A vacation website is imagining what several US cities would look like in Inception’s dreamscape. Released in 2010, Inception is the sixth film written and directed by Christopher Nolan and his biggest box office grosser outside of The Dark Knight trilogy. Like many of Nolan’s films, Inception stars an ensemble cast including several of his frequent collaborators, including Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, and Michael Caine. Leonardo DiCaprio and Elliot Page star as the film’s leads, Cobb and Ariadne.
Nolan had explored cerebral themes through nonlinear narratives before in his first major film Memento, but he reached unparalleled levels of ambition in Inception. In the film, DiCaprio’s Cobb acts as a professional thief who infiltrates the subconscious of his targets and steals information from their minds. Offered a chance to erase his criminal past, Cobb is tasked with implanting a foreign idea into a wealthy businessman's subconscious, but he must first circumvent multiple layers of dreams. Page stars as Cobb’s architect, someone who is recruited to construct various dreamscapes, which are described as mazes in the film.
Now, in honor of the film’s 11th anniversary, the travel website Next Vacay has released a series of mind-bending artwork imagining what US cityscapes would look like as part of the Inception dreamscape. The cities included are Los Angeles, San Antonio, Portland, Charlotte, New York City, Chicago, Miami, St. Louis, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Honolulu. Check out the Inception-ized cities below:
Since its release over a decade ago, Nolan's film has remained in the collective consciousness, whether it’s because of the debate over its lofty themes or Inception's ambiguous ending, which cuts to black before Cobb's top stops spinning. Nolan is known for having an eye for intriguing shots, and the top spinning is now one of the most memorable scenes from the past decade. Inception is the visionary auteur at his peak, and this artwork is the latest reminder of the film's prominent standing in modern cinema and pop culture in general.
Off the heels of Nolan’s most recent film Tenet, which was not as well-received as his past blockbusters, many are looking back on his previous films like Inception with a newfound appreciation. Instead of shared dreaming, Tenet attempts to push the envelope even further with the concept of inversion, which becomes nearly incomprehensible at times. On the other hand, Inception is an incredibly rare film that perfectly juggles heavy intellectual themes with blockbuster-level spectacle.
Source: Next Vacay