That's it. The endless spinning top represents Cobb being trapped by guilt, and to an extent Fischer being trapped by shame. In the end they saved each other.
George: “What? How?” They built a 40 foot long hallway on a gimbal that they could rotate along the long axis. Then, they mounted a camera to the floor of the hallway, locked the camera’s orientation so the image wouldn’t rotate along with the hallway, and filmed the sequence. Buster Keaton did the same thing in the 1920s.
There's also a movie with Fred Astaire dancing on the wall and ceiling, later copied in an MTV music video of Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" doing the same thing. And for some scenes they put the whole hallway vertical, so they could suspend the actors in the middle hanging over the camera pointing up. That's what Kubrick also did on A Space Odyssey for its zero-G scenes. It's funny how many tricks work just with the right view angle.
Simone talking about the Freddy Kruger knockoff at the start had me immediately think of A Nightmare on Elm Street when he asked that. They did a similar trick with the whole blood fountain out of the bed. And almost accidentally killed some of the crew, because they didn’t think about the weight of the blood sloshing around on the ceiling/floor, which made it unstable. In any case, one of the really great things about this movie was the renaissance of practical effects. Prior to it, EVERYTHING was going the CGI route.
The loudest and most frustrated exclamations I've _ever_ heard in a theater was that final shot of the spinning top and the cut to black. Amazing way to end the film.
I believe the Christopher Nolan is one of the very last original filmmakers left in Hollywood. His films (outside of The Dark Knight trilogy) are so original. Inception is one of the greatest films in the history of Hollywood cinema. Great reaction! 👍🏿
@JamesASharp there’s still original filmmakers in Hollywood but they don’t get as much attention because of the nature of the industry. Hopefully production companies like A24 will help turn the tide.
24:17 Fun fact for my fellow Canadians, that "snow level" as you call it was filmed in the closed Fortress Mountain Ski Resort in Kanaskis Country, Alberta.
Funny how George said dreams are like movies (7:25 or so), cause Nolans intention was just that. The parallel between movies and dreams. We have an actor, a set designer, a director, a producer etc etc
When this movie came out I was spellbound watching it for the first time. So I can imagine how you felt. I watched it three times in a row at the movie theater. I had this concept of being half asleep quite often. Plus I LUCID DREAM quite a bit. of course, I was nowhere near the level of deep themes, concept execution, and world-building of Christopher Nolan. The man is a mad genius.
In case it hasn't been mentioned yet: Cobb tried to convince/remind the old Sato in Limbo, that he's dreaming, so that Sato would know what to do: using the gun to kill Cobb and then himself to wake up. - And I guess, since they are not explicitly showing us the gun shots, it feeds into the interpretation that the happy ending is just Cobb's dream. - And going at it from a movie making angle that can support the interpretation of Cobb and Sato waking up is actually real: By that point in the movie the audience should be very familiar with the concept of killing yourself in a dream to make you wake up, that it would be annoying to the audience showing it yet again after several instances. So, when Cobb implies to Sato, that he knows what to do, the audience breathes a sigh of relief seeing them wake up on the plane. Only later they notice that this omission of a fact (the shooting in Limbo) could "ruin" the happy ending. :D
5:10 a shared dream is like a MMORPG...you can dream the chair but I control my character choices and you control what you control, but you hold no sway over another besides logical persuasion. if you create the chair then they are subject to the effects of the chair because they accepted that experience.-Ernie Moore Jr.
In one of my very first lucid dreams, back when I was a middle schooler, I was being chased by Freddy Krueger (no joke) through a park near my house (Freddy Krueger is who Scary Terry from that "Rick & Morty" episode was based on, Simone). As I was running from him, the dream suddenly became lucid and I stopped running. I turned around and Freddy was gone, but I found myself standing in front of my friend's house (he lived just around the corner from me, IRL). Knowing that I was dreaming, I decided to flip the script and start hunting Freddy. I stepped through the wall of my friend's house like it wasn't even there (like it was a hologram or illusion) and walked into his bedroom. Being one of my first lucid dreams, I wasn't sure if I could will things into existence in the dream world but figured I'd try. I knelt down and pulled a duffel bag out of my friend's closet and reached inside, the whole time willing there to be a big-ass gun inside that I could use on Freddy. There was. I took it and headed back to the park to find Freddy but the park was empty. Then, almost immediately on realizing that Freddy was gone, I woke up (bc the story was over, I guess, but also bc it can be hard to stay asleep once a dream becomes lucid unless you know some good mind-trickery, which I didn't at the time). Ever since that dream, I've never had the traditional nightmares with monsters and whatnot. All my bad dreams from that point forward have been emotional dreams involving real people arguing or betraying a trust or being verbally horrible to me in some really hurtful way. I always felt like, in that moment in the dream, I killed my childhood version of monsters by exercising power over them/not fearing the monster (does that make me a Dream Warrior?) and the only nightmare-fuel I was left with were the sort of bad interpersonal moments that could actually be RL. Tbh, I'd kind of rather have the monsters back. Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this: Whenever I see the "You've got to dream bigger, darling" scene in "Inception" where Tom Hardy pulls out that big grenade launcher, it always reminds me of that dream and I smile.
Unlike Tennet, Inception gives real characters with appropriate emotional motivation. Tennet is pure showing off. I'm a total Nolan fan. Precisely because he manages to bring emotions into very abstract stories. Tennet, on the other hand, is so bloodless that after only 20 minutes I asked myself why exactly should I continue watching the film. THIS MOVIE however...is a masterpiece.
