][63][64][132][133] Several sources have also noted plot similarities between the film and the 2002 Uncle Scrooge comic The Dream of a Lifetime by Don Rosa.[134][135][136] The influence of Tarkovsky's Solaris on Inception was noted as well.[137][138]

Year-end and all-time lists

Inception appeared on over 273 critics' lists of the top ten films of 2010, being picked as number-one on at least 55 of those lists.[139] It was the second-most-mentioned film in both the top ten lists and number-one rankings, only behind The Social Network along with Toy Story 3, True Grit, The King's Speech, and Black Swan as the most critically acclaimed films of 2010.[139] Author Stephen King placed Inception at No. 3 in his list of top 10 best films of the year.[140]

Critics and publications who ranked the film first for that year included Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times (tied with The Social Network and Toy Story 3), Tasha Robinson of The A.V. Club, Empire magazine, and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter.[141]

In March 2011, the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra listeners as their ninth-favorite film of all time.[142] Producer Roger Corman cited Inception as an example of "great imagination and originality".[143] It was voted as the third-best science fiction film of all time in the 2011 list Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, based on a poll conducted by ABC and People.[citation needed] In 2012, Inception was ranked the 35th-best-edited film of all time by the Motion Picture Editors Guild.[144] In the same year, Total Film named it the most-rewatchable movie of all time.[145] In 2014, Empire ranked Inception the tenth-greatest film ever made on their list of "The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time" as voted by the magazine's readers,[146] while Rolling Stone magazine named it the second-best science fiction film since the turn of the century.[147] Inception was ranked 84th on Hollywood's 100 Favorite Films, a list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, surveying "Studio chiefs, Oscar winners and TV royalty".[148] In 2016, Inception was voted the 51st-best film of the 21st Century by BBC, as picked by 177 film critics from around the world.[149] The film was included in the Visual Effects Society's list of "The Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time".[150] In 2019, Total Film named Inception the best film of the 2010s.[151] Many critics and media outlets included Inception in their rankings of the best films of the 2010s.[152][153][154][155][156][157] The film was included in Forbes magazine's list of Top 150 Greatest Films of 21st Century.[158]

In April 2014, The Daily Telegraph placed the title on its top ten list of the most overrated films. Telegraph's Tim Robey stated, "It's a criminal failing of the movie that it purports to be about people's dreams being invaded, but demonstrates no instinct at all for what a dream has ever felt like, and no flair for making us feel like we're in one, at any point."[159] The film won an informal poll by the Los Angeles Times as the most overrated movie of 2010.[160]

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Inception

The film won many awards in technical categories, such as Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects,[50] and the British Academy Film Awards for Best Production Design, Best Special Visual Effects and Best Sound.[161] In most of its artistic nominations, such as Film, Director, and Screenplay at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes, the film was defeated by The Social Network or The King's Speech.[50][161][162] However, the film did win the two highest honors for a science fiction or fantasy film: the 2011 Bradbury Award for best dramatic production[163] and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form).[164]

In popular culture

Numerous pop and hip hop songs reference the film, including Common's "Blue Sky", N.E.R.D.'s "Hypnotize U", XV's "The Kick", Black Eyed Peas' "Just Can't Get Enough", Lil Wayne's "6 Foot 7 Foot", Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor", and B.o.B's "Strange Clouds", while T.I. had Inception-based artwork on two of his mixtapes. An instrumental track by Joe Budden is titled "Inception".[165] The animated series South Park parodies the film in the show's tenth episode of its fourteenth season, titled "Insheeption."[166] The film was also an influence for Ariana Grande's video for "No Tears Left to Cry."[167] "Lawnmower Dog", the second episode of the animated comedy show Rick and Morty, parodied the film.[168] In an episode of The Simpsons, named "How I Wet Your Mother", the plot spoofs Inception with various scenes parodying moments from the film.[169] The showrunners of the television series The Flash said its season 4 finale was inspired by Inception.[170] In February 2020, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released a lyric video for her single "The Man", which featured visuals bearing resemblance to the film. The song also mentions DiCaprio in its lyrics.[171]

The film's title has been colloquialized as the suffix -ception, which can be jokingly appended to a noun to indicate a layering, nesting, or recursion of the thing in question.[172]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Credited as Ellen Page; Page came out as transgender and changed his name in 2020.[173]

References

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Further reading

  • Crawford, Kevin Ray (2012), The Rhetorics of the Time-Image: Deleuzian Metadiscourse on the Role of Nooshock Temporality (viz. "Inception") in Christopher Nolan's Cinema of the Brain, ProQuest LLC
  • Johnson, David Kyle; Irwin, William (2011). Inception and Philosophy: Because It's Never Just a Dream. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-07263-9.
  • Jones, Ralph (April 21, 2021). "The VFX company behind 'Inception' reveals the movie's biggest secrets". Inverse. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  • Nolan, Christopher; Nolan, Jonathan (2010). Inception: The Shooting Script. Insight Editions. ISBN 978-1-60887-015-8.

External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Inception.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inception.
  • Official website
  • Inception at IMDb  

