one thing you should know about me I specialize in a very specific type of security subconscious security you're talking about dreams [Music] well inception is is a very ambitious cerebral almost existential higher-paying Hollywood action film I think I found a way home in 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 therapy session for for the main character cop 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 to come to grips with what what has been plaguing him I'm just doing what I know I'm doing what you taught me I've never taught you to be a thief now he taught me to navigate people's minds but after what happened there weren't a whole lot legitimate ways for me to use that skill what are you doing here 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 the nature of dreaming the idea that while we're dreaming we can create a world but perceive it at the same time without realizing that we're performing both us those functions to the extent were if we dream were 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 did based it on this idea of a heist movies set in the world of dreams and problem with a heist movies that 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 the 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 you do that as I am the most skilled extractor I know how to search your mind and find her secrets I know the tricks and I can teach them to you so even when you're asleep your defense is never down look if you want my help you're gonna 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 even and gentlemen as I consider your proposal he knows when you talk about dreams you immediately start to think that the 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 talking 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 ground and to keep everything feeling like it was possible even as what's happening in the film is on some level impossible [Music] mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger darling Chris and Chris is a visionary and to have a film that that's that is that ambitious that combines all those elements is few and far between everything in the film is based on one underlying principle was 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 of the horse 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 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 which shot and then expanding on 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 live with their secrets then you break it and still it well it's not strictly speaking legal it's called inception [Music] 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 um 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 and on the people that he chose he wanted to he wanted to make sure that the audience believed that they were in that world to dreams they feel real while we're in them right it's only when we wake up that we realized something was actually strange let me ask you a question you never really remember the beginning of a dream do 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 you look at the dark night I mean his Gotham looked like New York City I mean these are things that it isn't hard to take a leap of faith in his his creative worlds I forget which great old Hollywood mogul was quite just say he weren't a film of began an earthquake and then built to a climax we literally just tried to do that I mean to the point of there is an earthquake in the beginning of film I wanted to stop as big as possible and really throw people into the world of Inception the idea that in this world of dreams the most massive things a possible thing about it Ariadne how did you get here where are you right now Rajini if you're actually in the middle of the workshop right now sleep I guess is your first lesson in sharing [Music] [Music] I tried to take a traditional approach of this film and do research like I would any other movie but I realized the only research I could do is to sit down with Christopher 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 through the character throughout all those different layers of 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 we it you know Chris was really the mastermind behind it and we all looked towards him for that for that guidance and under control you