Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 244: Box Office Boom
In the second dream, Cobb deliberately reminded Fisher to make him realize that he was in a dream.

Arthur and Ariadne also entered the hotel and began to set up bombs.

This is the second level awakening method, awakening through explosion.

In a triple dream, if you want to wake up at the same time, you need a signal.

Although Yousef was heavily sedated, he still retained inner ear function and would wake up if they suffered a fall.

And in order to ensure that they could wake up from the triple dreams at the same time, they used music as a signal.

The moment the music ended, the explosion occurred and everyone fell and woke up.

Under Cobb's leadership, Fisher got rid of the pursuers and returned to the hotel room, where he saw other team members.

It's just that he thought it was a subconscious way of protecting himself, so he wasn't on guard at all.

When his godfather, Uncle Peter, entered the room, Cobb immediately asked about the details of the dream kidnapping case on the previous level.

Fisher was able to recall the details of his dreams, but of course he didn't think it was a dream, he thought it was the real world.

So under the guidance of Cobb's words, he immediately became suspicious of his uncle who was arrested and tortured first.

He thought he might be testing him, trying to get the will in his father's safe to seize his company.

"That's a really clever way of speaking! Oh my God!"

Mirren exclaimed in a low voice, his mind racing, and he understood Cobb and the others' intentions.

First, through the first level of dream, let Eames pretend to be Peter and deliberately tell Fisher that there is a will in the safe. He then tricks Fisher into asking for the password to make him suspicious.

Then, in the second dream, this suspicion is revealed, amplifying Fisher's doubts about Peter. In this way, in the dream, Peter will tell Fisher the answer he least wants to hear: in fact, everything is Peter's conspiracy.

But in fact, Peter is just the incarnation of Fisher's subconscious mind, and all his answers are based on Fisher's own subconscious thoughts.

It’s not over yet.

Cobb then told Fisher that he could sneak into Peter's dream to get the truth.

In this way, in order to understand why his godfather wants to seize his family business, Fisher will cooperate obediently, and he will even sniff the tranquilizer without Cobb continuing to test him.

So they entered Fisher's third dream as they wished.

Arthur stayed on the second floor to deal with the aftermath and had a conflict with Fisher's subconscious armed men.

At the same time, in the first dream, the van they were driving was hit by subconscious armed men and rolled over on the spot.

This caused the hotel corridor on the second floor to roll as well.

"So cool! So cool!" The audience exclaimed, watching Arthur gracefully deal with one enemy after another in the rolling corridor and tie up several people. They thought this idea was really interesting.

On the other side, in the third level of the dream, they came to a heavily guarded casino bank.

Here, Fisher also joined their team, because in his consciousness, they were infiltrating his uncle Peter's dream, not his own.

So he actively cooperated with everything Cobb asked.

But he was still a little surprised when he saw those masks and guns.

"So we're going to rob the casino?"

"Of course not. What we want to rob is the bank behind the casino." Cobb pointed his finger into the distance, and Fisher immediately saw the huge vault in the distance.

"Robbery! Don't move!"

They didn't have time to slowly plan how to rob the bank. Now the time for awakening was not far away, and they had to enter the vault as soon as possible to complete the implantation of Fisher's consciousness.

So they resorted to the most violent means.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The gunshots hit the crystal chandelier on the ceiling, and soon the whole place was plunged into darkness.

The vault that was originally on the first floor started to rise and entered the lighthouse.

"Won't we be killed by them if we do this?" Fisher couldn't understand what Cobb and the others were doing.

"Don't worry, Mr. Fisher, just follow us. We are just robbers, not people who invade consciousness."

That’s right, anything that happens in a dream is normal. As long as the host doesn’t think they are invading the dream, the dream’s defenses won’t be that scary.

What's more, this was originally the dream scene set up by Cobb and his team.

Cobb and his team knew very well that there was a quick way to reach Fisher's true heart.

So they climbed the stairs and had a fierce gun battle with the guards on the way.

During this process, Saito was injured again and his consciousness gradually became blurred.

After they finally entered the lighthouse, Cobb and Ariadne held guns to cover Fisher, the injured Saito and Eames fended off the enemy on the other side, and only Fisher walked into the vault alone, looking at the locked door not far away.

