Inception(2010)

PG-13
2h 28m

Release Date: Jul 16, 2010 | Wide

87%
91%
B+
8.8

A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Jul 16, 2010

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$62,785,337
Total US & Canada:
$292,587,330
Total International
$546,794,568
Total Worldwide:
$839,381,898

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Christopher Nolan
Director

Leonardo DiCaprio
Cobb

Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Arthur

Elliot Page
Ariadne

Ken Watanabe
Saito

Tom Hardy
Eames

Dileep Rao

Yusuf

Cillian Murphy

Robert Fischer

Tom Berenger

Browning

Marion Cotillard

Mal

Pete Postlethwaite

Maurice Fischer

Michael Caine

Miles

Lukas Haas

Nash

Tai-Li Lee

Tadashi

Claire Geare

Phillipa (3 Years Old)

Magnus Nolan

James (20 Months Old)

Taylor Geare

Phillipa (5 Years Old)

Johnathan Geare

James (3 Years Old)

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital,DTS,SDDS

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States,United Kingdom

Language: English,Japanese,French

Summaries

Plot Summary

Dominick "Dom" Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and business partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are "extractors", people who perform corporate espionage using an experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract information while experiencing shared dreaming. Their latest target is Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe). The extraction from Saito fails when sabotaged by a memory of Cobb's deceased wife Mal (Marion Cotillard). After Cobb's and Arthur's associate sells them out, Saito reveals that he was actually auditioning the team to perform the difficult act of "inception": planting an idea in a person's subconscious.In order to break up the energy conglomerate of ailing competitor Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite), Saito wants Cobb to plant the idea of dissolving the company into the mind of Fischer's heir, son Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). Should Cobb succeed, Saito tells Cobb he will use his influence to clear Cobb of a murder charge, which will allow Cobb to return home and to his children. Cobb accepts Saito's offer. Cobb sets about assembling his team: Eames (Tom Hardy), a conman and identity forger; Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who concocts the powerful sedative for a stable "dream within a dream" strategy; Ariadne (Elliot Page), an architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes; and Arthur. Saito insists on accompanying the team to verify the team's success.When the elder Fischer dies in Sydney, Robert Fischer accompanies the body on a flight back to Los Angeles, which the team uses as an opportunity to isolate Fischer. Cobb sedates him, bringing him into a shared dream with the extractors. Using a "dream within a dream" strategy, at each level in the layered dreaming, the person generating the dream stays behind to set up a "kick" that will be used to awaken the other sleeping team members who have entered another dream layer deeper. Due to the effects of heavy sedation and multi-layered dreaming, death during the mission will result in entering Limbo, an expanse of infinite raw subconscious. Limbo is a space not dreamed by any one individual but is shared space where one mind can make drastic alterations of any kind.In the first level, Yusuf's rainy downtown dream, the team abducts Fischer; however, Fischer's trained subconscious projections attack, wounding Saito severely. Eames temporarily takes the appearance of Fischer's godfather, Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), to suggest Fischer reconsider his father's will. Yusuf drives the team in a van as they are sedated into the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur. Here, the extractors recruit Fischer, convincing him that his kidnapping was orchestrated by Browning and that they are Fischer's subconscious dependency. In the third level, a snowy mountain fortress dreamed by Eames, Fischer is told they are in Browning's subconscious, but they are really going deeper into Fischer's. Yusuf, under assault in the first level, initiates his kick too soon by driving off a bridge, removing the gravity of Arthur's dream world and causing an avalanche in Eames' dream, a kick which all missed. Arthur improvises a new kick using an elevator that will be synchronized with the van hitting the water, while the team in Eames' dream races to finish the job before the new round of kicks.Saito succumbs to his wounds, and Cobb's projection of Mal sabotages the entire plan by killing Fischer, sending them both into Limbo. Cobb and Ariadne enter Limbo to find Fischer and Saito, while Eames remains on his dream level to set up a kick by rigging the fortress with explosives. Cobb reveals to Ariadne that he spent "50 years" with Mal in Limbo constructing a world from their shared memories while seemingly growing old together. Returning to the waking world, Cobb and Mal found less than three hours had passed. Convinced she was still dreaming, Mal committed suicide and tried to persuade Cobb to do so too, by incriminating him in her death. Facing a murder charge Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children behind, ostensibly in the shared care of his mother- and father-in-law, Prof. Stephen Miles (Michael Caine).Through his confession, Cobb attains catharsis and chooses to remain in Limbo to search for Saito. Ariadne pushes Fischer off a balcony, resuscitating him at the mountain fortress, where he enters a safe room to discover and accept the planted idea: that his father wishes him to be his "own man", and that splitting up the conglomerate might not be a radical notion. All team members other than Cobb and Saito ride the synchronized kicks back to reality: Ariadne jumps off a balcony in Limbo, Eames detonates the explosives in the fortress, Arthur blasts an elevator containing the team's sleeping bodies up an elevator shaft, and the van in Yusuf's dream hits the water. Cobb eventually finds an aged Saito in Limbo and the two remember their arrangement, presumably shooting themselves and waking to outer-world reality back on the airplane, where the entire team and Robert Fischer have awakened.Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Cobb successfully passes through U.S. customs to his waiting father-in-law, who reunites him with his children. Cobb attempts to determine if he is dreaming or awake by spinning a top but ignores its outcome to instead happily greet his family.

Storyline

Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible, inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea, but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. — Warner Bros. Pictures Dominic Cobb is the foremost practitioner of the artistic science of extraction, inserting oneself into a subject's dreams to obtain hidden information without the subject knowing, a concept taught to him by his professor father-in-law, Dr. Stephen Miles. Dom's associates are Miles' former students, who Dom requires as he has given up being the dream architect for reasons he won't disclose. Dom's primary associate, Arthur, believes it has something to do with Dom's deceased wife, Mal, who often figures prominently and violently in those dreams, or Dom's want to "go home" (get back to his own reality, which includes two young children). Dom's work is generally in corporate espionage. As the subjects don't want the information to get into the wrong hands, the clients have zero tolerance for failure. Dom is also a wanted man, as many of his past subjects have learned what Dom has done to them. One of those subjects, Mr. Saito, offers Dom a job he can't refuse: to take the concept one step further into inception, namely planting thoughts into the subject's dreams without them knowing. Inception can fundamentally alter that person as a being. Saito's target is Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to an energy business empire, which has the potential to rule the world if continued on the current trajectory. Beyond the complex logistics of the dream architecture of the case and some unknowns concerning Fischer, the biggest obstacles in success for the team become worrying about one aspect of inception which Cobb fails to disclose to the other team members prior to the job, and Cobb's newest associate Ariadne's belief that Cobb's own subconscious, especially as it relates to Mal, may be taking over what happens in the dreams. — Huggo Mr. Cobb a unique con artist can enter anyone's dreams and extract the most valuable ideas and secrets of people with the help of "inception" (a dream sharing technology) when the state of mind is at its vulnerable best. Cobbs ability has made him the face of corporate spying, hence a wanted man too. Seeing his abilities, he is approached by Saito to carry out an almost impossible mission not to steal, but to plant the idea into the mind of the legal heir of a billion dollar enterprenauer. Mr. Cobb, with some specialists, must do the impossible in order to get back his life in a completely different "world of dreams" facing his own demons. — Mahesh Shelatkar Dom Cobb is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconsciouses. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage, but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move. — Jwelch5742 1 more All