Inception

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Movie
German title Inception
Original title Inception
Inception-wordmark.svg
Country of production United States ,
United Kingdom
original language English , Japanese
Publishing year 2010
length 148 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Christopher Nolan
script Christopher Nolan
production Christopher Nolan,
Emma Thomas
music Hans Zimmer
camera Wally Pfister
cut Lee Smith
occupation
synchronization
Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine and Leonardo DiCaprio (from left to right) at the premiere in July 2010

Inception is an American science fiction - Heist film from the year 2010 and the seventh feature film by the US-American- British director Christopher Nolan , who is also the writer wrote and the producer acted. The cost of producing the film was $ 160 million and was funded by two executive film production companies, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures .

In it, Nolan designs a complex model of the influencing of consciousness through shared dreams. The protagonist Dominick Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio , has specialized in stealing valuable information from the victims' unconscious during a dream . After a failed order, Cobb is given the task of carrying out an inception, the planting of a thought in the victim's subconscious. If the job, which is considered impossible, is successful, the powerful client gives Cobb the opportunity to return to the United States after a long time in exile and see his children again.

The film, which received critical acclaim for its unusually complex and original plot, was also a commercial success, with grossing over $ 825 million. Inception has received four Academy Awards , four Golden Globe nominations and prizes at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and the British Academy Film Awards .

action

Ken Watanabe at the Inception premiere in July 2010

The US military developed what is known as dream sharing , a procedure for influencing the dream of an unsuspecting victim. Attackers can not only be contributors to the dream, but can also create and control the dream world. Building on this opportunity to explore a dream together, Dominick Cobb and his wife Mal developed the concept of a dream in a dream . It is characteristic that the time for the dreaming in the dream passes considerably faster. The reality around him therefore appears slower to the dreaming. This impression increases with every further dream level.

However, after Cobb and his wife woke up from a dream, Mal believed she was still in a dream and took his own life believing it would wake up to reality. Because who dies in a dream wakes up, no matter what dream level one is in. To force her husband to do the same, she made it appear as if he had murdered her. Cobb fled the United States and had to leave his children there.

Based on his accumulated knowledge, he has specialized in reading out (the so-called extraction ) valuable information from the subconscious of the respective target person.

The film begins with an attempt by Cobbs and his team to steal secret information from the Japanese businessman Saito using the dream-sharing method . The plan just fails: Saito realizes in time that the attempted robbery was just a dream within a dream controlled by Cobb and his team. Despite the failure, Saito is impressed and committed to Cobb: He should make the heir of a competing company aware of the division of the group in order to weaken it and thus thwart an impending world monopoly of energy supply . Although this so-called inception is generally considered impossible, Cobb agrees because Saito promises to allow him to return to his children and impunity in return , because Cobb is the only one who has ever succeeded in an inception.

For the difficult coup, Cobb brings together a team of experienced experts: In addition to Arthur, Eames and the pharmacist Yusuf, who is responsible for sedating the team, Cobb recruits the talented architecture student Ariadne as a "dream architect ". Through joint excursions in dream worlds with Cobb, she first learns about the possibilities of dream manipulation, but also learns that Cobb feels responsible for Mal's death. Time and again appears as Cobb's uncontrollable projection in dreams. The fascination of the project outweighs her fear of the unpredictability of Cobb's psyche . Also, nobody in the team is initially deterred by the danger of not waking up from deep dream levels and of sinking into derision.

The complex plan is put into practice on a flight of several hours from Sydney to Los Angeles : the team secretly stuns Robert Fischer, the target of the Inception. Cobb, Arthur, Eames, Ariadne, Yusuf and Saito connect with Fischer by means of an apparatus and penetrate Yusuf as the first dreamer. However, the dream created by the team takes a disastrous turn: Fischer is mentally trained; his unconscious therefore attacks the intruders in the dream in the form of a private army. Saito is seriously injured. Finally they manage to escape to a hiding place. There they simulate the kidnapped fisherman's godfather, Peter Browning, who tells him about a second, secret will from his father. Together with the kidnapped fisherman, Cobb's team flees from the attackers in a van . In order to descend into another dream level, they connect to a dream device again during the turbulent journey, while Yusuf at the wheel tries to escape the pursuers. His escape ends on a bridge where, according to the plan, he is supposed to crash the van into the river to get a "kick". The protagonists describe a process as a kick that is suitable for waking the sleeping person, such as a free fall or cold water. This is decisive for a punctual return of the dreaming, because otherwise he lingers further in the dream. Each dream level has to be resolved by a kick. When dreaming with weak sedation, a death in the dream also works to wake up one level above.

Since the speed of the thought processes increases on lower levels of consciousness, the minute-long journey of the van for the dreaming becomes hours within their dream. On the second dream level, Cobb poses as his ally to Fischer, since Fischer reacts more and more to the peculiarity of the dream. Under the pretext of questioning the attackers' motives, Cobb and his employees descend into an even deeper level of consciousness of Fischer. This time Arthur (dreamer of the second level) stays behind to get the dreaming back with a kick . On the first dream level, Yusuf, who can only defend himself with difficulty against the attacker, prepares the dreaming for the kick with a chanson that acoustically penetrates all dream levels. While the intruders have to struggle with increasingly aggressive attackers on all dream levels, despite the limited time they manage to get close to the goal: Fischer should see his deceased father in the third dream level. Before Fischer enters the room, however, he is shot by Mal. Saito also dies due to serious injuries. Instead of giving up, Ariadne convinces Cobb to descend another dream level: into the " Limbus ", where those who die in a dream gather, but cannot wake up due to the strong sedation. In reality, these people are lost.

