Stunts › Sequences › Inception (2010) ›
Rotating-corridor hotel fight
Arthur's zero-gravity fight with the projection security through the rotating hotel corridor. The corridor was built as a full-rotating practical set — a 100-foot tube on hydraulic rams that spun on its long axis at variable speed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt performed the close-quarters work himself with a stunt double for the over-the-head wire transitions; the rig's safety officer monitored the tilt rate against the choreography in real time.
Credits
Stunt team
Coordinator
- Tom Struthers
Coordinated Nolan's entire on-set practical-effects rig including the rotating-corridor build.
Rigging
Equipment + technique
wire-flying
Hidden in the corridor walls; the wires rotated with the set.
Mounts
- Hydraulic rotating set tube — 100 ft long, full-axis spin
Safety
Officer + bulletins
Bulletins observed
Stunt videos
1 video from this production
Videos categorised as stunt content from the parent production. Useful for "anatomy of the chase" / "fight breakdown" coverage that frequently overlaps multiple sequences in the same film.
Rigging glossary
9 rigs used in this sequence
Each entry explains how the rig works mechanically and the safety bulletin that governs it. Click through for the full glossary detail.
descender
High-fall airbag
The standard catch for free-falls above roughly 25 feet. A pneumatic bag whose deflation curve absorbs vertical energy progressively rather than abruptly.
descender
Decelerator
The hydraulic ratchet rig used to arrest a high-fall in the last 6 to 10 feet, replacing or augmenting an airbag for daylight exterior work where the bag would be visible to camera.
descender
Pole-cat (telescoping ejector pole)
A pneumatically-actuated telescoping pole used to launch a performer or stunt dummy through a window, off a rooftop, or into a fall in a controllable arc.
wire
Wire-flying rig
The harness-and-pulley system that lifts a performer through prolonged airborne action — the workhorse rig of the post-Crouching Tiger martial-arts era.
References
Further reading
- Inception — building the rotating corridorfxguidearticle