Inception, Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, is a classic worthy of being recorded in film history.
Over 2 million people rated it on Douban, with a score of 9.4 and a 5-star rating exceeding 72%, higher than 99% of sci-fi and suspense films.
It scored 8.8 on the top 250 list, ranking 14th. Ahead of it was Fight Club, and behind it was Dune 2.
That's right, it's Dune 2.
Although the Dune series doesn't have much popularity in China, its reputation abroad is not low.
Dune 2 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are also the only two movies to break into the top 50 of the rankings after 2020.
Of course, 14th place is not Nolan's limit, because his immortal work The Dark Knight scored 9.0, ranking third on the list.
It is only surpassed by the champion The Shawshank Redemption with 9.3 points and The Godfather Part I with 9.2 points, truly the ceiling of superhero films.
It brought the superhero genre to a height that almost didn't belong to it, and built a wall that was almost impossible for later comers to climb.
In the new era, Christopher Nolan is the absolute, well-deserved, and undisputed number one director.
Not just in Hollywood, but the number one director in the entire world.
There's an interesting saying in Hollywood about directors: James Cameron is responsible for innovating film technology, and Christopher Nolan is responsible for innovating film structure.
Eric liked him very much; if he had the chance, he would love to collaborate with Nolan.
Inside the hotel, a group of people gathered around a round table for a meeting, the main content of which was to study the script of Inception.
More than half a year had passed since Eric provided them with the script, and everyone had read the script countless times.
During this period, everyone contacted Eric several times, and even when he was with Nicole and Theron, they would ask related questions, but Eric never answered in detail.
Now it's time to sort out the plot properly. It's best to understand everything clearly; if not, at least understand your character's positioning and scenes.
If even this isn't clear, the play can still be filmed, but the effect will definitely be greatly reduced.
Neill Blomkamp took out the printed script, ready to distribute it to everyone.
Bale waved his hand: "Thanks, I've got mine."
He took out a script with severely wrinkled edges from his handbag, looking like a textbook used by a primary school student who didn't like to study, and then took out a black notebook.
"Bale, are those your notes?" Tom Hardy next to him leaned over.
Bale nodded, opened the notebook, and saw neatly written plot analysis, character biographies, and character psychology.
"Wow! Your handwriting is beautiful. Wait, this thick book isn't all character biographies, is it?"
"No, actually, only about half of it is written, about a hundred pages."
Looking at his calm demeanor, Tom Hardy clicked his tongue in surprise, his heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly felt a surge of pressure.
He had long heard that Christian Bale was famously dedicated, the kind of dedication that could drive him mad to delve into a role, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to play American Psycho.
Although he hadn't seen his live performance yet, judging from the other party's solid preparation work, it seemed the rumors were true.
And he had many scenes with Bale, so he absolutely couldn't mess it up.
Tom Hardy knew this was a good opportunity Eric specifically gave him. He also gave James McAvoy a chance to film wanted and Michael Fassbender a chance to film rampage.
Even though James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender played protagonists, and he played a supporting role, the cast of Inception was top-tier in Hollywood, much stronger than wanted and rampage. His supporting role was in no way inferior to their protagonists' treatment.
Who could become famous would depend on this time. If he messed up, he would probably only be left with some minor, leftover roles, and he wouldn't be able to turn things around for five or six years.
He also quickly took out his script: "I have mine too."
Neil shrugged, looking around to see everyone pulling out their own personal scripts.
"Alright, looks like I did something unnecessary."
"But at least it's better to be prepared."
Everyone sat down, their gazes fixed on Eric. Although he was both a writer and a director, he had a lot of things to juggle every day, so he also made detailed notes.
"Alright, let's first clarify the movie's plot, and then you can ask questions individually."
"I'll go through the plot in chronological order. Bale, Theron, let's start with your two characters' story."
"First, there's Cobb, the male protagonist played by Bale, and Mal, Cobb's wife played by Theron. You two are pioneers of the dream world. Your shared pursuit of the dream world led you to explore and experiment on yourselves."