In Limbus, Cobb meets his wife, who is waiting there, who tries to persuade him to stay with her and her children forever. Cobb now reveals that he only considered an inception to be feasible because he had already performed one on his wife: At that time, he injected his wife with the thought that she was only in a dream in order to make her, who would rather live in a dream, brought back to reality. However, because this thought plagued Mal in the real world and led to her suicide , the guilt never lets him go. Ariadne gives Fischer a kick in limbus, while he is resuscitated on the third dream level by Eames with a defibrillator . Shortly before the dreaming wakes up with a kick on all levels, Fischer meets his father and the inception succeeds.

Cobb remains in the limbus voluntarily. Inwardly, he says goodbye to his deceased wife and looks for Saito: Without him, he has no chance of seeing his "real" children again. He reminds the already aged Saito of the deal and that they are in a dream that he must leave. Shortly afterwards, Cobb and Saito wake up on the plane where the dreams began. After Saito's phone call, Cobb passed the controls at the airport without any problems and drove home to his children. Whether this is a dream or the reality remains open.

production

script

As early as 2001, Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about people who are able to steal dreams. The basic idea for the film arose from the question of how committing dreams could be used and abused. Nolan originally planned a horror film . Only later did he decide to highlight the emotionality of the story. The script, which he claims to have been writing for nine to ten years, was influenced by similar films from just before the turn of the millennium, including Matrix , Dark City and The 13th Floor . Nolan was inspired by people like Jorge Luis Borges , but also by films like Ich kampf um dich , 2001: A Space Odyssey or the James Bond films.

Believing that he could not get the necessary budget for the film, Nolan tried to render the content in a simpler form. However, he realized that this was not possible:

“The reason is, as soon as you're talking about dreams, the potential of the human mind is infinite. And so the scale of the film has to feel infinite. It has to feel like you could go absolutely anywhere by the end of the film. "

“The reason is that the potential of human thought is infinite when it comes to dreams. The frame of the film must also be infinite. It has to feel like you can go anywhere at the end of the film. "

- Christopher Nolan : In an interview about Inception's budget

After completing his film The Dark Knight , it took Nolan seven months to complete the final screenplay for Inception . On February 11, 2009, it was announced that Nolan had sold the script to Warner Bros.

Casting and casting

Leonardo DiCaprio at the Berlinale 2010

Nolan cast a number of roles with actors with whom he had previously worked. It was important to him that every actor, no matter how important the role, was able to underline the character's individuality. Leonardo DiCaprio , who was the first actor to be accepted after the casting, played a key role in the development of the characters . Nolan wanted to work with DiCaprio on his previous films, but only had success with Inception , as DiCaprio liked the concept of the film. The script was revised together again, with DiCaprio also being involved in the emotional development of the character of Cobb. Nolan handed the script to Cillian Murphy with the offer to choose his role.

For the cast of the characters, Nolan also considered other actors: Brad Pitt and Will Smith were intended for the character of Cobb, but both turned down the role. The role of Arthur was originally supposed to be played by James Franco , known from Spider-Man , who declined due to scheduling reasons. According to Nolan, Ariadne should actually be played by Evan Rachel Wood , but she turned down the role. In addition to Ellen Page , who later played the role, Nolan shortlisted Emily Blunt , Rachel McAdams , Jessy Schram , Taylor Swift , Carey Mulligan and Emma Roberts . The role of Mal , played by Marion Cotillard , was originally intended to be played by Kate Winslet .

Cobb's son was played by Christopher Nolan's child, Magnus Nolan.

Filming

Inception (world)
Tangier
Tangier
Calgary
Calgary
Cardington
Cardington
los Angeles
los Angeles
Tokyo
Tokyo
Paris
Paris
Filming locations for Inception
The University College , one of the locations in London

The shooting took place in six different countries on four continents. They started on June 19, 2009 in Tokyo and were Cardington ( Bedfordshire , United Kingdom ) continued. With the help of a cardanic suspension device , a hotel bar was created there, which can be swiveled in two directions for a scene in which gravity seems to get out of joint. In addition, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas designed a fully revolving hotel corridor in order to realize the scenes in which there is apparently weightlessness. This was originally supposed to be twelve meters long, but was then built more than twice as long. Another non-rotating version of the corridor was built for another scene. Since the filmmakers didn't know how to simulate the weightlessness of Ellen Page's hair, the hair was strictly tied back. The clothes of the protagonists were also specially selected:

“The clothes in those scenes could not be hanging down because, without gravity, they would be floating. We had to do things like wire shoelaces to make sure they were standing straight out and tack down the men's ties so they didn't flop around at random. "

“The clothes in these scenes were not allowed to hang down as they would have to float around without gravity. We therefore had to wire the laces or attach the ties to prevent them from hanging freely. "

- Jeffrey Kurland, Costume Designer at Inception

Further scenes were then filmed in Paris , including on the Seine at the Bir-Hakeim Bridge. The scene in which Cobb and Ariadne are sitting together in a bistro in the apparently real world and he explains the dream world to her were recorded with over 1000 frames per second, as Nolan wanted to depict the explosions occurring in the highest possible slow motion .

