Thread by @vulture

Alright, people, this is @BilgeEbiri. They have foolishly given me control of Vulture's Twitter account again. Our INCEPTION live-tweet starts in 9 minutes.

Oh, and since I've already gone mad with power, before we start allow me to share this thing that has pretty much nothing to do with INCEPTION, but is one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard.
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Alright let's do this! BRRAAAAHM

I’d say drink every time you hear the Zimmer Honk, but you would literally be dead within 30 minutes so I won't.
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So, we see the dream vision of Cobb’s kids fairly early on in INCEPTION. Let’s put a pin on that image of them playing in the sand, however, because it is a matter of some disagreement.
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As my good friends at the @BlankCheckPod have observed, why do really hungry movie characters always eat holding the spoons backwards like this? It seems like a really inconvenient way to quickly get the most food into your mouth.
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It’s true that the dreams in INCEPTION are more like video games or action movies than real dreams. But I do also like the many dreamlike touches, such as when Cobb ties his rope to Mal’s chair in Saito’s lair, which is such an odd thing to do.
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A lot of the credit for why INCEPTION flows so well even when you’re not sure what’s going on has to do with Lee Smith’s editing. Here’s an elegant sequence of cuts that convey something that is actually somewhat narratively confusing.
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(Of course Lee Smith wasn't even nominated for Best Editing for INCEPTION. Don't look at the actual nominees, you'll get mad.)
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Everybody probably already knows this by now, but the fact that the Zimmer Honk of INCEPTION is actually just Edith Piaf’s “Non, je ne regrette rien” slowed down is so, so gloriously creepy. Here’s a video someone did years ago about it.
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And yes, Marion Cotillard did play Edith Piaf in LA VIE EN ROSE just three years before INCEPTION.
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For all the truly obsessed out there, Saito’s company is apparently called Proclus Global. In case you felt like going down any other rabbit holes tonight.
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“Do you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?” Here’s the first iteration of the meme I’m convinced is the real inception being done to Cobb. And it comes up when they first talk about inception. vulture.com/article/incept…

Regarding my theory that the inception is actually being done TO Cobb, some have asked, well, then, who’s behind it all? Well, there is one guy in the movie who, we are told, is the one who taught Cobb everything he knows.
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These exploding fruit carts and windows and such in the Paris sequence are a great example of Nolan and his team’s dedication to practical effects. They used air cannons to shoot all that debris into the air. Here’s a test they did before shooting…
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…And here’s raw footage of the scene as they shot it. (The car was on pulleys.)
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That shot of the city folding in on itself is worth the price of admission if you ask me. I used to have real dreams and nightmares like this. #VultureMovieClub

Also, the music pretty much never stops in INCEPTION, which is probably one of the reasons why some people hate it, and a major reason why I love it so much. #VultureMovieClub

We are told you must never let someone touch your personal dream totem in INCEPTION, because then they might gain control over your wor-- Whoops!
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These guys in Mombasa feel like they walked in straight off the set of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
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Of course, that’s true of the whole movie, in a sense. Each sequence feels like an homage to a different classic action movie. RAIDERS, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, that Fatboy Slim music video where Christopher Walken is dancing all over the place...
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Again, the dreams may not always feel like dreams, but I love these wonderfully dream-like grace notes.
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🤔

Whenever you watch Tom Hardy in INCEPTION, see if you can try and pinpoint the exact moment when Christopher Nolan said, "Let's never see this man's mouth again."
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All these scenes where they're explaining how they will go into Fischer's mind...is also a blueprint for how they will enter Cobb's mind.
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Idea: Spinoff franchise about Eames and Arthur where they have adventures and play pranks on each other. All I ask for is EP credit and 1 percent of the 3 billion dollars you’ll make.
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“You said you had a dream.”
“That we’d grow old together.”
"And we can."
Note how insistent Mal (who is actually just Cobb’s subconscious) is about this point. This is why the image of Cobb growing old is so important. He has to realize that he eventually did.
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What would be in YOUR Dream Elevator of Regret? #VultureMovieClub

This part where they're getting on the plane is one of only two moments in INCEPTION when it's safe to take a bathroom break btw. (I'm fine.) vulture.com/2010/07/when_i…

