Let’s begin with first principles: Are you dreaming now? It’s a question that has vexed thinkers as diverse as René Descartes and the Wachowski brothers. Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher from the third century ., famously dreamed he was a butterfly and wondered on waking whether he might in fact be a butterfly dreaming he was a philosopher.

Writer/director Christopher Nolan’s latest film concerns itself with similar esoterica, but with an added chaotic ripple. If the dreaming (or dreamed of) butterfly flaps its wings, can it cause a hurricane in someone else’s dreams?

The butterfly in this scenario is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He shares a name (Dom Cobb) and a profession (thief) with a character from Nolan’s first feature, 1998’s Following. But while the first Cobb was a break-and-enter
artist, this one deals in psychological pilfering.

Specifically, he has the power to construct and share dreams with others.

He’ll place a safe or a strongbox in the reverie, which his quarry will naturally fill with his or her innermost thoughts, helpfully stamped CONFIDENTIAL. Then he cracks the safe.

We first see Cobb trying this out on Mr. Saito, （英语影评）a Japanese industrialist expertly played by Ken Watanabe. He fails, but Saito is sufficiently impressed to ask him to do a very special job. Rather than steal someone’s thoughts, Saito wants Cobb to implant in his chief rival (Cillian Murphy) the germ of an idea — to break up his company.

“True inspiration is impossible to fake,” protests Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb’s right-hand man. But DiCaprio holds up a hand and remarks — for the first of many, many times — that he’s done this sort of thing before. He’s just never told anyone about it, and the look on his face says it’s not something he’s keen to discuss. Saito hires him on the spot.

Cobb assembles his dream team. Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is the chemist, able to concoct the necessary sedative to keep their prey asleep. Eames (Tom Hardy) comes along to help with the heavy lifting, and Saito to keep an eye on things. Most enigmatic of the group, however, is Ellen Page as Ariadne, taking her name from the Greek goddess of the labyrinth.