Scenes in the film as Mombasa were reported were in Tangier ( Morocco turned). Among other things, a car chase in the historic Medina district was recorded there.

In Los Angeles , among other things, the scenes in which the protagonist Saito is in a castle-like building were filmed. The interior design of the castle in the style of Japanese architecture was created especially for the film. A car chase was also filmed in downtown LA with a train racing through traffic. For this purpose, a truck was converted so that the chassis resembles a train. In order to set this scene to music appropriately , the sound designer Richard King recorded the sound of moving trains, slowed it down and increased some frequencies. A scene was filmed in a river in the port of Los Angeles in which a van falls off the Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge . Various underwater scenes were also filmed in which the actors had to stay under the water surface for up to five minutes at times. For this purpose, actors had to be supplied with air from diving cylinders.

The snow-themed scenes, inspired by the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), were filmed at Fortress Mountain Resort in Alberta (Canada) at the end of 2009 .

Camera technology

The film was shot in anamorphic format on 35 mm and 70 mm film , with landscape recordings being made in VistaVision format. For artistic reasons, Nolan refrained from using IMAX recordings. He also decided not to shoot in 3D , as otherwise he would have had to do without a lens with a fixed focal length . In post-production , Nolan watched a subsequent 3D version of the film, but was happy with the 2D version. According to reports, a 3D version on Blu-ray Disc was considered.

Visual effects

Some scenes were supported on a large scale with CGI technology, but according to VFX Supervisor Paul Franklin the amount of CGI settings is significantly less than in comparable productions.

The biggest challenge for the visual effects team, according to Franklin, was visualizing the limbo. Nolan had a clear idea of ​​the subject. However, a design that looked "like an iceberg version of Gotham City " was unsatisfactory. Eventually, a glacier was designed that was ultimately populated with architecture and streets.

Nolan wanted to record as much as possible using conventional technology. For the staging of an explosion of a snow fortress, this was therefore recreated as a miniature. Responsible for this was New Deal Studios , who made a miniature on a 1: 6 scale. This was altogether over twelve meters high. Since the explosion was mechanically supported and the miniature was therefore very heavy, they had to realize the exterior of the model in lightweight construction : To do this, the builders used spray plaster in conjunction with urethane , on the one hand to match the concrete look of the original building and on the other hand to achieve the most spectacular explosion possible bring about. Nolan liked the model so much that he commissioned establishing shots of the miniature. The model's explosion was recorded by five cameras, including one on a camera crane over 20 meters high .

music

Hans Zimmer was mainly responsible for the Inception - Soundtrack .

For the background music of Inception was composer Hans Zimmer responsible. Zimmer worked with Inception for the third time with Christopher Nolan. The official soundtrack album was released under the title Inception: Music from the Motion Picture .

Zimmer got a first impression of the background of the protagonists by reading the script, and he was also heavily involved in the film's development process. He initially interpreted the planned film as a love story and was influenced by the musical themes of film noir . However, he did not get to see the film for the time being because Nolan did not want his impressions to be influenced. Only after Nolan had accompanied the film with the music created by Zimmer, the composer was given the opportunity to refine the soundtrack.

The song Non, je ne regrette rien ( French for “no, I regret nothing”), sung by Édith Piaf , was used by the protagonists in the film as a signal for an impending kick to the dreaming and was the inspiration and basis for the entire soundtrack for Hans Zimmer . The piaf piece was greatly slowed down and further modified.

“All the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Édith Piaf track. So I could slip into half-time; I could slip into a third of a time. Anything could go anywhere. At any moment I could drop into a different level of time. "

“The music on the soundtrack consists of dividing and multiplying the tempo of the Édith Piaf piece [ Non, je ne regrette rien , note]. So I was able to make the slowing down of time clear. At any time I could dive into a different time plane. "

- Hans Zimmer : In an interview with the New York Times / Artsbeat on July 27, 2010

The idea of ​​making the Piaf piece the main musical theme came to Zimmer when he read the song title in Nolan's script and then listened to a poor quality recording of Non, je ne regrette rien . It sounded "like a nightclub in Paris in the 1940s while the German army marched along the banks": "It felt dangerous and it sounded like the hymn of a forgotten dream, a forgotten love and a forgotten life."

For Hans Zimmer, the work on Inception marked a turning point in his philosophy:

“I'm not interested in the massive heroic tunes anymore. Now, I'm interested in how I can take two, three, or four notes and make a really complex emotional structure. "

“I'm no longer interested in the huge, heroic recordings. Today I am interested in turning two, three or four notes into a very complex emotional structure. "

- Hans Zimmer : In an interview with filmtracks.com

Zimmer himself described his work as a “very electronic score ”, which was on a par with the orchestra that was also used . Critics describe the tonality in the soundtrack as "very similar" (original: " extremely consistent "), which hardly changes over long stretches, which leads to the dramaturgy falling by the wayside.