January 09, 2024
inception, other, uses, disambiguation, 2010, science, fiction, action, film, written, directed, christopher, nolan, also, produced, film, with, emma, thomas, wife, film, stars, leonardo, dicaprio, professional, thief, steals, information, infiltrating, subcon. For other uses see Inception disambiguation Inception is a 2010 science fiction action film 4 5 6 written and directed by Christopher Nolan who also produced the film with Emma Thomas his wife The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person s idea into a target s subconscious 7 The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe Joseph Gordon Levitt Marion Cotillard Elliot Page a Tom Hardy Cillian Murphy Tom Berenger Dileep Rao and Michael Caine InceptionTheatrical release posterDirected byChristopher NolanWritten byChristopher NolanProduced byEmma Thomas Christopher NolanStarringLeonardo DiCaprio Ken Watanabe Joseph Gordon Levitt Marion Cotillard Elliot Page a Tom Hardy Cillian Murphy Tom Berenger Michael CaineCinematographyWally PfisterEdited byLee SmithMusic byHans ZimmerProductioncompaniesWarner Bros Pictures Legendary Pictures SyncopyDistributed byWarner Bros PicturesRelease datesJuly 8 2010 2010 07 08 Odeon Leicester Square July 16 2010 2010 07 16 United States and United Kingdom Running time148 minutes 1 CountriesUnited States 2 United Kingdom 2 LanguageEnglishBudget 160 million 3 Box office 839 million 3 After the 2002 completion of Insomnia Nolan presented to Warner Bros a written 80 page treatment for a horror film envisioning dream stealers based on lucid dreaming 8 Deciding he needed more experience before tackling a production of this magnitude and complexity Nolan shelved the project and instead worked on 2005 s Batman Begins 2006 s The Prestige and 2008 s The Dark Knight 9 The treatment was revised over six months and was purchased by Warner in February 2009 10 Inception was filmed in six countries beginning in Tokyo on June 19 and ending in Canada on November 22 11 Its official budget was 160 million split between Warner Bros and Legendary 12 Nolan s reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film s US 100 million in advertising expenditure Inception s premiere was held in London on July 8 2010 it was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters beginning on July 16 2010 13 14 Inception grossed over 837 million worldwide becoming the fourth highest grossing film of 2010 Considered one of the best films of the 2010s 15 Inception won four Oscars Best Cinematography Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing Best Visual Effects and was nominated for four more Best Picture Best Original Screenplay Best Art Direction Best Original Score at the 83rd Academy Awards Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Locations and sets 3 3 Cinematography 3 4 Visual effects 4 Music 5 Themes 5 1 Reality and dreams 5 2 Dreams and cinema 6 Cinematic technique 6 1 Genre 6 2 Ending 7 Release 7 1 Marketing 7 2 Home media 7 3 Putative video game 7 4 10th anniversary re release 8 Reception 8 1 Box office 8 2 Critical response 8 3 Year end and all time lists 9 Accolades 10 In popular culture 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External linksPlotCobb and Arthur are extractors who perform corporate espionage using experimental dream sharing technology to infiltrate their targets subconscious and extract information Their latest target Saito is impressed with Cobb s ability to layer multiple dreams within each other He offers to hire Cobb for the ostensibly impossible job of implanting an idea into a person s subconscious performing inception on Robert Fischer the son of Saito s competitor Maurice Fischer with the idea to dissolve his father s company In return Saito promises to clear Cobb s criminal status allowing him to return home to his children Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team a forger named Eames a chemist named Yusuf and a college student named Ariadne Ariadne is tasked with designing the dream s architecture something Cobb himself cannot do for fear of being sabotaged by his mind s projection of his late wife Mal Maurice Fischer dies and the team sedates Robert Fischer into a three layer shared dream on an airplane to America bought by Saito Time on each layer runs slower than the layer above with one member staying behind on each to perform a music synchronized kick using the French song Non je ne regrette rien to awaken dreamers on all three levels simultaneously The team abducts Robert in a city on the first level but his trained subconscious projections attack them After Saito is wounded Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would usually awaken dreamers Yusuf s sedatives will instead send them into Limbo a world of infinite subconscious Eames impersonates Robert s godfather Peter Browning to introduce the idea of an alternate will to dissolve the company Cobb tells Ariadne that he and Mal entered Limbo while experimenting with dream sharing experiencing fifty years in one night due to the time dilation with reality Mal refused to return to reality and Cobb instead performed inception on her to convince her After waking up Mal still believed she was dreaming Attempting to wake up she committed suicide and framed Cobb to force him to do the same Cobb fled the U S leaving his children behind Yusuf drives the team around the first level as they are sedated into the second level a hotel dreamed by Arthur Cobb persuades Robert that Browning has kidnapped him to stop the dissolution and that Cobb is a defensive projection leading Robert to another third level deeper as part of a ruse to enter Robert s subconscious In the third level the team infiltrates an alpine fortress with a projection of Maurice inside where the inception itself can be performed However Yusuf performs his kick too soon by driving off a bridge forcing Arthur and Eames to improvise a new set of kicks synchronized with them hitting the water by rigging an elevator and the fortress respectively with explosives Mal then appears and kills Robert before he can be subjected to the inception and he and Saito are lost in Limbo forcing Cobb and Ariadne to rescue them in time for Robert s inception and Eames s kick Cobb makes peace with his part in causing Mal s death Ariadne kills Mal s projection and wakes Robert up with a kick Revived into the third level he discovers the planted idea his dying father telling him to create something for himself While Cobb searches for Saito in Limbo the others ride the synced kicks back to reality Cobb finds an aged Saito and reminds him of their agreement The dreamers all awaken on the plane and Saito makes a phone call Arriving in Los Angeles Cobb passes the immigration checkpoint and his father in law accompanies him to his home Cobb uses Mal s totem a top that spins indefinitely in a dream to test if he is indeed in the real world but he chooses not to observe the result and instead joins his children Cast nbsp The cast at a premiere for the film in July 2010 From left to right Cillian Murphy Marion Cotillard Joseph Gordon Levitt Elliot Page Ken Watanabe Michael Caine and Leonardo DiCaprioLeonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb a professional thief who specializes in conning secrets from his victims by infiltrating their dreams DiCaprio was the first actor to be cast in the film 16 Both Brad Pitt and Will Smith were offered the role according to The Hollywood Reporter 17 Cobb s role is compared to the haunted widower in a Gothic romance 18 Ken Watanabe as Saito a Japanese businessman who employs Cobb for the team s mission Nolan wrote the role with Watanabe in mind as he wanted to work with him again after Batman Begins 19 10 Inception is Watanabe s first work in a contemporary setting where his primary language is English Watanabe tried to emphasize a different characteristic of Saito in every dream level First chapter in my castle I pick up some hidden feelings of the cycle It s magical powerful and then the first dream And back to the second chapter in the old hotel I pick up being sharp and more calm and smart and it s a little bit of a different process to make up the character of any movie 20 Joseph Gordon Levitt as