Inception (2010)
Your mind is the scene of the crime.
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 15 July 2010 |
| Genre | Action, Science Fiction, Adventure |
| Director | Christopher Nolan |
| Starring | Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ken Watanabe |
| Runtime | 148 min |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes (average) 8.1/10 · Rotten Tomatoes 87% · Metacritic 74/100 · IMDb 8.8/10 · TMDB users 8.4/10 |
| Budget | $160 million |
| Box office | $837 million worldwide |
Where to watch Inception
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What kind of watch this is
Inception is a 2010 action, science fiction, and adventure film. It runs 148 minutes, which gives Nolan enough time to build a heist where the vault is someone’s own head. You are not just watching a job go wrong; you are trying to figure out if any of it is real. It is for people who like their movies to have rules, even if those rules involve falling off a spinning floor. If you can follow a dream inside a dream, you are ready.
What the critics said
Critics treated the puzzle with respect. Rotten Tomatoes holds an 87% approval rating based on 363 reviews as of November 2022. Metacritic, slightly more reserved, sits at 74 out of 100 from 42 critics as of June 2025. That is generally favorable, which is a polite way of saying they liked it but checked the clock.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a "wildly ingenious chess game." Justin Chang of Variety described a "heist thriller for surrealists." Dissent was rare and quiet. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wanted more strangeness, noting the film is "Nolan's labyrinth all the way." He liked it, just not enough to forget it was a summer blockbuster.
How it did with audiences
It cost $160 million and took in $830 million worldwide, a margin that made the studio’s accountants smile and the rest of us nod. In the US and Canada, it earned $293 million, holding the top box office spot for three weekends before ceding ground to The Other Guys. On TMDB, users rate it 8.4 out of 10, a score that suggests audiences preferred the puzzle to the answer. The arithmetic was sound, even if the dream was a bit dense.
Awards
Inception collected 7 wins from 8 nominations. The Academy recognized its technical craft, awarding Wally Pfister for Cinematography, Richard King for Sound Editing, Lora Hirschberg for Sound, and Chris Corbould for Visual Effects. It also picked up the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. The National Board of Review placed it in their Top Ten. The artistic categories went elsewhere, which is standard for a blockbuster.
What came next for the cast
Before 2010, DiCaprio was the face of Titanic. Afterward, he traded romance for survival in The Revenant. Hardy moved from RocknRolla to Mad Max: Fury Road, a jump from gritty realism to operatic chaos. Watanabe went from The Last Samurai to Pokémon Detective Pikachu. One could argue the role shifted their trajectories, though the credits only show what came next. The film does not cause careers. It just sits there, waiting for the next step to be taken.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Inception.
Sources
- Inception on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q25188 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Inception” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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