Inception is a 2010 science fiction action about a man skilled in the art of invading the dreams of others to steal their secrets, a process known as Extraction. To redeem himself, Dom Cobb must complete a very difficult and dangerous mission in which he plants an idea in another person's mind: Inception.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Cobb

  • Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.
  • There's something you should know about me. About inception.
  • You're asking me for inception. I do hope you understand the gravity of that request.
  • Downward is the only way forward.
  • Never recreate places from your memories, always imagine new places. Only use details. A street lamp or a phone booth. Never entire areas. Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way of losing your grasp on what's real and what is a dream.
  • She locked away a secret, deep inside herself: a truth that she once knew...but chose to forget.
  • An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. And even the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.
  • Must have blown you off. That is unless her phone number really is only six digits. Funny way to make friends, someone stealing your wallet like that.
  • Strange weather. Isn't it?
  • Yeah. Well, I don't like trains.

Ariadne

  • Cobb! Wake me up! Wake me up!!
  • Wait, whose subconscious are we going into, exactly?
  • Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?

Mal

  • You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. Yet it doesn't matter, because we'll be together.

Arthur

  • Paradox. [drops a projection down a stairway]
  • How do I drop you without gravity?
  • Quick, give me a kiss.
  • Yeah, it was worth the shot.
  • There is nothing quite like it.

Eames

  • You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. [hefts a huge grenade launcher]
  • Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur, thank you!

Saito

  • You remind me of someone a man I met in a half-remembered dream. A man possessed of some radical notions.

Yusuf

  • [laughs] ..."Did you see that?" [everyone is asleep]
  • That many dreams within dreams is too unstable.
  • Oh, ha, bloody ha!

Robert Fischer

  • [handing his abductors his wallet; calmly] There's five hundred dollars in there. And the wallet's worth more than that. The least you could do is let me off at my stop.
  • [after narrowly escaping an avalanche] Couldn't someone have dreamt up a goddamn beach?!

