Inception2010Six countries
Inception
Place Georges-Mulot folds over itself. Three frames down: the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, its colonnade, and the cast at a premiere in July 2010 (Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Leonardo DiCaprio). Photos: Pierre Blaché, CC0; Gloumouth1, CC BY-SA 3.0; Craig Grobler, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Every dream in the film was a real place, and each level down was shot somewhere else. Go under, and kick back up.
Paris 15e · Place Georges-Mulot
Fold the street.
The café was not a set: in 2010 it was a real Italian deli, Da Stuzzi, on Place Georges-Mulot in the 15th arrondissement. The café where Cobb explains how dreams are built is now Il Russo, an Italian restaurant in the 15th. Drag the slider and the square folds over on itself.
Place Georges-Mulot, Paris 15e, July 2018. Celette · CC BY-SA 4.0
Flat. A square in the 15th, as it is.
High-pressure nitrogen, not real explosives, made the explosions in the bistro scene. The production spent a week in Paris.
A quiet residential square. The café from the film is a restaurant now.
Sources
Over the Seine between the 15th and 16th arrondissements
Pont de Bir-Hakeim
Filming moved to France, including the Bir-Hakeim bridge. Ariadne builds her first dream with Cobb on the bridge. The mirrors were added for the film, and Cobb meets Mal here.
The bridge went up between 1903 and 1905. Engineer Louis Biette led the build; Jean-Camille Formigé did the architecture and decoration. It has two levels: people, bikes and cars below, metro line 6 overhead, and a covered promenade beneath the viaduct. For decades it was the Passy Viaduct. It became the Pont de Bir-Hakeim in 1949, after the battle fought in Libya from 27 May to 11 June 1942.
Free and open at all hours. Walk the covered promenade under the metro viaduct; stairs from the middle of the bridge go down to the Île aux Cygnes.
Sources
Rue Marietta Alboni, Paris 16e, at the north end of the bridge
Passy metro station
The dream-training building is the base of the elevated Passy metro stop, on line 6, in the 16th arrondissement. The silver columns in the film are real; the entrance doors look rebuilt or darkened for it.
A working station on line 6. Ride one stop from Bir-Hakeim and you cross the bridge on the top deck.
Sources
Pullman
Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel
18 avenue de Suffren, Paris 15e
A 430-room hotel at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, on the Left Bank a short walk upriver from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim.
Check rooms
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Paris film-location walks
Paris
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Compare toursLevel 1 of 4 · Los Angeles, United States
Go under.
Each dream sits inside the one above it, and each was shot somewhere else. Go down a level and the frame closes in on the next real place.
1. 701 South Spring Street, at Seventh, Los Angeles, September 2013. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 3.0
Level 1: rain in the city, 7th and Spring streets, Los Angeles, United States.
Downtown Los Angeles, Historic Core
7th and Spring streets
The crew spent three weeks shooting an action sequence downtown in the rain.
The train sequence was shot at the intersection of 7th and Spring streets.
The train engine was built on a tractor-trailer chassis.
A downtown crossroads. Stand on the corner at 701 South Spring and look down the middle of the road.
Sources
The kick
Schuyler Heim Bridge
The van sequence on the Schuyler Heim Bridge was filmed in Los Angeles, and the van was shot out of a cannon. It was a vertical-lift bridge, dedicated on 10 January 1948, carrying State Route 47 over the Cerritos Channel to Terminal Island.
The lift bridge has gone. A fixed bridge, finished in 2020, carries the freeway now, and there is nowhere to stop on it. It was decommissioned on 12 October 2015, and a fixed-span replacement was completed in September 2020.
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Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
3400 Warner Boulevard, Burbank · Tours 8:30am–3:30pm
A tour of the Burbank lot, where part of the Japanese fortress interior was built and then destroyed on a soundstage. About three hours, part guided and part on your own.
Book a tourShed 2 · Cardington
Turn the corridor.
The revolving hotel corridor and the elevator shaft, built lying on its side, were made in Shed 2. The corridor turned a full 360 degrees to make gravity seem to change direction.
Carpet down, ceiling up. For now.
Shortstown, south of Bedford
Cardington airship sheds
After two days in Japan, for aerials and some bullet-train shots, the crew moved into the airship hangar at Cardington, which became the home base for the rest of the shoot.
