The viral campaign for Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” continues with a tantalizing new interview, which you can check out below. The interview deals with concepts of REM sleep and human consciousness, as well as lucid dreaming. Who is CPT Darren Bartel? What is Project Somnacin? Bartel’s voice is heard briefly in the video and he is seemingly the representative of a military program that allows one or several people to enter the mind of another person during sleep. Project Somnacin is likely the name of the program. The word “somnacin” is part of the Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous Device, which was identified as the “Inception” ‘dream machine’ and revealed via the Mind Crime game. You can see designs for it here.
Screen Rant goes a step further in examining the video, suggesting that we may see instances of flying in the film and providing this quote as a key mention of Project Somnacin:
“[The military] took it one step further. If one can actively participate in one’s own dreams, what would happen if one could participate in another person’s dreams? The military calls this program ‘Project Somnacin.’ And from what I’ve heard, two or three subjects are able to collectively participate in one dream.”
Considering “The Dark Knight” had what was probably the best and most successful viral campaigns for a blockbuster movie so far, its not surprise they’re doing it again for “Inception.” This video presents itself as a genuine document, and as it turns out, the first two interview subjects are the real deal, while the third is an actress (who just happens to spill details on the film). Also, to note, that’s Nolan himself conducting the interview and if you look closely, there’s a poster for his first film, “Following,” on the wall behind the interview subjects. It tickles us in a good way to see a $160 million blockbuster tackle existential and intellectual themes and with Chris Nolan at the helm, we look forward to rest of the campaign and a brilliant (fingers crossed) film.
I'm glad that there's an original big budget action blockbuster coming out that's tackling these more intellectual themes.
Nolan's films have always had elusive online advertising. I remember trying to navigate the mixed up Memento website to no avail seemingly a long time ago. Still, with the release date looming for Inception, I can't believe its marketing hasn't kicked into high gear a la Iron Man 2. I mean there's no full length trailer yet, and I think the general population hasn't even heard of the film yet (I know the average people I've talked to haven't). I think if this film is gonna make its money back, they will do it how The Matrix (the film Inception resembles most) did and that is building with slow word of mouth…assuming its good of course…but how could it not be?
You can't really compare the marketing of Inception and Iron Man 2.
Iron Man 2 comes out in 2 weeks. Inception comes out in over 2 months time. They are at completely different stages of marketing.