The Dream of a Lifetime

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The Dream of a Lifetime is a 2002 Donald Duck comic written and drawn by Don Rosa. It first appeared in Denmark in Anders And & Co. issue 2002-49 and was later published in the United States in Uncle Scrooge #329 (May 2004). The story has drawn attention for its similarities to Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception, since both involve dreams and stealing secrets from inside a person’s mind.

In February 2023, The Walt Disney Company banned the story from future reprints because it uses Bombie the Zombie, a character created by Carl Barks who is now seen as culturally insensitive.

Plot: Scrooge McDuck falls asleep and enters a dream. The Beagle Boys invade his dream using a device Gyro Gearloose built, hoping to steal the combination to Scrooge’s money bin. Dreams are shown as hard to control, so Donald Duck must enter Scrooge’s dream to prevent him from revealing the combination to the Beagle Boys.

The Inception connection: Some plot points resemble Inception’s idea of entering dreams to steal secrets and then exiting the dream. Rosa notes that Inception was being developed around 2001 before the comic’s 2002 publication. He says he was inspired by a Paris fan who sent him a pitch and even hid the fan’s initials in the comic. He also notes similarities to the film The Cell, which came out around that time.