Tom Hardy’s Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Epic Is Dominating Streaming 16 Years Later

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Published Feb 15, 2026, 4:00 PM EST

Britta DeVore is a Senior Author for Collider who has been known to dabble with Reality News as well.

Have you seen stories about 'Chucky,' 'Scream,' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 'The Boys,' 'Vanderpump Rules,' or any of 'The Real Housewives' franchises? That's probably a Britta DeVore-curated piece of art, and it sounds like you have great taste.

When she isn't sitting behind her laptop bringing readers her hot takes on upcoming projects or keeping the dream alive in the Senior News team, Britta can usually be found outside hiking or inside behind her drum set. She currently plays in two bands, Kid Midnight and Watergate, both based in Brooklyn. An obsessive traveler, Britta loves long road trips to the South West and has a soft spot in her heart for canyons, rivers, and forests.

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Unless you absolutely hate him, everyone has a favorite Christopher Nolan movie. If you’ve been with him from the start of his career, you’re likely partial to the older classics like Following and Memento, with the latter still absolutely blowing our minds more than two decades later. If you’re newer to the director’s advanced slate of genre-crossing features, you’re probably more aligned with the likes of Oppenheimer, Tenet or Dunkirk. From psychological thrillers to dramas and even wartime period pieces, Nolan has audiences covered in just about every way possible.

Just like Martin Scorsese has Robert De Niro and Steven Spielberg has Tom Hanks, Nolan has his own lineup of favorite collaborators to work with over and over again. At the top of the list are Cillian Murphy and Christian Bale, who have both worked with the director on a multitude of his best works. Also up there in the lineup is Tom Hardy, who most recently paired up with the award-winning filmmaker for his WWII drama, Dunkirk. Before that, they joined forces to complete Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy in 2012, when Hardy put on the mask of Bane and reached as low as possible to hold onto his gravely voice in The Dark Knight Rises. But, it’s the pair’s first collaboration that is making a splash on streaming all over again.

Right now, according to FlixPatrol, Hardy and Nolan’s unflinching sci-fi thriller, Inception is topping the global charts on HBO Max, where it is currently taking over the Top 10 list in countries like Georgia, Ukraine, and Tajikistan. Not only does the movie feature a stellar performance from Hardy, but it also boasts an ensemble that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Cane, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, Tom Berenger, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, and more. Keeping audiences guessing long after the credits roll, the movie follows Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), a grifter who uses his power of breaking into the subconscious of his targets to get their most guarded information.

‘Inception’ Was Another Hit for Christopher Nolan

No stranger to magnificent wins at the box office, Inception was yet another moneymaker for Nolan and Warner Bros. Against its massive $160 million production price tag, the film quickly proved to be worth every cent and then some, raking in a staggering $839 million at the box office. Out of his impressive catalog of financial wins, the DiCaprio and Hardy-led sci-fi thriller clocks in at the number three spot, falling just behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Inception is now streaming on HBO Max.