The soundtrack also includes various electric guitar nsoli by Johnny Marr . The bonus tracks Projections and Don't Think About Elephants are available for free download on the official website of the Inception soundtrack . These tracks cannot be heard on the soundtrack album. The trailer music for the first trailer, Mind Heist, is by Zack Hemsey , is not part of the soundtrack and can be heard free of charge on the artist's website. The music (Official) for the second trailer is from Lorne Balfe .

synchronization

The German synchronization was based on a dialogue book and the dialogue direction by Tobias Meister on behalf of FFS Film- & Fernseh-Synchron GmbH in Berlin , he himself only took on a small speaking role at the end of the film.

actor role German voice
Leonardo DiCaprio Dominick "Dom" Cobb Gerrit Schmidt-Foss
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Arthur Robin Kahnmeyer
Tom Hardy Eames Tobias Kluckert
Marion Cotillard Times Natascha Geisler
Ellen Page Ariadne Anne Helm
Cillian Murphy Robert Michael Fischer Norman Matt
Ken Watanabe Saito Tōru Tanabe
Dileep Rao Yusuf Olaf Reichmann
Tom Berenger Peter Browning Hans-Jürgen Wolf
Michael Caine Stephen Miles Jürgen Thormann
Pete Postlethwaite Maurice Fischer Roland Hemmo
Lukas Haas Nash Björn Schalla

marketing

Warner Bros. invested US $ 100 million in marketing campaigns , even though those in charge of the distribution company assumed that director Christopher Nolan would function as his own brand thanks to his previous successes.

A first teaser was published in August 2009 . The official website for the film only showed a spinning top that swayed more and more until December. At that time, the browser game Mind Crime was made available on the website, and if the player won it , they could watch the official movie poster . The game was expanded in May 2010, and the “prize” was from now on an official trailer for the film. A month later, just before the film was released, viral marketing posters and websites were launched.

publication

Inception had its premiere on July 8, 2010 in London in Leicester Square . In the United States, the premiere took place on July 13, 2010 in Hollywood in normal and IMAX theaters. The film opened in Germany and Switzerland on July 29, 2010, and one day later in Austria .

Inception was released on December 3, 2010 in Germany on DVD and Blu-ray Disc . In contrast to the DVD, the Blu-ray version contains, among other things, concept drawings, trailers and a prequel for the film, in which the history of Cobb's team is shown in comic style. In the UK , the DVD and Blu-ray was in the 6 December 2010 the United States published on December 7 of 2010.

For the European market, limited edition versions, including a briefcase edition, which contain additional extras, including a top, and various steel books were sold.

The free TV premiere in German-speaking countries took place on October 7, 2012 on ORF eins and RTL at 8:15 pm.

analysis

Visual style

Nolan had to face the problem that the many dream layers that play in different environments could easily be confused by the audience. For this reason, he decided to make the worlds as different as possible. Nolan used his experiences with parallel montages from his previous work The Dark Knight . Because Nolan wanted to forego color touch-ups during post-production, he chose locations for the shoot that can be easily distinguished without post-processing, such as a snowy landscape or a rainy city.

As in typical action films, Nolan uses slow motion . Unlike in classic films, these slow-motion scenes are not only used to increase the arc of tension, but also to make the temporal differences between the different dream levels clear: a van falling into a river, for example, is shown in slow motion to increase the speed of the to make the next lower dream level clear.

Themes and motifs

In contrast to films that deal with a similar topic, such as Matrix or eXistenZ , the worlds appearing in Inception are interdependent. What the dreamer feels or experiences influences the dream world in which he is located. A filled urinary bladder of a dreamer ensures that there is heavy rain in the dream world. In another scene, a car accident in which the dreaming is involved causes an avalanche in the dream world .

A thought that is “implanted” in the victim must be reduced to its simplest form in order for the inception to have an effect. Cobb's team plans this thought based on the bad relationship between Robert Fischer, the victim, and his father. It tries to resolve this oedipal conflict in order to be able to successfully place the thought. Not only the Oedipus conflict, but also the theory of repression are motifs that were shaped by Sigmund Freud and taken up by Nolan. The repression is reflected in Cobb's projection of his wife Mal, who appears again and again in his dreams and causes problems. Ariadne recognizes the process of repression when she penetrates Cobb's dream and gets into his subconscious there, visualized in the film through the basement. The trauma that Cobb did not overcome becomes clear in the film when a train rushes through the middle of a city and prevents Cobb and his team from carrying out the inception. In Cobb's memory, the train has an important place in connection with Mal's death.

The labyrinth of the Minotaur , shown here in the Medici Collection from Palazzo Strozzi , resembles the labyrinth that Ariadne drew when she was recruited.

Nolan uses references to mythology and religion: the name Yusuf is an Arabic version of Joseph , who according to Genesis 1 had the gift of interpreting dreams. In Greek mythology, Ariadne is the daughter of King Minos of Crete and Queen Pasiphae . She helped Theseus escape the Minotaur's labyrinth . The final version of a circular labyrinth that Ariadne draws in the film also resembles the labyrinth of legend. According to director Nolan, the reference to the legend is intentional.

The film itself uses many elements of film noir, including the femme fatale (in the form of mal) or the special lighting design . Mal's role as femme fatale was particularly important to Nolan. In French , Mal , the name of Cobb's wife, also means " Evil ".