Arthur Cobb s partner who manages and researches the missions Gordon Levitt compared Arthur to the producer of Cobb s art the one saying Okay you have your vision now I m going to figure out how to make all the nuts and bolts work so you can do your thing 19 7 The actor did all but one of his stunt scenes and said the preparation was a challenge and it would have to be for it to look real 21 James Franco was in talks with Christopher Nolan to play Arthur but was ultimately unavailable due to scheduling conflicts 22 Marion Cotillard as Mal Cobb s deceased wife She is a manifestation of Cobb s guilt about the real cause of Mal s suicide He is unable to control these projections of her challenging his abilities as an extractor 23 Nolan described Mal as the essence of the femme fatale and DiCaprio praised Cotillard s performance saying that she can be strong and vulnerable and hopeful and heartbreaking all in the same moment which was perfect for all the contradictions of her character 19 Elliot Page a as Ariadne a graduate student of architecture who is recruited to construct the various dreamscapes which are described as mazes The name Ariadne alludes to a princess of Greek myth daughter of King Minos who aided the hero Theseus by giving him a sword and a ball of string to help him navigate the labyrinth which was the prison of the Minotaur Nolan said that Page was chosen for being a perfect combination of freshness and savvy and maturity beyond his years 19 8 Page said their character acts as a proxy to the audience as she s just learning about these ideas and in essence assists the audience in learning about dream sharing 24 Tom Hardy as Eames a sharp tongued associate of Cobb He is referred to as a fence but his specialty is forgery more accurately identity theft Eames uses his ability to impersonate others inside the dream world in order to manipulate Fischer Hardy described his character as an old Graham Greene type diplomat sort of faded shabby grandeur the old Shakespeare lovey mixed with somebody from Her Majesty s Special Forces who wears campy old money costumes 25 Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer Jr the heir to a business empire and the team s target 19 10 Murphy said Fischer was portrayed as a petulant child who s in need of a lot of attention from his father he has everything he could ever want materially but he s deeply lacking emotionally The actor also researched the sons of Rupert Murdoch to add to that the idea of living in the shadow of someone so immensely powerful 26 Tom Berenger as Browning Robert Fischer s godfather and fellow executive at the Fischers company 27 Berenger said Browning acts as a surrogate father to Fischer who calls the character Uncle Peter and emphasized that Browning has been with Robert his whole life and has probably spent more quality time with him than his own father 19 11 Michael Caine as Stephen Miles Cobb s mentor and father in law 19 11 and Ariadne s college professor who recommends her to the team 28 Dileep Rao as Yusuf Rao describes Yusuf as an avant garde pharmacologist who is a resource for people like Cobb who want to do this work unsupervised unregistered and unapproved of by anyone Co producer Jordan Goldberg said the role of the chemist was particularly tough because you don t want him to seem like some kind of drug dealer and that Rao was cast for being funny interesting and obviously smart 19 11 Lukas Haas as Nash an architect in Cobb s employment who betrays the team and is later replaced by Ariadne 29 Talulah Riley as a woman credited as Blonde whom Eames disguises himself as in a dream Riley liked the role despite it being minimal I get to wear a nice dress pick up men in bars and shove them in elevators It was good to do something adultish Usually I play 15 year old English schoolgirls 30 Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer Robert Fischer s father and the dying founder of a business empire ProductionDevelopment nbsp Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan answer questions about Inception The husband and wife team produced the film through their company Syncopy Nolan also wrote and directed it Initially Nolan wrote an 80 page treatment about dream stealers 8 Nolan had originally envisioned Inception as a horror film 8 but eventually wrote it as a heist film even though he found that traditionally they are very deliberately superficial in emotional terms 31 Upon revisiting his script he decided that basing it in that genre did not work because the story relies so heavily on the idea of the interior state the idea of dream and memory I realized I needed to raise the emotional stakes 31 Nolan worked on the script for nine to ten years 16 When he first started thinking about making the film Nolan was influenced by that era of movies where you had The Matrix 1999 you had Dark City 1998 you had The Thirteenth Floor 1999 and to a certain extent you had Memento 2000 too They were based in the principles that the world around you might not be real 31 32 Nolan first pitched the film to Warner Bros in 2001 but decided that he needed more experience making large scale films and embarked on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight 9 He soon realized that a film like Inception needed a large budget because as soon as you re talking about dreams the potential of the human mind is infinite And so the scale of the film has to feel infinite It has to feel like you could go anywhere by the end of the film And it has to work on a massive scale 9 After making The Dark Knight Nolan decided to make Inception and spent six months completing the script 9 Nolan said that the key to completing the script was wondering what would happen if several people shared the same dream Once you remove the privacy you ve created an infinite number of alternative universes in which people can meaningfully interact with validity with weight with dramatic consequences 33 Nolan had been trying to work with Leonardo DiCaprio for years and met him several times but was unable to recruit him for any of his films until Inception 23 DiCaprio finally agreed because he was intrigued by this concept this dream heist notion and how this character s going to unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life 34 93 94 He read the script and found it to be very well written comprehensive but you really had to have Chris in person to try to articulate some of the things that have been swirling around his head for the last eight years 9 DiCaprio and Nolan spent months talking about the screenplay Nolan took a long time re writing the script in order to make sure that the emotional journey of his DiCaprio s character was the driving force of the movie 16 On February 11 2009 it was announced that Warner Bros purchased Inception a spec script written by Nolan 10 Locations and sets Principal photography began in Tokyo on June 19 2009 with the scene in which Saito first hires Cobb during a helicopter flight over the city 8 19 13 The production moved to the United Kingdom and shot in a converted airship hangar in Cardington Bedfordshire north of London 19 14 There the hotel bar set which tilted 30 degrees was built 35 29 A hotel corridor was also constructed by Guy Hendrix Dyas the production designer Chris Corbould the special effects supervisor and Wally Pfister the director of photography it rotated a full 360 degrees to create the effect of alternate directions of gravity for scenes set during the second level of dreaming where dream sector physics become chaotic The idea was inspired by a technique used in Stanley Kubrick s 2001 A Space Odyssey 1968 Nolan said I was interested in taking those ideas techniques and philosophies and applying them to an action scenario 35 32 The filmmakers originally planned to make the hallway only 40 feet 12 m long but as the action sequence became more elaborate the hallway s length was increased to 100 ft 30 m The corridor was suspended along eight large concentric rings that were spaced equidistantly outside its walls and powered by two massive electric motors 19 14 Joseph Gordon Levitt who plays Arthur spent several weeks learning to fight in a corridor that spun like a giant hamster wheel 31 Nolan said of