# You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling A line delivered by Tom Hardy to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception, where Hardy's character trades a pistol for a grenade launcher mid-shootout. Facebook page Moviegasm uploaded a blank three-panel template on November 12th, 2016, and by September 2020 r/dankmemes was running the format to joke about escalating a weak solution into an absurdly extreme one. ## Origin The scene comes from Christopher Nolan's Inception, released on July 16th, 2010, in which Hardy's forger Eames mocks Gordon-Levitt's Arthur for firing a standard rifle at pursuers inside a dream, then unveils a grenade launcher with the line, "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling"[1]. A clip of the exchange circulates widely on YouTube and anchors every version of the meme[1]. The earliest documented meme use is a blank, captionable three-panel template posted by the Facebook page Moviegasm on November 12th, 2016, which collected roughly 1,400 likes and 92 shares over the following four years[2]. KYM notes that earlier uses may exist but are not catalogued[6]. - **Platform:** Film (Inception) / Facebook (meme template) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2010 ## Overview Posts built from the line almost always use the same three-panel sequence from the Inception scene: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur raising a rifle, Tom Hardy's Eames shaking his head, and Hardy producing a grenade launcher while delivering the title line[1]. Captioners label the rifle with a modest or reasonable option, then label the grenade launcher with an escalated, disproportionate alternative, so the comedy sits in the gap between the two choices[2]. Variations stretch across fandoms and topics. A September 2020 r/dankmemes entry from user carnage-boy applied the format to petty behaviour, and a Facebook page devoted to The Lord of the Rings swapped the labels for characters from Tolkien's trilogy later that same month[3][4]. The template is flexible enough to carry school jokes, political one-upping, and film crossovers, which is why it kept circulating on Reddit and Instagram throughout 2020[5]. ## How to Use A typical post keeps the three stills in order and object-labels the two weapons. The rifle panel gets a tame or default option, and the grenade launcher panel gets a wildly larger or more aggressive answer to the same problem. Common conventions include lining the labels up by topic (schoolwork vs. dropping out, a small revenge vs. an enormous one) so readers can read the escalation at a glance. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling? An object-labelling image macro built from a three-panel still of Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception, used to joke about swapping a modest option for a wildly extreme one[6]. ### Where did You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling come from? The line is spoken by Tom Hardy's character Eames in Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception, right before he pulls out a grenade launcher during a shootout[1]. ### What does You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling mean? In meme form it means a weak or small-scale answer is not enough, and a bigger, more extreme answer should be substituted for comic effect[3]. ### How do you use You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling? People label the rifle panel with a modest option and the grenade launcher panel with a wildly larger alternative, as in the September 2020 r/dankmemes entry by carnage-boy[3]. ### Is You Mustn't Be Afraid To Dream A Little Bigger Darling still popular? The template saw its heaviest documented run in September and October 2020 on r/dankmemes, Facebook, and Instagram, and it is cited by KYM as a classic Inception image macro[6][7]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A_xzurN-Lc]() 2. [https://www.facebook.com/1734696310125787/posts/1772086853053399]() 3. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/ixszce/and_they_say_im_a_bad_influence/]() 4. [https://www.facebook.com/553741584760427/posts/2083896295078274]() 5. [https://www.instagram.com/p/CFknkV6gvRk/]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-mustnt-be-afraid-to-dream-a-little-bigger-darling]() 7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/dankmemes/comments/j6q0ya/the_easiest_way_out/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/you-mustnt-be-afraid-to-dream-a-little-bigger-darling Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library