There's one thing you should know about me. I specialize in a very specific type of security. Subconscious security.
You're talking about dreams. Well, Inception is a very ambitious, cerebral, almost existential, high-octane Hollywood action film. I think I found a way home.
And this last job, that's how I get there. I was really attracted to it because through this insane film that goes through four different stages of the human subconscious, it also is this A therapy session for the main character, Cobb. As he goes deeper and deeper into the dream state, he comes closer and closer to the things that haunt him. It is this cathartic journey that he goes on to come to grips with what has been plaguing him. I'm just doing what I know.
I'm doing what you taught me. I never taught you to be a thief. No, you taught me to navigate people's minds, but after what happened, there weren't a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.
What are you doing here, Tom? It's a job for some very, very powerful people. People who I believe can fix my charges permanently. But I need your help.
I've always been fascinated by the nature of dreaming. The idea that while we're dreaming we can create a world, but perceive it at the same time without realising that we're performing both those functions. To the extent where if we dream we're...
we're having a conversation with somebody. We're dreaming that person. We're also creating the words that are in that person's mouth, but we feel we're hearing them as if for the first time. It took me a long time to write the script because I based it on this idea of a heist movie set in the world of dreams.
The problem with a heist movie is they tend to be procedural, they tend to be deliberately superficial. And so it took me a long time to realize that when you're dealing with a world of dreams, that's not enough. You need emotion. And so the central character played by Leonardo DiCaprio became the most important part of making the story relatable for the audience. We can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor.
How can I do that? Because I am the most skilled extractor. I know how to search your mind and find your secrets.
I know the tricks, and I can teach them to you so that even when you're asleep, your defense is never down. Look, if you want my help, you're going to have to be completely open with me. I need to know my way around your thoughts better than your wife, better than your therapist, better than anyone.
If this is a dream and you have a safe full of secrets, I need to know what's in that safe. In order for this all to work, you need to completely let me in. Enjoy your evening, gentlemen. As I consider your proposal. He knows.
When you talk about dreams, you immediately start to think that the, um, that world is infinite, that anything is possible. What was interesting about Chris's take on this dream world, and what he was very specific with us about, is that it had its own set of rules. that you immediately start to talk about the human subconscious and entering the dream world and you think, you know, we could be flying around in other galaxies with mystical creatures and, you know, insane settings, but he wanted to be very deeply rooted in things we understood. That was really the challenge in making Inception, was to keep everything grounded, to keep everything feeling like it was possible, even as what's happening in the film is, on some level, impossible. You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
Chris is a visionary and to have a film that is that ambitious, that combines all those elements, is few and far between. Everything in the film is based on one underlying principle that's articulated by Leo's character in the film, which is dreams. feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.
That's the idea at the heart of Inception, and that was the guiding principle behind the way we shot everything. These dream worlds had to be photographed as far as possible in a tactile way, in an in-camera way. And so we did a lot of things that normally would be visual effects, whether it was...
Gravity changing or disappearing, whether it's a massive freight train barreling down a crowded city street. We did those things in camera and used visual effects for what they were best at, which is taking something we'd shot and then expanding on it and making it more... than it could otherwise have been.
We create the world of the dream. We bring the subject into that dream and they fill it with their secrets. Then you break in and steal it. Well, it's not strictly speaking legal.
It's called inception. I'm ready. That's predominantly been my difficulty with science fiction, is that it's hard for me to get emotionally connected to some of the worlds that are created.
Even though I'm a huge fan of science fiction and I see every genre of film and every type of film. This was the first one I felt like I could connect to in that way, and the first one I really wanted to be a part of, because, you know, Chris essentially wanted us to make this as conversational as possible. This is a world that does exist. Buy into that world, and through his actors, you know, and the people that he chose, he wanted to make sure that the audience believed that they were in that world, too.
Dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange. Let me ask you a question.
You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on. I guess, yeah.
So how did we end up here? His science fiction is deeply rooted. You look at The Dark Knight, I mean, his...
Does Gotham look like New York City? I mean, these are things that... It isn't that hard to take a leap of faith in his creative worlds. I forget which great old Hollywood mogul was quoted as saying he wanted a film that began with an O.
earthquake and then built to a climax uh we literally just tried to do that i mean to the point of there is an earthquake at the beginning of the film i wanted to start as big as possible and really throw people into um the world of inception the idea that in this world of dreams the most massive things are possible think about it ariadne how did you get here where are you right now We're dreaming? You're actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm.
I tried to take a traditional approach to this film and do research like I would any other movie, but I realized the only research I could do was to sit down with Chris for three months and talk through who this man is and what we're trying to create here. And to just keep that emotional through line and that direction to the character throughout all those different layers of the world that this film takes on was extremely challenging. It was, because you had to constantly refer in the script back to, okay, where the hell are we and how the hell does this dream affect the other one and what exactly just happened?
Chris was really the mastermind behind it and we all looked towards him for that guidance. I have it under control. I have it under control.