20 Things You Didn't Know About Inception

20. The Team Is Based On A Film Crew

Inception may be a sci-fi heist film on the surface, but it's also, in a sense, about filmmaking. The role that each character plays resembles those involved in a film's production. Christopher Nolan admitted so in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the director, who controls how the story plays out in the dreams, much like how the director calls the shots on a film set.

Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the producer, who manages and researches the missions. He provides the resources necessary to carry out the mission, or make the movie.

Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) is the studio executive, the man who hires Cobb and Arthur for the mission (or movie) in the first place, and he's heavily involved to make sure it goes the way he planned (studio interference).

Ariadne (Ellen Page) is the production designer, who designs the dreams, or the sets.

Eames (Tom Hardy) is the actor. He plays the part of Peter (Tom Berenger) in the first level of Fischer's dream in order to get info about the safe.

Finally, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) is the audience. He's merely a spectator to the dreams that Cobb and co. create around him, until he gets involved anyway.