# Inland Empire (film)
**Inland Empire** is a 2006 experimental drama film written, directed, and edited by [David Lynch](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-lynch), starring [Laura Dern](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-dern) as an actress whose identity merges with the character she plays in a film haunted by its own murderous past. It was Lynch's tenth feature film and, by most accounts, his last; no later theatrical feature followed it before his death in 2025.[1](https://mediacommons.org/imr/content/without-cheese-there-wouldn%E2%80%99t-be-inland-empire) • [2](https://apnews.com/article/9107f3ce0b4dd49dbe3dc2ae3c09ed59)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Premiered in competition at Venice on 6 September 2006; New York opening 6 December 2006, Los Angeles 15 December 2006[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) • [4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) |
| Format | Shot on a Sony DSR-PD150 digital camcorder operated by Lynch himself, his first feature in digital video; 179 minutes[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) • [5](https://parallax-view.org/interview-david-lynch-on-inland-empire-i-the-idea/) • [4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) |
| Production span | About three years of shooting, not continuously, from fourteen handwritten pages written for a neighbor[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) |
| Budget | About $3 million, against $4.4 million taken[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) |
| Principal cast | Laura Dern (Nikki Grace/Susan Blue), Justin Theroux (Devon Berk/Billy Side), Jeremy Irons (Kingsley Stewart), Karolina Gruszka (Lost Girl)[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) |
| Countries and languages | Poland, France, United States; Polish and English[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) |
| Reception | 72% on Rotten Tomatoes from 118 reviews; Metascore 73 from 25 critics[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inland_empire) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/inland-empire/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
The film follows Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), a Hollywood actress cast in *On High in Blue Tomorrows*, a remake of an unfinished Polish production abandoned after its two lead actors were murdered.[8](https://www.alberta.ca/search-movie-ratings.aspx?fid=3516) • [9](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cinema-of-disorientation/disappeared-where-its-real-hard-to-disappear-three-ways-of-getting-lost-in-inland-empire/4E40C9E7A8D0C35A3A356C16BC4A9734) As shooting proceeds, her perception of reality wavers and her life begins to merge with the fictional world of the story, in which her character plays an adulterous wife.[8](https://www.alberta.ca/search-movie-ratings.aspx?fid=3516) • [10](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/inland-empire) Lynch's own description, repeated in press notes, interviews, and the film's tagline, was that it was the story of "a woman in trouble."[11](https://www.filmcomment.com/i-cant-explain-david-lynch-inland-empire-review/)
The supporting cast includes [Justin Theroux](https://www.edgepedia.org/justin-theroux) as her co-star Devon Berk, Jeremy Irons as the director Kingsley Stewart, Karolina Gruszka as the [Lost Girl](https://www.edgepedia.org/lost-girl), and [Harry Dean Stanton](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-dean-stanton), Grace Zabriskie, and Peter J. Lucas in further roles.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/inland-empire/)
## Production
**An improvised shoot.** The project began when Lynch ran into Laura Dern on the street near his house and learned she had moved into the neighborhood; he started with fourteen handwritten pages written as a favor for a neighbor.[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) Scenes were developed over roughly three years, not continuously, with material connected to earlier web projects, and there was no completed script: Lynch explained that Dern did not know what was going to happen, and neither did he.[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) • [12](https://screenanarchy.com/2007/01/inland-empirethe-san-rafael-film-center-qa-with-david-lynch.html) Lynch operated a Sony DSR-PD150 camcorder himself and cut the film on [Final Cut Pro](https://www.edgepedia.org/final-cut-pro) using a map he drew.[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) The lower costs and a small, committed crew let him follow incoming ideas and change things on the spot.[1](https://mediacommons.org/imr/content/without-cheese-there-wouldn%E2%80%99t-be-inland-empire)
**Financing and credits.** The film was produced by [Mary Sweeney](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-sweeney) and Lynch for StudioCanal, CamerImage, and Asymmetrical Productions, with cinematography credited to Odd Geir Saether and production design to [Christina Wilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/christina-wilson); it was distributed by Absurda.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE) It was the last of Lynch's projects financed by [StudioCanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/studiocanal), and its fragmentation and low financial returns ended that company's interest in his work.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/david-lynch-indie-empire) Lynch bypassed the studio system to distribute the film independently, saying that if you can get your film into a theater, that is all you need.[5](https://parallax-view.org/interview-david-lynch-on-inland-empire-i-the-idea/) For the Oscar campaign he sat on Hollywood Boulevard next to a live cow named Georgia.[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/)
## Style and interpretation
The film runs nearly three hours and is built from fragmented scenes that begin and end in the middle of a moment, with dialogue that is often disconnected; almost none of its scenes are resolved in isolation, and it operates through proto-narratives that hint at stories never fully materializing.[14](https://openscholar.uga.edu/record/27138/files/CardosodeAraujo_uga_0077E_16308.pdf) The Harvard Film Archive called it Lynch's most experimental film in the nearly 30 years since *Eraserhead*, facilitated by amateur digital-video technology.[15](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663bd2d7ed321.pdf) Recurring elements include scenes set in Poland, a sitcom apartment inhabited by people wearing rabbit heads, and mysterious appearances and disappearances.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/inland-empire)
