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15 Incredible Facts About Christopher Nolan’s Inception

Inception is by far the greatest mind-bending psychological thriller ever. Nolan created a masterpiece that dived into the human subconscious and showed the viewers how our mind’s visions and nightmares could drive an exciting plotline. While the movie won the hearts and souls of audiences, even diehard fans will not be aware of the following mind-numbing facts about the movie we are about to reveal.

15. The movie’s runtime is an ode to its theme music

‘Non je ne regretted rien’ is the running theme of the music. The protagonists use it as a failsafe in the movie. The song is played as a prelude to the kick that wakes up a guy from the dreamscape. The song’s runtime is 2 minutes 28 seconds while the movie is exactly 2 hours 28 minutes. Nolan has put his own version of an Easter egg.

14. Nolan’s Cousin Makes a Cameo

Nolan leads a relatively secluded, private life and stays mostly aloof of the paparazzi during his alone time with family. He does not talk much about his family to the press but his relatives are given ample chance to feature in his movies. In a particular scene in the plane, Nolan’s cousin plays a stewardess as Cobb tries to invade Fischer’s mind.

13. The Meaning Behind Ellen Paige’s Ariadne

In Greek mythology, Ariadne is the character that helps Minos through the labyrinth and helps him slay the Minotaur. In the movie, Cobb is Minos and Ariadne is well…. Ariadne. When Cobb asks her to draw an unsolvable maze, she draws one that closely resembles Greek labyrinth designs.

12. The Alternate State

Each and every vehicle in the Dreamscape world of Inception has a license plate that says ‘Alternate State’. The license name means that the world you are entering does not follow your general laws and is poles apart from the real one. These are the kinds of details that make Nolan movies so damn intriguing.

11. Cobb means Dream in several languages

The protagonist of the movie is called Cobb. While it may seem ordinary at first glance, we assure you, with Nolan, it never is. Cobb means dream (Khwab) in multiple languages – Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and Panjabi. This would be another proof of the fact that the entire movie could all be just Cobb’s dream.

10. The numbers 528 and 491

Nolan was careful with including these two numbers throughout the movie. The room number of the Hotel in which the team is staying is 528 and 491, one atop the other. The number is exchanged between Fischer and Cobbs and Eames to Fischer in the movie. The numbers combined to form the combination of the safe that gives Fischer the idea to sell the company.

9. Each character corresponds to a role on a Film Set

Inception’s characters closely resemble an actual film production set. While planning their mission to invade the Dreamscape, Cobbs is the Director of the mission, Arthur is the Producer, Eames is the actor, Ariadne is the production designer, Saito is the Studio while Fischer is the audience itself.

8. The Never-Ending Stairs Effect

Nolan believes in practicality whenever possible. CGI is always a secondary option. The Never-Ending Stairs is almost impossible to replicate in real life. But Nolan still tried to do it with fairly convincing visual effects. And safe to say it worked like a charm.

7. The Dreamscape Snow Fortress is a Real Building

The way the building is designed would make it look like it would only be possible via CGI or if someone’s dreaming. But the design exists in real life. The Geisel Library of the University of California in San Diego is the inspiration for it. The Snow Fortress’ each level represents Fischer’s dream levels, with the ground floor being level one. Each subsequent level expands to represent the expanding horizon of the Dreamscape as one moves higher.

6. The Dream Explosions are real

The Explosions within the movie as each guy is locked within a dream are necessary to provide the kick to wake him up. The reactions of each actor as they wake up seem so real is because the explosions themselves are one hundred percent real. As I said, Nolan’s a fan of practicality.

5. Nolan named the characters after great thinkers

Robert Fischer and Pete Postlethwaite are the two primary targets of Cobb’s team. While the former is named after Maurice Fischer, a famous chess player, the latter is also called Maurice in the movie. Maurice is the First Name of M.C Escher. Escher’s famed yet strange architectural designs were the template for the Dreamscape’s folding city.

4. The Mountain Fortress was actually built from scratch for the movie

The Mountain Fortress that was the setting for the movie’s epic climax was not CGI. It was actually built from the ground up. For a movie, Nolan built an entire multi-storied castle at a mountainside from scratch so that the movie could have an authentic feel to it.

3. The Rotating Hotel was done with Practical Effects

The Rotating Hotel floor where Arthur fights the Hotel henchmen I not achieved by using filing tricks. The entire set was one giant rotating extravaganza. One wrong move and Joseph Gordon Levitt would have ended up with a fracture or worse.

2. Hans Zimmer’s Ingenious Musical Score

When Hans Zimmer and Nolan come together, epic shit happens. Edith Pilaf’s song ‘Non je ne regretted rien’ is the most recurring element of the movie. Since each level of a dream slows down time to an absurd degree, Zimmer just slowed down the Pilaf’s song corresponding to the level of the dream and created unique musical scores out of each.

 1. Mal was across the Street

Was Cobb dreaming? Was he awake? Was it even real? One critical piece of evidence sheds some light on the most asked question in Hollywood history. Mal was Cobb’s first experiment at Inception with Mal still supposedly believing she was dreaming. When Cobbs confronts her before she is about to commit suicide, she is seen hanging from the window of a hotel room that does not belong to them. But Cobbs is seen talking to Mal as if she was at his window. The viewers are shown as if she is not. The only logical explanation – The movie happens inside Cobb’s mind.

We thought that Tenet would have beaten this thriller. But Inception still stands unbeaten.

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Bibhu Prasad

Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just... do things
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