Trivia / Inception

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

• All-Star Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, and Pete Postlethwaite in one of his last roles.
• Auteur License: Nolan spent years building up his reputation, directing mega hits like those of The Dark Knight to give himself the clout to create this film the way he wanted. The fact that Inception became a big hit itself guaranteed he'll keep that clout for some time (as of Tenet ten years later, he still has it, what with that film costing over $200 million and not being IP-driven).
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • "We need/have to go deeper" is used in Image Macros and as a meme of the movie despite not appearing in the film.
  • "A dream within a dream. Inception." Inception is planting an idea in the mark's head; going two (or three) dreams deep just helps with that.
• Billing Displacement: Despite prominent billing, Michael Caine only gets three minutes of screentime.
• Career Resurrection: After gaining renewed acclaim for his performance in Bronson, Tom Hardy played a small but important role as Eames in this critically and financially successful hit. While the actor was seldom mentioned in this film's positive reviews, director Christopher Nolan kept Hardy in his thoughts and later on cast him as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Hardy's role as that film's Big Bad granted him far greater exposure than his supporting role in Inception, with him reaping the rewards when it became successful too.
• Completely Different Title: While in the movie "inception" is used to describe an action ("inceive an idea") many countries translated the title in the noun definition atop this page, mostly as "(The) Origin". Then there's China, where it's "Realm of the Dream Thieves" or "Comprehensive Launch".
• Edited for Syndication: In an effort to combat confusion, television broadcasts in Japan include text in the upper-left corner of the screen to remind viewers which level of the dream a specific scene takes place in.
• Enforced Method Acting: If this is to be believed, while filming the final scene between Robert Fischer and his father Pete Postlethwaite quietly told Cillian Murphy that he was in the final stages of his battle with cancer (which would claim his life shortly after the movie was released) which caused Murphy to break down crying for real while filming.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: Christopher Nolan spent over a decade developing the script.
• 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.
• Follow the Leader: Not the movie itself, but the advertising: it's become increasingly common for movie trailers to use the same BWOOOONNNG sound effect used in Inception's teaser.
• 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 Trilogy still overshadows it when it comes to Nolan's résumé.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film got a domestic re-release in summer 2020 for its tenth anniversary and as an appetizer before Tenet. Although it's a more limited release than expected due to the COVID-19 Pandemic still keeping many theaters closed.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: Christopher Nolan originally envisioned this as a horror film.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Ken Watanabe dubs himself twice in the Japanese dubs of the film. (One for the theatrical version and another for the video release.)
• No Stunt Double: Joseph Gordon-Levitt performed all but one of his own stunts during the fight scene in the spinning hallway.
• One for the Money; One 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 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 Trilogy 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.
• Real-Life Relative: Miranda Nolan, the director's cousin, plays the stewardess on the plane.
  • Christopher Nolan's son Magnus plays James at 20 months old.
  • The two child actors who play James and Phillipa at three and five really are brother and sister in real life. Similarly, their younger sister Claire plays Phillipa at three.
• Reality Subtext: Peter Postlethwaite was dying while filming this movie and knew it, which makes Maurice Fischer's subplot all the more chilling. He apparently told Cillian Murphy that he was terminally ill while filming, which made Murphy break down in tears. When Robert Fischer is crying in his final scene with his father, Murphy was crying for real.
• The Red Stapler:
  • The film has made tons of viewers curious about lucid dreaming.
  • ForeverSpin capitalized on continued interest in the film and the role Mal's totem plays in the plot by selling replicas of the top.
• Referenced by...: Has its own page.
• Release Date Change: Not the original 2010 release, but the 10th Anniversary Edition, which was originally scheduled to take Tenet's slot on the schedule after that film was moved due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Inception rerelease was consistently scheduled two weeks ahead of TENET as the newer film shifted along the calendar; the rerelease ultimately opened on August 21, 2020 (with a sneak peek at TENET attached).
• Shoot the Money: Did they ever. Filming took place in six different countries, and the filmmakers made sure to make creative use of the exotic scenery. They don't just show you downtown Paris — they fold it on top of itself. They don't just set a few scenes in an ancient Japanese castle — they flood it, and then blow it up. And so on.
• Shrug of God: Basically Nolan's entire stance on the ending. In his own mind, though, the ending is real, but he feels this shouldn't be everyone's interpretation.
  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.
• 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. The slashers rejoiced.
  • Arthur kissing Ariadne apparently wasn't in the original script, so one wonders what inspired Nolan to give it a shot.
• Viral Marketing: In the Nolan tradition, there were several campaigns, including anti-Mind Crime posters marked with QR reader marks containing links to viral websites.
• The Walrus Was Paul: Christopher Nolan provides enough conflicting evidence to keep everyone arguing over the ending (or the whole film); anyone looking for a theory that satisfactorily addresses every point is going to have a rough go.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Brad Pitt and Will Smith both turned down the role of Cobb.
  • James Franco was originally cast as Arthur, he had to back out because of scheduling conflicts.
  • Nolan's first choice for Ariadne was Evan Rachel Wood, but she declined. Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Carey Mulligan, Emma Roberts and Taylor Swift were considered for Ariadne.
  • Kate Winslet was the first choice for Mal but she turned it down, unable to see herself as the character. This would have made the Actor Allusion above even more hilarious.
  • Don Johnson turned down the role of Browning.
• Word of God:
  • 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.
  • Nolan himself 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. ...clarifies nothing. However, he himself admits 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. The fact that the guy who wrote and directed the movie only has an interpretation of the ending 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.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio has stated in an interview, that in his mind, Cobb makes it out to the real world and his kids.
• Working Title: Filming began under Oliver's Arrow.
• Write What You Know: Nolan said that he based the roles of the dream building team off significant roles used in making a film. Cobb is like the director, Arthur the producer, Ariadne the production designer, Eames the actor, Saito the studio, Yusuf the SFX engineer, and Fischer is the Audience Surrogate.

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