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FILM · 2010 · UK

Inception

Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Runtime: 148 min
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

10 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026

Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.

10 Interesting Facts About Inception

Name: Inception
Released: 2010

Interesting Facts (3)

#001
The movie changed the public's perception of what the word "Inception" actually means, ironically enough.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Inception is a script in which people move along like pawns while the audience keeps trying to solve a puzzle. A film where the director just made a nice movie and nothing more. Nolan is good at changing direction, at spinning heads in different directions. Really, this is less directing than a mathematician's achievement. In this film too Nolan puts mathematics in front of the camera and shows nothing of art.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Cast and director on the Inception setImage: IMDb
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#002
In an effort to combat confusion, television broadcasts in Japan include text in the upper-left corner of the screen to remind viewers in which level of the dream a specific scene takes place.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
These layers aren't all that complicated or complex. It's a film Nolan made mathematically, without mixing art into cinema. The layers here point to mathematics. And Nolan is a good mathematician. Real art lies in Stanley Kubrick's films.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Dream layer in a hotel roomImage: IMDb
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#003
There are 399 questions asked in this movie, including "tag questions" ("Subconscious is motivated by emotion, right?"). Cobb leads all of the characters with 113, followed by Ariadne (93), then Arthur (44).
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Nolan, again with a mathematical perspective, has characters ask questions like he's making them solve a hard math problem. No artistic or aesthetic film asks this many questions. This is the film where Nolan puts mathematics in front of the camera, just like the others. There's nothing of art in it. People watch it and, with the air of having figured something out, think themselves clever. That's Nolan: a mathematician who makes people feel clever, not a director.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Cobb and Ariadne talkingImage: IMDb
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Production Story (5)

#004
Before Elliot Page was offered and accepted the role of Ariadne, writer, producer, and director Sir Christopher Nolan considered casting Evan Rachel Wood, Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Emma Roberts, Jessy Schram, Taylor Swift, and Carey Mulligan.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Sir is a title the British give to certain extraordinary people, that is, to those who do something well, better, or well for a long time. I'm bothered both by the British imposing this sir title and by the idea that Nolan is a sir. It's possible to treat Nolan as a broken-watch repairman. But even the fact that in cinema, an art form where physical and scientific laws don't matter, he's a worker hauling materials is one of this industry's wrongs.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): The Inception team and Christopher NolanImage: IMDb
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#005
Writer, producer, and director Sir Christopher Nolan's first movie since his feature debut, Following (1998), that is a completely original work. All of his movies between them are either remakes or based on comics, novels, or short stories.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
I've watched six of Nolan's films and also his first feature, Following. I think his best film is Following. The negativity of the conditions pushed him to do the right things. Films like Inception and Interstellar move along entirely mathematically and express nothing of art.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Nolan and DiCaprio on setImage: IMDb
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#006
Contrary to popular belief, Hans Zimmer did not compose the music that appeared in the third trailer for this movie. The track, titled "Mind Heist", was composed by Zack Hemsey.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Hans Zimmer is this film's musician, its composer. But I don't think it's a film worthy of him. For a musician and composer of his calibre, worldwide, maybe the best in the world, to make music for Nolan's films like Inception and Interstellar, which I'd call robotic, is a negative thing for him. I think Hans Zimmer's best performance is his work on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Hans Zimmer and the Inception topImage: IMDb
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#007
The working title was Oliver's Arrow, after both Sir Christopher Nolan's second son Oliver and the character Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, from a comic book published by DC, which also produces Batman, of whom Nolan made three movies.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
I watched Arrow up to a certain point. I quit halfway because it went bad after the first season. I know Arrow, Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, I saw him in the show. Arrow's mysterious island scenes in the first season were great; in the second season they ruined that atmosphere.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Nolan and Pfister on setImage: IMDb
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#008
Christopher Nolan spent nearly a decade developing the screenplay before the film finally entered production.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
No director, screenwriter, actor, game developer or anyone like that anywhere in the world spends ten years on a work. From this it's possible to conclude that Nolan is a mathematician. It should also be said that at least five of those ten years passed doing nothing. You just don't spend that long on a work of art. Except Tolstoy, Tolstoy wrote one of his books over years.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan on the Inception setImage: IMDb
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Deeper Meaning (2)

#009
In this movie, the characters are from five different continents across the globe, performing a major heist. Cobb, Arthur, and Mal are from the U.S. (North America). Cobb fetches Ariadne from Paris, France (Europe); Eames and Yusuf are from Mombasa (Africa), Saito is from Japan (Asia), and Fischer is from Australia.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
This is also clear proof that Nolan is treating the audience like idiots. It's an info-dump built on bringing this many people together from different places to create a mystery, to give the impression he's putting something different out there. When in fact it means nothing.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): The Inception team on the streetImage: IMDb
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#010
The spinning top became one of the most recognizable symbols in modern cinema because of its role in the film's deliberately ambiguous ending.
Editor’s noteArka Evren
Look, that spinning top, that top scene, you know, where it spins, that top is a real top, and it's proof that Nolan is trying to solve a math problem, not cinema, not film, not art. The top has no place in the film. It means nothing. It just spins. And yet people try to read meaning into even that. Looking for art in Nolan's films is like threading a camel through the eye of a needle. He could have been a mathematician, but he can't be a director.
sufferwithme / Founder / Editor
Inception (2010): Leonardo DiCaprio at a modelImage: IMDb
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Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
IMDb IMDb title page (trivia)

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