‘Inception’ Update: L.A. Shoot Gets Intense With Simulated Rain, Gunfire, Car Chases and a Train Wreck?

No need to elaborate on my obsession with Christopher Nolan and his upcoming sci-fi thriller Inception, which is currently filming. So let’s get straight to the juice. Nolan, Leo DiCaprio & Co. have been filming all over the world for the past two months. Shooting started in London, moved to Tokyo, then moved to Tangier and now the $200 million blockbuster has officially taken over Hollywood by filming some major action sequences in Los Angeles for the past several weeks. Shooting turned intense over this past weekend as production took over five square blocks of downtown L.A., which included down pouring simulated rain, reported shootouts, car chases and a huge train that was brought into the streets for a massive crash scene. Needless to say, this is ridiculously awesome.

In the mind-bending teaser trailer that was released last month, we only got a few menacing shots of Leo looking intense and a gravity-defying fight sequence between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and an unknown character. Production is smack dab in the middle of filming and is scheduled to wrap up in late November. Add that to the shrouded secrecy of the plot, we still know virtually nothing about this film; except for the description of it being a “sci-fi actioner set withing the architecture of the mind” and the teaser tagline, “your mind is…is the scene of the crime.” So, as Warner Bros. is strategically reluctant to reveal information about this movie, it’s fun to get some on-set visuals to commence the interpretive speculation.

Celebrity gossip site JustJared posted some pics of Leo, JGL and Ellen Page on set in L.A. last week, looking very dapper and slick in their duds. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Leo plays a “CEO-type” who has JGL and Page on his “team,” whatever that means. Take a look at Leo and JGL walking together on set, as well as a pic of Leo and Ellen Page (who appears to be drenched because of the rain) taking direction from Nolan:

Now lets get to some on-set descriptions and even some homemade videos of the craziness that occurred on the Inception set. High sprinkler systems have been placed high on nearby buildings to simulate rainfall, and a diesel locomotive has been parked on the streets of downtown that was involved in a major crash sequence. Here’s a description from blogtown.com from onlookers who were able to get a glimpse of what went down:

EXTERIOR SEMI-AUTO ¼ LOAD GUNFIRE BEFORE 9:00 A.M. EXTERIOR AUTO, FULL LOAD GUNFIRE AFTER 9:00 A.M. Simulated car crash with train. Breaking glass. Simulated bullet effects on body and things. Atmospheric smoke effects. Weapons brandished. Driving scenes. Equipment on property, sidewalk, curb lane and across the street. Exterior dialogue. Occasional traffic and pedestrian control. Near hits & misses. Stunt driving. Process trailer. Rain effects. Wetting of the street. Camera car. Condor and crane. Generator. Picture vehicles. Scissor lifts.

That sounds absolutely insane and it was only a description of what happened on set. Can you even imagine how that’s going to look through the lens of an IMAX camera after having the best CGI technology on Earth supplement the effects? Now this is Hollywood. There are movies filmed everyday in L.A., so this should be business as usual for residents and store owners, right? Well if the description above didn’t give you a perspective on the scope of this movie, then an article from the L.A. Times certainly should. It basically elaborates on how massive this shoot is and the buzz it’s creating, even in “jaded L.A.”

Lastly, here’s a few homemade videos from on-lookers who were able to capture some of the action. Check it out.

What Do You Think? Discuss.