Dialogue

[The first scene in limbo, Saito's dining room]
Saito: Are you here to kill me? [examines the totem top] I know what this is. I have seen one before, many many years ago. It belonged to a man I met in a half-remembered dream. A man possessed of some radical notion.
Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite?...A bacteria?...A virus?...An intestinal worm?
Arthur: Uh....What Mr. Cobb is trying to say...
Cobb: An Idea...Resilient. Highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold in the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks. Right in there somewhere.
Saito: For someone like you to steal?
Arthur: Yes. In the dream state, your conscious defenses are lowered and it makes your thoughts vulnerable to theft. It's called extraction
Cobb: Mr. Saito, we can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor.
Saito: How can you do that?
Cobb: Because I am the most skilled extractor. I know how to search your mind and find your secrets, I know the tricks and I can teach them to you so that even when you're asleep, your defense is never down. Look, if you want my help, you're gonna have to be completely open with me. I need to know my way around your thoughts better than your wife, better than your therapist, better than anyone. If this is a dream, and you have a safe full of secrets, I need to know what's in that safe. In order for this all to work, you need to completely let me in.
[Saito stands up from table]
Saito: Enjoy your evening, Gentlemen, as I consider your proposal.
[Saito walks away]
Arthur: He knows. Saito's playing with us.
Cobb: It doesn't matter. I can get it.
[Environment begins to shake]
Arthur: What's going on up there?
[Cobb is extracting an idea from Saito's mind]
Saito: [from behind Cobb] Turn around.
Mal: Put the gun down, Dom. [points her handgun at Arthur, her hostage] Please.
[Cobb slides his pistol across the table]
Saito: Now the envelope, Mr. Cobb.
Cobb: Did she tell you? Or have you known all along?
Saito: That you are here to steal from me? Or that we are actually asleep? I want to know the name of your employer.
[Mal holds her gun to Arthur's head]
Cobb: Ah, no use threatening him in a dream, right, Mal?
Mal: That depends on what you're threatening. Killing him will just wake him up. But pain – [suddenly shoots Arthur in the knee] Pain is in the mind. And judging by the decor, we're in your mind, aren't we, Arthur?
[Cobb suddenly shoots Arthur in the head, waking him]
[Cobb is speaking with Saito in his apartment]
Cobb: [holding Saito's gun in his lap] You came prepared.
Saito: Not even my head of security knows about this apartment. How did you find out?
Cobb: Very difficult for a man in your position to keep a love nest like this secret, particularly when there's a married woman involved.
Saito: She would never –
Cobb: Yet, here we are...With a dilemma
Arthur: [Arthur see crowd getting closer].....They're getting closer.
Saito: You got what you came for.
Cobb: Well, that's not true. You left out a key piece of information didn't you? You held something back because you knew what we were up to...Question is, why'd you let us in at all?
Saito: An Audition
Cobb: An Audition for what?
Saito: Doesn't matter. You failed
Cobb: We extracted every bit of information you had in there.
Saito: But your deception was obvious.
Saito: So, leave me and go.
Cobb: You don't seem to understand, Mr. Saito. The corporation that hired us, they won't accept failure. We won't last two days.
Arthur: [nervous] Cobb.
Cobb: Looks like I'm going to have to do this a little more simply. [throws Saito onto the floor] Tell us what you know! Tell us what you know now!
Saito: [touching the carpet and laughing] I've always hated this carpet. Stained and frayed in such distinctive ways. But very definitely made of wool. Right now... I'm lying on polyester. Which means, I'm not lying on my carpet in my apartment. You have lived up to your reputation, Mr. Cobb. I'm still dreaming.
Saito: [after Arthur suddenly disappears, having woken] A dream within a dream. I'm impressed. But in my dream, you play by my rules.
Nash: Ah, yes, but you see, Mr. Saito...
Cobb: We're not in your dream.
Nash: We're in mine.
[Saito's subconscious projections suddenly break into the room and attack Nash]
Arthur: What the hell was all that?
Cobb: I have it under control.
Arthur: I'd hate to see you out of control.
Arthur: Our rides on the roof.
Cobb: Right.
Arthur: Hey are you okay
Cobb: Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Why?
Arthur: Well, down in the dream, Mal showing up
Cobb: Look, I'm uh, sorry about your leg. Won't happen again.
Arthur: It's getting worse, isn't it?
Cobb: One apology's all you're getting alright Arthur?...Where's Nash?
