Fifteen years of Inception
Are you truly awake? Because everything is just real enough.
This year, we celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the release of Christopher Nolan’s Inception. It was recently ranked the 55th on the New York Times' list of the best films of the decade by industry professionals, and 24th by readers. Since 2010, it has grossed over $839 million worldwide and counting. Even now, heated debates and analyses about the film’s construction and ending burn like an unquenched flame. So, it isn’t hard to say that this film has left its mark on the history of cinema.
Nolan spent nearly ten years writing this high-concept film, understandable, considering it required rewriting the rules of our world. Before Inception’s release, he had already established his talent with Memento (2000) and The Dark Knight series, which helped him get Inception produced. Now, 25 years since his first major film, he has never ceased to challenge and create. Especially with his historical success like Interstellar (2014) and the recent Oppenheimer (2023). The world of cinema has its eyes locked onto his upcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic The Odyssey, set for release in 2026. So why not take this opportunity to revisit one of his most defining works on its 15th anniversary? Here’s an amusing gamble to take on: you may just have the craziest dream tonight.
What is a dream, and what is reality? Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), exiled from the U.S. and away from his children, works as an intellectual thief who steals information by infiltrating the dreams of others. On a particular job, he is offered the chance to plant an idea instead of extract one—inception—by a powerful man named Saito (Ken Watanabe), who promises Cobb a return to his children if the deed is successful. Their target, Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), Saito’s rival, is to be implanted with the idea that he should give up his recently deceased father’s corporation. After testing the young new recruit, Ariadne (Elliot Page), with some maze design, she becomes part of Cobb’s team, alongside Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), his collaborator; Eames (Tom Hardy), who masters the art of disguise and impersonation; and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), the chemist responsible for steadying their sleep. After much planning, the team seizes the opportunity on Robert’s long flight back to L.A. to infiltrate his dream. But once inside, they are confronted with a cascade of unexpected challenges.
Nolan first settled us into the film with a heist framework, filled with stylish action, suspense, and thrill. The smooth camera movement glided us gracefully through the actions while presenting us with the rules of the game. Some of the most iconic scenes took place in Paris, when the cafés and stores exploded in slow motion and when the city folded onto itself. To visually breathe in the magnitude of this spectacle was, quite literally, world-bending. Nolan invited us to rewrite the universe's physics and rules, which anchored all that was to come. This marked our familiar context before stepping it up to its high-concept core.
Dream within a dream. To achieve inception, the team must go down multiple layers of the dream. With each level, time slows compared to the last. Each dream had its own location and weather, designed by the architect. The team discovers upon arrival that not only is Robert’s mind protected by militarized subconscious defenses—the immune system of the mind—but that this is not their only problem. Mal (Marion Cotillard), the projection of Cobb’s deceased wife, introduced to us at the film’s opening as a kind of Bond girl, grows stronger with each layer. Her sole intent is to ruin the mission and keep Cobb with her in the dream world’s limbo—a place that is nearly impossible to escape.
Nolan carefully balanced the story and the task of every character, each with their own title and role. He didn’t hesitate to plant a few Easter eggs. For example, the name Ariadne refers to the Cretan princess in Greek mythology who helped Theseus escape from the Minotaur’s labyrinth. In this case, Cobb is Theseus, and the Minotaur is Mal. The emotional stake Nolan placed between Cobb, Mal, and their children became the film’s connecting thread. Mal challenges the internal emotional and intellectual conflict for Cobb, while serving as a constant reminder to question the reality presented to us.
Is it a dream, or is it reality? By the end of the film, Cobb gets through customs and back to his children—but not before spinning the top one last time. Only this time, he doesn’t wait. He walks away to his daughter and son, leaving the camera alone with the unsteady top before it cuts to black. I don’t think anyone forgets the first time they saw that shot. The questions that immediately ricochet in our minds: Is this reality? Did Cobb get out? Was this just another layer of the dream? Are those even his real children? What happened? Nolan himself must have been asked this question countless times.
Endless video essays, written analyses, and forum threads have been devoted to this film. For example, the wedding ring is far more likely to be his totem rather than the top. During Oppenheimer’s press tour, Nolan shared on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, producer Emma Thomas once remarked that the point of the final shot is that Cobb doesn’t care anymore.
Perhaps the fate of the top didn’t matter—because for him, it had been endless years of longing to return. This was not about money or anything material. He finally found his family again. His children were there, so this was his reality. And his choice was made. This is a film that you can watch and rewatch, each time finding new details that allow you to appreciate the story and Nolan’s brilliance even more. You can bring a hypothesis into each rewatch, and the same story will play out a different way every time.
I must highlight Hans Zimmer’s tremendous score. If only one could have heard me muttering his name throughout the film in awe every rewatch. As always, the legend delivered an immersive and narrative soundscape. Whether it was the ticking of time embedded in each world or a plot device echoing Édith Piaf’s song, Zimmer tightened the string of tension—a perfect collaboration between sound and image. The latter relied on editor Lee Smith, who had to tell four stories at once during the film’s climax. Production design and color helped distinguish each level for us, but Smith still had to connect them and ensure the viewers understood the progression of each story in this whirlwind of butterfly effects.
Another classic moment was the zero-gravity corridor scene, a great example. Throughout the film, Nolan, like a puppeteer, toggled the strings of logic just enough so that we slipped in and out of questioning reality. Everything seemed tangible—until he pulled the string. Nolan kept everything as realistic as possible, even when the dream world completely discarded the laws of physics and natural phenomena, veering into surrealism. Thanks to his maximal use of practical sets and calculated visual effects that made everything just real enough. Funny thing, isn’t it? Just real enough.
As the writer-director of this film, Nolan is nothing short of a dream architect himself. He weaves this world into our imagination with its rules and sentiments—secret vaults holding answers only he knows. His films always inspire us to dream, both physically and metaphorically. They seduce their creative viewers into dreaming, much like what drives Ariadne to return after her first lesson: une envie de créer—an irrefutable, unstoppable, nearly destructive need to create. He shows us a way to approach pure creativity through cinema. Whether it is high high-concept heist film or a galactic sci-fi epic, either an adaptation or an original story, Nolan has created a universe of his own that respects and challenges its audience. As a creative, he and his work continue to inspire countless young dreamers. Inception is only one of many high points of his career; the real thrill is in knowing that his cinematic world will not cease to expand and evolve. Until then, let us wait patiently for this architect, as he transfigures a world of imagination onto the silver screen.
Photo: Netflix
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