Cobb’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) specialty is a new form of corporate espionage termed “extraction.” It involves stealing people’s secrets from deep within their subconscious while they dream. Cobb’s expertise has made him a fugitive and unable to return home to his children. That is until he is offered a job by Saito (Ken Watanabe), a powerful businessman with the money and authority to clear Cobb’s name. The only thing is that Saito doesn’t want a routine extraction, instead he is asking for quite the opposite. He wants Cobb to plant an idea in someone’s head (an “inception”). Saito would like for Robert Fisher, Jr. (Cillian Murphy), the heir of a multibillion dollar oil company, to decide to dismantle his father’s empire.

In order to pull off this complex scheme, Cobb assembles a team consisting of his long-time extraction partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt), a newly recruited dream architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an expert forger, Eames (Tom Hardy), and an expert chemist, Yusuf (Dileep Rao). The team determines the plan will work best if they exploit Robert’s strained relationship with his father. They also decide that the optimal time to plant the idea in Robert’s mind is while he is on a 10-hr flight to Los Angeles and it will require them to enter a dream within a dream within a dream (three layers). This is where the chemist comes in. He creates a powerful sedative that will allow them to enter the different dream levels. To give the team plenty of time to do the inception, Saito buys off the first class flight attendant and the entire first class cabin of the airplane. The team gets to work immediately after Cobb slips Robert the sedative. Time begins ticking away and soon the “kicks” will be activated to wake them all out of the dream. Not only will Cobb and the rest of the team have to fight off Robert’s subconscious defenses to pull this off, but Cobb’s own secrets threaten to derail this carefully crafted dream scheme.

Ok, yes, it definitely lives up to the hype. This movie is really, really good. During the first 15-20 minutes though I was getting a little nervous. I was worried that I was going to be the only person in America that didn’t like this movie and initially I couldn’t help but be reminded of Shutter Island. I hung in there though and the deeper you get into the dream levels, the more you get sucked in. Christopher Nolan cleverly uses Ariadne to explain the whole extraction/inception process to the audience and he did a great job sticking to the “rules” involved. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get when movies don’t stay true to their own rules that they create (uh hum….Avatar). You’ll probably end up arguing with your movie going partner about the last scene of the movie….at least I did. It definitely creates quite the conversation. Finally, a great summer movie! What are you doing reading this review? Go see it right now.