The discussion of exposition is kind of interesting to me, because I rewatched this movie for the first time in many years a month or so ago, and I walked away not liking it very much because I felt it was wall-to-wall exposition. Even the emotional stuff is largely conveyed through exposition, with Cobb simply explaining his backstory with Mal in pieces. I do think the emotional core of the film has resonance, the idea of Cobb's mistake with inception. It's actually the reason I like Tenet better, because it feels like an improvement upon Inception: instead of explaining itself constantly, it barely bothers, summarizing itself with "Don't try and understand it. Feel it" (not to mention, the dead wife is replaced with a woman who has the opportunity to survive). Also, I don't want to say too much, but one of you made a comment here that makes me hope Eternal Sunshine was represented enough in the Jim Carrey comments to skip a poll and go straight to the channel.
I'd love to see Nolan try to tackle a silent film, or something like it, that relies more heavily on score, visuals, and cinematography to tell its story.
That’s hilarious because I’m the opposite. I much prefer Inception over Tenet. And thought that the latter movie was more exposition heavy. Though I think it’s been said that Nolan’s weakness is his reliance on heavy exposition.
I think in this case regarding the genre of a heist film a lot of the exposition is kind of an essential part of it. Like the whole careful planning, step by step, just to watch things go wrong later. I think this is actually closer to something like oceans eleven than it is a "dream movie" (another criticism people had when they thought it felt and looked too real... these are not dreams but dream like states specifically designed to do a job). ... anyway, i'll second the Eternal Sunshine recommendation. And i'll add Synechdoche, New York in there.
George has the best subconscious security. A stoned dude eating cheetos but his secrets are at the bottom of the bag. You're not getting the bag away from that dude.
Not only eating Cheeto's, but eating them out of an old Cool Whip Bowl. It isn't enough to just have the Cheeto's as a detail but the Ghetto true container as well. That is attention to detail.
Very true. Even though *SPOILERS?* Nolan has revealed that Cobb was not dreaming, it still has some intriguing debate left to be had, especially since it contradicts some previously established concepts (concepts, not rules....which is a running theme in the film.) I love that it's still a discussion regardless, and while it's often a bit of a let-down when a Director reveals his true narrative angle in a film (can you imagine if John Carpenter just straight up told us the truth of "The Thing"? Without being cheeky, i mean?) Nolan's actual explaination was very satisfying, and actually reinforced both the themes of the film, but also went beyond them.🙂
I love the end of this movie because they gave Cillian Murphy's character a happy ending. It doesn't matter that they manipulated him, he became happier in thinking his father did love him so much
I just wanted to let you all on the internet know that I too get invited to many parties at which I am fun, so you should take my life philosophy very seriously please.
I saw Inception for the very first time in IMAX. As part of its anniversary release. It's an experience I'll never forget. Easily one of my all time favourites.
A different film but since it's still Christoper Nolan I'll share my experience. I was lucky enough to see Interstellar at the European Premier in IMAX. Steven Hawking and Kip Thorne were in the audience, and Nolan and McConaughey turned up to make a speech before leaving. One of the coolest movie experiences of my life!
The score for this movie is mindblowing when you know some of the details that went into composing it. You may not have noticed this, but the score take many cues from the musical piece "Non je ne regrette rien" by Édith Piaf, the same song used to alert the dreamers that the kick is coming. As explained in the movie, the deeper in levels you go, the slower time goes, and so the song would be heard slowed down. The slow, gloomy, blaring trombones in the main theme of the film score match the slowed down version of the fast, high pitched trumpets in the beginning of the Édith Piaf song. Amazing movie overall.
Yup. And not just match, I seem to remember hearing Hans Zimmer went to get the masters for "Non je ne regrette rien", so he could specifically extract the horn sound as a sample.
25:20 How!? Well if you look at the DVD extras you'll find it was by building a corridor fixed to a gymbal that could be rotated 360 degrees and shooting with a fixed camera from one end. Plus teaching a stuntman and Joseph Gordon Levitt some VERY complex fight choreography.
I love this film - I think Nolan can get a bit too wrapped up in being tricksy at times (I don't know if the overlapping timelines in Dunkirk really works or if it makes the film a bit impenetrable for some audiences), but with this one and Memento, I think the use of the technique is perfect. I highly recommend that you guys watch Memento by the way The thing I don't think gets talked about often enough is just how good Marion Cotillard is in this film. It's not an easy role to pull off because she has to be menacing, psychotic, but also gentle and sympathetic at various points in the film. It is such a range and she gives the audience exactly the right pitch every time. I wish you had included Tom Hardy's "dream bigger darling" line as that always makes me laugh
I personally didnt like dunkirk on my first viewing because of just how differently the movie was structured and narrated...i.e.the 3 timelines intersecting slowly towards the end...it was hard for me to properly understand it...and i was not used to this style of storytelling in war movies...so i didnt like it much...but my second viewing however i absolutely loved it...things were more clear and the choice of narrating 3 different stories of survival of multiple characters and cross cutting from one scene to another maintaining the same level of tension was just AMAZING.I admire the visuals and the epicness the scale the music of nolan's movies on my first viewing but i always admire the his movies as a whole after about 2nd or 3rd viewing.
I've been thinking of upgrading my Patreon membership and Simone's rant about exposition finally made me do it. That's such a pet peeve of mine! In many ways, I feel like Inception was the high point of Nolan's career where his strengths were best balanced against his weaknesses. The complicated weirdness works because of the relatable emotional stakes and for plain coolness factor. George's stoner subconscious sounds more like a Philip K. Dick story than a Nolan film. Which sounds like an excellent idea. I wanna see or read stoners getting into layers of stonedness and psychedelics. I'm pretty sure the snow level is an homage to old Bond films; Nolan's favorite is On Her Majesty's Secret Service if you wanna look into it.
The thing is, Nolan's concepts for movies are usually so original and out-of-the-box thinking that in some ways (maybe because of studio pressures), he has to dumb it down to exposition between characters because the audience isn't smart enough to understand it. Inception is among his top best work with making that so seamless compared to other films.
Yes. The new season of stranger things is so heavily inspired by nightmare on elm street and I'm sad that most younger reactors don't get it, missing some cool references.