Arthur: He hasn't shown. You wanna wait?
Cobb: No. We were supposed to deliver Saito's expansion plans to Cobol Engineering two hours ago. By now, they know we failed. It's time we disappear.
[Both walk up to rooftop]
Arthur: Where you gonna go?
Cobb: Buenos Aires. I can lie low there, maybe sniff out a job when things quiet down. You?
Arthur: Stateside.
Cobb: Send my regards.
[Saito is sitting in a helicopter with Nash, Cobb's architect]
Saito: He sold you out. Thought to come to me and bargain for his life. So I offer you the satisfaction. [a gun is offered to Cobb]
Cobb: That's not the way I deal with things. [Nash is dragged from the helicopter] What will you do with him?
Saito: Nothing. But I can't speak for Cobol engineering.
Cobb: What do you want from us?
Saito: Inception. Is it possible?
Arthur: Of course not.
Saito: If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead?
Arthur: Okay, here's me planting an idea in your head: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants." What are you thinking about?
Saito: Elephants.
Arthur: Right. But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you. The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake.
Cobb: That's not true.
Saito: [to Cobb] Can you do it?
Cobb: Are you offering me a choice? Because I can find my own way to square things with Cobol.
Saito: Then you do have a choice.
Cobb: Then I choose to leave, sir.
Saito: Tell the crew where you want to go....[Cobb and Arthur begin to leave] Hey Mr. Cobb. How would you like to go home? To America, to your children?
Cobb: You can't fix that. No one can.
Saito: Just like inception?
Arthur: Cobb, come on.
Cobb: How complex is the idea?
Saito: Simple enough.
Cobb: No idea is simple when you need to plant it in somebody else's mind.
Saito: My main competitor is an old man in poor health. His son will soon inherit control of the corporation. I need him to decide to break up his father's empire.
Arthur: Cobb, we should walk away from this
Cobb: Hold on...[regarding Saito's job] If I were to do this, if I even could do it, I'd need a guarantee. How do I know you can deliver?
Saito: You don't. But I can. So, do you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone? [Cobb says nothing] Assemble your team, Mr. Cobb. And choose your people more wisely.
[Cobb meets in Paris with his father-in-law, Miles]
Cobb: You never did like your office, did you?
Miles: No space to think in that broom cupboard...Is it safe for you to be here?
Cobb: Extradition between France and the United States is a bureaucratic nightmare, you know that.
Miles: I think they might find a way to make it work in your case.
Cobb: [holding a bag] Look, I, uh, brought these for you to give to the kids when you get a chance.
Miles: It'll take more than the occasional stuffed animal to convince those children they still have a father.
Cobb: I'm just doing what I know. I'm doing what you taught me.
Miles: I never taught you to be a thief.
Cobb: No, you taught me to navigate people's minds. But after what happened there weren't a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.
Miles: ...What you doing here Dom?
Cobb: I think I found a way home. It's a job for some very, very powerful people. People who I believe can fix my charges permanently...But I need your help
Miles: You're here to corrupt one of my brightest and best.
Cobb: You know what I'm offering. You have to let them decide for themselves.
Miles: Money.
Cobb: Not just money. You remember. It's the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities, things that never existed, things that couldn't exist in the real world.
Miles: So you want me to let someone else follow you into your fantasy?
Cobb: They don't actually come into the dream. They just design the levels and teach them to the dreamers. That's all.
Miles: Design it yourself.
Cobb: Mal won't let me.
Miles: ...Come back to reality, Dom. Please.
Cobb: Reality. Those kids, your grandchildren, they're waiting for their father to come back home. That's their reality. And this job, this last job, that's how I get there. I would not be standing here if I knew any other way...I need an architect who's as good as I was.
Miles: I've got somebody better.
[Cobb meets with his new architect, Ariadne]
Miles: Ariadne. I'd like you to meet Mr. Cobb.
Ariadne: Pleased to meet you.
Miles: If you have a few moments, Mr. Cobb has a job offer he'd like to discuss with you.
Ariadne: A work placement?
Cobb: Not exactly.
Cobb: I have a test for you.
Ariadne: You're not gonna tell me anything about this first?
Cobb: Before I describe the job, I have to know you can do it
Ariadne: Why?
Cobb: It's not, strictly speaking, legal...You have two minutes to design a maze that it takes one minute to solve.