the device It was like some incredible torture device we thrashed Joseph for weeks but in the end we looked at the footage and it looks unlike anything any of us has seen before The rhythm of it is unique and when you watch it even if you know how it was done it confuses your perceptions It s unsettling in a wonderful way 31 Gordon Levitt remembered it was six day weeks of just like coming home at night battered The light fixtures on the ceiling are coming around on the floor and you have to choose the right time to cross through them and if you don t you re going to fall 36 On July 15 2009 filming took place at University College London for the sequences occurring inside a Paris college of architecture in the story 8 including the library Flaxman Gallery and Gustav Tuck Theatre 37 Filming moved to France where they shot Cobb entering the college of architecture the place used for the entrance was the Musee Galliera and the pivotal scenes between Ariadne and Cobb in a bistro a fictional one set up at the corner of Rue Cesar Franck and Rue Bouchut and lastly on the Bir Hakeim bridge 19 17 For the explosion that takes place during the bistro scene local authorities would not allow the use of real explosives High pressure nitrogen was used to create the effect of a series of explosions Pfister used six high speed cameras to capture the sequence from different angles and make sure that they got the shot The visual effects department enhanced the sequence adding more destruction and flying debris For the Paris folding sequence and when Ariadne creates the bridges green screen and CGI were used on location 19 17 Tangier Morocco doubled as Mombasa where Cobb hires Eames and Yusuf A foot chase was shot in the streets and alleyways of the historic medina quarter 19 18 To capture this sequence Pfister employed a mix of hand held camera and steadicam work 19 19 Tangier was also used as the setting for filming an important riot scene during the initial foray into Saito s mind Filming moved to the Los Angeles area where some sets were built on a Warner Bros sound stage including the interior rooms of Saito s Japanese castle the exterior was done on a small set built in Malibu Beach The dining room was inspired by the historic Nijō Castle built around 1603 These sets were inspired by a mix of Japanese architecture and Western influences 19 19 The production staged a multi vehicle car chase on the streets of downtown Los Angeles which involved a freight train crashing down the middle of a street 19 20 To do this the filmmakers configured a train engine on the chassis of a tractor trailer The replica was made from fiberglass molds taken from authentic train parts and matched in terms of color and design 19 21 Also the car chase was supposed to be set in the midst of a downpour but the L A weather stayed typically sunny The filmmakers set up elaborate effects e g rooftop water cannons to give the audience the impression that the weather was overcast and soggy L A was also the site of the climactic scene where a Ford Econoline van runs off the Schuyler Heim Bridge in slow motion 38 This sequence was filmed on and off for months with the van being shot out of a cannon according to actor Dileep Rao Capturing the actors suspended within the van in slow motion took a whole day to film Once the van landed in the water the challenge for the actors was to avoid panic And when they ask you to act it s a bit of an ask explained Cillian Murphy 38 The actors had to be underwater for four to five minutes while drawing air from scuba tanks underwater buddy breathing is shown in this sequence 38 Cobb s house was in Pasadena The hotel lobby was filmed at the CAA building in Century City Limbo was made on location in Los Angeles and Morocco with the beach scene filmed at Palos Verdes beach with CGI buildings N Hope St in Los Angeles was the primary filming location for Limbo with green screen and CGI being used to create the dream landscape The final phase of principal photography took place in Alberta in late November 2009 The location manager discovered a temporarily closed ski resort Fortress Mountain 19 22 An elaborate set was assembled near the top station of the Canadian chairlift taking three months to build 34 93 The production had to wait for a huge snowstorm which eventually arrived 8 The ski chase sequence was inspired by Nolan s favorite James Bond film On Her Majesty s Secret Service 1969 What I liked about it that we ve tried to emulate in this film is there s a tremendous balance in that movie of action and scale and romanticism and tragedy and emotion 34 91 Cinematography The film was shot primarily in the anamorphic format on 35 mm film with key sequences filmed on 65 mm and aerial sequences in VistaVision Nolan did not shoot any footage with IMAX cameras as he had with The Dark Knight We didn t feel that we were going to be able to shoot in IMAX because of the size of the cameras because this film given that it deals with a potentially surreal area the nature of dreams and so forth I wanted it to be as realistic as possible Not be bound by the scale of those IMAX cameras even though I love the format dearly 16 In addition Nolan and Pfister tested using Showscan and Super Dimension 70 as potential large format high frame rate camera systems to use for the film but ultimately decided against either format 35 29 Sequences in slow motion were filmed on a Photo Sonics 35 mm camera at speeds of up to 1 000 frames per second Wally Pfister tested shooting some of these sequences using a high speed digital camera but found the format to be too unreliable due to technical glitches Out of six times that we shot on the digital format we only had one usable piece and it didn t end up in the film Out of the six times we shot with the Photo Sonics camera and 35 mm running through it every single shot was in the movie 39 Nolan also chose not to shoot any of the film in 3D as he prefers shooting on film 16 using prime lenses which is not possible with 3D cameras 40 Nolan has also criticized the dim image that 3D projection produces and disputes that traditional film does not allow realistic depth perception saying I think it s a misnomer to call it 3D versus 2D The whole point of cinematic imagery is it s three dimensional You know 95 of our depth cues come from occlusion resolution color and so forth so the idea of calling a 2D movie a 2D movie is a little misleading 41 Nolan did test converting Inception into 3D in post production but decided that while it was possible he lacked the time to complete the conversion to a standard he was happy with 8 41 In February 2011 Jonathan Liebesman suggested that Warner Bros were attempting a 3D conversion for Blu ray release 42 Wally Pfister gave each location and dream level a distinctive look to aid the audience s recognition of the narrative s location during the heavily crosscut portion of the film the mountain fortress appears sterile and cool the hotel hallways have warm hues and the scenes in the van are more neutral 35 35 36 Nolan has said that the film deals with levels of reality and perceptions of reality which is something I m very interested in It s an action film set in a contemporary world but with a slight science fiction bent to it while also describing it as very much an ensemble film structured somewhat as a heist movie It s an action adventure that spans the globe 43 Visual effects For dream sequences in Inception Nolan used little computer generated imagery preferring practical effects whenever possible Nolan said It s always very important to me to do as much as possible in camera and then if necessary computer graphics are very useful to build on or enhance what you have achieved physically 19 12 To this end visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin built a miniature of the mountain fortress set and then blew it up for the film For the fight scene that takes place in zero gravity he used CG based effects to subtly bend elements like physics space and time 44 The most challenging effect was the Limbo city level at the end of the film because it continually developed during production Franklin had artists build concepts while Nolan expressed his ideal vision Something glacial with