By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
After the success of films like Oppenheimer, it’s fair to declare that Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest and most ambitious directors of this generation. His oeuvre is so expansive and covers so many genres, in fact, that Nolan’s fans often fiercely debate what his best work is. If you’re a sci-fi fan, though, there’s no question that Inception is the director’s masterwork, and you can now stream its mind-bending perfection on Netflix.
Inception On Netflix
If you’re watching Inception for the first time on Netflix, you may need a primer on the plot: basically, we follow the misadventures of a group whose specialty is infiltrating the dreams of corporate titans and extracting important trade secrets from their subconscious. The group’s leader is hired to do something largely thought impossible: to implant an idea into someone’s head rather than simply steal info. Despite immaculate planning, the operation soon goes sideways, leaving our protagonists to fight for their lives in a reality where the rules are constantly changing, threatening to turn the subconscious dreamscape into a lethal nightmare.
Inception is likely to be attractive to Netflix viewers thanks to its amazing cast, starting with Leonardo DiCaprio as the dream thief who is hired to implant an idea into the subconscious of a target played by Cillian Murphy. Ken Watanabe plays the businessman who hires him and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the partner helping plan the heist. Other big names round out DiCaprio’s team, including Elliot Page and Tom Hardy, and our main character is haunted in the dreamscape by an ex-wife played to perfection by Marion Cotillard.
A Sci-Fi Success
With a budget of $160 million, Inception is better than most of the sci-fi originals on Netflix, and you can certainly see the money onscreen thanks to the larger-than-life imagery and trippy visuals used to bring the subconscious mind to life. Fortunately for Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros., this big-budget gamble paid off in an equally big way. The film went on to earn a respectable $839 million at the box office, cementing its place in Hollywood history even as it became the source of endless hilarious memes.
Another way that Inception distinguishes itself from Netflix’s typical sci-fi offerings is that it earned many prestigious awards. Notably, the movie took home four Academy Awards, including the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography (to this day, this is likely to be the prettiest movie you see all year). And while it didn’t take home these particular awards, the film was nominated for other Academy Awards such as Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, which gives you an idea of just how much this movie impressed critics as well as audiences.
Speaking of impressing the critics, Inception distinguishes itself from other Netflix sci-fi fare in how much it won over individual critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a critical score of 87 percent, with critics generally praising how Inception is both a smart puzzle box of a film as well as a viscerally crowd-pleasing action epic. On the site’s Pocornmeter, meanwhile, audiences gave it 91 percent, which certainly underscores how well Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece has wowed just about everyone who sees it.
Will you be similarly wowed by Inception when you stream it on Netflix, or is this sci-fi blockbuster the stuff of your nightmares rather than your dreams? You won’t know until you hit play and stream it for yourself. And if you end up confusing reality and fiction while watching, just take a look at Cotillard. The fact that DiCaprio’s big love interest in the film was 35 at the time (a full decade older than DiCaprio’s real-life romantic partners) is a sure sign you’re still (for better or for worse) stuck in the real world.
