The subconscious mind becomes a deadly maze for Leonardo DiCaprio in this wildly inventive psychological thriller from Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight). DiCaprio stars as Cobb, a corporate spy who steals secrets from other people's dreams, but begins to lose his grip when tasked by a business mogul (Ken Watanabe) with implanting a destructive idea in the mind of the heir to an energy empire (Cillian Murphy). Their thoughts are in conflict, producing incredible, ethereal action scenes akin to The Matrix. Cobb is aided by a team of specialists, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao and Ellen Page. However, he is also fighting himself and projections of his wife (Marion Cotillard) that threaten to plunge him into oblivion, and these scenes give the film a true sense of urgency. Emotional intimacy is lacking, with some characters functioning merely as devices to explain an increasingly complicated scenario, but there's no doubt that Nolan (who also directed the equally elliptical Memento) knows how to craft an enthralling brainteaser.

Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.