Why Apple TV+'s 'Dark Matter' could be the perfect sequel to Christopher Nolan's 'Inception'
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: 'Inception' does not have a sequel despite being Christopher Nolan's most eligible film for further exploration.
Released in 2010, the science fiction action film features Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a professional thief who steals information by slipping into the subconscious of his targets.
Fans have long awaited for Christopher Nolan to follow Cobb and his team's future dream adventures in a sequel.
Sadly, Nolan has expressed no interest in revisiting 'Inception' and is instead focusing on new projects rather than making sequels to his previous films.
While 'Inception 2' is unlikely to happen, Apple TV+ has offered us an intriguing substitute. 'Dark Matter', a new sci-fi series could be the spiritual successor of 'Inception'.
Why 'Inception' fans must watch Apple TV+'s 'Dark Matter'
'Dark Matter', starring Joel Edgerton, has elements that fans of 'Inception' will love. It resembles ‘Inception’ in more ways than one could have imagined.
Though the Apple TV+'s series isn't about dream manipulation, its characters use mind-altering drugs to create their own realities.
In 'Inception', characters enter dream states with strong sedatives, while in 'Dark Matter', they use a rare drug that shuts off their prefrontal cortex.
The PASIV device in 'Inception' lets users design dreamscapes, while the box in 'Dark Matter' allows characters to switch between realities and create a desired one.
Both 'Inception' and 'Dark Matter' feature a protagonist misusing technology to escape reality and cling to a lost version of their wife, leading to dangerous consequences.
While Cobb's story in 'Inception' is more about redemption, Jason Dessen's journey in 'Dark Matter' is driven by similar themes of past choices that he regrets.
Blake Crouch drew inspiration from 'Inception'
Well, the resemblance between Blake Crouch's series and Christopher Nolan's film isn't accidental.
The Apple TV+'s series is based on Crouch's novel of the same name, released in 2016. Crouch has previously admitted that 'Inception' influenced him while writing 'Dark Matter'.
In an interview with Paul Semel, Crouch said, "The films of Christopher Nolan, especially Inception, were always in the back of my mind as I was writing. That level of world-building and pure mind-bending imagination is something I aspire to."
Despite this, Crouch explored his own philosophical and quantum physics ideas, giving 'Dark Matter' its unique flavor.
He said in the same interview, "It was actually three separate ideas that I had been mulling over for the last ten years. At different times, I’d tried to develop each of these ideas on their own, but always ran out of gas. A couple years ago, I realized these three separate ideas were actually all part of the same big concept, and when I figured out how they fit together, I had Dark Matter."
He also mentioned that physicists like Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Neil deGrasse Tyson were his inspiration while writing 'Dark Matter'.
How to stream 'Dark Matter'?
'Dark Matter' features Joel Edgerton, Alice Braga, Jennifer Connelly, and Jimmi Simpson in pivotal roles. The series made its debut on May 8, 2024 on Apple TV+.
The streaming platform is following a weekly release pattern for 'Dark Matter'. The mind-bending sci-fi series is available on Apple TV+ with the last two episodes pending release.
'Dark Matter' trailer