Chapter 239 238. Each Shows His Magical Power
"Inception", Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, is a classic that will go down in film history.
Over 2 million people rated the film on Douban, with a score of 9.4 and over 72% of the reviews being 5 stars, which is higher than 99% of science fiction and suspense films.
The top250 score is 8.8, ranking 14th on the list, ahead of it is "Fight Club" and behind it is "Dune 2".
That's right, it's Dune 2.
Although the "Dune" series is not very popular in China, it is well-known abroad.
"Dune 2" and "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" are also the only two movies that have made it into the top 50 since 2020.
Of course, No. 14 is not Nolan’s limit, because his immortal work "The Dark Knight" scored 9.0 and ranked third on the list.
It is second only to the champion "The Shawshank Redemption" with 9.3 points and "The Godfather 1" with 9.2 points, and is a well-deserved ceiling of super-British films.
It brought the superhero genre to a height that was almost unbelievable to it, and also built an almost insurmountable wall for later entrants.
Entering the new era, Christopher Nolan is absolutely, well-deservedly, and undisputedly the number one director.
Not just the number one director in Hollywood, but the number one director in the world.
There is an interesting comment about directors in Hollywood: James Cameron is responsible for innovating film technology, and Christopher Nolan is responsible for innovating film structure.
Eric liked him very much and would really like to work with Nolan if there was a chance.
Inside the hotel, a group of people were meeting around a round table, the main content of which was to study the script of "Inception".
It has been more than half a year since Eric provided them with the script, and everyone has read it over and over again countless times.
During this period, everyone contacted Eric several times, including when he was with Neeko and Theron, who also asked related questions, but Eric never answered them in detail.
Now is the time to sort out the plot carefully. It would be best if you can understand everything clearly. If not, at least you should understand your role and part.
If we can't even figure this out, we can still shoot the movie, but the effect will definitely be greatly compromised.
Neil Blomkamp took out the printed script and prepared to distribute it to everyone.
Bell waved his hand: "Thank you, I have it with me."
He took out a script from his handbag. The script had badly wrinkled corners and looked like a textbook used by an unstudy primary school student. Then he took out a black notebook.
"Bale, are these the notes you took?" Tom Hardy came over.
Bell nodded and opened his notebook, only to see plot analysis, character biographies, character psychology, etc. neatly written on it.
"Wow! Your handwriting is so beautiful. Wait, this thick book can't be full of biographies of people, right?"
"No, actually I've only written about half of it, about a hundred pages."
Looking at his calm appearance, Tom Hardy smacked his lips in surprise. His heart skipped a beat and he felt the pressure suddenly increase.
He had heard that Christian Bale was famous for his professionalism, to the point of being obsessed with getting into a role, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to act in "American Psycho".
Although I haven't seen his live performance yet, judging from his solid preparation, the rumors seem to be true.
I have a lot of rival scenes with Bale, so I must not mess it up.
Tom Hardy knew that this was a good opportunity given to him by Eric. He also gave James McAvoy the opportunity to film "Assassins" and Michael Fassbender the opportunity to film "Drive".
Even though James Cameron and Fassbender played the leading roles and I played a supporting role, the configuration of "Inception" was top-notch in Hollywood, much better than "Assassins" and "Drive", and my treatment as a supporting role was no worse than that of the two leading roles.
It all depends on this time who will become famous. If you mess it up, you will probably only be able to play some small and marginal roles in the future, and you won’t be able to make a comeback in the next five or six years.
He also quickly took out his script: "I have one too."
Neil shrugged and looked around, only to see that everyone had taken out their own scripts.
"Well, it seems I did something unnecessary."
"But at least we're prepared."
Everyone sat down, their eyes focused on Eric. Although he was both the screenwriter and the director, he had to take care of a lot of things every day, so he also took detailed notes.
"Okay, let's get the plot of the movie straight first, and then we can ask questions individually later."
"I will sort out the plot in chronological order. Bale, Charlize Theron, let's start with your story."