clear modernist architecture but with chunks of it breaking off into the sea like icebergs 44 Franklin and his team ended up with something that looked like an iceberg version of Gotham City with water running through it 44 They created a basic model of a glacier and then designers created a program that added elements like roads intersections and ravines until they had a complex yet organic looking cityscape For the Paris folding sequence Franklin had artists producing concept sketches and then they created rough computer animations to give them an idea of what the sequence looked like while in motion Later during principal photography Nolan was able to direct DiCaprio and Page based on this rough computer animation that Franklin had created Inception had nearly 500 visual effects shots in comparison Batman Begins had approximately 620 which is relatively few in comparison to contemporary effects heavy films which can have as many as 2 000 visual effects shots 44 MusicMain article Inception Music from the Motion Picture The score for Inception was written by Hans Zimmer 27 who described his work as a very electronic 45 dense score 46 filled with nostalgia and sadness to match Cobb s feelings throughout the film 47 The music was written simultaneously to filming 46 and features a guitar sound reminiscent of Ennio Morricone played by Johnny Marr former guitarist of the Smiths Edith Piaf s Non je ne regrette rien No I Regret Nothing appears throughout the film used to accurately time the dreams and Zimmer reworked pieces of the song into cues of the score 47 A soundtrack album was released on July 11 2010 by Reprise Records 48 The majority of the score was also included in high resolution 5 1 surround sound on the second disc of the two disc Blu ray release 49 Hans Zimmer s music was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Score category in 2011 losing to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of The Social Network 50 ThemesReality and dreams nbsp Penrose stairs are incorporated into the film as an example of the impossible objects that can be created in lucid dream worlds In Inception Nolan wanted to explore the idea of people sharing a dream space That gives you the ability to access somebody s unconscious mind What would that be used and abused for 16 The majority of the film s plot takes place in these interconnected dream worlds This structure creates a framework where actions in the real or dream worlds ripple across others The dream is always in a state of production and shifts across the levels as the characters navigate it 51 By contrast the world of The Matrix 1999 is an authoritarian computer controlled one alluding to theories of social control developed by thinkers Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard However according to one interpretation Nolan s world has more in common with the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari 51 David Denby in The New Yorker compared Nolan s cinematic treatment of dreams to Luis Bunuel s in Belle de Jour 1967 and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 52 He criticized Nolan s literal minded action level sequencing compared to Bunuel who silently pushed us into reveries and left us alone to enjoy our wonderment but Nolan is working on so many levels of representation at once that he has to lay in pages of dialogue just to explain what s going on The latter captures the peculiar malign intensity of actual dreams 52 Deirdre Barrett a dream researcher at Harvard University said that Nolan did not get every detail accurate regarding dreams but their illogical rambling disjointed plots would not make for a great thriller anyway However he did get many aspects right she said citing the scene in which a sleeping Cobb is shoved into a full bath and in the dream world water gushes into the windows of the building waking him up That s very much how real stimuli get incorporated and you very often wake up right after that intrusion 53 Nolan himself said I tried to work that idea of manipulation and management of a conscious dream being a skill that these people have Really the script is based on those common very basic experiences and concepts and where can those take you And the only outlandish idea that the film presents really is the existence of a technology that allows you to enter and share the same dream as someone else 31 Dreams and cinema Others have argued that the film is itself a metaphor for filmmaking and that the filmgoing experience itself images flashing before one s eyes in a darkened room is akin to a dream Writing in Wired Jonah Lehrer supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film watching and sleeping In both the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex which deals with logic deliberate analysis and self awareness is quiet 54 Paul argued that the experience of going to a picturehouse is itself an exercise in shared dreaming particularly when viewing Inception the film s sharp cutting between scenes forces the viewer to create larger narrative arcs to stitch the pieces together This demand of production parallel to consumption of the images on the part of the audience is analogous to dreaming itself As in the film s story in a cinema one enters into the space of another s dream in this case Nolan s as with any work of art one s reading of it is ultimately influenced by one s own subjective desires and subconscious 51 At Bir Hakeim bridge in Paris Ariadne creates an illusion of infinity by adding facing mirrors underneath its struts Stephanie Dreyfus in la Croix asked Is this not a strong beautiful metaphor for the cinema and its power of illusion 55 Cinematic techniqueSee also Cinematic style of Christopher Nolan Genre Nolan combined elements from several different film genres into the film notably science fiction heist film and film noir Marion Cotillard plays Mal Cobb Dom Cobb s projection of his guilt over his deceased wife s suicide As the film s main antagonist she is a frequent malevolent presence in his dreams Dom is unable to control these projections of her challenging his abilities as an extractor 23 Nolan described Mal as the essence of the femme fatale 19 9 the key noir reference in the film As a classic femme fatale her relationship with Cobb is in his mind a manifestation of Cobb s own neurosis and fear of how little he knows about the woman he loves 56 DiCaprio praised Cotillard s performance saying that she can be strong and vulnerable and hopeful and heartbreaking all in the same moment which was perfect for all the contradictions of her character 19 10 Nolan began with the structure of a heist movie since exposition is an essential element of that genre though adapted it to have a greater emotional narrative suited to the world of dreams and subconscious 56 As Denby described this device the outer shell of the story is an elaborate caper 52 Kristin Thompson argued that exposition was a major formal device in the film While a traditional heist movie has a heavy dose of exposition at the beginning as the team assembles and the leader explains the plan in Inception this becomes nearly continuous as the group progresses through the various levels of dreaming 57 Three quarters of the film until the van begins to fall from the bridge are devoted to explaining its plot In this way exposition takes precedence over characterization The characters relationships are created by their respective skills and roles Ariadne like her ancient namesake creates the maze and guides the others through it but also helps Cobb navigate his own subconscious and as the sole student of dream sharing helps the audience understand the concept of the plot 58 Nolan drew inspiration from the works of Jorge Luis Borges 8 59 including The Secret Miracle and The Circular Ruins 60 and from the films Blade Runner 1982 and The Matrix 1999 60 61 While Nolan has not confirmed this it has also been suggested by many observers that the movie draws heavy inspiration from the 2006 animated film Paprika 62 63 64 Ending The film cuts to the closing credits from a shot of the top apparently starting to show an ever so faint wobble inviting speculation about whether the final sequence was reality or another dream