"Hurry up, Mr. Fisher, go open the code door, there is everything you want to know inside."

However, at this critical moment, an accident happened.

Mel reappears.

"Cobb, no, she's not real!" Ariadne persuaded him to shoot.

But Cobb was stunned for two seconds before answering: "How do you know?"

"She is just a reflection of your consciousness, Fisher, Fisher is the real one!"

While Cobb was hesitating, Mel raised his gun and shot Fisher.

Cobb fired reflexively, knocking Mel to the ground.

"FXXK!" Mirren couldn't help but curse, feeling that everything was ruined by the male protagonist.

"Is there still a chance?" Judy's heart was now hanging in the air, worried that the action in the movie would fail.

"I don't know, but there should be a solution." Mirren held her hand and comforted her.

At this moment, the other audience members were also sweating, thinking that this situation was terrible.

"If it were you, would you shoot?" Jessica suddenly asked Tang De in the private room.

Tang De answered without hesitation: "Of course not, I can't bear it."

"Yeah... but then Cobb won't be able to see his child... but Tang, you're so smart, you must have a solution."

"As for the solution...of course."

On the screen, Cobb and Ariadne ran to Fisher.

Eames also ran over and started to save him with a pacemaker, but Cobb looked very frustrated.

"Sorry guys, I screwed up."

He seemed to be lost in self-blame, and the light in his eyes disappeared.

Just when everyone was feeling depressed, Ariadne said, "There is actually another way. Let's go down with Fisher."

"Not enough time." Eames knew she was talking about entering the Land and bringing Fisher up.

"There's plenty of time down there," Ariadne explained.

The passage of time in the Lost Realm is many times longer than that in the previous levels of dreams, even as long as several decades.

"We can find him, and when Arthur's music starts, we'll revive him with the defibrillator, and then we'll get him back with the fall down below."

"We can give it a try." Eames thought this idea was feasible and more reliable than directly blowing up the password door.

Seeing this, Cobb also agreed to Ariadne's plan.

So the two of them entered the next level of dreams together, the Lost Realm.

This level is different, it is everyone's common dream, here they can see the various buildings created by Corbu and Meier.

They found Mel among the city's high-ranking officials.

But after meeting Cobb, Mel played with a fruit knife and said sarcastically: "You don't have any confusion or doubt at all. Are you so sure that the world you live in is real?"

"The police are chasing you everywhere, just like your subconscious mind is chasing you. Admit it, you are dreaming."

"So choose, stay here, and stay with me."

She held Cobb's face up and the two looked straight at each other.

"You know what I have to do. I have to go back to my children because you abandoned them and abandoned me."

"You're wrong." Mel retorted subconsciously.

"I am not wrong."

"You are confused. My children are here!" She turned her head and looked to the side. Two children were playing in the room, but she could not see their faces.

"Yeah, but I'll come back to reality and meet them, Mel."

"You always think you know what's true. But what do you believe? What do you feel?"

Hearing this, Cobb's face became solemn, and his mouth kept moving unconsciously, as if something secret in his heart had been exposed.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to face his own heart.

"Guilt," he said. "I feel guilty, Mel. It reminds me of the truth."

Mel looked a little dazed: "What truth?"

"The truth is, you're questioning the real world because of me."

"Did you implant this idea in my brain?" Mel immediately understood what Cobb meant.

"What!" Ariadne on the side was stunned.

"Yes, I know it's possible to implant an idea because I've tried it on her."

At this critical moment, Cobb finally told the truth.

It turns out that after he and his wife Mel have been in the Lost Land for many years, Mel can no longer distinguish between reality and dreams and is unwilling to leave her dreams. So Cobb sneaks into Mel's dream, finds the cabin where Mel hides her secrets, and implants an idea into her consciousness.

This thought is that [this world is not real].

After this idea came into his mind, Mel realized the unreality of the dream, and committed suicide with Cobb and returned to reality.

However, this idea spread like a virus and soon affected Mel's judgment of reality, leading her to commit suicide again.

"Oh my God!" Mirren, Judy, and other audiences were shocked by the truth.

"Oh my god, this was clearly intended to get her out of the dream, but it ended up causing her death!"

