INCEPTION Trailer Breakdown and Theories

Here's a breakdown of the Teaser Trailer for Christopher Nolan's new thriller Inception. Most of plot details are being kept tightly under wraps. The only thing we know is that it's being described as a "sci-fi action film set in the architecture of the mind."

So what are they dong in the mind? The teaser reveals that "your mind in the scene of the crime."

So here are some of my theories:

I believe that there is a time limit to how long they can investigate the memories inside of someone's mind.

Here's where the top comes in. The mind is balanced, much like the gyroscopic effect of an upright top in motion. At first, they can explore the mind freely, with the world exhibiting it's normal laws of gravity and orientation.

But after being in the mind for too long, their very presence throws the mind off balance. Like a top losing it's momentum, the world that exists in the mind begins to literally topple over.

Or think of it as a ceiling fan. If the blades are of equal size and weight, the fan will spin balanced. But if you add more weight to just one of the blades, the fan will spin normally at first, then wobble and shake violently. The people investigating are like the added weight to the mind.

Some of the speculation is...

...the film could be about entering peoples minds/dreams. The main character and his team are possibly working to enter the minds of other characters in order to retrieve and plant information.

This is what reports tell us so far of the film's cast and their character's details...

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead, a CEO-type, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose, Public Enemies) is his wife, Ellen Page (Juno) is a young college grad student and DiCaprio’s sidekick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays an associate working for DiCaprio. Ken Watanabe will play the film’s villain, a man who is blackmailing Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. Tom Hardy (Bronson) is a member of DiCaprio’s team. Lukas Hass as Nash, Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins/ Sunshine) and Michael Caine, are also signed on, but no details are known about their characters.

We went frame by frame and chose screen shots that illustrate some of our own theories, and to point out things you may have missed.

So check it out, and let us know what you think!

Warner Bros. Logo:



Closer look reveals that it's made up of a city.



Right off the bat they show us a top spinning.



A bird's eye view of a city:



Non US city obviously because the vehicles are traveling on the left side.



The Mitsui Hotel reveals that this is Tokyo, Japan. Will the film take place motsly in Japan? The hotel has a helicopter pad.



Leonardo DiCaprio inside of a helicopter:



A man being dragged away from the helicopter by two men:



Closer shot reveals it's Lukas Hass as the character Nash. He has a visibly busted bottom lip, from some type of altercation.



Normal glass of water on a normal table. The glass is still, but the water is at a tilt. The room/building/world is tilting...



...now shaking.



Can't really say whether this city scape is part of the world we'll be seeing in the film, or if it's purely for the titles.

The center looks like some sort of Matrix-esque grid. It also just looks like it may be a glass building. But one, the gris is moving. And two, there's no entrance. The clock on the bottom right corner is at 2:45. By how dark it is, I assume in the a.m.



DiCaprio in the city.



As this shot swoops around one building, something opens up behind the titles with a very obvious "swoosh" sound. (Again, could just be titles). It looks like glass panels that are the size of buildings.



Unidentifiable black male falling, caught off guard by the tilting world.



Someone running towards...



I speculate the guy running towards the man falling is more familiar with what is going on. Maybe he is part of the investigating team, and has experienced what is going on. Therefore he's not caught off guard.



In full sprint... The visible room numberis 526, so their on the fifth floor.



The world is tilting even more now.



The man getting up seems to have a gun and holster. Is he a good guy, part of the team or is...





...Joseph Gordon-Levitt(500 Days of Summer/G.I. Joe) as Arthur, who we know is an associate of Dicaprio's? Now I don't know!



Closer shot of Gordon-Levitt. He is serious, no surprise on his face at all. It looks like he means business.



DiCaprio gasping for air in a tub of water with all of his clothes on.



Before this shot, I kind of dismissed the Matrix comparisons. In all of the other shots the world is being turned, and there is no gravity defying kung-fu happening.

But in this shot, Levitt and now a clearly different person(white male) from the shots above are leaping from two opposite points down and up at each other, with completely different gravitational pulls. Levitt from the the wall up at the ceiling, and the other guy from wall and floor.

So what happened to our black male? Where did he go? Well the visible room number is 492. So now Levitt is on on the 4th floor fighting a different guy. If he's going floor by floor kicking ass and taking names... then this will be one damn good action sequence!



Also, there is a cart rolling on the floor, with yet another separate gravitational pull. This changes everything!



When they meet they begin to fall down to the floor.



Minute hand of a clock almost at the hour. Is there some sort of time limit to how long they are able to be in a person's mind?



Now they are flying back up to the ceiling.



This time though, the cart seems to be being thrown up as well.



Up on the ceiling, the other guy doesn't look like Dicaprio. Maybe it's supposed to be his character, but there's a stunt double in his place.





This looks more like Tom Hardy being thrown around the hallway getting all busted up.



Now the room has rotated once again, this time towards one end of the hallway towards the elevator. Levitt is able to hang on, while the other guy falls. Now I'm confused again. They are able to leap towards each other in what seems very anti-gravity. But now this guy can fall?



Now this a great testament to the visual effects going on. This set must be on a gigantic hydraulic gimbal, that is able to rotate the hallway on all axes. There has got to be plenty of wire work as well. So what of what we see is real? And what's CG to make room for the wire work?



DiCaprio asleep, experiencing some sort of distress.



DiCaprio waking up startled. Did he just wake up from a nightmare? Are people in his head?



So point out stuff we may have missed, or offer up some of your own theories below!