“Your bill is the scene of the crime.”
Was Christopher Nolan inspired by Disney’s Uncle Scrooge comic?
The interwebz is buzzing over the fact that this 26 page comic has some “eerie” similarities. Basically, the Beagle Boys have crept up on Uncle Scrooge while he is fast asleep in his mansion. During his deep slumber the Beagle Boys use this machine to enter the dreams of Scrooge. The machine is generally used by psychiatrists to enter the dreams of their patients. Anywho, they need to go into Scrooge’s brain to get him to tell them the combination to his safe.
Donald then straps on the metal helmet connected to the machine in order to warn Scrooge about what the Beagle Boys plan to do, “…See, any question they ask you will cause you to think of the answer! And since the dream is what you’re thinking, you you can’t avoid answering a question! Aloud!”
“The Dream of a Lifetime” was published back in 2004 by Boom! Studios.
Others are saying that INCEPTION is more like 1984’s DREAMSCAPE starring Denis Quaid. Quick plot summary: “A man who can enter and manipulate people’s dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but finds a conspiracy is hiding the true reason behind the research.”
In March, Collider asked Nolan where the idea came from. This is what he said:
“Well, I stole it. It’s a little risky putting yourself out there again stealing ideas, yes. It really came about as a result of…I don’t remember specifically where the idea came from except that once I started exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space-entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody’s subconscious. What would that be used and abused for? That was the jumping off point. And clearly being able to extract information from somebody’s brain would be the obvious use of that because obviously any other system where it’s computers or physical media whatever, things that exist outside the mind, they can all be stolen…up until this point or up until this movie I should say, the idea that you could actually steal something from somebody’s head was impossible. So that, to me, seemed a fascinating abuse or misuse of that kind of technology.
I’d say it’s a strange coincidence. To judge for yourself, read the entire Uncle Scrooge comic here. I cannot provide you with DREAMSCAPE. Hit up Netflix.