"Why doesn't the hero enter the dream again to re-implant consciousness?"

Many viewers held their heads and shook their heads in disbelief. They did not expect that such a bombshell answer would be revealed near the end of the movie.

But in the movie, Cobb's team doesn't have much time because the awakening music has already started.

In order to save Fisher, Cobb stayed in the Lost Land, intending to find Saito who fell into the Lost Land due to death.

After killing Mel, who was holding a knife and wanted to hurt Cobb, Ariadne jumped off the building with Fisher, who was kidnapped by Mel.

at the same time……

In the first dream, Yusuf drove a van under a bridge and was about to fall into the river.

In the second dream, Arthur tied several people in an elevator and lit a bomb, and the elevator was about to fall.

In the third dream, Fisher was revived. He walked into the coded door, behind which was his father's dying bed.

At his father's bedside, he finally heard his father's last words.

"I'm disappointed that you want to be another me."

After hearing these words, Fisher seemed to suddenly understand why his father had always looked down on him.

Seeing his expression, Eames, who was not far away, knew that the thought implantation was successful, and the next step was for everyone to safely escape from the dream.

But Cobb and Saito are still lost in the world, and their lives and deaths are uncertain. If they can't come back, they will probably die in their dreams and become vegetables.

In Lost, Cobb wakes up on the beach.

"This is the scene at the beginning of the movie!" Mirren clenched his fists excitedly. He knew Cobb could do it and that Donald would definitely not mess it up.

Judy nodded and put the popcorn in her arms on the ground. She didn't eat much and there was still half a bucket left.

Cobb was brought to Saito by the black-clad bodyguards, but Saito was already very old at this time and was not far from the end of his life.

He looked at Cobb and said, "I have been waiting for someone. He came from a dream, and I can no longer remember that dream. Cobb? Impossible, we are about the same age, and now I am so old."

"My heart is full of regret." Cobb continued.

"Waiting to die alone." The two people said this and looked at each other.

"I came back to see you to remind you of something you once knew." Cobb seemed to have just woken up from a dream and recalled some memories. As he spoke, he looked at the small spinning top that had been spinning in front of Saito's desk.

“This world isn’t real.”

When he said this, both of them had already remembered everything.

With tears in his eyes, Saito's old hand slowly reached for the gun on the table.

The next moment, Cobb woke up from his chair. He looked around and listened to the flight attendant talking to him, with some confusion and disbelief in his eyes.

In the same cabin, Fisher had already woken up.

The companions who were traveling with them were also looking at Cobb, Arthur, Ariadne, Yusuf, Eames, and Saito.

They finally completed their mission and returned to the real world.

Saito quickly picked up his phone and made a call. Cobb knew that was his pass to go home.

After getting off the plane, Cobb had a smooth journey with his ID. After saying goodbye to his companions one by one with his eyes, he finally returned to his home and saw his two children.

Only this time, they finally turned around and let Cobb see their faces.

He picked up the spinning top and spun it on the table, then went to hug his children.

The camera slowly moves toward the gyroscope, watching it spin little by little, seemingly with no intention of stopping.

Until a few seconds later, the gyroscope suddenly became unstable, the screen went black, and the movie ended!

"So is that really the real world?" Mirren held his head, looking confused.

Judy frowned. "That shouldn't be the case. Isn't it spinning all the time?"

"No, it's the real world, the spinning top, it finally shook!"

"I didn't see it." Judy shook her head, disagreeing with Mirren's statement.

This made Mirren even more upset: "Didn't he succeed in the end? How could this be a dream? Absolutely not!"

"But that top, it really is spinning!" Judy was not to be outdone.

Besides the two of them, there were other people discussing whether Cobb and his team had succeeded.

Everyone is full of curiosity about the ending, and even this trend of discussion has spread since the end of the movie. Many viewers probably couldn't sleep well at night, and kept thinking about whether Cobb was in reality or a dream.

Jessica asked Tang De the same question.

But Tang De shrugged, put his arm around her waist and said, "I won't tell you, but I will tell our baby."

He pointed at Jessica's bulging belly, lowered his head, put his mouth on her belly and gave the answer.

"So what is it! Baby, tell me." Jessica lowered her head and asked the baby in her belly.

