Christopher Nolan’s new film, Inception, is set to open nationwide on July 16th.  Nolan is the man who brought us Batman as he was truly meant to be, and Memento, which has become the word now used for the infliction (short-term memory loss) suffered by Leonard Shelby (played by Guy Pearce).

Nolan’s story-telling prowess is exceptional. His pacing, eye for light and dark, and visual composition are reasons why he was given $160 million to do Inception.

In the New York Times article Nolan explains the film—as much as he is able to articulate complex notions of dreams and manipulation thereof.

In the article, Nolan discusses the elusiveness of making a film that becomes such a massive hit as his Dark Knight became: “…could be paralyzing if you chose to take credit for the success rather than understanding that when you catch the zeitgeist in that way, that’s a very unique thing.” And, he added, “not possible to explain.”

Perhaps this time around, his film can create a movement/mood/be at the forefront of the zeitgeist.

If we are not happy with where we are, if we want to see a change in our circumstance, if we want particular wars to end and use the billions spent overseas on domestic issues, perhaps we don’t have to wait for a nattily-dressed Leonardo DiCaprio to assist us in shaping our dreams. Perhaps we can do it for ourselves.

Nolan says: “As soon as you’re talking about dreams, the potential of the human mind is infinite. It has to feel like you could go absolutely anywhere by the end of the film. And it has to work on a massive scale.”

Later in the article: The crucial breakthrough to completing his “Inception” script was considering what could happen if multiple people could share the same dream. “Once you remove the privacy,” Mr. Nolan said, “you’ve created an infinite number of alternative universes in which people can meaningfully interact, with validity, with weight, with dramatic consequences.”