History Film / Inception

* [=~Hey, It's That Guy!~=]:
** [[{{Titanic}} Jack Dawson]], who dropped [[{{Titanic}} Rose]] for [[strike:[[PublicEnemies John Dillinger's girlfriend]]]] [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450188/ Edith Piaf]].
** ... and then, judging by the first scene, survived the Titanic sinking to end up in Japan... breaking both space and time...
** Apparently, [[{{Brick}} Brendan Frye]] stayed in the private eye biz after high school; but it's too bad what happened to The Pin...
** Hey, it's that ''CriminalMinds'' unsub from the first two episodes.
** [[TheDarkKnightSaga Ra's Al Ghul, Alfred, Scarecrow]]
** {{Juno}} is doing all right for herself.
** [[{{ptitledfnpe5q4}} Tom Hansen]] got over [[{{ZooeyDeschanel}} Summer]] and is now [[{{IncrediblyLamePun}} following his dreams.]]
** [[StTrinians Annabelle Fritton]] certainly grew up and filled out well, hasn't she? Unless you remember her as [[DoctorWho Miss Evangelista]] from the Library two-parter.
** [[{{Film/X-Men}} Kitty Pryde]] has gone from walking through walls to bending Paris.
** [[{{Film/Avatar}} Dr. Max Patel]][=/=][[DragMeToHell That fortune-teller who called forth a demon goat]].
** Keyser Soze's lawyer [[TheEndingChangesEverything Kobayashi]] is the father of [[TheDarkKnightSaga the Scarecrow]].
*** And [[{{Platoon}} Barnes]] is his right hand man.
** [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000592/ Friar Lawrence]] says: Our [[LeonardoDiCaprio Romeo]] hath not been in bed tonight. (Yes, but he still dreamt a dream tonight... [[FakeoutMakeout That]] [[MasterofDisguise dreamers]] [[OrIsIt often]] [[AllJustADream lie]].)
** Did [[StarTrekNemesis Shinzon]] just call [[ThirdRockFromTheSun Tommy]] "darling"?
** Miles's granddaughter is also TheKimberly's daughter. [[HolyShitQuotient Oh my god]]: ''[[TheDarkKnightSaga Alfred]] is Jack Bauer''.

* HypocriticalHumor: Arthur dryly points out how much Dom does things he tells everyone else not to do.

** Of course, being a Nolan film. Made more important by dialogue about how no one ever remembers how they got somewhere in a dream, they just start in the middle of things.

* {{Jossed}}: If Sir Michael Caine is to be believed, any fan theory which assumes that the "real world" is just another level of dream. Caine states that any scene which he's in is the real world.

** Particularly Eames's fake blonde; she ''looks'' fake.
*** Um, actually, that's Talluh Riley, a British actress. The only thing "fake" about her is that she's naturally a brunette. Awkward...

** Although it's not a complete aversion; Jung was actually Freud's student and many of his theories derive from him.

* SherlockScan: Saito figures out that the ActionPrologue is a DreamWithinADream -- ''not'' because of the explosions happening everywhere, but because ''[[EncyclopediaBrowned the shag carpet on the floor of his girlfriend's apartment is polyester, not genuine wool]].'' Saito is definitely earning his salary as TheChessmaster.

* HoYay: Eames and Arthur. "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." For the girls, Ariadne and Mal in the scene where Mal asks her if she knows what it is to be a lover.

* HoYay: Eames and his "darling" Arthur live and breathe this. Especially on Eames's part.
** There's also a teensy bit of this between Cobb and Fischer during the bathroom scene.
** And for the girls, Mal walking close to Ariadne and asking her if she knows what it's like to be a lover. ItMakesSenseInContext, but...

* MoreDakka: After Arthur's [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy firing proves ineffective]], Eames pulls out an RPG to deal with the mooks.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Arthur, if the kink meme page and fanfiction.net are to be believed. The usual suspects are (in descending order) Eames, Ariadne, Eames ''and'' Ariadne, and Cobb. Mal and Saito too, though that's less common.

* EarWorm:
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88 In a really creepy way.]]
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2jUhnCU9iA Bwong!]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4a3y7xetJY&feature=related this sound my friend, is evil incarnate]]
** One of these Earworms is actually derived from the other one. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM When you hear it, you'll shit bricks...]] It's implied that this music is in the movie because ''the characters are hearing it'', distorted by the time dilation.