Simone and George hit the nail on the head. The Inception in this movie is the ultimate grief counseling slash father son reconnection. At the time of his death Robert Fisher hated his father, but after the Inception he gave himself the resolution that his father actually lived him. Such deep concepts and premises. That's what takes, "Inception" to the next level.
Love your reactions. Great chemistry between the two of you and you both pay attention! Pretty new to this channel but I love seeing your new posts. Keep it up, definitely make my days better with a CineBinge ep. I love all these movies!
I always found it interesting that his totem is his wedding ring, not the top. That's how you know the ending is reality, because he's not wearing his wedding ring. When he is in a dream, he's wearing the ring because Mol still exists in that reality.
1. The top isn't Cobb's totem, it was his wife's. The theory is that his totem is his wedding ring. It appears and disappears depending on if he's dreaming or not. 2. There's a theory that when Cobb meets the chemist and tries the drug that puts him to sleep, the ENTIRE rest of the movie is his dream.
@@Raptor213 fuuuuuuuuc- I never heard headcanon 2 about the whole thing being a dream... Spoilers Black Mirror: . . . . . . . . . . . . . reminds me of the video game episode from Black Mirror, "called mom"
I really like the part where the old man explains to the group how some people dream in order to wake up. I remember a dream where I had a family, made friends, had a job and lived a life. When I woke up it was heartbreaking to leave those people behind and I tried for weeks to go back..but it was just a dream.
@@jaroslavsvaha6065 it was confusing when I woke up, had to lay there for about 45 minutes. It’s been a long time but I still think about that dream sometimes
George figured it all out right away with dream scenes starting in the middle just like movie scenes. All the rules about dreams in this movie are really just Nolan sharing his rules about telling stories to an audience. You can in theory do anything in a movie, but if you go too crazy, the audience doesn't believe it, hates the movie, and turns on you. And as Ames says, you can't make the "lesson" of the story too complicated. The important part is that the audience understands the emotions of of the story, even if they are completely confused about what's going on. The team is making a movie, and Fisher is the audience.
Yes! It's really about how films plant ideas in culture, but you have to do it right, give people catharsis and closure, but it's still essentially a con... but of our very own dreams, just one we accept. Thats also what Hollywood has learned about frame-rates. The classical 24/sec frame rate is just slightly perceptible... barely... but we feel it's real, we're transported and we love it, like a dream, its slightly off but accepted. But when the frame rate goes up, like when Peter Jackson released the extremely high Def/high frame rate version of The Hobbit... people were weirded out by it, i know I was. It looked so real, like people sitting right there in front of you, especially because I saw it in 3D. You couldn't perceive the interlacing. It was nuts. On s scene without effects, like the dwarves just sitting around the camp fire, it was HYPER-real... and it made me feel strange. Thats because I know it's not real, I see the make up, the fantasy, but the camp fire is RIGHT THERE. It made it feel *more fake* . Ironically. 24 frames a second doesn't do that. It's dream like. The difference is so subtle, but we accept it and enjoy it. It's like a pact between Hollywood and the audience. We're not being gaslit, or tricked, we're just dreaming.
Awesome reaction. I remember this movie blowing my mind seeing it in the cinema, and the soundtrack is incredible. Hans Zimmer does it again! P.s It's pronounced Killian, rather than 'Sillian' Murphy =]
Michael Caine asked Nolan, when he got the script: "I don’t understand where the dream is...When is it the dream and when is it reality?’ Nolan tell him: "Well when you’re in the scene it’s reality." Nolan has continually maintained that the ending is”subjective” and that the only thing that matters is that Cobb doesn’t care if he’s dreaming or not. Going by Caine’s words, however, his appearance in the scene confirms the events were all real.
Wonder if he meant specifically Caine's character, or if he was being intentionally sly with the answer, so that he would get the performance he wanted from Caine.
There is nothing to debate. If you are staying in a hotel, it does not make sense for you to be in the next hotel room (when his wife killed herself hi was in a another hotel in front of him). Of course they were dreaming and his wife was right, he has to kill himself to wake up. His Totem was not his, it was his wife's. If the totem stops spinning it doesn't matter because he believes the dream is real and his own mind is going to make it stop spinning. I mean, it doesn't mean he's in the real world.
If you like "Reality Challenging" movies there are always eXistenZ and Rashomon to watch if you haven't already. The latter something in black and white from 1950 one might have watched during class in school... :P
I dunno about eXistenZ. Maybe it has aged into itself, but it always seemed like a very 90s gimmicky movie to me. It is pretty soundly my least favorite Cronenberg.
"Inception" was released the same year as "Shutter Island", both starring Leonardo DiCaprio and both of his roles involving a tenuous/failed grasp on reality. Different directors/filmmakers. Just saying.
I still think Cobb was the one who was being played.. The Inception being his kids, which don’t exist.. The idea of his kids was planted at the beginning of the film and reenforced by Saito in the helicopter..
Amazing movie. Unpopular opinion: I must admit I wasn't a big fan of Dicaprios early movies. As he was some teen girl magnet in those ones. But he was amazing in this and grew into a fine actor.
Exposition can be annoying for those who are able to keep up with a complex, convoluted story line, but as a filmmaker or story teller, you often have to include it to ensure the lowest common denominator will be also able to understand it enough to enjoy it.
Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but "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."
People think this movie is about dreams but it really is about how an idea can change your entire outlook in life. Sometimes ideas are productive and positive but sometimes ideas lead people down a self destructive path.
Simone keeps asking about changing elements while you are in the dream. It is definitely possible but most participants are not as creative or experienced as Tom Hardy. It's such a stressful situation to be attacked by military during a dream. Only Tom Hardy and DiCaprio are able to change stuff.