The baby moved in her belly, and that was Jessica's answer.
-
A day later, various reports about "Inception" came out.

But compared to the plot doubts that have yet to ferment, everyone is more concerned about how much the box office will be on the first day.

You have to know that the advertisements of this movie have been all over the world. If there is not a high enough number on the first day, then Tang De’s first large-scale commercial film will be declared a failure.

This will be a severe blow to his career.

Unfortunately, even though a small number of people were still pessimistic about the film, "Inception" still caught the attention of all audiences with its novel, interesting and suspenseful story, and achieved a first-day box office that was absolutely jaw-dropping.

The North American box office on the first day was 3500 million US dollars!
The first-day box office in other regions around the world was 7000 million US dollars!
In just one day, "Inception" broke the $1 million mark!
This is an incredible box office figure.

Even Norton Eye and other investors were shocked by this figure.

In fact, Tang De also did not expect that the movie would be so popular.

All I can say is that it came at a good time. Several blockbusters this year, such as "I Am Legend" will not be released until December, and "Transformers" will not be released until July.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will also not be released until July.

The only two blockbusters released this year are "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Spider-Man 3".

But they all finished showing before Inception was released, so this is the only blockbuster available at the moment.

This created a siphon effect. Although the June schedule was not as good as the July schedule, "Inception" was too eye-catching, causing those movies released during the same period to suddenly be eclipsed and a lot of box office revenue was directly sucked away.

Especially, "Inception" is a movie that the whole family can watch together.

You should know that in North America, family movies are the most popular, and many families will bring their children to watch movies together.

So when these factors were combined, the North American box office suddenly exploded and achieved results far beyond expectations.

So other investment companies of "Inception" immediately called Tang De and expressed their intention to increase the budget and place advertisements in order to attract all the audience.

However, some self-proclaimed professional media outlets have been sarcastic about the film.

“The overall quality of Inception is acceptable. Although the acting is not outstanding, it is good enough to keep people in the movie. However, I think there are some flaws in the story logic. In order to create the environment of Inception, a false background was deliberately created, which I think is putting the cart before the horse. So I think the box office peak of this movie has passed. Starting from the second day, its box office curve will return to normal, or even fall rapidly.”

Some media people may have received public relations fees from other film companies and began to speak negatively about "Inception".

Apparently, the upcoming movies were frightened after seeing the money-making momentum of Inception.

I can't wait to open the fire hydrant and use the faucet to cool down this hot box office trend.

But as the screening ended the next day, the box office results came out again, giving those pessimists another slap in the face.

"North American box office is 3600 million US dollars! Box office in other regions of the world is 8000 million US dollars!"

No one expected that the box office trend would continue to rise!
The next day, the movie’s box office exceeded 2 million US dollars!
This scared the professional forecasting agencies, and they quickly issued a statement saying that the box office estimate of "Inception" has reached 10 billion US dollars!
If nothing goes wrong, this will become a new monument in the film industry!
At the same time, Tang De’s publicity methods were once again put into effect, and those scenes of affirmation from directors and actors became the most talked-about clips among the audience.

"Look, Spielberg says it's great, what are you waiting for!"

"Morgan Freeman also thinks this movie is great, so I must give it a try."

“Wow, Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie both recommended it, this movie must be great!”

The audience had never seen this kind of promotional method before and found it very fresh, so with the endorsement of these celebrities, they went to the cinema to watch the movies.

In just one week, the North American box office of "Inception" has reached 1 million US dollars.

The box office in other parts of the world reached 2.5 million US dollars.

"There is no doubt, no surprise, that this movie is going to make a billion dollars."

"At only 27 years old, Tang De will join the billion-dollar club!"

"After Titanic, Jurassic, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter, another billion-dollar movie is about to be born!"

"Incredible! This is another Hollywood miracle!"

This is not the era of billion-dollar movie boom 10 years later. At this time, only a few directors can enjoy this honor.

Spielberg, Cameron, and Peter Jackson are all very famous and occupy a very important position in Hollywood.

They are no longer just rule-followers; they have participated in establishing the rules.

But now, Tang De has finally opened the door to the highest hall of Hollywood with this "Inception".

(End of this chapter)