Christopher Nolan Movies: Ranking The Rug-Pull Moments
7. The Wobbly Spinning Top (Inception)
Inception is the most original concept of Nolan's résumé, stemming from an idea conceived ten years prior to its release. Somewhere between finishing Insomnia and landing the Batman gig, Nolan wrote an 80-page treatment about a group of characters that specialized in infiltrating dreams. That germ of an idea stayed largely the same through the production process but, in an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan admitted that the scale of his story grew:
"Its intimate and emotional, but I realised I had this concept that lent itself to an epic-scale movie. Im really happy that it worked that way because, having been involved in the Batman films and The Prestige, which had a fair amount of cinematic sleights of hand, and with all the experience wed gained, we were ready to make it.
That, alongside the growing cast of film stars, marked Inception as Nolan's first - and riskiest - original blockbuster. In an attempt to make a film both populist and composite, Nolan's efforts at a climactic rug-pull - the ambiguous wobble of the spinning top - was lost in a cacophony of internet speculation and demands for Inception 2 that detracted from the rest of the film. The scene works as a brilliant talking point for post-cinema discussion, but ultimately divides audience in way that is not conducive to the film. If one perceives the final shot of the spinning top as proof that Cobb is still dreaming, then Nolan has committed the cardinal '...but it was all a dream' sin. Taking the wobble as proof he's awake and the twist becomes redundant, garnering for a cheap last-minute shock that devalues the journey of the protagonist and the emotional conclusion the audiences reaches when he is reunited with his children. It is a rug-pull that works effectively on a first viewing but only serves to frustrate and sow needless doubt on a subsequent re-watch.
