Inception (2010) ft. Walter Gainer
- Thomas Duncan
- Jul 16
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 28
Guest:
Walter Gainer II
Founder of Boss Locks Media and Host of The Working While Black Show
Previously On: Training Day (2001), Get Out (2017), Man on Fire (2004), The Incredibles (2004), Toy Story 2 (1999)
Cast:
Christopher Nolan, Writer/Director
Wally Pfister, Cinematographer
Hans Zimmer, Music
Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb
Ken Watanabe as Saito
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur
Marion Cotillard as Mal
Elliot Page[a] as Ariadne
Tom Hardy as Eames
Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer
Tom Berenger as Peter Browning
Michael Caine as Stephen Miles
Dileep Rao as Yusuf
Lukas Haas as Nash
Talulah Riley as a woman, credited as "Blonde"
Pete Postlethwaite as Maurice Fischer
Background:
Inception was released on July 8, 2010.
On a rough budget of $160 million, it grossed $828 million to finish at #4 for the worldwide box office of 2010.
While not all critics were high on the film, Inception was met with mostly positive critical praise at the time while being included on many of the top critics' year-end top 10 lists.
Inception received 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Original Score, and Art Direction, winning 4 Oscars for Best Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Cinematography.
In March 2011, the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra listeners as their ninth-favorite film of all time.
In 2012, Inception was ranked the 35th-best-edited film of all time by the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
In the same year, Total Film named it the most-rewatchable movie of all time.
In 2014, Empire ranked Inception the tenth-greatest film ever made on their list of "The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time" as voted by the magazine's readers, while Rolling Stone magazine named it the second-best science fiction film since the turn of the century.
Inception was ranked 84th on Hollywood's 100 Favorite Films, a list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, surveying "Studio chiefs, Oscar winners and TV royalty".
In 2016, Inception was voted the 51st-best film of the 21st Century by BBC, as picked by 177 film critics from around the world.
The film was included in the Visual Effects Society's list of "The Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time".
In 2019, Total Film named Inception the best film of the 2010s.
The film was included in Forbes magazine's list of Top 150 Greatest Films of 21st Century.
In 2025, the film ranked number 55 on The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 24 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.
Inception currently holds an 87% among critics on RT, a 74 score on Metacritic, and a 4.2/5 on Letterboxd.
Plot Summary: Inception is a mind-bending science-fiction thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief who specializes in stealing secrets from deep within someone else's subconscious during dreams. However, when he is offered a chance to have his criminal record erased, Cobb must accomplish the impossible: planting an idea in someone’s mind — through a process known as “inception.” To succeed, he assembles a team and ventures into a multi-layered dream world, where time stretches and reality blurs. As the mission unfolds, Cobb faces not only the risks of the job but the haunting memories of his past that threaten to sabotage everything.
Did You Know:
Writer, producer, and director Sir Christopher Nolan first pitched this movie to Warner Bros. after the completion of his third movie, Insomnia (2002), and was met with approval from the studio. However, it was not yet written at the time, and Nolan determined that rather than writing it as an assignment, it would be more suitable to his working style if he wrote it as a speculation script, and then presented it to the studio whenever it was completed. So he went off to write it, thinking it would take "a couple of months", but it ultimately took nearly eight years.
In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", writer, producer, and director Sir Christopher Nolan explained that he based roles of the Inception team similar to roles that are used in filmmaking, Cobb is the director, Arthur is the producer, Ariadne is the production designer, Eames is the actor, Saito is the studio, and Fischer is the audience. "In trying to write a team-based creative process, I wrote the one I know", said Nolan.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt performed all but one of his own stunts during the fight scene in the spinning hallway.
Once Leonardo DiCaprio was cast, he spent months with Sir Christopher Nolan working on the script. Nolan stated: "He made some extraordinary contributions to the script and really challenged me to make the script clear, but also to follow its interior logic and really be true to the essence of the characters and the rules we set out." Nolan's wife and producing partner Emma Thomas said that "the work [DiCaprio] did on his character with Chris made the movie less of a puzzle and more of a story of a character audiences could relate to."