"First, there's Cobb, the male protagonist played by Bale, and Mel, Cobb's wife played by Charlize Theron. The two of you are pioneers of the dream world, and your common pursuit of the dream world made you decide to explore and experiment on yourselves."
"So you entered deeper and deeper dreams layer by layer until you entered the fourth dream. Since the time flow rate of each dream layer is about 20 times, the time flow rate of the fourth dream layer is already quite slow. So the two of you stayed here for decades until you died of old age."
"After death, you entered a deeper level of the Lost Realm. Mel hopes to continue to stay with Cobb here forever and does not want to return to the real world."
"But Cobb missed his children and wanted to return to the real world. However, since he was also a pioneer, he had no idea how to go back. He could only guess that death might allow him to return, but he might not be able to return."
"So he could only do double insurance. On the one hand, he used the gyroscope totem to implant the idea of suicide return in his wife. On the other hand, he implanted the idea of doubting everything and trying everything in his wife before committing suicide."
"This is also the first time Cobb has used an implant to change a person's mind."
"After they committed suicide by lying on the railway tracks, they returned to reality, but the side effects of the implant began to appear. Mel completely lost the boundary between dreams and reality, so she chose to commit suicide to escape from what she thought was a dream, causing Cobb to become a murderer and have to flee overseas."
"Then, the wealthy Saito, played by Watanabe, hired Cobb to implant ideas into his competitors, hoping to bring down their companies and dominate the energy market."
"In order to return home, Cobb had to form a team and set up a trap to steal dreams on the plane."
"But unexpectedly, Fisher has received professional anti-dream stealing training, so accidents begin to happen, and they can only keep moving into deeper and deeper dreams."
"Finally, due to Saito's death and entering the Lost Zone, Cobb can only die with Mel and enter the Lost Zone to find him, and finally bring him back to reality."
"OK, that's the general plot. Now let's move on to the question and answer session. I'll try to answer any questions I can."
Hearing this, Nicole looked at Eric in astonishment: "Director, what do you mean by try to answer everything you can? Do you mean that there are things you don't understand? You are the screenwriter."
Eric nodded very simply: "Inception is a science fiction movie, and science fiction movies are the fruit of imagination."
"Imaginations that are not based on reality are bound to have problems, and I can't cover everything, so this meeting can also be seen as a way to fill in the gaps."
After he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other, thinking that you are quite honest and not like many directors who like to be mysterious.
Heath Ledger raised his hand.
"Okay Heath, no need to act like a student, just speak."
"Director, I want to know how many levels of dreams there are? You just mentioned the fourth level, so is the fourth level of dreams the Lost Zone?"
"That's what I want to know," Theron said.
"I have doubts about this, too." Daniel Brühl also looked over.
The role he will play is Fisher, a rich second-generation whose dream was stolen. At the recent Golden Globe Awards, the movie "Goodbye Lenin" starring him was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Although he is a German actor, he has gained a certain fame in Hollywood.
The points of confusion among several people are exactly the issues that many people were concerned about after the movie was released. Some people think that the fourth level is the Lost Zone, while some people think it is not. The movie did not give a very clear conclusion on this.
Eric nodded: "Good question, my answer is that the fourth level of dreams is not the Lost Realm, these are two different worlds."
"We can turn to page 49 of the script. This scene explains some of the settings of the dream, including that once you enter the Lost Zone, your memory will be severely lost."
"Then turn to page 187, where Fisher is in the dying stage because he is shot by Mel."
"In order to gain enough time to save him, they entered the fourth level of dreams under the advice of the dream builder Aliredni played by Ni Nicole."
Eric almost slipped up and subconsciously wanted to say the nickname, but fortunately he stopped himself in time. Charlize Theron was concentrating on reading the script and probably didn't notice.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
Nicole raised the corner of her mouth slightly and winked at him.
At this time, Bell raised his head and said, "Director, when Cobb and Aliredne entered the fourth floor, why was everything here the same as the scene where he and Mel committed suicide by lying on the railway tracks? Does this mean that the dreamer of the fourth floor is Cobb?"
Eric nodded. "Yes, Cobb moved everything he and Mel built to the fourth floor, so it looks very similar."
