Inception

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Inception is a 2010 science fiction action film[3] written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with his wife, Emma Thomas. 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.[4] The ensemble cast includes Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. 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.[5] Deciding he needed more experience before tackling a production of this magnitude and complexity, Nolan retired the project and instead worked on 2005's Batman Begins, 2006's The Prestige, and The Dark Knight in 2008.[6] The treatment was revised over 6 months and was purchased by Warner in February 2009.[7] Inception was filmed in six countries, beginning in Tokyo on June 19 and ending in Canada on November 22.[8] Its official budget was US$160 million, split between Warner Bros and Legendary.[9] Nolan's reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film's US$100 million in advertising expenditure. Inception's première was held in London on July 8, 2010; it was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters beginning on July 16, 2010.[10][11] Inception grossed over US$828 million worldwide, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2010.[3] The home video market also had strong results, with US$68 million in DVD and Blu-ray sales. Considered one of the best films of the 2010s,[12] Inception received critical praise for its screenplay, visual effects, score, Nolan's direction and ensemble cast.[13] It won four Academy Awards (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects) and was nominated for four more: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Original Score. Glitch!

Plot

Dominick "Dom" Cobb and Arthur are "extractors": they perform corporate espionage using experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract valuable information through a shared dream world. Their latest target, Japanese businessman Saito, reveals that he arranged their mission himself to test Cobb for a seemingly impossible job: implanting an idea in a person's subconscious, or "inception". To break up the energy conglomerate of ailing competitor Maurice Fischer, Saito wants Cobb to convince Fischer's son and heir, Robert, to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to use his influence once the job is done to clear Cobb's apparent criminal status, which prevents him from returning home to his children. Though Arthur believes the task is impossible, Cobb insists that it can be done. Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: Eames, a conman and identity forger; Yusuf, a chemist who concocts a powerful sedative for a stable "dream within a dream" strategy; and Ariadne, an architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes, recruited with the help of Cobb's father-in-law, Professor Stephen Miles. While dream-sharing with Cobb, Ariadne learns his subconscious houses an invasive projection of his late wife Mal. After Maurice dies in Sydney, Robert Fischer accompanies the body on a ten-hour flight back to Los Angeles. The team (including Saito, who wants to verify their success) uses this as an opportunity to sedate and take Fischer into a shared dream. At each dream level, the person generating the dream stays behind to set up a "kick" that will be used to awaken the other sleeping team members from the deeper dream level; to be successful, these kicks must occur simultaneously at each dream level, a fact complicated due to the nature of time, which flows much faster in each successive level. They use Non, je ne regrette rien as an auditory cue to help coordinate the kicks. The first level is Yusuf's dream of a rainy Los Angeles. The team abducts Fischer, but they are attacked by armed projections from his subconscious, which has been specifically trained to defend against such intruders. The team takes Robert and a wounded Saito to a warehouse, where Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would normally wake Saito up, the powerful sedatives needed to stabilize the multi-level dream will instead send a dying dreamer into "limbo": a world of infinite subconscious from which escape is extremely difficult, if not impossible, and in which a dreamer risks forgetting they are in a dream. Despite these setbacks, the team continues with the mission. Eames impersonates Robert's godfather, Peter Browning, to suggest Robert reconsider his father's will. Yusuf drives them around in a van as the rest are sedated into the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur. Cobb persuades Robert that he has been kidnapped by Browning, and that Cobb is his subconscious protector. Cobb persuades Robert to go down another level to explore Browning's subconscious (in reality, it is a ruse to enter Robert's subconscious). The third level is a fortified hospital on a snowy mountain dreamed by Eames. The team has to infiltrate it and hold off the guards as Saito takes Robert into the equivalent of his subconscious. Yusuf, under pursuit by Robert's projections in the first level, deliberately drives off a bridge, thus initiating his kick too soon. This causes an avalanche in Eames' level, and removes the gravity of Arthur's level, thus forcing Arthur to improvise a new kick synchronized with the van hitting the water. Mal's projection emerges in Eames' level and kills Robert; Cobb kills Mal, and Saito succumbs to his wounds. Cobb and Ariadne enter Limbo to rescue Robert and Saito, while Eames sets up a kick by rigging the hospital with explosives. Cobb reveals to Ariadne that he and Mal went to limbo while experimenting with the dream-sharing technology. Sedated for a few hours of real time, they spent fifty years in a dream constructing a world from their shared memories. When Mal refused to return to reality, Cobb used a rudimentary form of inception by reactivating her totem (an object that dreamers use to distinguish their dreams from reality), and reminding her subconscious that their world was not real. However, after waking up, the inception had taken root and Mal still believed that she was dreaming. In an attempt to "wake up" for real, she committed suicide and framed Cobb for her death to force him to do the same. Facing a murder charge, Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children in the care of his father-in-law. Through his confession, Cobb makes peace with his guilt over Mal's death. Ariadne kills Mal's projection and wakes Robert up with a kick. Revived at the fortified hospital, he enters a safe room to discover and accept the planted idea: a projection of his dying father telling him to be his own man. While Cobb remains in limbo to search for Saito, the other team members ride the synchronized kicks back to reality. Cobb eventually finds an aged Saito in limbo and reminds him of their agreement. The dreamers all awake on the plane and Saito makes a phone call. Upon arrival at Los Angeles Airport, Cobb passes the U.S. immigration checkpoint and Professor Miles accompanies him to his home. Using Mal's old totem—a spinning top that spins indefinitely in a dream world but falls over in reality—Cobb conducts a test to prove that he is indeed in the real world, but he does not observe its result and instead joins his children in the garden.

Cast

- 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.[14] Both Brad Pitt and Will Smith were offered the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter.[15] Cobb's role is compared to "the haunted widower in a Gothic romance".[16] - 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'".[17] The actor did all of his stunts but one scene and said the preparation "was a challenge and it would have to be for it to look real".[18] James Franco was in talks with Christopher Nolan to play Arthur, but was ultimately unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.[19] - Ellen Page 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 her years".[20] Page said her 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".[21] - 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.[22] - Ken Watanabe as Mr. 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.[23] 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".[24] - 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".[25] - Cillian Murphy as Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to a business empire and the team's target.[23] 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 Peter 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".[25] - Marion Cotillard as Mal Cobb, Dom's deceased wife. She is a manifestation of Dom'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.[28] 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".[29] - Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer, Robert Fischer's father and the dying founder of a business empire. - Michael Caine as Professor Stephen Miles, Cobb's mentor and father-in-law,[25] and Ariadne's college professor who recommends her to the team.[30] - Lukas Haas as Nash, an architect in Cobb's employment who betrays the team and is later replaced by Ariadne.[31] - Talulah Riley as a woman 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."[32]

Themes

Reality and dreams

A staircase in a square format. The stairs make four 90-degree turns in each corner, so they are in the format of a continuous loop. 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?"[14] 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.[66] 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.[66] 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).[67] 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."[67] 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".[68] 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."[33]

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.[69] 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.[66] 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?"[70]