[Ariadne draws a maze]

Cobb: Stop...[Cobb solves puzzle quickly].....Again.

[Ariadne draws a new maze]

Cobb: Stop...[Cobb solves puzzle again].....You're gonna have to do better than that

[Ariadne flips over notepad and draws a difficult maze] [Cobb is confused on where to start]

Cobb: That's more like it.
Cobb: They say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential. Now that's when we're awake. When we're asleep, our mind can do almost anything.
Ariadne: Such as?
Cobb: Well, imagine you're designing a building. You consciously create each aspect. But sometimes it feels like it's almost "creating itself", if you know what I mean.
Ariadne: Yeah, like I'm discovering it.
Cobb: Genuine inspiration, right? Now, in a dream, our mind continuously does this. We create and perceive our world simultaneously, and our mind does this so well that we don't even know it's happening. That allows us to get right in the middle of that process.
Ariadne: How?
Cobb: By taking over the creating part. Now this is where I need you. You create the world of the dream. We bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious.
Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think it's reality?
Cobb: Well, dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange...Let me ask you a question. You never really remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on.
Ariadne: I guess, yeah.
Cobb: So how did we end up here?
Ariadne: Well, we just came from the... [she trails off, looking confused]
Cobb: Think about it, Ariadne, how did you get here? Where are you right now?
Ariadne: [realises] We're dreaming?
Cobb: You're actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm.
[As Ariadne's perception fails, the Paris street begins to explode and collapse]
[Cobb tries to dodge some of the debris]
Ariadne: If it's just a dream then why are you--?
[Debris falls on Ariadne waking her up]
[Now both awake]
Cobb: Because it's never just a dream is it? And a face full of glass hurts like hell. When you're in it, it feels real
Arthur: That's why the military developed dream sharing. It was a training program for soldiers to shoot and stab and strangle each other..and then wake up.
Ariadne: How did architects become involved?
Cobb: Well, someone had to design the dreams, right?[to Arthur] Why don't you give us another five minutes.
Ariadne: Wha, Five minutes? We were talking for at least an hour!
Cobb: In a dream, your mind functions more quickly. Therefore, time seems to feel slower.
Arthur: Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream.
Cobb: Why don't you see what you can get up to in five minutes?
Cobb: You've got the basic layout. Bookstore, cafe. Almost everything else is here too.
Ariadne: Who are the people?
Cobb: Projections of my subconscious
Ariadne: Yours?
Cobb: Yes. Remember, you are the dreamer. You build this world. I am the subject. My mind populates it. You can literally talk to my subconscious. That's one of the ways we extract information from the subject.
Ariadne: How else do you do it?
Cobb: By creating something secure, like a bank vault or a jail. The mind automatically fills it with information it's trying to protect. You understand?
Ariadne: Then you break in and steal it?
Cobb: Well....
Ariadne: I guess I thought that the dream space would be all about the visual, but it's more about the feel of it. My question is what happens when you start messing with the physics of it all?
[Ariadne folds the city in on itself]
Ariadne: It's something isn't it
Cobb: Yes, it is
[Projections start to stare at Ariadne as they walk by]
Ariadne: Why are they all looking at me?
Cobb: Cause my subconscious feels that someone else is creating this world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections start to converge on you.
Ariadne: Converge?
Cobb: They sense the foreign nature of the dreamer. They attack, like white blood cells fighting an infection.
Ariadne: What, they're gonna attack us?
Cobb: No, no....Just you.
[Ariadne creates a bridge]
Cobb: This is great, but I'm telling you, if you keep changing things like this...
[One of Cobb's projections bumps into Ariadne]
Ariadne: Jeez, mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?
Cobb: It's my subconscious. Remember? I can't control it.
[Ariadne comes to a stop, Pulls two mirrors together and creates a pathway]
Cobb: Very impressive. [Cobb starts to realize the location]. I know this bridge. This place is real, isn't it?
Ariadne: Yeah, I cross it every day to get to the college.
Cobb: Never re-create places from your memory. Always imagine new places.
Ariadne: You gotta draw from stuff you know, right?
Cobb: [Cobb starts to become nervous] Only use details. A streetlamp or a phone booth, Never entire areas.
Ariadne: Why not?
Cobb: Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what's real and what is a dream.
Ariadne: Is that what happened to you?
Cobb: Listen to me. [Cobb grabs Ariadne, All projections stop and stare] This has nothing to do with me, understand?
Ariadne: Is that why you need me to build your dreams?
[Projections start to converge on Ariadne, Cobb tries to fight them off]
Cobb: Hey, get off her. Back up. Back up
[Projections separate Ariadne from Cobb]
Ariadne: Hey. [Ariadne begins to yell for cobb] COBB! COBB!
Cobb: GET OFF OF HER!
Ariadne: LET ME GO! LET ME GO!
Cobb: MAL! MAL!
Ariadne: COBB! WAKE ME UP!
[Cobb's projection of his wife, walks up and stabs Ariadne, waking her up]
[After Ariadne is stabbed by Mal in a dream, she wakes up gasping for air]
Arthur: Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. You're okay. You're okay. Hey
Ariadne: Why wouldn't I wake up?
Arthur: Cause there was still some time on the clock. You can't wake up from within the dream unless you die.
[Cobb wakes up and immediately heads to the bathroom to check his reality]
Cobb: She'll need a totem.
Ariadne: What?
Arthur: A totem. It's a small personal...
Ariadne: That's some subconscious you've got on you, Cobb! She's a real charmer.
Arthur: Ah, I see you've met Mrs. Cobb.
Ariadne: She's his wife?
Arthur: Yeah. So a totem. You need a small object, potentially heavy. Something you can have on you all the time that no one else knows.
Ariadne: Like a coin?
Arthur: No, it needs to be more unique than that. [shows her a small red die] This is a loaded die. [Ariadne reaches for it, he pulls his hand away] No, I can't let you touch it, that would defeat the purpose. See, only I know the balance and weight of this particular loaded die. That way, when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt that you're not in someone else's dream.
Ariadne: I don't know if you can't see what's going on, or if you just don't want to, but Cobb has some serious problems that he's tried to bury down there. And I'm not about to just open my mind to someone like that.
[Ariadne leaves as Cobb comes out of the bathroom]
Cobb: She'll be back. I've never seen anyone pick it up that quickly before. Reality's not gonna be enough for her now, and when she comes back....when she comes back, you're gonna have her building mazes.
Arthur: Where are you gonna be?
Cobb: I gotta go visit Eames.
Arthur: Eames?...No, He's in Mombasa. It's Cobol's backyard.
Cobb: It's a necessary risk.
Arthur: There's plenty of good thieves.
Cobb: We don't just need a thief. We need a forger.
Cobb: [to Eames, regarding his gambling chips] Rub them together all you want, they're not going to breed.
Eames: You never know.
Cobb: Let me get you a drink.

