Inception (film)

• Release Date: 2010
• Director(s): Christopher Nolan
• Writer(s): Christopher Nolan
• Principal Actors and Roles: Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb); Michael Caine (Miles); Marion Cotillard (Mal); Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur); Tom Hardy (Eames); Cillian Murphy (Robert Fischer); Ellen Page (Ariadne); Dileep Rao (Yusuf); Ken Watanabe (Saito)

Inception is an American science fiction thriller that is a combination of a heist story and an exploration of dreams versus reality. The stunning special effects, the action sequences, and the love story overcome what some call a confusing plot. The film was a hit with both moviegoers and critics, garnering many award nominations and winning four Academy Awards.

Director and writer Christopher Nolan had already directed other hits, such as Memento and Dark Knight. Inception was the second for which he wrote an original script. Nolan said he worked on the screenplay for ten years and always pictured Leonardo DiCaprio playing the lead role as Cobb. Knowing that DiCaprio would attract crowds at the filming, the movie was given a working title in an attempt to go unnoticed. Nolan usually chose working titles based on his children’s names. Inception became Oliver’s Arrow, named after his son.

The movie cost $160 million and was filmed in six countries—Canada, France, Morocco, Japan, England, and the United States. The ensemble cast are natives of several of the same countries— Canada, France, Japan, England, United States, Ireland— and were nominated for several cast ensemble awards.

Plot

Corporate thief Dom Cobb extracts people’s secrets while they are dreaming. When Cobb attempts to obtain information from Saito, a Japanese businessman, Cobb’s subconscious produces his dead wife, Mal, who sabotages the operation. However, Saito is interested in hiring Cobb to plant, not extract, an idea into a business rival. Planting an idea, or inception, is said to be impossible. Cobb says he can do it, but refuses the job until Saito says he can get Cobb’s criminal record erased so he can see his children again.

Cobb accepts the job of implanting the idea that the rival, Fischer, will break up his company after his father dies. Cobb gathers a team to help with the operation, including Ariadne, who will act as architect and build the maze-like, three-level dreamscape. While planning the operation, Ariadne discovers that Cobb’s memory projection of his wife will probably sabotage their efforts. She urges him to confront his guilt over his wife’s death before it destroys them all.

Everyone who goes into the dream carries a totem, a small object that will let each one know if they are in a dream or reality. Cobb carries his dead wife’s totem, which spins like a top forever when it is in a dream, but falls over in the real world.

The team enters Fischer’s dreams and, within the dreams, kidnaps Fischer, befriends him, and tricks him into allowing them to break into his third dream level. In a normal dream, people who die simply wake up. In this deep dream state, people who are killed are dropped into limbo, where they live for many dream years, but little time passes in the real world. Ariadne learns that Cobb and his wife entered limbo and when they returned to reality, Mal was convinced it was still a dream and killed herself to return to their children, leaving a note for the police that implicated Cobb in her death. Cobb is able to finally say good-bye to Mal and let go of his guilt.

After many adventures, the team awakens with their mission accomplished. Cobb spins Mal’s token before he races to embrace his children. The token is still spinning, wobbling a bit, as the movie ends.

Significance

Inception had an estimated budget of $160 million and grossed over $800 million worldwide. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 2010, including best art direction, best original score, best original screenplay, and best picture. It won for best cinematography, best sound editing, best sound mixing, and best visual effects. Inception received Golden Globe nominations for best motion picture, best director, best original score, and best screenplay. It won BAFTA awards for best production design, best sound, and best special visual effects, as well as being nominated for six more, including best film and best director.

The award-winning visual effects bend cities, collapse buildings and mountains, send a train hurtling through a city, and show fights in zero gravity. Special effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, used fewer computer generated images than are used in other films. Instead, he and his team utilized other techniques. For instance, the scene where the city of Paris folds up is computer generated; however, the train crashing through the city street was a semi-tractor trailer with a train facade mounted on it. Corbould had actor Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and the stuntmen train for two weeks in a revolving hallway to shoot a fight scene where the hotel walls become floors and floors become ceilings. Stunt coordinator Tom Struthers and his crew also won awards.

Inception won awards for sound and music. Hans Zimmer’s score includes electronic music, as well as that from live musicians. In his screenplay, Nolan had included the song "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I Regret Nothing"), which was made famous by the vocalist Edith Piaf. When Marion Cotillard was cast as Mal, Nolan wanted the song removed, because she had played Edith Piaf in a recent movie. Zimmer argued to keep it in and ended up using pieces of the song throughout his score.

Although most people, including critics, believe the film deserves its awards, there are a few critics who believe the film is overrated. It was nominated for a Golden Schmoe award for the most overrated film of the year.

The ambiguous ending is one aspect of the film that keeps viewers talking about it. Viewers debate whether Cobb has returned to his children in the real world or if he is still in a dream. Speaking at a 2015 Princeton University commencement ceremony, Christopher Nolan said that he left the ending ambiguous because he wanted to show that Cobb did not care whether he was still living in a dream. Cobb had what he wanted—his children—and did not care whether it was it real or not.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (2010) Best Sound Editing
• Academy Award (2010) Best Sound Mixing
• Academy Award (2010) Best Visual Effects
• Academy Award (2010) Best Cinematography

Nominated

• Academy Award (2011) Best Picture
• Academy Award (2011) Best Screenplay (Original): Christopher Nolan
• Academy Award (2010) Best Score (Original): Hans Zimmer
• Academy Award (2010) Best Art Direction
• Golden Globe (2011) Best Motion Picture (Drama)
• Golden Globe (2010) Best Motion Picture

Bibliography

Barsanti, Chris. The Sci-fi Movie Guide: The Universe of Film from Alien to Zardoz. Detroit: Visible Ink, 2015. Print.

Ebert, Roger. Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook: 25th Anniversary Edition. Kansas City: Andrews, 2012. Print.

Monush, Barry. Screen World. Vol. 62. New York: Applause, 2011. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die. Rev. ed. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.

Smith, Adam. The Rough Guide to 21st Century Cinema: 101 Movies That Made the Millennium. London: Rough Guides, 2012. Print.