As reported by The Independent, during a Film 4 Summer Screen showing of Inception on August 10, Caine took to the stage to discuss the film, his relationship with director Christopher Nolan, and what Nolan told him about being able to differentiate between reality and dreams in the film.

“When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it and I said to him… ‘when is it the dream and when is it reality?’” said Caine. “[Nolan] said, ‘Well when you’re in the scene it’s reality.’ So get that: if I’m in it, it’s reality. If I’m not in it, it’s a dream.”

The primary scene of debate is the final sequence of the film, after protagonist Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is reunited with his children. He spins his totem on a table – in the rules of the film, if it spins on forever, he’s in a dream, and if it eventually falls, he’s in reality.

There have been many arguments for why the ending was a dream or reality. Some claimed that because the top appears to waver in the final shot of the film, that Cobb isn’t wearing his wedding ring, and that the audience can see his children’s faces, it was reality. Well, because his father-in-law, played by Michael Caine, was also in the scene, perhaps it can now be put to rest that it was, in fact, reality.

Nolan has always preferred that the ending remain somewhat vague and subjective, refusing to answer the question of if the ending is actually a dream or reality. Caine’s speech should be taken with a grain of salt. It is possible what he was told isn’t necessarily the full explanation. Still, his speech at the Film 4 screening was heartfelt, and he praised Nolan for what he has done for his career.

“I regard him as my lucky charm because when I got to an age of about 70 and the world started closing in on me, he came to me with one Batman Begins and he restarted my acting life,” said Caine.

“Because from then on when I thought you get to 70, 75, and you think it’s all over I then made seven of the best movies I was ever in.”

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The Dark Knight hit theaters ten years ago around this time, and Warner Bros. will commemorate the anniversary by giving Batman fans a very special opportunity: The Dark Knight is coming to theaters again starting on August 24th, for a special 70mm IMAX release!

Check out the details of The Dark Knight re-release in the official announcement from Warner Bros. (via Business Wire):

“Ten years ago today, Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking blockbuster “The Dark Knight” was released. Commemorating the 10-year anniversary, Warner Bros. Pictures is bringing the film to four select IMAX® locations for an exclusive, one-week engagement, beginning August 24, 2018.

The announcement was made today by Jeff Goldstein (President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures).

With “The Dark Knight,” Nolan broke new ground—shooting select sequences of the movie with IMAX film cameras—making “The Dark Knight” the first major feature film to utilize IMAX 70mm film. The movie was hailed by both critics and audiences and went on to be the top-grossing release of 2008.

The exclusive limited engagement will offer the public an extremely rare opportunity to see “The Dark Knight.” 

Tickets for the opening day go on sale this Friday, July 20th, with showtimes only announced for August 24th. The theatres will list additional showtimes for subsequent dates closer to release. AMC Universal Citywalk IMAX, Universal City and AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, New York City will be showing the movie.

“The Dark Knight” stars Christian Bale in the title role and Heath Ledger, who won an Oscar for his performance as The Joker. Speaking of the Joker, he said two of my favorite lines in the movie, “Smile, because it confuses people.” and “As you know, madness is like gravity…all it takes is a little push.”

Nolan directed “The Dark Knight” from a screenplay written by himself and Jonathan Nolan. Christopher Nolan produced the film. Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull served as executive producers.

“The Dark Knight” is based upon characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics.

It was with Inception and The Dark Knight Rises that Chris Nolan truly began to explore the full scope and capability of 70MM IMAX footage, with key sequences of The Dark Knight being his first testing ground of the format.

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Glorifying a villain as misunderstood due to a deprived, troubled childhood is beyond inappropriate. It’s reprehensible and diminishes the hero, who should be the one being glorified and romanticized or what the heck is the point of the hero? The hero is not the supporting character, what part of “hero” do some hack writers not get? Romanticizing the villain without the character fully and permanently redeeming him or herself isn’t even good writing in terms of character development nor plot so there is no real point of doing it.  Particularly when they are as twisted and evil as DC’s The Joker. There is no redeeming factor for some of these devils as much as can be said for some real life people out there who are just plain evil. Some do it by choice, for others it’s in their nature.  Whatever the case, they commit terror against other people who have every right to live out their lives, so NO. It isn’t grey. It’s clear cut. They kidnap, rape, torture, and kill people in barbaric ways. He or she chose to do the bidding of evil. They are the bad guys. PERIOD. There should be no shades of grey here. A perfect life is rare, even for the hero. This incessant need to humanize villains is off center. It is the victim and the hero with whom the reader should identify with. Not the character who chose the wrong side of justice. We all have problems which is why we should tolerate and be kind to each other instead of miserable. It is part of being a mature, responsible adult and citizen. Most of us still know to take the loss and still do right by others, but glorifying and romanticizing villains, be it mobsters like those seen in The Godfather, The Sopranos, Scarface, and Goodfellas to comic book villains in the upcoming Warner Brothers feature film Suicide Squad, it’s twisted.