[Eames loses his money]

Eames: You're buying.

[Eames turns in fake chips, Cobb grabs one]

Cobb: You're spelling hasn't improved.
Eames: Piss off
Cobb: How's your handwriting?
Eames: Versatile
Cobb: Good.
Eames: [To Cashier] Thank you very much.
Cobb: Inception. Now, before you bother telling me it's impossible, let me.
Eames: No, it's perfectly possible. It's just bloody difficult.
Cobb: Interesting. Because Arthur keeps telling me it can't be done
Eames: Hmm. Arthur. You still working with that stick in the mud?
Cobb: He is good at what he does, right?
Eames: Oh, he's the best but he has no imagination
Cobb: Not like you
Eames: Listen, if you're gonna perform inception, you need imagination.
Cobb: Let me ask you something. Have you done it before?
Eames: We tried it. Uh, we got the idea in place, but it didn't take
Cobb: You didn't plant it deep enough?
Eames: No, it's not just about depth. You need the simplest version of the idea in order for it to grow naturally in your subject's mind. It's a very subtle art. So, what is this idea that you need to plant?
Cobb: We need the heir of a major corporation to dissolve his father's empire
Eames: Well you see right there you have various political motivations and anti-monopolistic sentiments and so forth. But all of that stuff, it's um.... It's really at the mercy of your subject's prejudice, you see? What you have to do is start at the absolute basic.
Cobb: Which is what?
Eames: The relationship with the father. [Cobb gives a look of approval]. Do you have a chemist?
Cobb: No, not yet
Eames: Right. Okay, well, there's a man here, Yusuf. He, uh, formulates his own versions of the compounds
Cobb: Why, don't you take me there?
Eames: Once you've lost your tail. The man at the bar.
Cobb: Cobol engineering. That price on my head, was that dead or alive?
Eames: Don't remember. Let's see if he starts shooting.
Cobb: Run interference. I'll meet you downstairs in the bar in, say, uh, say half an hour?
Eames: Back here?
Cobb: It's the last place they'd suspect
Eames: [Chuckles] All right.
[Ariadne walks back into the warehouse]
Arthur: Cobb said you'd be back
Ariadne: I tried not to come, but.....
Arthur: But there's nothing quite like it
Ariadne: It's just...pure creation.
Arthur: Shall we take a look at some paradoxical architecture?
[Arthur and Ariadne are walking up a wooden staircase in the dream]
Arthur: You're going to have to master a few tricks if you're going to build three complete dream levels. [Projection drops papers in front of Arthur]..Excuse me.
Ariadne: What kind of tricks?
Arthur: In a dream you can cheat architecture into impossible shapes. That lets you create closed loops. Like the Penrose Steps. An infinite staircase. [The camera reveals they are walking on an impossible, looping staircase] See?...Paradox.
Arthur: So a closed loop like that will help you disguise the boundaries of the dream you create
Ariadne: But how big do these levels have to be?
Arthur: It could be anything from the floor of a building to an entire city. But they have to be complicated enough that we can hide from the projections.
Ariadne: A Maze?
Arthur: Right, a maze. And the better the maze...
Ariadne: Then the longer we have before the projections catch us?
Arthur: Exactly.
Ariadne: My subconscious seems polite enough.
Arthur: [Arthur laughs] Ha,ha. You wait, they'll turn ugly. No one else like to feel someone else messing around in their mind.
Ariadne: Cobb can't build anymore, can he?
Arthur: Well I don't know if he can't, but he won't. He thinks it's safer if he doesn't know the layouts.
Ariadne: Why?
Arthur: He won't tell me. But I think it's Mal.
Ariadne: His ex-wife?
Arthur: No, Not his Ex.
Ariadne: They're still together?
Arthur: No. It's....no she's dead...What you see in there is just his projection of her.
Ariadne: What was she like in real life?
Arthur: She was lovely.
Yusuf: You are seeking a chemist?
Cobb: Yes.
Yusuf: To formulate compounds for a job?
Cobb: And to go into the field with us.
Yusuf: No, I rarely go into the field, Mr. Cobb.
Cobb: Well, we'd need you there to tailor compounds specific to our needs.
Yusuf: Which are?
Cobb: Great depth.
Yusuf: A dream within a dream? Two levels?
