
Throughout Christopher Nolan’s, Interstellar and Inception, Nolan uses similar characteristics to shape two totally separate stories. In both films, the protagonists, Cooper in Interstellar and Cobb in Inception have a lot in common like the death of their wife and the loss of their kids. The similarities and differences in these films take the story to a serious level, making the viewers lose track of reality and time. The films have similar twists and turns but as the story unfolds it becomes clear that they are entirely different. Throughout the films Nolan puts a lot of similar characters and ideas into both while telling two completely different stories.

First, in Inception the main character, Cobb, struggles with the death of his wife and stores her memory in his brain and goes into his dreams to visit her. In Interstellar the main character, Cooper, lives on as the only parent of he and his wife’s two children. She passes away from a vicious brain tumor that took her life at a young age. These two similarities in each movie may seem like similarities but in reality, both of them actually shows a huge difference. Cobbs wife, Mal, plays a giant role in Inception while Coopers wife becomes a distant memory as she never even appears on screen. The difference between their wives take each movie to a different spectrum. Cobb lives in the shadow of his wife’s death always worrying when she will barge into his dreams and take away from the serious work he needs to complete. Cooper lives his life for his kids and does everything he can possibly do in order to prolong and improve his kids’ lives and moves on from his wife.

In both of these films, Cooper and Cobb long to see their kids after being away from them for years at a time. Cooper goes on a space mission in order to save the human race and allow people on earth to move to another planet. Cobb has been exiled from the United States of America after his wife committed suicide and wrote a suicide note which blames Cobb for her death. Cooper goes into space which bends time into different barriers, the deeper he goes more time passes on earth than in space so his children are growing up while he stays the same age, when he finally reaches his children, his daughter, Murph, becomes an old lady because he stays out in space so long searching for a new planet. Cobb receives an offer from a business man, Saito, and in return Saito would get all of his charges drop and he would be able to see his children once again. Cobb completes the job and finally returns home to his kids as a normal dad. The difference between these two films in this aspect becomes the fact that Cooper doesn’t get to rekindle with his kids until they are old and sick while Cobb gets another chance at being a father when he finally sees his kids again.

Time is a big factor in both of these films. Cooper and Cobb both bend time in two different ways, Cooper goes into different universes and as he visits each new planet he loses years of time on earth. Cobb goes into deep dream levels which makes time way longer the deeper he goes into a dream. Cooper misses out on the next 89 years of his life because he goes to these new planets, he misses on seeing his children growing up and also looks and acts the age of a 35-year-old man but really is 124 years old. Since Cobb spends his time in the dream world he doesn’t necessarily age the same way Cooper does but rather becomes an old soul in his life. He spends years on years in the deepest dream levels which makes him feel as if he has lived for 50 years longer than he actually has. Cooper misses out on everything in his lifetime but keeps his youth while Cobb becomes an old man inside but gets to live his life as if nothing happened. 

Finally, the ending in both movies both leave viewers a bit lost. Cooper needs to slingshot through a black hole in order to make it home back to his kids but instead saves his partner and heads into the 3rd dimension. As he gets into the 3rd dimension, the film shows him floating around and making contact with his child during her early days, he then has a ship come towards him and the scene cuts to him visiting his daughter in the hospice. The confusing turn of events leave the viewer wondering how he survives and makes it home safely. In Inception, Cobb has a totem that he spins in order to tell him when he is in reality or in a dream. He spins it multiple times throughout the film and it always falls over, letting him know he has come back to reality. The last scene in the film shows Cobb reuniting with his kids at last, then he begins to spin his totem to see if it will drop and prove to him he finally has come back to his real life. As the totem spins, it spins for ten seconds and then the screen cuts black, leaving the viewer confused on if he is in a dream or in his own life again. Both of these films have endings that leave the viewer thinking which becomes a strong similarity for them. All of these similarity and differences are what makes these films great.

Christopher Nolan uses a specific type of producing that relates all of his films in similar ways but yet all of them are so different. In both of these films a lot of similarity goes on but the deeper the film gets the more they change. Cooper and Cobb both bring each movie to a whole with similar feelings and emotions all while telling two completely different stories.  Interstellar and Inception show how two movies with lots of similar characteristics and ideas can be so different at the same time.