Inception 2018

2.  2010
 Director & Writer – Christopher Nolan
 Production Companies – Warner Bros. Pictures,
Legendary Pictures, Syncopy
 Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Ellen Page, Tom Hardy
 Budget - $160,000,000
 Gross revenue - $825,956,569

3.  Christopher Nolan: “I wanted to show the potential for the real world
to have analogies to the dream world.”
 “The concept that dreams feel real while we’re in them underlies the
whole film.”
 Leonardo DiCaprio: “It’s this whole different set of rules and laws
that applied within the insane world that Chris Nolan created.”

4.  8.9/10 – IMDB
 86% - Rotten Tomatoes:
“smart, innovative and thrilling.”
 Amongst its awards are 4 Oscars, 3 Baftas
and 5 Saturn Awards

5.  Confusion over time and space:
-alternates between dreams and reality
-fragmented narrative as it alternates between settings (e.g.
hotel to snow scene)
- Do we really know where we are, who’s dreams, who’s
reality?
 Decline of meta-narrative:
-presents the idea that there is no single truth or idea to
explain the world. It is suggested in the film that it is
personal and defined differently from person to person (micro
narratives)

6.  Style over substances – the dreams have to
‘look’ correct and they often do but on close
inspection the flaws are there eg the carpet in
Saito’s ‘love nest’
 Not everyone needs to know the details of the
dream (only the ‘dreamer’) it just needs to be
convincing
 BUT the brain can tell the different – What
happens when people start to realise that
some is wrong in the dream? What comment
is being made here about the post modern
society (Think back to The Matrix)

7.  Ideology:
-question whether Cobb and his team are good or bad (they
are criminals, but have good motives)
- The ‘Drug Den’ – people seem to prefer the hyper reality to
the real world ‘the dream has become their reality, who are
you to say otherwise’
- Redistribution of wealth and attack on the film industry…
 Narrative:
- fragmented (alternates between scenes, e.g. on plane and
then suddenly in dream)
- not chronological (e.g. see him washed up on the beach at
the beginning and then near the end)
- Multiple narratives – stories
within stories.

8. -the cafe scene
-the hotel scene (oblique angles)
-the road scene
Media Language:
- its constructed nature is obvious at points, for example...
Also, slow motion and flashbacks
are used.

9.  Audience 1: What do you think happens at
the end?
 Audience 1: The Marketing Campaign

10.  Audience 2: demands a lot from the
audience in terms of active engagement.
They need to engage intellectually to
understand the text.
 Audience 2: How ‘comfortable’ and
reassuring was the ending? ‘ It’s one of
those rare films that, just for a second,
makes you question your own reality’

11.  What evidence is there to support that this
film is
 Action Adventure
 Thriller
 Science fiction
 Experimental

12. The Penrose staircase is referenced during the film
‘Inception’. This expands on the idea that anything in a
dream can be possible with the architects creativity.

13. During the film ‘Inception’ I think there is a reference
to the photographer Ori Gersht who also blows up
things as they have done in the film ‘Inception.’

14. The scene with the mirrors references Citizen Kane
when he sees himself indefinitely reflected. In the film
‘Inception’ it shows the idea that there are many
worlds than reflect off this one world. This reinforces
the dream within a dream concept. This could also link
with Hyper reality….