24:20 But "there is no cow level" Major bragging rights to the first person to know off the top of their head what game that cheat code was originally in. 😁
So people have mentioned that Cobb's totem is not the spinning top, but is his wedding ring because in his dreams he's still married. However, I haven't seen anyone else mention the interview Michael Caine did where he said that he asked Christopher Nolan which of his scenes are dreams and which are real and Chris Nolan told him that all of the scenes with him in it are reality and he's in the last scene where Cobb reunites with his kids.
It's still amazing to me how Scary this film can be without ANY traditional scary locations or tropes. It's pure Tension when Mal is on screen and the music hits hard.
Remember one thing : the spinner was MALL totem, not COBB, Cobb does have his own totem, once you notice what it is, you'll know if the spinner falls or not after the movie ends ;)
In many ways, I feel Inception and Interstellar are very closely related because time, memory, and dreaming encircle the giant star that is grief behind Leo and Matthew McConoughey's respective characters. Dating back to Memento, Leonard's actions circle around grief and the inability to forget his wife.
Simone: “How did they do this?” George: “Now he (C. Nolan) is showing off”. - Spinning hotel hallway? C. Nolan’s tribute to S. Kubrick special effects in 2001. - Many Easter Eggs near end … final scene, the kids are playing with a model of the mountain castle from dream sequence. The open question, is Cobb still in the Dream forever?
The coffee scene in Paris... It's awesome Basically just exploded (for real) all what you saw, and later just added Leo and the girl in the same frame but slowed (you know) and a little of CGI for the floor explosion
I got to see this in theaters when it came out and I remember the yelling when the final scene cut and people were debating for years whether or not the top fell and whether or not he was dreaming. Just one of the most amazing moments....😂 Random story by the way.... I want to say about 6 months to a year after this movie came out bertoli (they make like Frozen Italian food and sauce and stuff like that) started running commercials that played the song that Cobb's team used to signal it's the chemical was about to run out and everyone wake up. And I didn't know that commercial was a thing. So I was in my apartment and I can't remember what I was doing but the TV was on and just off in my periphery I started hearing this song from inception and started freaking out cuz I had no idea where it was coming from. 🤣 Because there's literally no other single context where that song would normally be played. Can I just take 2 seconds to appreciate Hans Zimmer? He's just amazing.
"The real point of the ending is that Cobb isn't interested in looking at the top. He's looking at his kids. He's moved on." - Christopher Nolan
That's it. The endless spinning top represents Cobb being trapped by guilt, and to an extent Fischer being trapped by shame. In the end they saved each other.
Aren't the kids the EXACT same age and position - all through the movie ?
@@promontorium Or maybe proves his dreams have 'moved on ?'
@@ennesshay5040 in the last scene the kids are played by different, slightly older actors
@@ennesshay5040 They aren't. They look older at the end
George: “What? How?”
They built a 40 foot long hallway on a gimbal that they could rotate along the long axis. Then, they mounted a camera to the floor of the hallway, locked the camera’s orientation so the image wouldn’t rotate along with the hallway, and filmed the sequence. Buster Keaton did the same thing in the 1920s.
There's also a movie with Fred Astaire dancing on the wall and ceiling, later copied in an MTV music video of Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" doing the same thing.
And for some scenes they put the whole hallway vertical, so they could suspend the actors in the middle hanging over the camera pointing up.
That's what Kubrick also did on A Space Odyssey for its zero-G scenes. It's funny how many tricks work just with the right view angle.
@@Cau_No Royal Wedding (1951)
Simone talking about the Freddy Kruger knockoff at the start had me immediately think of A Nightmare on Elm Street when he asked that. They did a similar trick with the whole blood fountain out of the bed. And almost accidentally killed some of the crew, because they didn’t think about the weight of the blood sloshing around on the ceiling/floor, which made it unstable.
In any case, one of the really great things about this movie was the renaissance of practical effects. Prior to it, EVERYTHING was going the CGI route.
The loudest and most frustrated exclamations I've _ever_ heard in a theater was that final shot of the spinning top and the cut to black. Amazing way to end the film.
And it's not even HIS token, it's Mal's :)
Imagine if they went the Clue route and had 3rd of the cuts fall, another 3rd not fall, and last 3rd with the warble just before cutting to black.
Yeah that was one of the best moments I've had too. The "Gah!!" from the audience was hilarious.
@@smith22041 In the age of the internet, that would just piss people off.
That was probably me haha
I believe the Christopher Nolan is one of the very last original filmmakers left in Hollywood. His films (outside of The Dark Knight trilogy) are so original. Inception is one of the greatest films in the history of Hollywood cinema. Great reaction! 👍🏿
@JamesASharp there’s still original filmmakers in Hollywood but they don’t get as much attention because of the nature of the industry. Hopefully production companies like A24 will help turn the tide.
24:17 Fun fact for my fellow Canadians, that "snow level" as you call it was filmed in the closed Fortress Mountain Ski Resort in Kanaskis Country, Alberta.
my dad started saying that to me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE THEATRE WHILE WATCHING IT and I was like Dad "shhhhhh im watching the movie"
Funny how George said dreams are like movies (7:25 or so), cause Nolans intention was just that. The parallel between movies and dreams. We have an actor, a set designer, a director, a producer etc etc
With this film Christopher Nolan has proven once again that he is a genius. The cast, the script, the special effects, the details. Fantastic
When this movie came out I was spellbound watching it for the first time. So I can imagine how you felt. I watched it three times in a row at the movie theater. I had this concept of being half asleep quite often. Plus I LUCID DREAM quite a bit. of course, I was nowhere near the level of deep themes, concept execution, and world-building of Christopher Nolan. The man is a mad genius.