"Okay, I see. Here's a suggestion."
"What?"
“Do we need to add this sentence to the script? As long as we add the statement that Cobb is the dream master of the fourth level, then it will make sense here.”
"Huh? Didn't I write it?" Eric flipped back and found that he couldn't find this line.
Charlize Theron smiled and said, "Director, it seems that you haven't checked the script carefully enough."
"Okay, my question, that's what this meeting is about, who has any questions?"
Neeko turned to the last few pages of the script. "Eric, the last description is fixed on the spinning top."
"The spinning top seems to be Cobb's totem, so if it still spins after it falls off, doesn't that mean he's still in a dream? Has Cobb returned to reality?"
Everyone else looked over again, and it seemed that everyone had the same question.
Eric smiled. This question is actually easy to answer, but if you only read the script, you might be confused.
He explained: "Of course, Corbu returned to reality. The spinning fall was a trick. The final scene will actually be frozen at the moment when the gyroscope slows down and is about to fall."
“I haven’t put this into words, but it will be in the final film.”
"Also, I have a question for you. Is Cobb's totem really a spinning top?"
"No!" Theron and Bale answered at the same time.
Bale gestured for her to come in, and Theron began to speak: "The script only says that this is Mel's totem and that Cobb carries it with him, but it doesn't give any clear information that this is Cobb's totem."
"After comparing the descriptions of his dreams in the script, I think his real totem might be the ring."
"Because every time I enter a dream, there is a description of the ring in the description of Cobb, but there is no relevant description in the daily plot."
"Eric, since the script specifically emphasizes the ring factor, there must be a reason for it."
"That's what I think too." Bale nodded at Theron.
"Correct answer, the answer is the ring. It looks like this will be a smooth shoot since you studied the script so thoroughly."
Watanabe Ken suddenly realized: "So the last spinning top scene is also a smokescreen. The spinning top doesn't represent anything at all."
Eric laughed and said, "Inception is a movie that softens the suspense and science fiction elements. It confuses the audience a little bit, which is also part of the fun."
"Director, I have a question too."
Tom Hardy was aware of the questions raised by others when he read the script. Seeing that others were about to ask all the questions he wanted to ask, he hurriedly raised his hand to express his opinions, so that Eric would not think that he had not studied the script well.
"Go ahead, Tom."
"My question is about Saito's death. In the script, he was injured in the first dream layer, and then died in the third layer. He was then rescued from the Lost Domain by Cobb."
"Since Cobb can go to the Lost Zone to save people, why not let Saito die directly on the first floor? Anyway, let Cobb save him, so that he won't become a burden on the second and third floors."
"I've thought about this question, and maybe I can try to answer it," said Morris Chestnut, who plays the pharmacist.
As a less distinct character, Eric changed the pharmacist's race from Indian to black.
He doesn't have any good feelings towards Indians, and the Indian market is not a big box office. Using Indians is really not as effective in boosting the box office as using black people.
"I think the reason is probably the speed of time. If Saito really died in the first level of dream, then the time he spent in the Lost Realm would be much longer than if he died in the third level."
"Although the script does not clearly state the comparison between the speed of time in the Lost Domain and the real world, it must be very exaggerated."
"Having entered one minute earlier, Saito might have stayed in the Lost Zone for an extra ten years."
"When Cobb found Saito, he was already dying of old age. If he had stayed for another ten years, he would have died of old age in the Lost Zone without Cobb finding him."
"According to the setting, once a person dies of old age in the Lost Zone, he or she will return to reality, but the brain consciousness will be severely damaged. Saito will be equivalent to a vegetable, and Cobb's hope of using him to return to China will naturally be dashed."
"That's my guess, Director. What do you think?"
After Morris Chestnut finished speaking, Eric looked at him with some surprise. It seemed that this guy understood the script to a certain extent.
It is comfortable to work with excellent actors. They not only like to study the characters in the script, but also help the director fill in the gaps.
It can be imagined that the shooting should go smoothly this time.
"Well, that's a very good explanation Morris. Looks like I'll have to add some lines to the script."
(End of this chapter)