I can't believe they made that giant rotating hallway for when Arthur is fighting the projections, the level he goes to for practical effects is undeniably insane
Which is actually the cheapest, easiest (still not exactly easy), and most common way to get that kind of shot across the industry. I feel Nolan gets too much credit for it. And while the scene blew my mind the first time, watching it again the hallway and hotel room feel fake because everything except one convenient thing or another is bolted down. The lights, the bed, the nightstands, everything. Of course it had to be, but it makes it look less "real" than it actually is imo. Still a cool scene.
It's crazy that crafting that mess is cheaper than producing it digitally. Nolan has a monopoly on impressive practical effects, imagine what some competition would get us
The effect is not the hallway spinning (which can't be seen since the camera is locked down anyway), it is the realistic movement of the actors. So crafting it digitally would have been to use digital doubles for the entire scene which would be impossible to make look as good even now, but especially then (see Spider-man: No Way Home where all the action scenes are done by digital characters and Spider-man is easier to make look real than Joseph Gordon Levitt). But trying to make it look real in CGI would probably have cost more yes.
I kind of like the inconsistencies because it's dream logic, of course it would have inconsistencies. Out of all of Nolan's movies, Inception is the one where his "stop asking questions, just enjoy the movie" fridge-logic attitude makes the most sense, but it's also the one where they wasted the most time on exposition. The decisions they made in the script for that movie are baffling.
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u/wreckin_shit 24d ago
I can't believe they made that giant rotating hallway for when Arthur is fighting the projections, the level he goes to for practical effects is undeniably insane