Case File Five: Cuttings

On Friday 21 August, Warner Bros launched Inception’s official website.

Consisting of nothing more than a spinning top, it was a frustrating tease, and no amount of desperate, anxious clicking-while-standing-upside-drinking-coffee-off-a-teaspoon would reveal hidden portals in the site’s make-up.

Then, a teaser trailer premiered in front of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Just 58 seconds in length, it boasted a lot of pretty visuals, a thumping soundtrack, and absolutely zero information about what the film was actually, y’know, about.

It looked something like this:

Fast forward to 15 December, and suddenly the film’s website came to life.

A game entitled Mind Crime appeared, in which players were tasked with creating a maze for other users to play in. As a reward, players were given Inception’s first one sheet.

It looked like this.

Spot something odd? Yes, pretty sharpish people put two and two together, and realised that this atmospheric poster bore a strange resemblance to the Dark Knight one sheet featuring the Joker.

Was it just another big tease courtesy of Nolan and co? Hard to tell with this lot. Still, buzz was gathering momentum, and a week later a new trailer for the film premiered in front of Sherlock Holmes.

It revealed a bit more:

Read our Inception review.

Next: In Closing