10 Best Science Fiction Movies (Not Set In Space)

Inception is the Christopher Nolan film that finally paired up his sharp cinematography, complex plotting, big budget stunt work and eye for the surreal, dropping Leonardo DiCaprio deep into dreamland.

Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is a professional thief who delves into the subconscious of his marks, infiltrating the levels of their mind and stealing secrets, thoughts and ideas - primarily as a form of corporate espionage.

Recruiting a team of Nolan favourites - Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt - he leaps at the opportunity to have his criminal record expunged by implanting an idea into the subconscious of a specially selected target (Cillian Murphy). But all is not so simple as they are stalked through various dreamscapes by the projection of Cobb's dead wife (Marion Cotillard).

Part spy thriller, part heist and part filmmaking analogy, Inception gathers a million gossamer threads and weaves a dense blanket of plot, spread out across many personal and psychological layers.

The ending is what everyone remembers best, but the film is packed with mind-blowing set pieces and jaw-dropping feats of practical film production that have yet to be matched in science fiction cinema - or anywhere else, for that matter.