While the world is focused on the atomic success of Oppenheimer, let’s take a trip down memory lane to director Christopher Nolan’s other magnum opus from 2010–Inception.
Inception is a 2010 film written and directed by Nolan. Combining elements of science fiction, heist, and psychological thriller, the film depicts the travails of Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man who enters people’s dreams and steals information using a dream-sharing technology. One day, a Japanese billionaire hires him to infiltrate the mind of his competitor’s son and plant the idea to break up their company. Realizing the complexity of the mission, Dom and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) put together a team of professionals to carry out the inception. Things go awry when they realize their target has had expert training against such intervention.
Since its release in 2010, Inception remains one of the best heist thrillers ever made. The film was a masterclass of genre-blending and incorporating intricate cerebral concepts into mass entertainment. The script tightly puts together a thrilling time heist with layers of storytelling, multiple characters occupying unique roles, and deeply emotional elements.
The Oscar-winning cinematography by Wally Pfister redefined what modern sci-fi could look like, with some very memorable imagery including the rotating hallway fight scene and the Escher stairs-esque sequence. Meanwhile, its score by Hans Zimmer kickstarted the kind of sound that defined the next decade of blockbuster film scoring. Of course, we cannot forget the sterling cast: DiCaprio, Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, et al. To call this film iconic would be an understatement!
The film managed to rack in $839 million worldwide. Its success proved that audiences would still embrace well-made original pictures. Of course, one cannot downplay the role of The Dark Knight’s success in enabling Nolan to get Inception off the ground. Nolan also has Japanese filmmaker Satoshi Kon to thank given the myriad of inspirations, both visually and thematically, that he gained from Kon’s 2006 anime movie Paprika.
At the center of Inception’s success was Nolan’s ability to pull off the many different threads he introduced in the movie and ensure they all work harmoniously in 148 minutes of pure thrilling ride. That the auteur missed out on the Best Director nomination and even lost the Best Original Screenplay is The Academy’s most baffling decision of all time. Over time, this film only receives more appreciation and proves that sci-fi – often considered pulpy in the world of filmmaking – can be high art cinema too.
Watch Inception tonight on HBO Max and Netflix.