Authors such as Thorsten Botz-Bornstein or David Kyle Johnson and William Irwin associate ignorance about the question of whether Cobb is dreaming or is in reality with Plato's allegory of the cave . A dreaming is usually not aware that he is in a dream state. The whole of life can therefore be a dream without the person concerned knowing it. The viewer can only guess how close Cobb is to reality; however, it is not certain that there is another level closer to reality. Nevertheless, every character faced with a choice acts according to classic arguments: Ariadne decides for life outside of the dream, Cobb also decides for his "old life", and Mal believes in a life with Cobb outside of reality. Whether the decision means no longer acting in reality is irrelevant. As in the allegory of the cave, the prisoners choose a different reality than the refugee. Even if this is not the reality, it feels as such to the protagonists. It is therefore not a question of perception, but a question of what is believed in.

The Penrose Staircase is used in the film to demonstrate the possibilities with a lucid dream .

Impossible figures like the Penrose Stairs can be created by the protagonists through the surrealism of the dream and used to shake off pursuers, for example. Other optical illusions such as the Droste effect are also used in the film to show the possibilities of circumventing the paradoxes that occur in reality .

Totem s appear at various points in the film . These are objects whose exact properties are only known to individual film characters. If the properties of the totem change, this is an indication that one is in an externally controlled dream, since the attacker does not know the totem and therefore cannot build it exactly into the dream world. At the beginning of the film, Saito notices that a familiar carpet is no longer made of wool and realizes that he is in a dream. Ariadne takes on a chess piece as a totem. Cobb uses a top that has the property of spinning in his own dreams.

End of film

At the end of the film, Cobb turns his top again , which has given him information in the previous film about whether he is still in a dream or in reality: If the angular momentum of the top does not decrease, this is a sure indicator for Cobb to still be in a dream. While the top is still spinning, Cobb turns to his children. However, the image fades out after the camera has held the spinning, slowing top for a few seconds. This means that the final resolution remains hidden from the viewer. In addition, the constantly rotating Cobb top was only "designed" for his or Mal's dreams. If the final scene was part of a dream attack by a third party, it is to be expected that the attacker was not aware of this physically impossible property. In the dream world he has created, the top would tip over in the long term, just like in reality. According to the logic of the film, it is also conceivable that Cobb has created a new dream world in which the totem now has different properties. With such a “self-deception” even tipping over the top would no longer be proof that it is not a dream.

Nolan commented on the speculation as to whether the top will tip over or keep turning:

“I've been asked the question 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. "

“I was asked this question more often than any other question about any other film I've made. [...] It's funny that people really expect an answer from me. "

- Christopher Nolan : Interview with Entertainment Weekly / Inside Movies

Nolan is aware of the ambiguity of the film and stated in an interview with Wired that he can only present it to the audience on the basis of a stable interpretation, otherwise they could feel cheated. Various authors took up the interpretation and answered the question of whether Cobb is still in a dream at the end of the film.

Nolan himself said of this scene that the most important thing is that Cobb doesn't pay any attention to the top after it has been spun. This is the result of Cobb's altered subconscious, after Mal gave him a choice in limbus and then decided for reality. His changed perception was therefore another inception in the action, based on the properties of a thought mentioned in the film:

“What is the most resilient parasite? [...] An idea. Resilient ... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. [...] An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you. "

“Which is the most resilient parasite? […] A thought! Resistant, highly contagious; once a thought has infected a mind it is almost impossible to remove. […] A thought is like a virus, resistant, highly contagious and the smallest seed of a thought can grow. He can build you up or destroy you. "

- Cobb : in the film Inception

Authors David Kyle Johnson , Jason Southworth, and William Irwin theorize that, after spending decades in limbo and killing themselves on the train tracks, Cobb and Mal wake up in another dream level, not in reality. That would also explain why Cobb can no longer dream without sedation - he is in a dream. The authors relied on the meeting between Cobbs and Eames shown in the film in Mombasa and the subsequent chase. Eames was able to forge tokens in seconds , and aerial photographs show a labyrinth-like environment. Chasers suddenly appear in a seemingly surreal environment, and the waiter in a bar loudly calls attention to Cobb.

On the other hand, when Ariadne shows him her totem , Cobb says that the top was Mal's totem . There is no mention in the film which Cobbs totem is. However, Cobb wears his wedding ring on his left ring finger in all dream sequences, but not in the real-world scenes and the final sequence.

reception

Reviews

The film was received mostly positively. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of the critics rated the film as good, while 91% of the audience rated the film positively (as of May 2016). According to the consensus of critics, Inception is "smart, innovative and exciting, [...] the rare summer blockbuster on both an emotional and an intellectual level." Based on the evaluation of 42 reviews, Metacritic determined an average rating of 74 out of 100 possible points (status: October 2015 ).

The film was also received very positively at the IMDb . The film was rated with an average of 8.8 out of 10 stars in the IMDb and is currently (as of October 2017) 14th among the best-rated films.

US reviews

Roger Ebert praised in the Chicago Sun-Times that Inception was “breathtaking” and “thoroughly original”. It looks like it has been tailor-made from a new material, but is still based on the principles of an action film. The film is a “confusing labyrinth” that offers material for “endless analyzes”. Spoilers could not harm the work, because knowing the end does not reveal anything to the viewer as long as he does not know the way to get there.

