“Couldn't somebody have dreamt up a
goddamn beach?” - Fischer
People can be hard to please, really really hard to please. Apparently a number of viewers felt the fortress level in Inception was one of the weakest scenes of an otherwise engaging and intelligent film. To them, it heavily references a level in a computer game, to Chris Nolan, it was his opportunity to play homage to On her Majesty's Secret Service, a bond film he has admitted he was very much inspired by. You can't help but suspect that some viewers just want to find a chink in the armour. But a film, no matter how amazing it is, isn't without it's flaws. Even if the fortress scene looks like it's straight out of a computer game, and that's the worst thing about Inception, I can live with that.
Filming for the fortress level took place in a ski resort in Alberta, Canada. Once the huge task of constructing the set was complete, film crew waited eagerly for the finishing touch: the snow. With just two days before filming the white stuff finally arrived, and masses of it. This made for some very challenging and intense conditions for the cast.
“I don't think I've ever shot in any climate
that’s more extreme. There was altitude sickness.”
- Ellen Page
But before cameras even captured explosions and anti-freeze paint was applied to the set, potential actors had to read the script in Nolan's office or have it hand-delivered to their homes, where someone stood guard while they perused it. Despite Nolan's secrecy and his hush-hush nature with the press (and even to actors in the initial stages of his films), he's able to bring back the element of surprise and anticipation to the cinema.
Fortress level in a nutshell:
Level: 3
The dreamer: Eames (Tom Hardy)
The kick: The blowing up of the snow fortress (medical facility)
Location: Fortress Mountain, Kananaskis Country, Calgary, Canada
Entering the geek level...
The first letter of each of the main character’s first names - Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur/Ariadne, Mal, Sato - spell the word DREAMS.
Prints of the movie were shipped to theaters under the name Hour Glass.
The slow, gloomy, blaring trombones in the main theme of the film score are actually based on an extremely slowed down version of the fast, high pitched trumpets in the beginning of the Édith Piaf song Non, je ne regrette rien.
Ariadne’s hair is in a tight bun in the hotel sequence so filmmakers didn’t have to figure out how her hair should move in zero-gravity.
The third Christopher Nolan movie in which Cillian Murphy’s character spends a significant portion of his on-screen time with a cloth bag over his head.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt went to his audition after a brief character summary, wearing a full suit just in case, unknowingly matching his character’s wardrobe perfectly.
Not counting flashbacks, Cobb’s wedding ring only appears in scenes where he is dreaming.
* Update *
Oscar wins for Inception:
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Sound
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
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