The screen went to black on the spinning top and I swear to god.... I stood up in the packed theater and BOO'd. Lol
In case it hasn't been mentioned yet: Cobb tried to convince/remind the old Sato in Limbo, that he's dreaming, so that Sato would know what to do: using the gun to kill Cobb and then himself to wake up. - And I guess, since they are not explicitly showing us the gun shots, it feeds into the interpretation that the happy ending is just Cobb's dream. - And going at it from a movie making angle that can support the interpretation of Cobb and Sato waking up is actually real: By that point in the movie the audience should be very familiar with the concept of killing yourself in a dream to make you wake up, that it would be annoying to the audience showing it yet again after several instances. So, when Cobb implies to Sato, that he knows what to do, the audience breathes a sigh of relief seeing them wake up on the plane. Only later they notice that this omission of a fact (the shooting in Limbo) could "ruin" the happy ending. :D
5:10 a shared dream is like a MMORPG...you can dream the chair but I control my character choices and you control what you control, but you hold no sway over another besides logical persuasion. if you create the chair then they are subject to the effects of the chair because they accepted that experience.-Ernie Moore Jr.
Loved the reaction but also (love the Grog t-shirt)
In one of my very first lucid dreams, back when I was a middle schooler, I was being chased by Freddy Krueger (no joke) through a park near my house (Freddy Krueger is who Scary Terry from that "Rick & Morty" episode was based on, Simone). As I was running from him, the dream suddenly became lucid and I stopped running. I turned around and Freddy was gone, but I found myself standing in front of my friend's house (he lived just around the corner from me, IRL). Knowing that I was dreaming, I decided to flip the script and start hunting Freddy.
I stepped through the wall of my friend's house like it wasn't even there (like it was a hologram or illusion) and walked into his bedroom. Being one of my first lucid dreams, I wasn't sure if I could will things into existence in the dream world but figured I'd try. I knelt down and pulled a duffel bag out of my friend's closet and reached inside, the whole time willing there to be a big-ass gun inside that I could use on Freddy. There was. I took it and headed back to the park to find Freddy but the park was empty. Then, almost immediately on realizing that Freddy was gone, I woke up (bc the story was over, I guess, but also bc it can be hard to stay asleep once a dream becomes lucid unless you know some good mind-trickery, which I didn't at the time).
Ever since that dream, I've never had the traditional nightmares with monsters and whatnot. All my bad dreams from that point forward have been emotional dreams involving real people arguing or betraying a trust or being verbally horrible to me in some really hurtful way. I always felt like, in that moment in the dream, I killed my childhood version of monsters by exercising power over them/not fearing the monster (does that make me a Dream Warrior?) and the only nightmare-fuel I was left with were the sort of bad interpersonal moments that could actually be RL.
Tbh, I'd kind of rather have the monsters back.
Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this: Whenever I see the "You've got to dream bigger, darling" scene in "Inception" where Tom Hardy pulls out that big grenade launcher, it always reminds me of that dream and I smile.
You're right. Nolan was showing off with this one.
The two mirror scene creates a recursive image, much as the same recursions they have in their dreams.
You guys need to watch Memento if I have not already. Its another Nolan movie, very early in his career. Reallly good
One Of Christopher Nolan's Unique Films Ever Made
This is one of those movies where everything comes together perfectly to make a masterpiece for the ages.
They came back from limbo by dying, same as any dream, once the sedative had worn off
this was a great reaction and i love so much how you talked about it and the idea that its about grief. that changed it for me.
Unlike Tennet, Inception gives real characters with appropriate emotional motivation. Tennet is pure showing off. I'm a total Nolan fan. Precisely because he manages to bring emotions into very abstract stories. Tennet, on the other hand, is so bloodless that after only 20 minutes I asked myself why exactly should I continue watching the film. THIS MOVIE however...is a masterpiece.
I see you with that monkey island 3 reference. ;-)
NGL just scrolling through my feed I thought that thumbnail was something completely different >.>
The discussion of exposition is kind of interesting to me, because I rewatched this movie for the first time in many years a month or so ago, and I walked away not liking it very much because I felt it was wall-to-wall exposition. Even the emotional stuff is largely conveyed through exposition, with Cobb simply explaining his backstory with Mal in pieces. I do think the emotional core of the film has resonance, the idea of Cobb's mistake with inception. It's actually the reason I like Tenet better, because it feels like an improvement upon Inception: instead of explaining itself constantly, it barely bothers, summarizing itself with "Don't try and understand it. Feel it" (not to mention, the dead wife is replaced with a woman who has the opportunity to survive).
Also, I don't want to say too much, but one of you made a comment here that makes me hope Eternal Sunshine was represented enough in the Jim Carrey comments to skip a poll and go straight to the channel.
I'd love to see Nolan try to tackle a silent film, or something like it, that relies more heavily on score, visuals, and cinematography to tell its story.
@@ironcladnomad5639 Dunkirk gets very close to a silent film 😅
That’s hilarious because I’m the opposite. I much prefer Inception over Tenet. And thought that the latter movie was more exposition heavy. Though I think it’s been said that Nolan’s weakness is his reliance on heavy exposition.
I think in this case regarding the genre of a heist film a lot of the exposition is kind of an essential part of it. Like the whole careful planning, step by step, just to watch things go wrong later. I think this is actually closer to something like oceans eleven than it is a "dream movie" (another criticism people had when they thought it felt and looked too real... these are not dreams but dream like states specifically designed to do a job).
... anyway, i'll second the Eternal Sunshine recommendation. And i'll add Synechdoche, New York in there.
It's a train of thought. Lol.
The edits around 6:00 made me laugh out loud ggs
a great movie with an amazing soundtrack
Great reveiw guys.
*BWAAAAAAM!*
George has the best subconscious security. A stoned dude eating cheetos but his secrets are at the bottom of the bag. You're not getting the bag away from that dude.
Nice. That's why George is always a step ahead.
Not only eating Cheeto's, but eating them out of an old Cool Whip Bowl. It isn't enough to just have the Cheeto's as a detail but the Ghetto true container as well. That is attention to detail.