Nolan confirmed that the ambiguity was deliberate 56 saying I ve been asked the question more times than I ve ever been asked any other question about any other film I ve made What s funny to me is that people really do expect me to answer it 65 The film s script concludes with Behind him on the table the spinning top is STILL SPINNING And we FADE OUT 66 Nolan said I put that cut there at the end imposing an ambiguity from outside the film That always felt the right ending to me it always felt like the appropriate kick to me The real point of the scene and this is what I tell people is that Cobb isn t looking at the top He s looking at his kids He s left it behind That s the emotional significance of the thing 65 Caine interpreted the ending as meaning that Cobb is in the real world quoting Nolan as telling him Well when you re in the scene it s reality So get that if I m in it it s reality If I m not in it it s a dream While reiterating that he was uncomfortable with definitively explaining the scene Nolan in 2023 credited Emma Thomas as providing the correct answer which is Leo s character doesn t care at that point 67 Mark Fisher argued that a century of cultural theory cautions against accepting the author s interpretation as anything more than a supplementary text and this all the more so given the theme of the instability of any one master position in Nolan s films Therein the manipulator is often the one who ends up manipulated and Cobb s not caring about whether or not his world is real may be the price of his happiness and release 68 ReleaseMarketing Warner Bros spent US 100 million marketing the film Although Inception was not part of an existing franchise Sue Kroll president of Warner s worldwide marketing said the company believed it could gain awareness due to the strength of Christopher Nolan as a brand Kroll declared that We don t have the brand equity that usually drives a big summer opening but we have a great cast and a fresh idea from a filmmaker with a track record of making incredible movies If you can t make those elements work it s a sad day 69 The studio also tried to maintain a campaign of secrecy as reported by the Senior VP of Interactive Marketing Michael Tritter You have this movie which is going to have a pretty big built in fanbase but you also have a movie that you are trying to keep very secret Chris Nolan really likes people to see his movies in a theater and not see it all beforehand so everything that you do to market that at least early on is with an eye to feeding the interest to fans 70 A viral marketing campaign was employed for the film After the revelation of the first teaser trailer in August 2009 the film s official website featured only an animation of Cobb s spinning top In December the top toppled over and the website opened the online game Mind Crime which upon completion revealed Inception s poster 71 The rest of the campaign unrolled after WonderCon in April 2010 where Warner gave away promotional T shirts featuring the PASIV briefcase used to create the dream space and had a QR code linking to an online manual of the device 72 Mind Crime also received a stage 2 with more resources including a hidden trailer for the movie 73 More pieces of viral marketing began to surface before Inception s release such as a manual filled with bizarre images and text sent to Wired magazine 74 and the online publication of posters ads phone applications and strange websites all related to the film 75 76 Warner also released an online prequel comic Inception The Cobol Job 77 The official trailer released on May 10 2010 through Mind Game was extremely well received 73 It featured an original piece of music Mind Heist by recording artist Zack Hemsey 78 rather than music from the score 79 The trailer quickly went viral with numerous mashups copying its style both by amateurs on sites like YouTube 80 and by professionals on sites such as CollegeHumor 81 82 On June 7 2010 a behind the scenes featurette on the film was released in HD on Yahoo Movies 83 Inception and its film trailers are widely credited for launching the trend throughout the 2010s in which blockbuster movie trailers repeatedly hit audiences with so called braam sounds bassy brassy thunderous notes like a foghorn on steroids meant to impart a sense of apocalyptic momentousness 84 However different composers worked on the teaser trailer first trailer second trailer and film score meaning that identifying the composer s responsible for that trend is a complicated task 84 Home media Inception was released on DVD and Blu ray on December 3 2010 in France 85 and the week after in the UK and USA December 7 2010 86 87 Warner Bros also made available in the United States a limited Blu ray edition packaged in a metal replica of the PASIV briefcase which included extras such as a metal replica of the spinning top totem With a production run of less than 2 000 it sold out in one weekend 88 Inception was released on 4K Blu ray and digital copy along with other Christopher Nolan films on December 19 2017 89 As of 2018 update the home video releases have sold over 9 million units and grossed over 160 million 90 Putative video game In a November 2010 interview Nolan expressed his intention to develop a video game set in the Inception world working with a team of collaborators He described it as a longer term proposition referring to the medium of video games as something I ve wanted to explore 91 10th anniversary re release Inception was re released in theaters for its tenth anniversary starting on August 12 2020 in international markets and on August 21 in the U S 92 The re release was originally announced by Warner Bros in June 2020 and scheduled for July 17 2020 taking the original release date for Nolan s upcoming film Tenet after its delay to July 31 due to the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on movie theaters 93 After Tenet was delayed again to August 12 the re release was shifted to July 31 94 before setting on the August release date following a third delay 92 ReceptionBox office Film Release date Box office revenue Box office ranking Budget ReferenceUnited States North America International Worldwide All time domestic All time worldwideInception July 2010 US 292 587 330 US 578 205 319 US 870 792 649 No 109 No 80 US 160 000 000 95 Inception was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters on July 16 2010 96 97 The film had its world premiere at Leicester Square in London on July 8 2010 98 In the United States and Canada Inception was released theatrically in 3 792 conventional theaters and 195 IMAX theaters 96 The film grossed US 21 8 million during its opening day on July 16 2010 with midnight screenings in 1 500 locations 99 Overall the film made US 62 7 million and debuted at No 1 on its opening weekend 100 Inception s opening weekend gross made it the second highest grossing debut for a science fiction film that was not a sequel remake or adaptation behind Avatar s US 77 million opening weekend gross in 2009 100 The film held the top spot of the box office rankings in its second and third weekends with drops of just 32 US 42 7 million and 36 US 27 5 million respectively 101 102 before dropping to second place in its fourth week behind The Other Guys 103 Inception grossed US 292 million in the United States and Canada US 56 million in the United Kingdom Ireland and Malta and US 475 million in other countries for a total of US 823 million worldwide 3 Its five highest grossing markets after the US and Canada US 292 million were China US 68 million the United Kingdom Ireland and Malta US 56 million France and the Maghreb region US 43 million Japan US 40 million and South Korea US 38 million 104 It was the sixth highest grossing film of 2010 in North America 105 and the fourth highest grossing film of 2010 behind Toy Story 3 Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 106 Inception is the third most lucrative production in Christopher Nolan s career behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises 107 and the second most for Leonardo DiCaprio behind Titanic 108 Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 87 based on 370 reviews with an average rating of 8 20 10 The website s critical