A tilting hotel bar was built in the hangar too. Each shed is 812 feet long and 180 feet high. Shed 2 first stood at RNAS Pulham and was rebuilt at Cardington after 1928. Warner Bros used the sheds from 2005 to 2012.
A working studio with no public entry. Both sheds stand over the fields and can be seen from the roads round Shortstown.
Sources
Tangier, playing Mombasa
Run the souk.
Tangier doubled as Mombasa, where the foot chase was shot. The chase runs through the Old Souk and the alleys around it.
The production spent two weeks in Morocco.
Free to wander at any time. The Grand Socco square is the way into the old town.
Sources
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Tangier medina walks
Tangier
Live marketplace results for guided walks through the Tangier medina, which played Mombasa.
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Compare toursBloomsbury · Leicester Square
Paris, in London.
Wilkins Building, Gower Street, Bloomsbury
University College London: the Flaxman Gallery
On 15 July 2009 Nolan filmed at UCL for a sequence set at the École d’Architecture in Paris. The Flaxman Gallery is where Cobb and Ariadne first meet, introduced by Michael Caine’s character.
The crew also filmed in the main library’s corridors and in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, on the second floor of the Wilkins Building. Wally Pfister metered the star on location at UCL.
Nolan read English at UCL and graduated in 1993. He met Emma Thomas, his wife and producer, on his first day; together they founded Syncopy.
A working university. The front quad off Gower Street is open; the Flaxman Gallery is under the dome of the Wilkins Building. Check UCL’s website before you go inside.
Sources
Leicester Square, West End
Leicester Square
The world premiere was in Leicester Square, London, on 8 July 2010. The film opened in the United States and Canada on 16 July 2010, in 3,792 ordinary cinemas and 195 IMAX ones.
It won four Oscars: cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
A pedestrian square of cinemas, open at all hours. Leicester Square tube station is a minute away.
Sources
The team
The people.
Leonardo DiCaprio at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2010. Siebbi · CC BY 3.0 Leonardo DiCaprioCobb
Elliot Page at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 2009, the year Inception was shot. Josh Jensen from Toronto, Ontario, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0 Elliot PageAriadne
Joseph Gordon-Levitt in March 2009, the year Inception was shot. Caryn Loveless · CC BY 3.0 Joseph Gordon-LevittArthur
Marion Cotillard in July 2009, the year Inception was shot. nicogenin · CC BY-SA 2.0 Marion CotillardMal
Christopher Nolan at WonderCon, April 2010, three months before Inception opened. BrokenSphere · CC BY-SA 3.0 Christopher Nolanwriter and director
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, Elliot Page plays Ariadne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur and Marion Cotillard plays Mal. Christopher Nolan wrote and directed it, and brought the shoot back to the university where he studied.
Sources
Cast and roles of Inception: Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb), Elliot Page (Ariadne), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur), Marion Cotillard (Mal); written and directed by Christopher Nolan.
Nolan studied English at UCL and filmed Inception there on 15 July 2009.
Awake
Spin the top.
The top is on the table.
Where it is now
11 places you can visit, in Paris, London, Bedfordshire, Tangier, Los Angeles and Alberta. The airship sheds are a working studio and Fortress Mountain’s road is closed, so you see both from outside; the bridge where the van fell has been replaced.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free and open at all hours. Walk the covered promenade under the metro viaduct; stairs from the middle of the bridge go down to the Île aux Cygnes.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A quiet residential square. The café from the film is a restaurant now.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working station on line 6. Ride one stop from Bir-Hakeim and you cross the bridge on the top deck.
The walkway under the metro viaduct on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, November 2005. Gloumouth1, http://gloumouth1.free.fr · CC BY-SA 3.0 Over the Seine between the 15th and 16th arrondissements
Pont de Bir-Hakeim
Filming moved to France, including the Bir-Hakeim bridge.
Free and open at all hours. Walk the covered promenade under the metro viaduct; stairs from the middle of the bridge go down to the Île aux Cygnes.
Sources
Place Georges-Mulot, Paris 15e, July 2018. Celette · CC BY-SA 4.0 Place Georges-Mulot, off Rue César Franck, Paris 15e
The café corner, Place Georges-Mulot
The café was not a set: in 2010 it was a real Italian deli, Da Stuzzi, on Place Georges-Mulot in the 15th arrondissement.