This moview is so darn cool. And the planning and execution that went into making it is just ridiculous.
It took Nolan almost a decade to write the script.
I know right, I can't believe Nolan flipped an entire whole city for that one dream sequence all with pratical effects, the man's a genius
I love how wide eyed Simone was the entire time lol.
Just remember, the spinning top isn't Cobb's totem, it's Mal's. This movie is mind blowing with its detail.
Exactly. Cobb's totem is his wedding ring. He is only wearing a wedding ring in the dreams.
Oh you mad genius’… I’d forgotten about those details
Very true. Even though *SPOILERS?* Nolan has revealed that Cobb was not dreaming, it still has some intriguing debate left to be had, especially since it contradicts some previously established concepts (concepts, not rules....which is a running theme in the film.) I love that it's still a discussion regardless, and while it's often a bit of a let-down when a Director reveals his true narrative angle in a film (can you imagine if John Carpenter just straight up told us the truth of "The Thing"? Without being cheeky, i mean?) Nolan's actual explaination was very satisfying, and actually reinforced both the themes of the film, but also went beyond them.🙂
was going to say movie was overrated but this thread is interesting
Dude relax -_-
You should really check out "Memento", one of Nolan's first movies and one of the most ingenius piece of storytelling I've seen.
Yup.
100%
^ THIS
Great flick. Now… where was I?
@@rustybarrel516 I see what you did there...
I love the end of this movie because they gave Cillian Murphy's character a happy ending. It doesn't matter that they manipulated him, he became happier in thinking his father did love him so much
@@NovusIgnis yikes, you must be fun at parties. Let someone be happy, even if it's false. Life doesn't gotta be piss and vinegar, bub
@@NovusIgnis That was very Rorschach of Watchmen of you. I like it.
I just wanted to let you all on the internet know that I too get invited to many parties at which I am fun, so you should take my life philosophy very seriously please.
"Oh you f*ckin asshole..."
"But it was going to, it was wobbling..."
I think this is exactly what my friends and I said coming out of the theater
I saw Inception for the very first time in IMAX. As part of its anniversary release. It's an experience I'll never forget. Easily one of my all time favourites.
A different film but since it's still Christoper Nolan I'll share my experience. I was lucky enough to see Interstellar at the European Premier in IMAX. Steven Hawking and Kip Thorne were in the audience, and Nolan and McConaughey turned up to make a speech before leaving. One of the coolest movie experiences of my life!
The hallway fight scene is a masterpiece of action. No CGI, all practical. That makes it real. Love this film.
The score for this movie is mindblowing when you know some of the details that went into composing it. You may not have noticed this, but the score take many cues from the musical piece "Non je ne regrette rien" by Édith Piaf, the same song used to alert the dreamers that the kick is coming. As explained in the movie, the deeper in levels you go, the slower time goes, and so the song would be heard slowed down. The slow, gloomy, blaring trombones in the main theme of the film score match the slowed down version of the fast, high pitched trumpets in the beginning of the Édith Piaf song. Amazing movie overall.
Thank you for that information!
I love the final song.
Yup. And not just match, I seem to remember hearing Hans Zimmer went to get the masters for "Non je ne regrette rien", so he could specifically extract the horn sound as a sample.
If you listen to the end credits to the end, they play "Non je ne regrette rien" and then slow it down to the point it matches the score. It's genius
Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for portraying Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Just throwing that out there.
25:20 How!?
Well if you look at the DVD extras you'll find it was by building a corridor fixed to a gymbal that could be rotated 360 degrees and shooting with a fixed camera from one end. Plus teaching a stuntman and Joseph Gordon Levitt some VERY complex fight choreography.
I love this film - I think Nolan can get a bit too wrapped up in being tricksy at times (I don't know if the overlapping timelines in Dunkirk really works or if it makes the film a bit impenetrable for some audiences), but with this one and Memento, I think the use of the technique is perfect. I highly recommend that you guys watch Memento by the way
The thing I don't think gets talked about often enough is just how good Marion Cotillard is in this film. It's not an easy role to pull off because she has to be menacing, psychotic, but also gentle and sympathetic at various points in the film. It is such a range and she gives the audience exactly the right pitch every time.
I wish you had included Tom Hardy's "dream bigger darling" line as that always makes me laugh
I personally didnt like dunkirk on my first viewing because of just how differently the movie was structured and narrated...i.e.the 3 timelines intersecting slowly towards the end...it was hard for me to properly understand it...and i was not used to this style of storytelling in war movies...so i didnt like it much...but my second viewing however i absolutely loved it...things were more clear and the choice of narrating 3 different stories of survival of multiple characters and cross cutting from one scene to another maintaining the same level of tension was just AMAZING.I admire the visuals and the epicness the scale the music of nolan's movies on my first viewing but i always admire the his movies as a whole after about 2nd or 3rd viewing.
I've been thinking of upgrading my Patreon membership and Simone's rant about exposition finally made me do it. That's such a pet peeve of mine! In many ways, I feel like Inception was the high point of Nolan's career where his strengths were best balanced against his weaknesses. The complicated weirdness works because of the relatable emotional stakes and for plain coolness factor.
George's stoner subconscious sounds more like a Philip K. Dick story than a Nolan film. Which sounds like an excellent idea. I wanna see or read stoners getting into layers of stonedness and psychedelics.
I'm pretty sure the snow level is an homage to old Bond films; Nolan's favorite is On Her Majesty's Secret Service if you wanna look into it.
The thing is, Nolan's concepts for movies are usually so original and out-of-the-box thinking that in some ways (maybe because of studio pressures), he has to dumb it down to exposition between characters because the audience isn't smart enough to understand it. Inception is among his top best work with making that so seamless compared to other films.
Between this movie and Tenet, it's obvious that Nolan really wants to do a Bond movie, and I for one think he should be given that chance.
it certainly helps that the dialogue is audible in this one.