Scholarly readings have treated the film's resistance to a single coherent interpretation as part of its design. Dominic Lash, a scholar of film philosophy, argues in *The Cinema of Disorientation* that the film is best regarded neither as a puzzle to be solved nor as a bewildering experience beyond rational approach; the ways it both responds to and resists inquiry contribute to its aesthetic and narrative texture, and each reading strategy leaves out aspects that drastically affect interpretation.[16](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/40460/chapter-abstract/347566944) Ebrahim Barzegar, writing in *CINEJ Cinema Journal*, reads the embedded narratives of *Inland Empire* and *Mulholland Drive* as reflections of the primary narrative, constructing abysmal, labyrinthine worlds.[17](https://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cinej/article/view/150) Critics have also compared its structure to the associative logic of hyperlinks and the web.[18](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v4i0.17298)
## Reception
The film received generally favorable reviews: 72 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 118 reviews and a Metascore of 73 from 25 critics, with an audience score of 75 percent.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inland_empire) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/inland-empire/) Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it a long but thoroughly absorbing three hours.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inland_empire) Richard Brody in *The New Yorker* praised Dern's virtuoso performance while judging the assembled motifs to devolve into self-parody.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/inland-empire) Dern's performance drew widespread praise, including a five-star notice from *Empire* calling it an unbelievable performance.[19](https://ifi.ie/2023/05/review-round-up-406-days-full-time-inland-empire/)
Commercially it was Lynch's least successful film to date, earning only 11 percent of *Mulholland Drive*'s US theatrical gross.[20](https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94809611/Darren_Fisher_Thesis.pdf) After a long period in which the film was hard to see in good quality, a newly remastered edition returned it to theaters in 2022.[21](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/inland-empire-david-lynch-restoration-2022) In Alberta it was rated 14A for coarse language, violence, sexual content, and nudity, classified on May 15, 2007.[8](https://www.alberta.ca/search-movie-ratings.aspx?fid=3516)
## Place in Lynch's career
*Inland Empire* was Lynch's final theatrical feature. He directed no further film afterward, with *Twin Peaks: The Return* (2017) as his sole major later project.[2](https://apnews.com/article/9107f3ce0b4dd49dbe3dc2ae3c09ed59) Commentators have noted that no major American director ended a career on a film that was more completely his own.[3](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/) The critic Adam Nayman observes that the film is ultimately more affirmative than *Mulholland Drive*: where Betty/Diane is inexorably lost, Nikki and the Lost Girl are found, or find each other, at which point the film locates its own poetic equilibrium.[11](https://www.filmcomment.com/i-cant-explain-david-lynch-inland-empire-review/)
## References
1. [Without Cheese, There Wouldn't Be an Inland Empire, In Media Res](https://mediacommons.org/imr/content/without-cheese-there-wouldn%E2%80%99t-be-inland-empire)
2. [David Lynch, visionary filmmaker behind 'Twin Peaks' and 'Mulholland Drive,' dies at 78, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/9107f3ce0b4dd49dbe3dc2ae3c09ed59)
3. [Inland Empire: Making Of, Lynchverse](https://lynchverse.com/films/inland-empire/making-of/)
4. [Inland Empire (2006), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/63888-INLAND-EMPIRE)
5. [Interview: David Lynch on 'Inland Empire' I – The Idea, Parallax View](https://parallax-view.org/interview-david-lynch-on-inland-empire-i-the-idea/)
6. [Inland Empire, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inland_empire)
7. [Inland Empire Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/inland-empire/)
8. [Inland Empire (2006) film rating, Alberta.ca](https://www.alberta.ca/search-movie-ratings.aspx?fid=3516)
9. [Three Ways of Getting Lost in INLAND EMPIRE, The Cinema of Disorientation, Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cinema-of-disorientation/disappeared-where-its-real-hard-to-disappear-three-ways-of-getting-lost-in-inland-empire/4E40C9E7A8D0C35A3A356C16BC4A9734)
10. [Inland Empire, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/inland-empire)
11. [I Can't Explain, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/i-cant-explain-david-lynch-inland-empire-review/)
12. [INLAND EMPIRE—The San Rafael Film Center Q&A With David Lynch, Screen Anarchy](https://screenanarchy.com/2007/01/inland-empirethe-san-rafael-film-center-qa-with-david-lynch.html)
13. [David Lynch's indie empire, Sight and Sound](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/david-lynch-indie-empire)
14. [Cardoso de Araujo thesis, University of Georgia](https://openscholar.uga.edu/record/27138/files/CardosodeAraujo_uga_0077E_16308.pdf)
15. [Harvard Film Archive program notes](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/print/663bd2d7ed321.pdf)
16. [Achieving Coherence: Diegesis and Death in Holy Motors, The Cinema of Disorientation, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/40460/chapter-abstract/347566944)
17. [Labyrinths and Illusions in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, CINEJ Cinema Journal](https://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cinej/article/view/150)
18. [The post-perspectival: screens and time in David Lynch's Inland Empire](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v4i0.17298)
19. [Review Round-Up: Inland Empire 4K, Irish Film Institute](https://ifi.ie/2023/05/review-round-up-406-days-full-time-inland-empire/)
20. [Darren Fisher thesis, Bond University](https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/94809611/Darren_Fisher_Thesis.pdf)
21. [No More Blue Tomorrows: David Lynch's Inland Empire Returns to Theaters, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/inland-empire-david-lynch-restoration-2022)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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