A quiet residential square. The café from the film is a restaurant now.
Sources
Passy station on metro line 6, August 2020. Idris2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Rue Marietta Alboni, Paris 16e, at the north end of the bridge
Passy metro station
The dream-training building is the base of the elevated Passy metro stop, on line 6, in the 16th arrondissement.
A working station on line 6. Ride one stop from Bir-Hakeim and you cross the bridge on the top deck.
Sources
Stay
Sleep by the bridge.
A hotel on the Left Bank, a short walk from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim.
Pullman
Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel
18 avenue de Suffren, Paris 15e
A 430-room hotel at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, on the Left Bank a short walk upriver from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim.
Check roomsGo there
A studio lot, Paris on foot, the medina.
The Burbank lot where part of the fortress was built, and guided walks in Paris and Tangier.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
3400 Warner Boulevard, Burbank · Tours 8:30am–3:30pm
A tour of the Burbank lot, where part of the Japanese fortress interior was built and then destroyed on a soundstage. About three hours, part guided and part on your own.
Book a tourViator · Ad / affiliate
Paris film-location walks
Paris
Live marketplace results for film-location walks in Paris. Check each itinerary for the Pont de Bir-Hakeim and the 15th.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursViator · Ad / affiliate
Tangier medina walks
Tangier
Live marketplace results for guided walks through the Tangier medina, which played Mombasa.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Nothing dated yet.
No screening of this film is announced for the coming months.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
The script, the essays, the score.
The shooting script, a book of essays and Hans Zimmer’s score on CD and vinyl.
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Inception: The Shooting Script
Christopher Nolan · Insight Editions
The screenplay as shot, published in 2010.
Find the book
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Inception and Philosophy
Edited by David Kyle Johnson · Wiley
Essays on dreams, reality and the top, published in 2012.
Find the book
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Inception: music from the motion picture
Hans Zimmer · CD, Reprise / WaterTower Music, 2010
The score on CD, released in July 2010.
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Find a copy
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Inception: music from the motion picture
Hans Zimmer · 12-inch vinyl, Reprise / WaterTower Music, 2010
The score on vinyl, released in the US in October 2010.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The architect’s notes
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 12 of 12 Moments
Pont de Bir-Hakeim
Over the Seine between the 15th and 16th arrondissements
The mirrors
Ariadne builds her first dream on the Bir-Hakeim bridge, with mirrors added for the film; Cobb meets Mal there.
The café corner, Place Georges-Mulot
Place Georges-Mulot, off Rue César Franck, Paris 15e
The café
Cobb explains how dreams are built at a pavement café, and the street erupts around him and Ariadne.
Passy metro station
Rue Marietta Alboni, Paris 16e, at the north end of the bridge
The training building
The building where the team trains is the base of the elevated Passy metro stop.
University College London: the Flaxman Gallery
Wilkins Building, Gower Street, Bloomsbury
Cobb meets Ariadne
Cobb and Ariadne first meet in the Flaxman Gallery, which plays a Paris architecture school.
Leicester Square
Leicester Square, West End
The premiere
The world premiere, in Leicester Square.
Cardington airship sheds
Shortstown, south of Bedford
The turning corridor
A hotel corridor built to turn a full 360 degrees, in Shed 2 at Cardington.
The sideways lift shaft
An elevator shaft built lying on its side, in the same shed.
The medina, Tangier
The old town, entered from the Grand Socco
The Mombasa chase
Tangier plays Mombasa for the foot chase through the Old Souk.
7th and Spring streets
Downtown Los Angeles, Historic Core
The train in the street
A train engine built on a lorry chassis comes down the road at 7th and Spring, in the rain.
Schuyler Heim Bridge
Terminal Island Freeway over the Cerritos Channel, Port of Los Angeles
The van
The van goes off the Schuyler Heim Bridge, fired out of a cannon.
Abalone Cove
5970 Palos Verdes Drive South, Rancho Palos Verdes
The fortress by the sea
The Japanese fortress’s exteriors are shot on the coast at Abalone Cove.
Fortress Mountain
Kananaskis Country, about 115 km west of Calgary
The snow fortress
The mountain fortress is shot on Fortress Mountain at the end of the shoot.