"c'mon Nolan, let it fall ......... f#$kin' asshole." LMAO
34:00 for anyone who wants to jump there. 😂👍
Simone's summary of Rick and Morty makes me think you guys need to watch Dreamscape and Nightmare on Elm St, too. ;)
Yes. The new season of stranger things is so heavily inspired by nightmare on elm street and I'm sad that most younger reactors don't get it, missing some cool references.
Simone and George hit the nail on the head. The Inception in this movie is the ultimate grief counseling slash father son reconnection. At the time of his death Robert Fisher hated his father, but after the Inception he gave himself the resolution that his father actually lived him. Such deep concepts and premises. That's what takes, "Inception" to the next level.
Please watch "The Neverending Story"!
Turn around look at what see.
Love your reactions. Great chemistry between the two of you and you both pay attention! Pretty new to this channel but I love seeing your new posts. Keep it up, definitely make my days better with a CineBinge ep. I love all these movies!
They not a couple are they in separate rooms? Why?
Michael Caine already let everyone know what the ending meant. Every scene Michael Caine is in, is real
That's what he believes anyway.
nolan only told caine what he need to hear... =)
Gotta go through the rest of Nolan's filmography: Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Dunkirk, etc...
Not that you care at this point, but Cillian Murphy's name is pronounced "Kill-ian".
Poor Cillian Murphy and his mangled first name.
I always found it interesting that his totem is his wedding ring, not the top. That's how you know the ending is reality, because he's not wearing his wedding ring. When he is in a dream, he's wearing the ring because Mol still exists in that reality.
1. The top isn't Cobb's totem, it was his wife's. The theory is that his totem is his wedding ring. It appears and disappears depending on if he's dreaming or not.
2. There's a theory that when Cobb meets the chemist and tries the drug that puts him to sleep, the ENTIRE rest of the movie is his dream.
The top IS Mal's totem. Mal is the name of Cobb's wife.
@@rabid_si oops,I mixed the names up. Fixed.
@@Raptor213 fuuuuuuuuc- I never heard headcanon 2 about the whole thing being a dream... Spoilers Black Mirror:
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reminds me of the video game episode from Black Mirror, "called mom"
I really like the part where the old man explains to the group how some people dream in order to wake up. I remember a dream where I had a family, made friends, had a job and lived a life. When I woke up it was heartbreaking to leave those people behind and I tried for weeks to go back..but it was just a dream.
Damn are you okay? That's sad
@@TequilaToothpick it was about ten years ago but I still remember big chunks of it.
I've heard of people who had dreams that lasted for years. Must be hard to stay sane after waking up from that.
@@jaroslavsvaha6065 it was confusing when I woke up, had to lay there for about 45 minutes. It’s been a long time but I still think about that dream sometimes
@@promontorium which one?
George figured it all out right away with dream scenes starting in the middle just like movie scenes.
All the rules about dreams in this movie are really just Nolan sharing his rules about telling stories to an audience.
You can in theory do anything in a movie, but if you go too crazy, the audience doesn't believe it, hates the movie, and turns on you. And as Ames says, you can't make the "lesson" of the story too complicated. The important part is that the audience understands the emotions of of the story, even if they are completely confused about what's going on.
The team is making a movie, and Fisher is the audience.
Yes! It's really about how films plant ideas in culture, but you have to do it right, give people catharsis and closure, but it's still essentially a con... but of our very own dreams, just one we accept.
Thats also what Hollywood has learned about frame-rates. The classical 24/sec frame rate is just slightly perceptible... barely... but we feel it's real, we're transported and we love it, like a dream, its slightly off but accepted. But when the frame rate goes up, like when Peter Jackson released the extremely high Def/high frame rate version of The Hobbit... people were weirded out by it, i know I was. It looked so real, like people sitting right there in front of you, especially because I saw it in 3D. You couldn't perceive the interlacing. It was nuts. On s scene without effects, like the dwarves just sitting around the camp fire, it was HYPER-real... and it made me feel strange. Thats because I know it's not real, I see the make up, the fantasy, but the camp fire is RIGHT THERE. It made it feel *more fake* . Ironically. 24 frames a second doesn't do that. It's dream like. The difference is so subtle, but we accept it and enjoy it. It's like a pact between Hollywood and the audience. We're not being gaslit, or tricked, we're just dreaming.
This is a very cool explanation. Thank you.
32:09 it looks like you're in the bed, George haha
Awesome reaction. I remember this movie blowing my mind seeing it in the cinema, and the soundtrack is incredible. Hans Zimmer does it again!
P.s It's pronounced Killian, rather than 'Sillian' Murphy =]
Michael Caine asked Nolan, when he got the script: "I don’t understand where the dream is...When is it the dream and when is it reality?’
Nolan tell him: "Well when you’re in the scene it’s reality."
Nolan has continually maintained that the ending is”subjective” and that the only thing that matters is that Cobb doesn’t care if he’s dreaming or not. Going by Caine’s words, however, his appearance in the scene confirms the events were all real.
Wonder if he meant specifically Caine's character, or if he was being intentionally sly with the answer, so that he would get the performance he wanted from Caine.
There is nothing to debate. If you are staying in a hotel, it does not make sense for you to be in the next hotel room (when his wife killed herself hi was in a another hotel in front of him). Of course they were dreaming and his wife was right, he has to kill himself to wake up. His Totem was not his, it was his wife's. If the totem stops spinning it doesn't matter because he believes the dream is real and his own mind is going to make it stop spinning. I mean, it doesn't mean he's in the real world.
If you like "Reality Challenging" movies there are always eXistenZ and Rashomon to watch if you haven't already. The latter something in black and white from 1950 one might have watched during class in school... :P
I dunno about eXistenZ. Maybe it has aged into itself, but it always seemed like a very 90s gimmicky movie to me. It is pretty soundly my least favorite Cronenberg.