David Denby from the New Yorker, on the other hand, sees the dream sequences only as an over-the-top gimmick to double and triple action sequences customary in the genre, all accompanied by the "trombone blower of Hans Zimmer's music that beats us almost to deafness and submission". Only the few scenes between Cotillard and DiCaprio testified of human depth. Despite the humanistic content, one has "the feeling that for Nolan human quirks are nothing more than interchangeable parts within the comprehensive, visual concept".

Inception also received negative criticism from David Edelstein . He sees an obsessive hype in the general enthusiasm that he cannot explain. Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times criticized Edelstein's opinion: "[...] what we don't need is a criticism that beats the film just because it gets so much recognition."

German reviews

For Kino.de , the science fiction action thriller is not only “virtuously nested” and “visually visionary”: “DiCaprio masters his role as a complex protagonist without any effort and his scenes with Cotillard in particular have considerable emotional force. The action sequences, which have multiple unmistakable Bond parallels, are also pounded. " Cinema reported euphorically:" Cinema was invented for this film: highly intelligent and visually unique cyber thriller. "The originality and unusual complexity of the work is also highlighted on filmstarts.de : Anyone who gets involved in its surreal world "is sending a clear signal against Hollywood's blockbuster leveling by buying a movie ticket."

The taz expressed itself more critically about the lack of imagination of the dream worlds, which are “comparatively clearly structured, functional”: “What would be possible remains with the sequence known from the trailer in which Paris is served for a sandwich, a mere suggestion: it doesn't get any crazier. At most, the train arrives later, unscheduled. ”Andreas Borcholte from Spiegel also described the dream worlds as“ sober and rational ”, but emphasized the“ breathtaking images ”.

The lexicon of international films described the film as a "brilliantly constructed, at times very action-oriented science fiction film full of complex ambiguities that abolishes the boundaries between dreams and wishes, manipulation and reality".

Grossing results

Inception grossed approximately $ 825.5 million at an approximate production cost of $ 160 million, of which about $ 292 million was in the United States. Already on the first weekend of the release, 62 million US dollars were raised. This puts the production in 80th place (as of August 8, 2020) of the most commercially successful films of all time .

In Germany, a total of 3,426,456 cinema viewers had seen the film by the end of 2010, making it the fourth most successful film in 2010. Around a third of all cinema visits occurred in the first week of publication (as of August 2012).

Distribution on DVD and Blu-ray media was also a success. After sales began, Inception was number one on the DVD and Blu-ray sales charts in the United States. The Blu-ray share of the media sold was 65% (as of December 2010). This ratio was unmatched to date.

Awards

Inception received various awards, mostly related to Nolan's script and the film music . With eight nominations at the 2011 Academy Awards , the film won a total of four Academy Awards. The production design was also able to convince many award winners.

The German film and media evaluation gave the production the rating of particularly valuable . The evaluation of the FBW states, among other things:

“Everything is possible in the dream world of this film - it just has to be presented realistically and coherently. And Nolan masters this task with ease. […] The illusion of weightlessness has never been created in the cinema as credibly and playfully as here, and INCEPTION is otherwise full of phantasmagoria that were grandiose conceived and staged by Nolan. Thanks to the intense performance of the cast of exactly the right cast, Nolan is able to prevent his story from becoming a purely cinematic box of tricks, based on the motto 'if anything is possible, nothing matters'. Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page in particular ground this dream of a film. "

- German film and media rating

Oscar 2011

Golden Globe Awards 2011

British Academy Film Awards 2011

Satellite Awards 2010

  • Best camera for Wally Pfister
  • Best production design for Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Douglas A. Mowat
  • Best score for Hans Zimmer
  • nominated for
    • Best film for Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas
    • Best director for Christopher Nolan
    • Best Original Screenplay for Christopher Nolan
    • Best Actor (Drama) for Leonardo DiCaprio
    • Best Supporting Actress for Marion Cotillard
    • Best editing for Lee Smith
    • Best sound editing for Richard King
    • Best visual effects for Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb

Grammy Awards 2011

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

Writers Guild of America Award 2011

  • Best Original Screenplay for Christopher Nolan

MTV Movie Awards 2011

Bogey Award

  • Silver bogey: 2 million visitors within 20 days

Saturn Award 2011

Curt Siodmak Prize 2011 : Best Film

Aftermath and parodies

Inception has been parodied several times, including in the animated series The Simpsons with the episode How I Wet Your Mother , South Park with the episodes Insheeption and Grounded Vindaloop , Robot Chicken with The Godfather of the Bride 2 and Rick and Morty with Lawnmower Dog . Imitations of Inception content can also be seen in Scary Movie 5 .

In the 2011 Lil Wayne music video "6 Foot 7 Foot" some elements from the film are present, such as: B. Asleep Lil Wayne lets himself be kicked into a bathtub to be woken up, as does Leonardo DiCaprio at the beginning of the film.

In the video game Duke Nukem Forever , an endlessly rotating top is also shown, which in the film provides information about the dream state.

In 2016, Inception ranked 51st in a BBC survey of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .

