Christopher Nolan’s Memento), and use music and sound to truly enhance some of the biggest scenes.
In 2010, Nolan brought the psychological sci-fi action film Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Paige, Marion Cotillard, and Tom Hardy. The film followed Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets, and he obviously needs help for that. Cobb has a team that helps him build dream scenarios that make the extraction of information (or the seeding of an idea) possible without the target even knowing that their subconscious was infiltrated.
Inception was a critical and financial success, and is now regarded as its ambiguous ending left to the viewer’s interpretation. Unsurprisingly, there’s much more to Inception than a talented team that can create complex dreams, as they also represent a film crew.
Inception: What Film Role Each Character Represents
In order to successfully infiltrate someone’s subconscious and fulfill the goal – whether to implant an idea or take information – Cobb requires the help of all types of experts, from architects to chemists. The team is formed by Arthur (Levitt), “The Point Man”; Ariadne (Page) “The Architect”; Eames (Hardy), “The Forger”; and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), the chemist, whose main task is to concoct a powerful sedative to make the “dream within a dream” strategy possible. As it turns out, every member of the team (except Yusuf) represents a key role in the process of filmmaking.
“The Point Man” represents the producer, as he’s the one in charge of research and pretty much making the plan possible; “The Architect” is the production designer, because she creates every setting; and “The Forger” is the actor, as he’s the one tasked with impersonating others in the dreams. In addition to them, there’s Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), a.k.a. “The Mark”, who represents the audience, as he’s the one that’s getting an idea implanted – and in the case of the audience, the ones receiving the illusion. As for Cobb, “The Extractor”, his role is that of the director.
Nolan confirmed this in an interview with EW back in 2010, explaining that he wrote “a team-based creative process” so he wrote the one he knows. He added that Inception was also a reflection of his artistic life, and there’s a lot of him in Cobb, as the character was at risk of getting lost in dreams and was fighting to reconnect with reality and go back to his family, and Nolan can lose himself in his job very easily. Almost a decade later there’s still a lot more to learn and discover about Inception, and you might want to have the film crew allegory in mind next time you watch the film.