Marvel Comics’ The Punisher (Frank Castle), saw his entire family get murdered. He became a vigilante. He took the law into his own hands because he saw the law as slow, full of loopholes, useless. The law frowns upon vigilantism because of population control. The government doesn’t want everyone going around taking the law into their hands. It doesn’t justify the existence and authority of the police and the judicial system, so it’s seen as a crime in its own right. In real life, President Andrew Jackson supported vigilantism. If it was fine for the Democratic President, then it is fine for fictional soldier and citizen Frank Castle; especially when you have an inept criminal justice system and people whipped into fear through shaming and political correctness.

People refer to the Punisher as one who is glorifying guns, others see him as a hero who is getting rid of some bad guys before they hurt others. His character is reminiscent of Charles Bronson’s character in the Death Wish franchise and Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dirty Harry series.  Punisher is doing Batman‘s job but in a more permanent way that goes against Batman‘s views.  Both characters are known in their respective universes as needing psychiatric attention; Frank Castle is Dick Tracy on steroids. He just happens to be a more believable character than Bruce Wayne is. One whose existence could be possible and probable. He doesn’t have the luxuries Wayne has so he needs to come up with money and he needs guns.  It’s hard to fight evil without a gun when evil has guns. He has to fight fire with fire. The difference is, the gun in Punisher’s hand is used for good; to take out evil. The guns in the bad guys hands are used to carry out crimes, usually heinous ones. Yet both Batman and The Punisher find that more often than not they have to work under the cover of night where there are less witnesses out and about. The night gives them the extra chance to disappear into the darkness without being caught by the local and/or government authorities who despise vigilantes because vigilantes are doing a better job than the ones deputized to do the work in the first place, particularly in literature.

Writers need to stop humanizing and glorifying a depraved individual like The Joker. When the final installment of the Christopher Nolan Batman movie premiered in a theater out west, a lunatic shot up a movie theater and killed a number of people. That sick individual did it for the notoriety. What made him into the monster that he is, isn’t guns or comic books. It was the medication he was on and his warped feelings toward society. Taking gun rights away from all Americans wouldn’t have changed anything. When you get an evil nut like him out on the street, he’ll figure something out to kill a large number of people. From building a homemade bomb to simply locking everyone in the theatre from the outside and setting the building on fire.

The movie theater tragedy re-ignited the gun debate. The irony  is not lost here. The Batman character himself has his origin in gun violence as we have seen it played out time and time again in the comics, on film, and in animated media. As a result of  what happened to his folks, Batman does not carry a gun. He originally did but that was before they concocted his origin; after his origin was explained, he never really carried a gun again and he never killed until recent reboots of the character by DC that is. Bad move on DC because DC just destroyed the most admirable part of the character. The issue here is mental illness, not the gun. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have guns and they have them at home to protect their families. Hundreds of thousands of these guns were not used in a crime today. It’s not the weapon. It’s who has possession of it. Much like Batman’s utility belt, the gun is a piece of technology and like any other piece of technology, it can be used for good or bad. The Punisher uses guns for the side of good; his enemies use them for evil.

The movie theater killer is an insane guy who got dressed up as the equally insane Joker with the only difference being that The Joker is fictional. He committed a heinous act while an audience watched the Batman movie, something like The Joker would do in the comics. Maybe that nut was trying to call out a real life Batman to his real life Joker.  Surprisingly, the Media and the politicians did not attack comic books over this issue.

They chose not to because superhero movies are big box office for Hollywood and Hollywood is politically active. Hollywood gives lots of money and perks to the politicians who do its bidding. There is the crime that really goes unpunished. Comic Books are glorifying guns and evil as much as the rest of the entertainment industry is. It’s where the money is.

To quote the late professional wrestler Randy “Macho Man” Savage: “Where money lies, honor dies”…and usually it’s with a body count.

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