THE REWATCHABLES · March 22, 2018
A 2010 action / sci-fi directed by Christopher Nolan, covered in the complete Rewatchables archive.
ON THIS EPISODE
FROM THE CONVERSATION
WHY IT WORKS
WHAT DID NOT WORK
SCENES THEY KEPT COMING BACK TO
The hosts love the moment when the city folds and the dream rules are explained visually.
About 8 minPraised as one of the movie’s most technically impressive and memorable action scenes.
About 16 minLiked for its clean white visuals, humor, and relief from the movie’s cognitive overload.
About 8 minViewed as the emotional heart of the film, especially the train reveal and elevator memories.
About 8 minThe explanation scenes in Paris are praised for making the rules legible and entertaining.
About 8 minThe moment Cobb wakes on the plane is treated as funny and slightly absurd in retrospect.
About 40 min · medium confidenceWHERE THEY DISAGREED
Jason ConcepcionSees the rotating van as a logic problem that takes him out of the movie.
Mallory RubinArgues the kicks are synchronized across levels and the movie’s rules allow it.
Sean FennesseySees the sequence as exciting but still partly rule-bending.
Jason ConcepcionThinks the wobbling totem is an annoying gotcha and prefers a more ambiguous cut.
Mallory RubinThinks the point is that it does not matter whether it is a dream.
Andrew GruttadaroFeels the ending is intentionally open and effective even if he does not fully settle the question.
Mallory RubinDislikes that Ariadne’s mythological name feels like a puzzle clue.
Jason ConcepcionThinks some names sound absurd when spoken aloud.
Sean FennesseyAccepts the clue-like naming as part of the riddle structure.
Sean FennesseySays Nolan is slightly overrated and often films incoherent action.
Jason ConcepcionAgrees that Nolan is overrated.
Mallory RubinFinds Nolan’s craft impressive despite the skepticism.
Calls it one of Nolan’s two really good movies, while still finding it confusing and potentially incoherent.
Opening minutesPrefers Marion Cotillard for the role because she is more frightening and specific than Kate Winslet would have been.
Opening minutesLikes Elliot Page’s intelligence and vulnerability in the role and dislikes how on-the-nose the name is.
Opening minutesArgues that Nolan is at his best staging spectacle and that the rotating hallway and zero-gravity work are spectacular.
About 24 minCalls the zero-gravity corridor fight one of the film’s strongest achievements and marvels at how it was made.
About 16 minEnjoys the snowy assault, especially its humor and the relief it provides near the end of the film.
About 8 minSays the Cobb/Mal material is the most emotionally gripping part of the movie.
About 8 minThinks the spinning totem ending is a gotcha and would prefer the camera cut before the wobble.
About 48 minArgues that the ending’s ambiguity is the point and connects it to a Harry Potter line about reality inside the head still being real.
About 48 minBelieves Hardy is the movie’s biggest star-making performance and should have become an even bigger star.
About 40 minLikes the movie but thinks many of its rules and mechanics do not fully add up.
About 24 minEnjoys the meta idea that filmmaking itself resembles dreaming and creation.
About 48 minThe episode keeps returning to whether Cobb is dreaming and whether the distinction even matters morally or emotionally.
About 40 minThe hosts discuss Nolan’s claim that characters map onto filmmaking roles, and read the movie as a meta-commentary on directing and producing.
About 8 minMal is discussed as Cobb’s guilt and regret made visible, with the limbo scenes framed as the film’s emotional core.
About 8 minThe film is admired as a technical achievement where spectacle and editing often matter more than literal plausibility.
About 24 minThe hosts argue over whether the film is intentionally open-ended and whether ambiguity is a feature rather than a flaw.
About 48 minNolan first pitched Inception in 2001, after Memento, but felt he lacked the experience to direct it then.
About 32 minThe original treatment for the film was 80 pages.
About 32 minThe rotating corridor was built as a 100-foot-long practical rig suspended on concentric rings and powered by two electric motors.
About 32 minPete Postlethwaite was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and died six months after the film’s release.
About 32 minNolan said characters represent filmmaking roles, with Cobb as director and Arthur as producer.
About 8 minEames is associated with the quote about dreaming 'a little bigger, darling.'
About 48 minUsed as a comparison point for Nolan’s set-piece mastery and commercial success.
About 16 minMentioned as one of Nolan’s early projects and as part of his path to making Inception.
About 32 minCited as an influence on early mind-bending cinema that shaped the movie’s era.
About 32 minMentioned with other reality-bending films as a predecessor to Inception’s mind-game genre.
About 32 minAnother reality-bending film cited as part of the movie’s lineage.
About 32 minUsed as a contrast for what a movie about dreams might look like more overtly.
About 24 minReferenced for character naming, werewolf Lupin, and a philosophical line about what is real inside one’s head.
Opening minutesMentioned because the song is used in the movie and Cotillard played Piaf.
About 32 minDiscussed as another Nolan film that some hosts admire more than others.
About 48 minRaised at the end as a possible topic and generally treated as a weaker Nolan film by the hosts.
About 48 min · medium confidenceReferenced as Tom Hardy’s mistaken assumption about why Nolan cast him.
About 24 minCited as the actual performance that helped get Hardy cast.
About 24 minMentioned because Cotillard played Edith Piaf in it and the same song returns in Inception.
About 32 minThe hosts mention Lupin as a naming example while discussing Inception’s clue-like names.
Opening minutesThe hosts keep returning to how confusing the movie feels on rewatch and joking that their brains or caffeine levels are to blame.
Opening minutesRepeated jokes about the obviousness or absurdity of names like Ariadne, Cobb, and Mal.
Opening minutesMallory tells a personal story about researching her own name and learning it means misfortune.
Opening minutesJason repeatedly jokes that Tom Berenger in a suit resembles his dad.
About 8 minThe hosts briefly joke about JGL’s post-movie path and his company HitRecord.
About 32 minMallory uses a chapstick-as-totem joke during the ending discussion.
About 48 minThey repeatedly describe the movie as feeling like a stoner thought experiment.
About 48 min“I'm the Lord of Dreams.”Opening minutes
“dream a little bigger, darling”About 48 min
“It's a simple story.”Opening minutes
“Why on earth should that mean that it isn't real?”About 48 min
“Doesn't make sense, is confusing”Opening minutes
MAKE IT A MOVIE NIGHT
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
Three movies to watch before Inception, and three to watch next.
ON THE MIC
Sean FennesseyThe Rewatchables
Mallory RubinThe RewatchablesREWATCH FAVS
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