It ain’t a Nolan movie until someone puts a bag over Cillian Murphy’s head.
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tfw u filed ur first draft
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Cillian Murphy is quite underrated in INCEPTION. I love how pissy and annoyed he is at first, then gets more engaged, until he's finally in tears by the end. In some ways, he has the film's most pronounced character arc.
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Cillian Murphy is underrated in general. He deserved an Oscar nom for DUNKIRK.
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“You’re gonna be lost down there so long that...you’re gonna become an old man…”
“Filled with regret…”
“…Waiting to die alone.”
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"As we go deeper into Fischer, we're also going deeper into you." #VultureMovieClub

INCEPTION has a lot of exposition, but one of the reasons why it works is because people are never stating the obvious. You never get a case where a character is being told something he or she already knows solely for the benefit of the audience. #VultureMovieClub

Unlike directors like Michael Bay or Zack Snyder, Nolan uses slow-motion very rarely in his films. Hardly ever. INCEPTION is the one exception, but the slo-mo is never indulgent. It's used quite rigorously, to indicate that time is *literally* running at a different speed.

I love Nolan's dedication to taking the sorta-kinda stars of his youth and giving them authority figure parts in his films. Tom Berenger in INCEPTION, Rutger Hauer in BATMAN BEGINS, Eric Roberts in THE DARK KNIGHT, Matthew Modine in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES... #VultureMovieClub

For the hallway fight, with its constantly shifting gravity, production built a rotating set, because of course they did.
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The hallway fight is still so awesome. #VultureMovieClub

Another bit of elegant construction: The actual dreamer always has to stay behind in his dream while the others go under. Yusuf stays in the van. Arthur stays in the hotel. Eames stays in the ice fortress. #VultureMovieClub

Some individual action scenes in INCEPTION are terrific, others less so. I tend to think of it as one whole action sequence, happening on three different planes of reality. In that sense, the final act is marvelous, ICE STATION ZEBRA references and all.
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I actually have no idea what’s going on here. It’s not an infinite stairwell if it just, like, ends.
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Poor Marion Cotillard dies so many times in this film. #VultureMovieClub

Fun fact: Much of the Limbo sequences were shot in an abandoned, wasteland-like set of buildings that production discovered when they were scouting locations in Tangiers.
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"We both wanted to live in a house but we loved this type of building." A sly reminder that they were, after all, architects. #vulturemovieclub

"Your world is not real." A reminder that INCEPTION stands on the shoulders of previous works like THE MATRIX, THE GAME, and PAPRIKA.

“I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection, all your imperfection.”
Is INCEPTION secretly about Chris Nolan’s difficulty writing female characters?
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Notice how Cobb keeps Ariadne from firing at the last minute. He knows there's still something he needs to tell Mal -- that they grew old together. #VultureMovieClub

And ALSO notice how this is happening right as Fischer is having his final reckoning with his dad. Fischer and Cobb's fates are intertwined. They are both being "incepted." #VultureMovieClub

I do love Fischer's moment here with his dad. Because of course in a way it is his own mind telling himself that his dad loved him after all. It's all just so sad. #VultureMovieClub

"You don't remember when you asked me to marry you? You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together."

"But we did. We did, but you don't remember. We had our time together."

This is it. Cobb's inception. The idea that's been implanted in his mind over the course of the film.

(And of course we cut right back to Fischer telling Uncle Peter/Eames about the will, and his interpretation of it. Even now, Cobb and Fischer are intertwined.)

"We were young men together. I'm an old man..."
"...Filled with regret."
"...Waiting to die alone."
"I've come back for you. To remind you. Of something you once knew."
There it is again. The final iteration of the meme, now used to save both Cobb & Saito from the dream.

I’m not gonna lie, I find this to be maybe the most moving moment in all of INCEPTION.
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These final scenes on the plane, at the airport, at home are all shot like a dream. Almost no dialogue, characters barely acknowledging each other. Cobb/Leo just drifting through these scenes. #VultureMovieClub

Okay, here are the kids. Do they look different? They're older, for sure. But their clothes are very similar, if not the same.

Was it all a dream? Maybe we're not supposed to know (or care), but it's worth pointing out that Cobb has his wedding ring on in the dreams, and it's off in the reality sequences. In the final scene, he has no wedding ring. #VultureMovieClub

To put it another way:

“You don’t know where this train will take you, but it doesn’t matter, because you’ll be together.”

Good night, everybody!

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