20 facts you might not know about 'Inception'

Nolan began working on the concept for Inception several years before getting the green light. He was working on an 80-page treatment for the movie in the wake of Insomnia, a crime thriller about a police detective that can’t sleep. It’s a little interesting that around the same time, he was working on a movie about no sleep and a film that takes place in dreams.

The Inception we see on screen is a heist film, but that was not the original vision that Nolan had in mind. In his initial treatment, the film was a horror flick about “dream stealers.”

The director first pitched Inception in 2001 but soon realized that it wasn’t the right time for it. At the time, he had only made a couple of small films, and he knew he needed a big budget before he could make the Inception he envisioned. After the massive success of The Dark Knight, Nolan finally decided it was the right time for the movie.

Nolan hadn’t finished his Batman trilogy when he took a break to make Inception. He was between The Dark Knight and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises . One assumes he was thinking about finishing his trilogy at the time. Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard were all in Inception before The Dark Knight Rises . The same is true for Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy, but they had previously been in the first two Batman films.

Ultimately, Leonardo DiCaprio played Dom Cobb, the leader of the crew and the protagonist of the film. DiCaprio is a massive star, but he was not the first person offered the role of Cobb. Will Smith was offered the role, as was Leo’s future Once Upon a Time in Hollywood co-star Brad Pitt.

If you know Greek mythology, Ariadne’s role in the film should not be all that surprising. In Greek myth, Ariadne is King Minos's daughter who helps Theseus navigate the labyrinth to find the Minotaur.

One of the most iconic moments in the movie is the fight scene within a dream that involves a rotating corridor. It’s quite stunning. It also put Gordon-Levitt through the wringer. The actor spent weeks training in the rotating set, which was all real, and it was not easy. Gordon-Levitt spent weeks practicing six days a week. 

"I look as though I'm floating effortlessly," he told The Guardian, "but I was the furthest from being relaxed. Every muscle in my body was engaged in order to make it look as though I was floating. But I like physical acting. Usually, it's all about the close-up, which I like as well of course; you can perform very well with just your eyes — but I loved the opportunity to tell a story with my whole body."

In the end, everybody seemed to agree it was worth it.

Nolan loves practical effects and uses CGI as infrequently as possible. Sometimes that involves asking a lot of his actors. For example, in the scene where the van goes off the road and lands in the water? The actors were in a van underwater. They had to stay there for a few minutes using scuba tanks to breathe.

The song Cobb’s crew uses to time their heist is “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf. That translates to “No, I regret nothing,” which is somewhat thematic. It’s noteworthy because Cotillard won an Oscar for her role in La Vie En Rose, where she played Piaf.

These days, we’re used to almost every movie based on preexisting IP — be it a remake, reboot, sequel, or adaptation. Inception was not based on anything but an idea Nolan had. Even so, his movie proved to be a blockbuster. It made $62.7 million in its opening weekend, the second-most ever for a science-fiction movie based on an original idea.

In the end, Inception made $823 million worldwide. That made it the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2010. The only films that beat it were all not original stories. They were Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

Inception was nominated for Best Picture — probably because the fallout from Nolan’s The Dark Knight led them to expand the number of nominees, funnily enough. It did not win, losing to The King’s Speech. Don’t worry. The movie didn’t go home empty-handed. The Academy bestowed four wins out of eight nominations: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Cinematography.

Inception became a cultural touchstone right away, not just Hans Zimmer's score that got parodied a lot. It inspired episodes of The Simpsons, South Park, and Rick and Morty. On top of that, musicians seem to love Inception. The movie has been referenced by the likes of Lil Wayne, T.I., Black Eyes Peas, and Ariana Grande.

Admittedly, Inception required your full attention. After all, there are dream worlds within dream worlds. In Japan, one TV station didn’t want to make audiences do the legwork. Instead, they put text in the corner of the screen to let viewers know what level of the dream they are in.

Have you ever played the License Plate Game on a long road trip? You may know a thing or two about state license plates. Many feature the state’s nickname, such as the Keystone State or the Wolverine State. In the first level of Fischer’s dream, though, all the cars have license plates that say “The Alternate State.”

Caine has been in almost every Nolan film, and the director clearly likes the actor. Also, the actor doesn’t mind doing the director a favor. Caine basically has a glorified cameo in Inception, showing up for three minutes of screen time.

Hans Zimmer handled the score for the movie, but he had a little help. Looking for a guitar sound in the vein of Enrico Morricone, the composer turned to Johnny Marr. Marr is a legendary guitarist, best known for being in bands such as Modest Mouse and The Smiths.

Zimmer deserves credit for the score and for “Time,” the theme song to the film. However, one of the most well-known music cues and the song that scored the third trailer of the movie was not a Zimmer creation. Instead, it’s a song called “Mind Heist” by Zack Hemsey.

They say to write what you know, and Nolan sort of did that. In creating the roles for all the characters in the heist, Nolan said he was inspired by film production. He compared Cobb to a director, Ariadne to a production designer, Arthur to a producer, Eames to an actor, and so on.

We have to end with the somewhat polarizing and highly discussed final moments of the film. Cobb spins his top, which is his “totem” that he uses to determine whether he’s dreaming. While we all watch the top spin, the movie cuts to the closing credits. Many people have tried to determine whether Cobb is in a dream or the real world. The answer? We don’t know. Literally, nobody knows. Nolan purposefully ended the film with ambiguity. The script just says the top is spinning, and then the movie fades out. That’s it. There is no answer.