The film gave its name to the inception architecture at Convolutional Neural Networks .

literature

  • Christian Bumeder (aka Bumillo ): Medial Inception. On a narrative theory of the consciousness film . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8260-5313-9 .
  • Hubert Carl: Inception. "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan sends Leo DiCaprio and us around the world - and into the infinite world of our most intimate dreams. In: Meeting point cinema. August 2010, p. 27.
  • Christopher Nolan: Inception: The Shooting Script . Welcome Books, 2010, ISBN 1-60887-015-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die for . Open Curt Pub, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8126-9733-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because It's Never Just a Dream . John Wiley & Sons, 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Warner Bros. (Ed.): Production Notes (not titled) . ( inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com ( Memento from March 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF]).

Web links

Commons : Inception  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Inception . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2010 (PDF; test number: 123 564 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Inception . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Ulrich Kriest: Inception. In: film-dienst 16/2010. Retrieved on August 5, 2010 : "Basically Inception is a heist movie ."
  4. ↑ a b c Steve Weintraub: Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas Interview INCEPTION. They Talk 3D, What Kind of Cameras They Used, Pre-Viz, WB, and a Lot More! collider.com, March 25, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  5. ↑ John Hiscock: Inception: Christopher Nolan interview. Film Makers on Film. telegraph.co.uk, July 1, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  6. ↑ a b Geoff Boucher: 'Inception' breaks into dreams. On the set. Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (multi-page English).
  7. ^ Peter Howell: Howell: Relax and enjoy the ride, Inception director says. thestar.com, July 15, 2010, accessed July 6, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Romain le Vern: Inception by Christopher Nolan: Interview, références, indices… (No longer available online.) Excessif.com, July 15, 2010, archived from the original on July 17, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2012 (French).
  9. ↑ Lars-Olav Beier: "Our brain is full of implants". In: Spiegel Online . July 29, 2010, accessed July 6, 2012 .
  10. ↑ a b Dave Itzkoff: A Man and His Dream: Christopher Nolan and 'Inception'. In: The New York Times . June 30, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Michael Fleming: Nolan tackles 'Inception' for WB. Studio gets 'Dark Knight' director for sci-fi pic. Variety , February 11, 2009, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  12. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., p. 6 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  13. ↑ Leonardo DiCaprio Interview 2: Inception. (Video) (No longer available online.) Filmstarts.de, July 26, 2010, archived from the original on August 28, 2012 ; accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, German, subtitled).
  14. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., p. 7 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  15. ↑ a b c d Cindy Davis: Mindhole Blowers: 20 Facts About Inception That I May or May Not Have Dreamt. pajuba.com, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  16. ↑ Ben Fritz: Brad Pitt and Will Smith were early candidates to star in 'Inception'. Los Angeles Times: Hero Complex, July 13, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  17. ↑ a b c d e f Robert Capps: Q&A: Christopher Nolan on Dreams, Architecture, and Ambiguity. Wired .com, November 29, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  18. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., p. 4 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  19. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 13–14 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  20. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 14–17 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  21. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., p. 16 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  22. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 17–18 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  23. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 18–19 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  24. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 19–22 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  25. ↑ See making of the DVD Inception
  26. ↑ Terrence Russell: Screen: How Inception's Sound Designer Engineers Cacophony. wired.com, July 22, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  27. ↑ Eric Ditzian, Kara Warner: 'Inception' Stars Reveal Secrets Behind Epic Van Scene. Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Dileep Rao describe the scene that took 'months, off and on' to shoot. mtv.com , July 14, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  28. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., pp. 22–24 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  29. ↑ Christopher Nolan Tested 3D Conversion For 'Inception', Might Use Process For 'Batman 3'. The Playlist, June 14, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  30. ^ Brian Gallagher: Inception Being Converted to 3D Blu-ray? MovieWeb, February 24, 2011, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  31. ^ A b Terrence Russell: How Inception's Astonishing Visuals Came to Life. Wired .com, July 20, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  32. ↑ Ian Failes: Inception. fxguide.com, July 31, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  33. ^ Inception. (PDF; 167 kB) Warner Bros., p. 25 , accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, production notes).
  34. ↑ a b Rick Florino: Interview: Hans Zimmer talks “Inception” Score. artistdirect.com, December 7, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  35. ↑ a b c d Inception. Editorial Reviews. filmtracks.com, July 13, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (analysis of the soundtrack).
  36. ↑ Georg Krüger: The secret behind the Inception Soundtrack. Magix Magazin , August 4, 2010, accessed on June 11, 2012 .
  37. ^ Dave Itzkoff: Hans Zimmer Extracts the Secrets of the 'Inception' Score. New York Times , Arts Beat, July 28, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  38. ↑ Sven Safarow: Inception - News from Voodoo Master Nolan. Negative, August 5, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (critical review).
  39. ^ Inception. Music from the motion picture. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 16, 2012 ; accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, official website of the Inception soundtrack).
