Random Movie Trivia - Inception

Here is the next edition in our weekly Random Movie Trivia post.  Enjoy:

Inception

• If you take the first letters of the main characters' names - Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur, Mal and Saito - they spell "Dreams". If you add Peter, Ariadne and Yusuf, the whole makes "Dreams Pay", which is what they do for a mind thief.
• When Cobb gave Ariadne the puzzle test, Ariadne's final solution was a diagram of King Minos' Labyrinth. Ariadne is the name of King Minos' daughter in the same mythology.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt performed all but one of his own stunts during the fight scene in the spinning hallway.
• Dom Cobb's main objective is to get Home. His name, Dom, literally means 'home' in most Slavic languages.
• Kate Winslet was approached for the role of Mal, but turned it down, citing that she couldn't see herself as the character.
• The running time of the movie INCEPTION in DVD is exactly 8888 seconds.
• The slow, gloomy, blaring trombones in the main theme of the film score are actually based on an extremely slowed down version of the fast, high pitched trumpets in the beginning of the Édith Piaf song "Non, je ne regrette rien," which is used as the music that the characters hear when they know they are about to be woken up.
• In spite of the films extensive surreal effects sequences, the majority special effects throughout the film, such as the Penrose stairs, rotating hallway, mountain avalanche, and zero gravity sequences, were created through practical methods, not through the use of computer generated imagery.
• The role of Arthur was originally meant for Heath Ledger before his untimely death.  James Franco was in talks with Christopher Nolan to play Arthur, but was ultimately unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.
• Despite prominent billing, Michael Caine only gets three minutes of screentime.
• There is a series of numbers that keep appearing, on the front of the train the number is 3502, the taxi number is 2305 and the hotel room number is 5302.
• The Hollywood Reporter reported that Brad Pitt and Will Smith were separately offered to play the role of Cobb, but both actors passed on the role.
• Evan Rachel Wood was Christopher Nolan's first choice to play Ariadne, but she turned it down. Before Ellen Page was offered and accepted the role, Nolan considered casting Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Emma Roberts, Jessy Schram, Taylor Swift and Carey Mulligan.
• In Greek mythology, Ariadne helps Theseus to kill the minotaur by providing him with a sacred sword and a string to find the way and out of his trap - a labyrinth.
• In an effort to combat confusion, television broadcasts in Japan include text in the upper-left corner of the screen to remind viewers which level of the dream a specific scene takes place in.
• Not counting flashbacks, Cobb's wedding ring only appears in scenes where he is dreaming. Many times in the film, the scene cuts away just as Cobb's left hand comes into view.  In the end when Cobb uses his spinning top the answer (Real vs. Dream) is foreshadowed when he clears Customs earlier and you briefly see his left hand as he hands over his passport.

"I could see Brad being okay in this thing, but Will?  Nope (no racist)."