* [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everyone Trying To Kill You]]: If you meddle with someone's dream too much, all the nice not-real people (and architecture) start getting feral. [[ParanoiaFuel And they always know who's doing it.]] And sometimes, [[spoiler: what's effectively [[SilentHill Pyramid Head]] finds her way in.]]

* TheNotLoveInterest: [[spoiler:Ariadne to Cobb. She grows to understand him more than any of the other crew, and is perhaps single-handedly responsible for saving his soul. At the same time, her concerns are more practical than romantic, as Cobb was taking an ''enormous'' gamble with everyone's lives. There is no talking of romance between the two, anyway.

* ParanoiaFuel: Both in the movie and outside the movie.
** In the movie, the extractors have to be careful not to alert the projections to their presence or they will be physically assaulted, which Ariadne learns the [[NightmareFuel hard way]].
** Outside of the movie, it's a similar problem that people had with ''TheMatrix''. What if, at this very second, you are asleep and there are people poking around in your brain searching for secrets? Or maybe you're stuck several layers down ''in your own dreams'', and have forgotten. Maybe your entire "life" has taken place over a few minutes. Eek.

* SugarWiki/{{Visual Effects of Awesome}}: Some dreams are [[{{Understatement}} quite nice to look at]].

* SherlockScan: Saito figures out that the ActionPrologue is a DreamWithinADream -- ''not'' because of the explosions happening everywhere, but because ''[[EncyclopediaBrowned the shag carpet on the floor of his girlfriend's apartment is wool, not polyester]].'' Saito is definitely earning his salary as TheChessmaster.

Cobb [[AvengersAssemble assembles]] a BadassCrew of experts from across the globe: his partner Arthur, dreamworld-building architect [[EllenPage Ariadne]], expert forger Eames, and chemist Yusuf who devises the compounds that make inception possible. There is one complication Cobb hasn't warned any of them about: the worst enemy they face is not their target, but Cobb's own subconscious.

* TheNotLoveInterest: [[spoiler:Ariadne to Cobb. She grows to understand him more than any of the other crew, and is perhaps single-handedly responsible for saving his soul. At the same time, her concerns are more practical than romantic, as Cobb was taking an ''enormous'' gamble with everyone's lives.]]
** [[spoiler:Again, there is no talking of romance between the two anyway. Ariadne is too young for Cobb, too.]]

** As in ''TheDarkKnightSaga,'' ChristopherNolan makes CillianMurphy [[JonathanCrane wear a bag on his head]].

* AffectionateParody: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWa1eiHPhKw Inceptionauts.]] TimSchafer approved, but [[WikiMagic someone needs to get Nolan's opinion]].
--> [[http://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/24399893377 Haha, INCEPTIONAUTS! Really well done, I think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWa1eiHPhKw (Thanks, @Over_watch)]]
** As Nolan wants to make a game out of {{Inception}}, he should work with Schafer when he makes it - especially as [[http://www.gamestooge.com/2010/11/12/tim-schafer-ready-for-psychonauts-2/ Schafer is ready to make a sequel]] to {{Psychonauts}}! Dom Cobb meets Raz! Let's see the [[ExecutiveMeddling Executives Meddle]] with '''''that''''' DreamTeam!

** As Nolan wants to make a game out of {{Inception}}, he should work with Schafer when he makes it - especially as [[http://www.gamestooge.com/2010/11/12/tim-schafer-ready-for-psychonauts-2/ Schafer is ready to make a sequel]] to {{Psychonauts}}! Let's see the [[ExecutiveMeddling Executives Meddle]] with '''''that''''' DreamTeam!

** As Nolan wants to make a game out of {{Inception}}, he should work with Schafer when he makes it. Let's see the [[ExecutiveMeddling Executives Meddle]] with '''''that''''' DreamTeam!

** As Nolanwants to make a game out of {{Inception}}, he should work with Schafer when he makes it. Let's see the [[ExecutiveMeddling Executives Meddle]] with '''''that''''' DreamTeam!

** Mal appears on the posters labeled as the FemmeFatale. The implication is that she's part of some rival organization working counter to our antiheroes. [[spoiler: In a sense, she ''is'' one of our heroes.]]

* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler: Mal. Or at least, the projection of her created by Dom's subconscious. Though real Mal was a {{Yandere}} as well, seeing as how she pretended to be kind and gentle, but in reality was psychotic beyond words, going so far as to trash her own hotel room to make it seem like Cobb killed her.]]

** Michael Caine has recently gone on record to state that the top does, indeed, fall at the end.