1. Inception Took Its Central Premise From A Donald Duck Cartoon
Inception pretty much blew everybody away back in 2010, most of whom had wandered into the theatre purely to check what all those
braaaahm horn sounds were about. And
Inception's massive success mainly came down to the fact that it's one hell of an action movie, was directed with visual mastery by
The Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan, and that most people left the theatre nodding in agreement at its "brilliant intelligence." Whether or not you think that
Inception is either genuinely complex or needlessly complicated, we can all probably agree that the idea, at least - set around professional "dream stealers" - is an original one. Except, no, it's not, 'cause it was the basis for the idea of a (brace yourself)
Donald Duck cartoon published back in 2002. Seriously. Though Christopher Nolan will likely never admit that he ever read "The Dream of a Lifetime" - a decade-old Donald Dark yarn written and drawn by a man named Don Rosa (who would?) - the 25-page comic strip does share some seriously bizarre comparisons with
Inception, in the sense that, um, they share nearly everything with regards to their plots. Yes: both
Inception and "The Dream of a Lifetime" involve characters infiltrating the dreams of others in an attempt to steal a combination. In
Inception, it's Leonardo DiCaprio and his motley crew of thieves on a paid mission. In "Lifetime," it's a bunch of thieves navigating Scrooge McDuck's dreams for the same purpose - to gain his combination, though Donald Duck takes the DiCaprio role, and jumps between dream layers to save his uncle's fortune. That's not all: Both stories cling to the idea of "totems," and that "kicks" (falling when sleeping) can be used to wake people up on cue. The characters in the Donald Duck comic, too, can "imagine" items like better guns (like in
Inception), and there's even a part in the relatively short comic that mirrors the relationship between Leonardo DiCaprio's haunted obsession with his wife, Mal. There's even mention that, should Scrooge wake up before Donald gets out, he'll be trapped forever in a kind of "limbo," resulting in certain craziness (uh-huh, like in
Inception). So, all in all, we need to thank Don Rosa for
Inception, who dreamt up one of the coolest blockbuster ideas ever and wasted it on a Disney comic that nobody read.
Which iconic movies that stole their plots have we missed? Let us know in the comments section below.