10 Movie Moments That Look Like CGI But Aren't
5. Rotating The Hallway - Inception
Inception was one of those films that came along and seemingly shook the world to its core in the years following its release.
With its dazzling performances from the likes of Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and of course Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception's mind-blowing scope and ambition was so daunting for director Christopher Nolan that he felt he needed the experience of producing the first two Dark Knight films before he could do the film justice.
And the ins and outs of bringing sequences such as the rotating hallway to life is just one example of how far this scope truly reached was.
Gordon-Levitt's character of Arthur is drawn into a fight with Watanabe's Mr. Saito on one of the dream levels, and a car crash in the real world begins to send the room around the two fighters spinning. In one of the most breathtaking moments of modern cinema, Arthur is able to harness the dreamy physics and conjure up an improvised kick, running along the side of the walls and coming to grips with the changed gravity state.
What's even more mind-blowing is the fact that this whole sequence was shot using extensive practical effects rather than glossed over with a CGI brush. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was given thorough training on how to run with wires on and taught the layout of a giant rotating set the effects crew built specifically for the sequence.
That's the Nolan difference.