Inception/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

inception — n. the beginning, as of a project or undertaking

  • Actor Allusion:
  • All-Star Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, and Tom Berenger. And Pete Postlethwaite, one of his last roles.
  • Allusion: In The Bridge on the River Kwai there is a Japanese man named "Saito" who is filled with regret over the actions of one of his subordinates in regard to the building of a structure that at first crumbles because its foundation is built on mud in the midst of a jungle where there is no escape.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: "Inception" has now become the term for whenever one object is placed inside an identical object, referencing the "dream within a dream" plot. "Inception" actually refers to planting an idea in the person's subconscious -- the "dream within a dream" plan was just a method of performing the inception.
    • "We need/have to go deeper" is used in Image Macros and as a meme of the movie despite not appearing in the film.
  • Doing It for the Art:
    • This film was Nolan's baby, his decade-long dream project. You can see how much he loved what could have been an action-heist film, and how much enthusiasm the cast and crew had for him and the story. It's a real life heartwarmer, showing that there is a place for New Hollywood-style, auteur-driven projects. That said, making an art film after making a hundreds of millions of dollars for your backers with The Dark Knight is more likely to work than coming in off the street. In fact, Inception is the reason Nolan took on The Dark Knight Saga to begin with. When working on the drafts for Inception, he realized he could not do it on a small-scale budget, and needed to get some experience with large-scale films, as well as every mainstream film he did that succeeded financially would make it that much easier for a studio to back whatever budget and resources he would need.
    • To add to that, Nolan tried as far as possible to film the spectacular effects in-camera, opting to use CGI to edit and enhance as opposed to entirely create. Massive props have to go to Chris Corbould, the special effects supervisor on the film who had to figure out how to achieve all the things (that had such a high Holy Shit Quotient) with practical effects. For example, the scene in the hotel bar with the slanting water levels was achieved with a hydraulically-controlled set that could tilt at a 25-degree angle, while the camera was anchored to the ground. Similarly, the zero-gravity fight in the hotel corridor was achieved with a rotating set, while the camera was kept level relative to the set. The effect was so amazing that the film's editor, Lee Smith, admits to being stunned and disoriented the first time he saw the footage. Also, the snow-fortress-hospital was built full-scale in the Canadian Rockies and blown up for real - along with a smaller scale model built in the studio parking lot. The atomizing streets of Paris were done with air cannons and rigs on an actual Paris street and the water flooding Saito's castle at the start of the film was accomplished with air cannons creating high-pressure jets of water.
    • The Penrose steps Arthur shows Ariadne? No CG trickery, they built the staircase then used the precise scaling angle for the camera to show off the optical illusion.
    • Also, he refused the studio's wish to have the movie converted to 3D as he isn't satisfied with the image quality of 3D.
  • Enforced Method Acting: If this is to be believed.
  • Fake Nationality: Cillian Murphy, an Irishman, playing the Australian (judging by his passport) or American (judging by his accent; he could well be of mixed heritage) Robert Fischer. Presumably this applies to English actor Pete Postlethwaite (who plays Fischer's father) and Elliot Page as well, but their characters don't have their nationalities stated outright. Another possible example is Indian American Dileep Rao, who plays a vaguely Arab character called Yusuf.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Jossed: If Sir Michael Caine is to be believed, any fan theory which assumes that the "real world" is just another level of dream. Caine states that any scene which he's in is the real world. Virtually confirmed by Word of God, Christopher Nolan.
  • Magnum Opus Dissonance: This film was Nolan's dream project and it did pay off and became highly successful and appreciated...it's just that The Dark Knight Saga still overshadows it when it comes to Nolan's résumé.
  • Name's the Same: Nolan previously used the name Cobb in his first film Following.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
  • Shrug of God: Basically Nolan's entire stance on the ending.

I've been asked the question [about the ending] 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.

    • In his own mind, though, the ending is real, but he feels this shouldn't be everyone's interpretation.
  • Throw It In:
    • "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." According to an interview with Tom Hardy, he was supposed to use Arthur's name and "darling" just slipped out. Nolan liked it, so it stayed, even getting trailer time. And the slashers rejoiced. One assumes that was unintentional.
    • Also with Arthur kissing Ariadne. Apparently this wasn't in the original script, so one wonders what inspired Nolan to give it a shot...
    • Nolan likes toying with shippers, of both the slash and het varieties, apparently.
  • Viral Marketing: In the Nolan tradition, there's several campaigns up and running, including anti-Mind Crime posters marked with QR reader marks containing links to viral websites.
  • What Could Have Been: James Franco was originally cast as Arthur, he had to back out because of scheduling conflicts. Nolan's first choices for Ariadne and Browning were Evan Rachel Wood and Don Johnson, respectively, but both declined.
  • Word of God: It would seem that the costume designer (of all people) may have inadvertently revealed Nolan's intended ending. Here be spoilers: [1]
    • Michael Caine as well.
    • And finally, Nolan himself. He claims that, as far as he's concerned, Cobb is in the real world, but that the real meaning of the scene is that Cobb has left his totem behind and that it no longer has any meaning for him. ...Of course, that doesn't really clarify anything. However, he himself does admit he's biased toward the "real world" ending since he's a father himself, and points out that interpretation of the ending may fall along those lines. And the fact that the guy who wrote and directed the movie only has an interpretation of the ending just serves to underscore that there's no definitive answer to the question of whether the top was going to stop spinning or not.
  • Word of Saint Paul:
    • When interviewed about his role, Michael Caine asserted that any scene that included him was one guaranteed to be in the real world. This either explains the film or makes the Mind Screw even more confusing.
    • A costume designer stated that the last scene showing Cobb's children in fact used different children from an earlier scene and they were wearing slightly different shirts, which suggests that the final scene isn't a dream.
  • X Meets Y
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  1. ↑ Though that was likely CollegeHumor's intent, the writen equation states that Inception is equal to the integral of an unspecified function with respect to an unspecified variable, which also happens to be equal to (The Departed + The Matrix)^2 x (Minority Report + Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind + Shutter Island + The Dark Knight) + Juno. E=MC Hammer aside, the point stands that Inception is really damn complicated.
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