"So you entered deeper and deeper layers of dreams, until you reached the fourth layer. Because the time flow in each dream layer is roughly 20 times slower, the time flow in the fourth layer was already quite slow, so you two stayed there for decades, until you died of old age within it."
"After death, you entered the deeper Limbo. Mal wished to stay there and be with Cobb forever, not wanting to return to the real world."
"But Cobb missed his children and wanted to return to the real world. However, as a pioneer himself, he didn't know how to return and could only guess that death might lead back, but it might not."
"So he could only take a double-insurance approach: on one hand, he used the spinning top totem to implant the idea of suicide to return in his wife; on the other hand, before she committed suicide, he implanted the idea of doubting everything and trying everything."
"This was also Cobb's first time using an Inception to change someone's mind."
"After they committed suicide by lying on the train tracks, they returned to reality, but the side effects of the Inception began to appear. Mal completely lost the boundary between dream and reality, so she chose to commit suicide to escape from what she believed was a dream, leading Cobb to become a murderer, forced to flee overseas."
"Then, Saito, the wealthy businessman played by Ken Watanabe, hired Cobb to implant an idea in his competitor, hoping to bring down the other company and monopolize the energy market."
"In order to return home, Cobb had no choice but to assemble a team and begin setting up a scheme to perform an Inception on the plane."
"But unexpectedly, Fischer had received professional anti-Inception training, so accidents began to happen, and they could only keep moving into deeper layers of the dream."
"Finally, due to Saito's death, he entered Limbo. Cobb could only die with Mal and enter Limbo to find him, and eventually bring him back to reality."
"Okay, that's the general plot. Now we'll move on to the Q&A session. I'll try to answer what I can."
Hearing this, Nicole looked at Eric in surprise: "Director, what do you mean 'try to answer what I can'? Does that mean there are parts you don't understand? You're the screenwriter."
Eric nodded bluntly: "Inception is a sci-fi movie, and sci-fi movies are the crystallization of imagination."
"Imagination not based on reality will inevitably lead to problems. I can't be exhaustive, so this meeting can also serve as a way to patch up holes."
When he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other, thinking, 'You're quite honest, not like many directors who like to be mysterious.'
Heath Ledger raised his hand.
"Alright, Heath, no need to be like a student, go ahead."
"Director, I want to know how many dream layers there actually are? You just mentioned the fourth layer, so is the fourth layer of the dream also Limbo?"
"That's what I want to know too," Theron said.
"I also have doubts about this," Daniel Brühl also looked over.
He would play the role of Fischer, the rich second-generation target of the Inception. At the recent Golden Globe Awards, the film Goodbye, Lenin!, starring him, received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Although he is a German actor, he has gained some recognition in Hollywood.
The doubts of these few people were precisely the questions many people struggled with after the movie was released that year. Some thought the fourth layer was Limbo, some thought it wasn't, and the movie didn't give a very clear conclusion on this.
Eric nodded: "Good question. My answer is that the fourth dream layer is not Limbo; these are two different worlds."
"We can turn to page 49 of the script. This scene explains some of the dream's settings, including the severe memory loss that occurs once you enter Limbo."
"Then turn to page 187 of the script. Here, because Fischer was shot by Mal, he entered a near-death state."
"To gain enough time to save him, at the suggestion of Ariadne, the architect played by Nicole, they entered the fourth dream layer."
Eric almost blurted out the pet name, but luckily he stopped himself in time. Theron was concentrating on the script and probably didn't notice.
Nicole's lips curved slightly, and she shot him a wink.
At this moment, Bale looked up: "Director, then when Cobb and Ariadne entered the fourth layer, why was everything there the same as the scene where he and Mal committed suicide by lying on the train tracks? Does this mean that Cobb is the dream architect of the fourth layer?"
Eric nodded: "Exactly. Cobb moved everything he and Mal built to the fourth layer, which is why it looks so similar."
"Hmm, I understand. So, I have a suggestion."
