In 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio starred in a sci-fi masterpiece that only keeps getting better with time. Leonardo DiCaprio has done a bit of everything in his acting career, from horror with his first movie (Critters 3) to disaster drama with Titanic, western with Django Unchained, and black comedy with Don’t Look Up.
With a career of over three decades, Leonardo DiCaprio has become a frequent collaborator of some notable filmmakers, most notably Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, and has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry. Among them is Christopher Nolan, with whom he worked on the 2010 sci-fi masterpiece Inception.
Inception Has Aged Well
Two years after the success of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan returned with the sci-fi action movie Inception, also written by him. Inception stars DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a thief who specializes in infiltrating dreams and extracting information from the subject’s subconscious or planting an idea in it, the latter being the title “inception.”
Cobb has been on the run after his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), framed him for her death, but he’s offered a chance to have his record cleared and go home to his children – he just has to successfully perform inception on Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to a business empire.
For that, Cobb puts together a team of experts – from architects to chemists – but the “inception” process turns out to be trickier than expected. Inception was a critical and commercial success, and though some questions about it now come to light, like with most of Christopher Nolan’s movies, it has aged well so far.
Inception’s complex concept is still intriguing, and it perfectly guides the audience through it, without sacrificing emotional depth (mostly with Cobb’s personal struggles). A key element that has made Inception age so well is Nolan’s use of practical effects, most notably in the famous rotating hallway scene, which has helped Inception continue looking believable and exciting.
Of course, there’s also the ambiguity of Inception’s ending. That cut to black right before viewers could know if the spinning top falls or not continues to spark debate over whether Cobb was still dreaming or he was truly back home with his family. Over a decade later, Inception is as exciting and engaging as it was when it was released.
How Inception Changed Movies Forever
Inception has not only aged well, but it’s also one of the most influential movies of the 2010s. Inception made history and changed movies since its first trailer was released, establishing a new way of making movie trailers.
The first trailer for Inception not only did a great job of not revealing the plot and giving just the right amount of intriguing clues about it, but it also featured those horn-like sounds that are now used in pretty much any big-budget movie.
Inception also established Christopher Nolan as a franchise of his own. Nolan was already a part of the DC universe with his Batman movies, but Inception proved that he can turn original ideas into blockbusters that are also a hit with critics, and he can consistently do so every couple of years.
Is Inception Christopher Nolan’s Best Movie?
Whether Inception is Christopher Nolan’s best movie or not depends on every viewer, but what’s undeniable is that there are many great contenders for that title in his filmography. The Dark Knight can easily be regarded as Nolan’s best movie, but when looking at original works and not adaptations, I would say it’s between Inception and Interstellar.
The impact and legacy of Inception are undeniable, and Christopher Nolan’s career would probably look very different had Inception not happened. At the time of writing, Nolan’s recent works have been adaptations (Oppenheimer and The Odyssey), so it’s to be seen what his next original project will be and when it will arrive.
- Release Date
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July 16, 2010
- Runtime
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148 minutes
- Franchise(s)
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Inception