Pleaaase react to shutter island is gonna blow ur mind
There’s a theory that Cobb’s real totem is his wedding ring. It’s on during dream sequences but off when he’s in the real world.
You guys might like the movie "In Time". That's of course if you never seen it before.
“Couldn’t they architect an umbrella” hahahaha 😂
"A weird monster" wow the disrespect on Scary Terry 😕
"Inception" was released the same year as "Shutter Island", both starring Leonardo DiCaprio and both of his roles involving a tenuous/failed grasp on reality. Different directors/filmmakers.
Just saying.
The fact that most of the things shot with practical effect makes me appreciate Nolan and his team that much more.
I still think Cobb was the one who was being played.. The Inception being his kids, which don’t exist.. The idea of his kids was planted at the beginning of the film and reenforced by Saito in the helicopter..
"Like, this can just cut to a scene in Batman and it'll still work."
*Immediately cut to a scene with Alfred*
The movie Dreamscape did something similar but less SFX back in the 80s
Not a creepy comment just pure admiration
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SHE IS BEAUTIFUL
As an Albertan I have to say that I really appreciate your comments about how much Edmonton sucks.
we need shutter island!
Amazing movie.
Unpopular opinion: I must admit I wasn't a big fan of Dicaprios early movies. As he was some teen girl magnet in those ones.
But he was amazing in this and grew into a fine actor.
He was also good in Catch Me If You Can.
@@davidfrischknecht8261 Indeed. That was the other one! :)
This film is better, for a number of reasons, but I still like _Dreamscape,_ I confess. Cheesy as it was.
Exposition can be annoying for those who are able to keep up with a complex, convoluted story line, but as a filmmaker or story teller, you often have to include it to ensure the lowest common denominator will be also able to understand it enough to enjoy it.
Please watch the STAR TREK movies 🖖!
you guys are thinking too much about the dreaming stuff. how many dreams have you had that you thought were real? thats the point.
The interesting idea is that the top isn't Cobb's totem. Remember that was his wife's. His real Totem is his wedding ring.
As a member of George's secret dream security team the only thing I have to say is... Can't remember but pass the Donuts
Now you need to see What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams.
Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but "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."
From IMDb
People think this movie is about dreams but it really is about how an idea can change your entire outlook in life. Sometimes ideas are productive and positive but sometimes ideas lead people down a self destructive path.
Simone keeps asking about changing elements while you are in the dream. It is definitely possible but most participants are not as creative or experienced as Tom Hardy. It's such a stressful situation to be attacked by military during a dream. Only Tom Hardy and DiCaprio are able to change stuff.
12:25 ... isn't that a bishop tho?
A very tall pawn if so, and I thought I saw a slit cut in the head.
24:20 But "there is no cow level"
Major bragging rights to the first person to know off the top of their head what game that cheat code was originally in. 😁
the cheat or the reference?
Diablo 2
Starcraft (Brood War)
So people have mentioned that Cobb's totem is not the spinning top, but is his wedding ring because in his dreams he's still married. However, I haven't seen anyone else mention the interview Michael Caine did where he said that he asked Christopher Nolan which of his scenes are dreams and which are real and Chris Nolan told him that all of the scenes with him in it are reality and he's in the last scene where Cobb reunites with his kids.
It's KILLian Murphy. Not sillyan murphy
Should watch the cell. Was inception before inception
Awesome, my favorite movie of all time! such an incredible movie and definitely requires multiple viewings.
As much as I love Interstellar and the Dark Knight trilogy, this was Christopher Nolan's magnificent octopus! Absolutely sublime movie!
Nolan’s Trilogy: The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar.
Ahh yes, I too love Silly-Ann Murphy.
It's still amazing to me how Scary this film can be without ANY traditional scary locations or tropes. It's pure Tension when Mal is on screen and the music hits hard.
Remember one thing : the spinner was MALL totem, not COBB, Cobb does have his own totem, once you notice what it is, you'll know if the spinner falls or not after the movie ends ;)
In many ways, I feel Inception and Interstellar are very closely related because time, memory, and dreaming encircle the giant star that is grief behind Leo and Matthew McConoughey's respective characters.
Dating back to Memento, Leonard's actions circle around grief and the inability to forget his wife.
MEMENTO.... That is a Nolan Masterpiece.
One of my top 10. Been waiting for this one!
And wow, Simone sure is flexible in the thumbnail!
Simone: “How did they do this?”
George: “Now he (C. Nolan) is showing off”.
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Spinning hotel hallway?
C. Nolan’s tribute to S. Kubrick special effects in 2001.
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Many Easter Eggs near end … final scene, the kids are playing with a model of the mountain castle from dream sequence.
The open question, is Cobb still in the Dream forever?
George’s idea of his mind security level of a stoner in a corner sounds sick as f.
The coffee scene in Paris...
It's awesome
Basically just exploded (for real) all what you saw, and later just added Leo and the girl in the same frame but slowed (you know) and a little of CGI for the floor explosion
I got to see this in theaters when it came out and I remember the yelling when the final scene cut and people were debating for years whether or not the top fell and whether or not he was dreaming. Just one of the most amazing moments....😂
Random story by the way.... I want to say about 6 months to a year after this movie came out bertoli (they make like Frozen Italian food and sauce and stuff like that) started running commercials that played the song that Cobb's team used to signal it's the chemical was about to run out and everyone wake up.
And I didn't know that commercial was a thing.
So I was in my apartment and I can't remember what I was doing but the TV was on and just off in my periphery I started hearing this song from inception and started freaking out cuz I had no idea where it was coming from. 🤣
Because there's literally no other single context where that song would normally be played.
Can I just take 2 seconds to appreciate Hans Zimmer? He's just amazing.
The top was his wife's totem
Cobb's totem was his ring