"What?"
"Would it be necessary to add this sentence to the script? If we just add the statement that Cobb is the dream architect of the fourth layer, then everything here makes sense."
"Huh? I didn't write that?" Eric flipped back through the script, but couldn't find that line.
Theron said with a smile, "Director, it seems you haven't checked the script carefully enough."
"Alright, my mistake. That's the purpose of this meeting. Who else has questions?"
Nicole flipped to the last few pages of the script: "Eric, the final description ends with a spinning top."
"The spinning top seems to be Cobb's totem, right? So if the top is still spinning, doesn't that mean he's still in a dream? Did Cobb actually return to reality?"
Everyone else looked over again, apparently all having the same question.
Eric smiled. This question was actually very easy to answer, but just reading the script text might cause confusion.
He explained: "Cobb certainly returned to reality. The spinning top is a small trick. The final shot will actually freeze at the moment the top slows down and is about to fall, but hasn't yet."
"I didn't express this description in words, but the final movie will present it this way."
"Also, I have a question for you all: Is Cobb's totem really the spinning top?"
"No!" Theron and Bale answered simultaneously.
Bale gestured for her to speak, and Theron began: "The script only says this is Mal's totem, and Cobb carries it with him, but it doesn't explicitly state that it's Cobb's totem."
"After comparing the descriptions of several dream entries in the script, I think his true totem might be the ring."
"Because every time he enters a dream, the description of Cobb includes a mention of the ring, but there's no such description in everyday scenes."
"Eric, since the script specifically emphasizes the ring, there must be a reason."
"That's my view as well," Bale nodded to Theron.
"Correct answer. The answer is the ring. It seems this will be a smooth shoot, because you've thoroughly researched the script."
Ken Watanabe suddenly realized: "So the final shot of the spinning top is also a red herring. The top doesn't represent anything at all."
Eric laughed heartily: "Inception is a film that blends suspense and sci-fi elements. Misleading the audience a bit is part of the fun."
"Director, I also have a question."
Tom Hardy had noticed the others' questions while reading the script. Seeing that others were almost done asking all the questions he had, he quickly raised his hand to show his engagement, lest Eric think he hadn't studied the script properly.
"Go ahead, Tom."
"My question is about Saito's death. In the script, he was injured in the first dream layer, then died in the third layer, and was later rescued by Cobb from Limbo."
"Since Cobb can go to Limbo to rescue people, why didn't he just let Saito die directly in the first layer and then have Cobb rescue him, to avoid him becoming a burden in the second and third layers?"
"I've also considered this question, perhaps I can try to answer it," said Morris Chestnut, who plays the pharmacist.
As a character with less distinct features, Eric changed the pharmacist's race from Indian to Black.
He didn't have much fondness for Indians, and the Indian market wasn't a major box office. Using an Indian really wouldn't boost the box office as much as using a Black actor.
"I think the reason should be the flow of time. If Saito really died in the first dream layer, then the time it would take for him to enter Limbo would be much, much longer than dying in the third layer."
"Although the script doesn't explicitly compare the time flow in Limbo to the real world, it must be extremely exaggerated."
"Entering one minute earlier, Saito might have already spent ten more years in Limbo."
"By the time Cobb found Saito, he was already on the verge of dying of old age. If he had stayed ten more years, then he would have died of old age in Limbo without waiting for Cobb to find him."
"And according to the setting, once a person dies of old age in Limbo, although they return to reality, their brain consciousness will also be severely damaged. Saito would essentially become a vegetable, and Cobb's hope of returning home with his help would naturally be dashed."
"This is my hypothesis, Director, what do you think?"
After Morris Chestnut finished speaking, Eric looked at him with some pleasant surprise. It seemed this guy also understood the script to a certain extent.
It's comfortable working with excellent actors; they not only enjoy delving into script characters but also help the director fill in gaps.
It's imaginable that this shoot should go very smoothly.
"Hmm, that's a very good explanation, Morris. It seems I'll need to add some more lines to the script."