consensus reads Smart innovative and thrilling Inception is that rare summer blockbuster that succeeds viscerally as well as intellectually 109 Metacritic another review aggregator assigned the film a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 42 critics indicating generally favorable reviews 110 Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B on an A to F scale 111 Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Inception a wildly ingenious chess game and concluded the result is a knockout 112 Justin Chang of Variety praised the film as a conceptual tour de force and wrote applying a vivid sense of procedural detail to a fiendishly intricate yarn set in the labyrinth of the unconscious mind the writer director has devised a heist thriller for surrealists a Jungian s Rififi that challenges viewers to sift through multiple layers of un reality 113 Jim Vejvoda of IGN rated the film as perfect deeming it a singular accomplishment from a filmmaker who has only gotten better with each film 114 Relevant s David Roark called it Nolan s greatest accomplishment saying Visually intellectually and emotionally Inception is a masterpiece 115 In its August 2010 issue Empire gave the film a full five stars and wrote it feels like Stanley Kubrick adapting the work of the great sci fi author William Gibson Nolan delivers another true original welcome to an undiscovered country 116 Entertainment Weekly s Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film a B grade and wrote It s a rolling explosion of images as hypnotizing and sharply angled as any in a drawing by M C Escher or a state of the biz video game the backwards splicing of Nolan s own Memento looks rudimentary by comparison 117 The New York Post s Lou Lumenick gave the film a four star rating and wrote DiCaprio who has never been better as the tortured hero draws you in with a love story that will appeal even to non sci fi fans 118 Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times awarded the film a full four stars and said that Inception is all about process about fighting our way through enveloping sheets of reality and dream reality within dreams dreams without reality It s a breathtaking juggling act 119 Richard Roeper also of the Sun Times gave Inception an A score and called it one of the best movies of the 21st century 120 BBC Radio 5 Live s Mark Kermode named Inception as the best film of 2010 stating that Inception is proof that people are not stupid that cinema is not trash and that it is possible for blockbusters and art to be the same thing 121 Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote I found myself wishing Inception were weirder further out the film is Nolan s labyrinth all the way and it s gratifying to experience a summer movie with large visual ambitions and with nothing more or less on its mind than as Shakespeare said a dream that hath no bottom 122 Time s Richard Corliss wrote that the film s noble intent is to implant one man s vision in the mind of a vast audience The idea of moviegoing as communal dreaming is a century old With Inception viewers have a chance to see that notion get a state of the art update 123 Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt that Nolan was able to blend the best of traditional and modern filmmaking If you re searching for smart and nervy popular entertainment this is what it looks like 124 USA Today s Claudia Puig gave the film three and a half out of four stars and felt that Nolan regards his viewers as possibly smarter than they are or at least as capable of rising to his inventive level That s a tall order But it s refreshing to find a director who makes us stretch even occasionally struggle to keep up 125 Not all reviewers gave the film positive reviews New York magazine s David Edelstein said in his review that he had no idea what so many people are raving about It s as if someone went into their heads while they were sleeping and planted the idea that Inception is a visionary masterpiece and hold on Whoa I think I get it The movie is a metaphor for the power of delusional hype a metaphor for itself 126 The New York Observer s Rex Reed said the film s development was pretty much what we ve come to expect from summer movies in general and Christopher Nolan movies in particular it doesn t seem like much of an accomplishment to me 127 A O Scott of The New York Times commented there is a lot to see in Inception there is nothing that counts as genuine vision Mr Nolan s idea of the mind is too literal too logical and too rule bound to allow the full measure of madness 128 The New Yorker s David Denby considered the film to not nearly be as much fun as Nolan imagined it to be concluding that Inception is a stunning looking film that gets lost in fabulous intricacies a movie devoted to its own workings and to little else 52 While some critics have tended to view the film as perfectly straightforward and even criticize its overarching themes as the stuff of torpid platitudes online discussion has been much more positive 129 Heated debate has centered on the ambiguity of the ending with many critics like Devin Faraci making the case that the film is self referential and tongue in cheek both a film about film making and a dream about dreams 130 Other critics read Inception as Christian allegory and focus on the film s use of religious and water symbolism 131 Yet other critics such as Kristin Thompson see less value in the ambiguous ending of the film and more in its structure and novel method of storytelling highlighting Inception as a new form of narrative that revels in continuous exposition 57 Several critics and scholars have noted the film has many striking similarities to the 2006 anime film Paprika by Satoshi Kon and Yasutaka Tsutsui s 1993 novel of the same name including plot similarities similar scenes and similar characters arguing that Inception was influenced by Paprika 62 63 64 132 133 Several sources have also noted plot similarities between the film and the 2002 Uncle Scrooge comic The Dream of a Lifetime by Don Rosa 134 135 136 The influence of Tarkovsky s Solaris on Inception was noted as well 137 138 Year end and all time lists Inception appeared on over 273 critics lists of the top ten films of 2010 being picked as number one on at least 55 of those lists 139 It was the second most mentioned film in both the top ten lists and number one rankings only behind The Social Network along with Toy Story 3 True Grit The King s Speech and Black Swan as the most critically acclaimed films of 2010 139 Author Stephen King placed Inception at No 3 in his list of top 10 best films of the year 140 Critics and publications who ranked the film first for that year included Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun Times Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times tied with The Social Network and Toy Story 3 Tasha Robinson of The A V Club Empire magazine and Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter 141 In March 2011 the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra listeners as their ninth favorite film of all time 142 Producer Roger Corman cited Inception as an example of great imagination and originality 143 It was voted as the third best science fiction film of all time in the 2011 list Best in Film The Greatest Movies of Our Time based on a poll conducted by ABC and People citation needed In 2012 Inception was ranked the 35th best edited film of all time by the Motion Picture Editors Guild 144 In the same year Total Film named it the most rewatchable movie of all time 145 In 2014 Empire ranked Inception the tenth greatest film ever made on their list of The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time as voted by the magazine s readers 146 while Rolling Stone magazine named it the second best science fiction film since the turn of the century 147 Inception was ranked 84th on Hollywood s 100 Favorite Films a list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter in 2014 surveying Studio chiefs Oscar winners and TV royalty 148 In 2016 Inception was voted the 51st best film of the 21st Century by BBC as picked by 177 film critics from around the world 149 The film was included in the Visual Effects Society s