Cillian Murphy (Robert Fischer) doubled for a young Maurice Fischer (with glasses and a mustache) in the bedside photo.
If you take the first letters of the main characters' names, Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur, Mal and Saito, they spell "Dreams". If you add Peter, Ariadne, and Yusuf, the whole makes "Dreams Pay", which is what they do for a mind thief.
In the city scene on the first level of the dream with Fischer, the state motto on the license plates of the cars reads "The Alternate State".
Best Performance: Christopher Nolan (Writer/Director)/Leonard DiCaprio (Cobb)
Best Secondary Performance: Hans Zimmer (Music)/Elliot Page (Ariadne)/Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb)
Most Charismatic Award: Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb)/Hans Zimmer (Music)/Marion Cotillard (Mal)
Best Scene:
Extraction on Saito
Intro to Shared Dreaming
Hallway Fight
Riding the Kicks
Welcome Home
Favorite Scene: Welcome Home/Hallway Fight/Extraction on Saito
Most Indelible Moment: Final Top Spin/Welcome Home
In Memorium:
Mark Snow, 78, American film and television composer (The X-Files, Smallville, Blue Bloods).
Julian McMahon, 56, Australian actor (Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four, Home and Away).
Jim Shooter, 73, American comic book writer (Secret Wars, Superman) and editor (Marvel Comics)
Kenneth Colley, 87, English actor (Star Wars, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Firefox)
Michael Madsen, 67, American actor (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Volume 2, Donnie Brasco)
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.
Arthur: It would have to be a 747.
Cobb: Why is that?
Arthur: Because in a 747, the pilot's up top, and the first class cabin's in the nose, so no one would walk through. But you'd have to buy out the entire cabin. And the first class flight attendant...
Saito: I bought the airline.
[Everybody turns and stares at him. Saito just shrugs]
Saito: It seemed neater.
Cobb: Listen, there's something you should know about me... about inception. 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.
Eames: [Shows up while Arthur is in a gunfight] You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. [Pulls out a grenade launcher]
Cobb: I can't stay with her anymore because she doesn't exist.
Mal: I'm the only thing you do believe in anymore.
Cobb: I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough.
Cobb: They say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential. Now that's when we're awake. When we're asleep, we can do almost anything.
Ariadne: Why is it so important to dream?
Cobb: Because, in my dreams we are together.
Maurice Fischer: [Robert opens the vault to see Maurice on his death bed struggling to say something] Disa... disap... disappointed
Fischer: I know, Dad. I know you were disappointed I couldn't be you.
Maurice Fischer: No. No, no. I was disappointed... that you tried.
Saito: Don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone!
Cobb: Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.
Mal: You remember when you asked me to marry you? You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together.
Cobb: But we did. We did. You don't remember?... I miss you more than I can bear, but... we had our time together. And I have to let go... I have to let you go.
Saito: You remind me of someone... a man I met in a half-remembered dream. He was possessed of some radical notions.
Arthur: Eames, I am impressed.
Eames: Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur, thank you.
Fischer: Couldn't somebody have dreamt up a goddamn beach?
Eames: They come here every day to sleep?
Elderly Bald Man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, son?
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 7.83
Impact/Significance: 9.17
Novelty: 8.33
Classic-ness: 8.17
Rewatchability: 6.67
Audience Score: 9.05 (88% Google, 91% RT)
Total: 49.22
Remaining Questions:
Is Dom at home in the end scene?
How can Saito wipe out a murder charge in the U.S.?
How does Fischer not notice his #1 competitor in his dream or after he wakes?
Since Saito spins the top in the dream, how can Cobb now use that as a totem?
How do none of Cobb's friends or family blame him for Mal's death?