  40. ^ Zack Hemsey : Mind Heist. from Mind Heist by Zack Hemsey. Zack Hemsey, accessed on June 11, 2012 (English, trailer music on the artist's website).
  41. ↑ a b Inception. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on June 1, 2012 .
  42. ↑ Ben Fritz, Claudia Eller: Warner gambles on an unproven commodity. Los Angeles Times , July 13, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  43. ↑ Brian Gallagher: Official Full-Length Inception Trailer Is Here! MovieWeb, May 10, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  44. ↑ Nick Newman: New 'Inception' Viral Poster and Website. The Film Stage, June 7, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  45. ↑ Start dates for Inception. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 11, 2012 .
  46. ^ Inception. (No longer available online.) Zelluloid.de, archived from the original on July 16, 2010 ; accessed on September 4, 2018 (cinema and DVD release dates in Germany).
  47. ^ Liam Goodwin: Inception DVD and Blu-ray coming in December. (No longer available online.) Filmonic.com, July 31, 2010, archived from the original on May 26, 2012 ; accessed on June 11, 2012 .
  48. ↑ Ivana Redwine: New DVD Releases. About.com DVD, December 7, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  49. ^ Inception [DVD] [2010]. Amazon .co.uk, accessed June 11, 2012 (English, article page on the UK version of Amazon).
  50. ↑ Alex Haas: Inception Limited Edition Blu-ray Revealed for UK. nolanfans.com, September 3, 2010, accessed November 14, 2016 .
  51. ↑ Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception
  52. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 42 .
  53. ↑ a b c d Senses of Cinema: Desiring-Machines in American Cinema: What Inception tells us about our experience of reality and film (English), Analyze des Films, accessed on May 29, 2012
  54. ^ Christian Alt: Inception. Negative, July 26, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (assessment and analysis).
  55. ↑ Christianne Hedtke: Inception: The Myth and the Minotaur. (No longer available online.) BananaWho.com, August 14, 2010, archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; accessed on July 6, 2012 .
  56. ↑ Top Ten Film Noir Elements in Inception ... and One That Isn't. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 31, 2013 ; accessed on June 11, 2012 .
  57. ↑ Mallorie Cobb. The Inception Wiki, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  58. ↑ Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die for . Open Curt Pub Co, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8126-9733-9 .
  59. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 11 .
  60. ↑ Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die for . Open Curt Pub Co, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8126-9733-9 , pp. 16-23 .
  61. ↑ Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die for . Open Curt Pub Co, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8126-9733-9 , pp. 63-64 .
  62. ↑ Eric Harshbarger: The Never-Ending Stories: Inception's Penrose Staircase. (No longer available online.) Wired.com, August 19, 2010, archived from the original on March 15, 2014 ; accessed on July 6, 2012 .
  63. ↑ Jeff Jensen: Christopher Nolan on his 'last' Batman movie, an 'Inception' videogame, and that spinning top. EntertainmentWeekly, InsideMovies, November 30, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 .
  64. ↑ Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Inception and Philosophy: Ideas to Die for . Open Curt Pub Co, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8126-9733-9 , pp. 50-51; 201-202 .
  65. ↑ Inception film quotes. filmzitate.de, accessed on June 11, 2012 .
  66. ^ Memorable quotes for Inception. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 11, 2012 .
  67. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 5, 19-20 .
  68. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 6 .
  69. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 33 .
  70. ^ David Kyle Johnson, William Irwin: Inception and Philosophy: Because it's never just a Dream . 2011, ISBN 1-118-16889-5 , pp. 7 .
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  74. ^ David Denby: Dream Factory. The current cinema. The New Yorker , July 26, 2010, accessed June 11, 2012 (review by David Denby).
  75. ^ David Edelstein: Dream a Little Dream. New York Magazine, July 11, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  76. ↑ Patrick Goldstein: Chris Nolan's 'Inception' gets its first critical sucker punch. Los Angeles Times / The Big Picture, July 13, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
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  80. ↑ Ekkehard Knörer: Labyrinthine overview. New Nolan film "Inception". (No longer available online.) Taz.de , July 28, 2010, archived from the original on April 15, 2012 ; Retrieved June 11, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taz.de
  81. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: The enemy in my dream. Spiegel Online , July 27, 2010, accessed on June 11, 2012 : “The British director finds breathtaking images to illustrate the creative power of the resting mind. [...] Nolan's dream worlds are as sober and rational as a Michael Mann film, as rapid as a Bourne adventure or - in the case of the snow fortress - homage to the Bond films of the seventies. But it would probably be overwhelming for the viewer to integrate irritating and absurd David Lynch elements into an already overly complex plot. "
  82. ^ Inception. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed June 11, 2012 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
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  85. ↑ Top Lifetime big things. Box Office Mojo, accessed August 8, 2020 .
  86. ↑ film hit list: Years List (international) 2010. Federal Film Board (FFA), accessed on July 6, 2012 .
  87. ↑ Top 100 Germany 2010. insidekino.de, December 11, 2011, accessed on June 11, 2012 .
  88. ↑ TK Arnold: Summit's "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" was the No. 2 best-selling disc. December 15, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  89. ↑ Travis Leamons: Inception Sets New Milestone for Blu-ray sales. December 16, 2010, accessed June 4, 2012 .
  90. ^ Inception. Predicate particularly valuable. German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) , accessed on June 12, 2012 (German Film and Media Assessment gives the production the rating of particularly valuable ).
  91. ^ Inception (2010). Internet Movie Database , accessed September 25, 2012 .
  92. ↑ Easter eggs (DNF). Wikia , accessed September 25, 2012 .
  93. ^ Going Deeper With Convolutions - GoogLeNet. (PDF) In: cs.unc.edu. Retrieved November 4, 2017 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on July 10, 2012 .