list of The Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time 150 In 2019 Total Film named Inception the best film of the 2010s 151 Many critics and media outlets included Inception in their rankings of the best films of the 2010s 152 153 154 155 156 157 The film was included in Forbes magazine s list of Top 150 Greatest Films of 21st Century 158 In April 2014 The Daily Telegraph placed the title on its top ten list of the most overrated films Telegraph s Tim Robey stated It s a criminal failing of the movie that it purports to be about people s dreams being invaded but demonstrates no instinct at all for what a dream has ever felt like and no flair for making us feel like we re in one at any point 159 The film won an informal poll by the Los Angeles Times as the most overrated movie of 2010 160 AccoladesMain article List of accolades received by Inception The film won many awards in technical categories such as Academy Awards for Best Cinematography Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects 50 and the British Academy Film Awards for Best Production Design Best Special Visual Effects and Best Sound 161 In most of its artistic nominations such as Film Director and Screenplay at the Oscars BAFTAs and Golden Globes the film was defeated by The Social Network or The King s Speech 50 161 162 However the film did win the two highest honors for a science fiction or fantasy film the 2011 Bradbury Award for best dramatic production 163 and the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form 164 In popular cultureNumerous pop and hip hop songs reference the film including Common s Blue Sky N E R D s Hypnotize U XV s The Kick Black Eyed Peas Just Can t Get Enough Lil Wayne s 6 Foot 7 Foot Jennifer Lopez s On the Floor and B o B s Strange Clouds while T I had Inception based artwork on two of his mixtapes An instrumental track by Joe Budden is titled Inception 165 The animated series South Park parodies the film in the show s tenth episode of its fourteenth season titled Insheeption 166 The film was also an influence for Ariana Grande s video for No Tears Left to Cry 167 Lawnmower Dog the second episode of the animated comedy show Rick and Morty parodied the film 168 In an episode of The Simpsons named How I Wet Your Mother the plot spoofs Inception with various scenes parodying moments from the film 169 The showrunners of the television series The Flash said its season 4 finale was inspired by Inception 170 In February 2020 American singer songwriter Taylor Swift released a lyric video for her single The Man which featured visuals bearing resemblance to the film The song also mentions DiCaprio in its lyrics 171 The film s title has been colloquialized as the suffix ception which can be jokingly appended to a noun to indicate a layering nesting or recursion of the thing in question 172 See also nbsp Film portalSimulacrum Simulation hypothesis Solipsism Suggestion Dreamscape 1984 film Existenz 1999 film The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 1965 novel Notes a b c Credited as Ellen Page Page came out as transgender and changed his name in 2020 173 References Inception British Board of Film Classification June 29 2010 Archived from the original on February 28 2014 Retrieved August 8 2010 a b Film Inception Lumiere Archived from the original on June 23 2018 Retrieved November 7 2017 a b c Inception Box Office Mojo IMDb Retrieved July 7 2022 Blair Iain July 15 2010 A Minute With Director Nolan talks about Inception Reuters Archived from the original on November 21 2020 Retrieved July 15 2010 It s a pretty complex large scale action film about dreams that hopefully combines some of the things I ve been interested in exploring in my smaller films memory perception with some of the grand scale techniques that I ve used in bigger films like The Dark Knight WarnerBros com Inception Warner Bros Archived from the original on March 11 2020 Retrieved March 19 2020 INCEPTION Collider Archived from the original on March 19 2020 Retrieved March 19 2020 Eisenberg Mike May 5 2010 Updated Inception Synopsis Reveals More Screen Rant Archived from the original on July 11 2010 Retrieved July 18 2010 a b c d e f g h Hiscock John July 1 2010 Inception Christopher Nolan interview Daily Telegraph UK Archived from the original on July 4 2010 Retrieved July 7 2010 a b c d e Itzkoff Dave June 30 2010 A Man and His Dream Christopher Nolan and Inception The New York Times Archived from the original on March 24 2012 Retrieved October 22 2020 This is a film I first pitched to the studio probably nine years ago and I wasn t really ready to finish it I needed more experience in making a big movie a b Fleming Michael February 11 2009 Nolan tackles Inception for WB Variety Archived from the original on November 14 2011 Retrieved February 25 2009 Filming Locations NolanFans December 6 2009 Archived from the original on March 20 2012 Retrieved March 23 2012 Fritz Ben July 15 2010 Movie projector Inception headed for No 1 Sorcerer s Apprentice to open in third Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on December 4 2011 Retrieved October 22 2020 It s also one of the most expensive at 160 million a cost that was split by Warner and Legendary Pictures Subers Ray July 16 2010 Weekend Briefing Inception Breaks In Apprentice Lacks Magic Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on July 20 2010 Retrieved July 18 2010 Peters Jenny July 14 2010 Partying for a Cause at the Inception Premiere Fashion Wire Daily Archived from the original on September 27 2011 Retrieved October 1 2010 Dietz Jason November 18 2019 The Best Movies of the Decade 2010 19 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on October 27 2011 Retrieved October 16 2011 2011 Hugo Award winners Hugo Awards August 21 2011 Archived from the original on April 1 2016 Retrieved October 16 2011 Zorgel Aaron March 8 2012 Why do rappers love the movie Inception so much AUX TV Archived from the original on June 11 2016 Retrieved December 23 2016 Hill Scott T October 21 2010 South Park Satirizes Inception s Mind Wipe Wired Archived from the original on November 16 2017 Retrieved November 15 2017 Willman Chris April 19 2018 Song Review Ariana Grande s No Tears Left to Cry Variety Archived from the original on July 14 2018 Retrieved July 6 2018 Goldberg Lesley December 6 2013 Adult Swim s Rick and Morty Takes On Inception The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on May 13 2020 Retrieved January 19 2020 Willmore Alison March 27 2020 When The Simpsons Went Inception Indiewire Archived from the original on March 27 2020 Venable Nick February 7 2020 The Flash Showrunner Explains How The Finale Is Inspired By Inception Cinemablend Archived from the original on July 11 2018 Retrieved April 2 2020 Reda Natasha February 7 2020 Taylor Swift s The Man Lyric Video Features a Subtle Nod to Leonardo DiCaprio PopCrush Archived from the original on February 8 2020 Retrieved February 9 2020 ception The Rice University Neologisms Database Rice University Archived from the original on July 5 2017 Retrieved December 23 2016 Donnelly Matt December 1 2020 Oscar Nominated Umbrella Academy Star Elliot Page Announces He Is Transgender Variety Archived from the original on December 1 2020 Retrieved December 1 2020 Further readingCrawford Kevin Ray 2012 The Rhetorics of the Time Image Deleuzian Metadiscourse on the Role of Nooshock Temporality viz Inception in Christopher Nolan s Cinema of the Brain ProQuest LLC Johnson David Kyle Irwin William 2011 Inception and Philosophy Because It s Never Just a Dream John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1 118 07263 9 Jones Ralph April 21 2021 The VFX company behind Inception reveals the movie s biggest secrets Inverse Retrieved October 26 2023 Nolan Christopher Nolan Jonathan 2010 Inception The Shooting Script Insight Editions ISBN 978 1 60887 015 8 External links nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Inception nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inception Official website Inception at IMDb nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Inception amp oldid 1193116012, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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