The zero gravity fight scene in Inception was not CGI, but rather an entire rotating set!

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie Inception was the fight sequence between actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the thugs he is trying to defeat. In that scene, gravity seizes to exist while the combatants continue to attempt to defeat the other.

At first glance one would assume the scene was simply done with CGI, yet Nolan refused to let it be done this way! Director Christopher Nolan’s right hand man Wally Pfister described the scene as the most difficult to film in the movie. 

To create the environment, Nolan decided to build massive, rotating sets that twisted and turned 360 degrees! 500 crewmembers helped with the schematics and it took over three weeks to shoot just the one scene. 

Built inside of a World War I airship hanger outside of London, the hallway setting rotated both horizontally and vertically while the actors were strapped to steel trolleys. 

Levitt had to intensely train for several weeks before to ensure he landed in just the right place, because even the slightest error could have caused him to land in a spot that wouldn’t be there only moments later! 

(Source)