Sreejith Mullappilly
The spinning totem in Inception, and the ticking watch in Interstellar… Such objects play a key part in Christopher Nolan’s films. The filmmaker weaves these objects into his complex stories and reposes his faith in the audience’s ability to understand them. Even his production banner, Syncopy, has a logo that features a maze without a centre. Today marks the filmmaker’s 55th birthday, and what better time to look at his filmography for objects that leave an indelible impact on the audience.
Penrose Stairs in Inception
A staircase that keeps going up without an end is an illusion, named after the creators of the concept, mathematicians Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose, and serves as a represntation of the endless capabilities of the dream world. Nolan’s Inception uses the object cleverly, as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Arthur talks to Elliot Page’s Ariadne about designing the space for the ultimate goal of dream invasion for Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio). It also adds to the intricate visual design of the film, including moments in the city of Paris folding in on itself like a book.
The Bridge with Mirrors in Inception
As Cobb teaches Ariadne how to distinguish between the dream world and the real universe, they cross a bridge with massive mirrors at opposite sides. The scene is set in Pont de Bir-Hakeim, a beautiful tourist attraction in Paris. Ariadne learns how to manipulate the dream world with real things while ensuring that the respective changes do not trigger a subconscious reaction from Cobb so as to wake him up.
The Tesseract in Interstellar
In Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper gets into the five-dimensional space, which looks like a cube, known as the Tesseract. It allows him to communicate with his daughter Murphy across multiple timelines. The labyrinthine object is a physical manifestation of time itself, and the infinite ways in which it allows for communication (at least in Nolan’s world that is).
The Grapple Gun in The Dark Knight
At the end of Nolan’s epic sequel to Batman Begins, the titular hero (Christian Bale) uses The Grapple Gun on Heath Ledger’s The Joker, as the latter falls to his possible death. The scene paves the way to the psychopathic clown’s final moment of reckoning with Batman. “Madness is like gravity, all it takes is a little push,” says Joker as he swings back and forth on the sling, with Ledger's performance lending some character to the moment. It takes a more righteous turn when Batman finally leaves Joker and the SWAT team swarm the latter.
Jar of Marbles in Oppenheimer
Nolan uses a jar full of marbles as a visual metaphor for the passage of time. Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) fills it with marbles as and when his team mines and refines uranium and plutonium for the Trinity Test. Apart from time, the jar of marbles is also a part of the recurring motif of atoms and particles that Nolan uses to represent Oppenheimer’s vision of another world, a parallel universe.
With inputs by Ashwin Suresh