10 More Movie Special Effects Nobody Believed

Even accepting Christopher Nolan's penchant for doing things "the hard way" and in-camera, many understandably assumed that the stunning, gravity-defying hotel hallway fight sequence was executed with either extensive wire work or VFX assistance.

But in actual fact, Nolan had a hotel hallway set built which was capable of rotating 360 degrees, all while the camera was attached in perfect lockstep, giving the impression that gravity was shifting in the hallway as the dream the fight occurs within loses stability.

Nolan was inspired by a similar technique employed by Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey, and though the fight scene was originally planned to take place on just 40 feet of hallway, as it grew more elaborate the hallway's length was increased to a whopping 100 feet.

The astonishing end result, which continues to wow audiences 15 years after Inception's release, remains one of the most impressive technical achievements in Nolan's storied career of pushing the boundaries of practical, in-camera filmmaking.