Cobb: [Cobb leans in]...Three.
Yusuf: Not possible. That many dreams within dreams is too unstable.
Cobb: It is possible. You just have to add a sedative.
Yusuf: A powerful sedative....How many team members?
Cobb: Five.
Saito: Six...The only way to know you've done the job is if I go in with you.
Eames: There's no room for tourists on a job like this, Mr. Saito.
Saito: This time, it seems there is.
Yusuf: This, I think, is a good place to start. I use it everyday.
Cobb: What for?
Yusuf: Here, I'll show you... [Yusuf grabs his keys, then gives it second thoughts]...Perhaps you will not want to see.
Cobb: ...After you.
[Cobb, Eames, Saito, and Yusuf enter a room with a dozen dreaming people]
Eames: Ten, twelve all connected. Bloody hell.
Yusuf: They come every day to share the dream. [An old man slaps one of the dreamers, who does not wake] You see? Very stable.
Cobb: How long do they dream for?
Yusuf: Three, four hours, each day.
Cobb: In dream time?
Yusuf: With this compound? About 40 hours, each and every day.
Saito: Why do they do it?
Yusuf: Tell him, Mr. Cobb.
Cobb: After a while it becomes the only way you can dream.
Yusuf: Do you still dream, Mr. Cobb?
Eames: They come here every day to sleep?
Old Man: No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, sir?
Cobb: [to Yusuf] Let's see what you can do.
Saito: Robert Fischer, heir to the Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate.
Cobb: What's your problem with this Mr. Fischer?
Saito: That's not your concern.
Cobb: Mr. Saito, this isn't your typical corporate espionage. You asked me for Inception. I do hope you understand the gravity of that request...Now, the seed that we plant in this man's mind will grow into an idea. This idea will define him. It may come to change...Well, it may come to change everything about him.
Saito: We're the last company standing between them and total energy dominance. And we can no longer compete. Soon, they'll control the energy supply of half the world. In effect, they become a new superpower...The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind.
Eames: That's where we come in...How is Robert Fischer's relationship with his father?
Saito: Rumor is the relationship is quite complicated.
Cobb: Well, we can't work based solely on rumor, can we?
Eames: Can you get me access to this man here? Browning. Fischer Senior's right-hand man. Fischer Junior's godfather.
Saito: It should be possible, if you can get the right references.
Eames: References are something of a specialty for me, Mr. Saito.
Eames: The vultures are circling. The sicker Maurice Fischer becomes, the more powerful Peter Browning becomes. I've had ample opportunity to observe Browning, adopt his physical presence, to study his mannerisms, and so on and so forth. So now in the first layer of the dream I can impersonate Browning. And suggest concepts to Fischer's conscious mind. Then when we take him a level deeper, his own projection of Browning should – should feed that right back to him.
Arthur: So, he gives himself the idea.
Eames: Precisely. That's the only way it'll stick. It has to seem self-generated.
Arthur: Eames, I am impressed.
Eames: [laughs] Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur. Thank you.
[Ariadne approaches Cobb in the workshop]
Ariadne: Were you going under on your own?
Cobb: No, no, I was just, uh, running some experiments. I didn't realize anyone was here, so...
Ariadne: Yeah, I was-- I was working on my totem, actually.
Cobb: Here. Let me take a look [he offers his hand to take the chess piece, but Ariadne withdraws it] So you're learning, huh?
Ariadne: An elegant solution for keeping track of reality. Was it your idea?
Cobb: No, it was uh... was Mal's, actually. [showing his top] This, This one was hers. She would spin it in the dream and it would never topple. Just spin and spin.
Ariadne: Arthur told me she passed away.
Cobb: How are the mazes coming along?
Ariadne: [explaining the "mazes" of Fischer's subconscious] Each level relates to the part of the subject's subconscious that we are trying to access. So, I'm making the bottom level a hospital so Fischer will bring his father. You know, I--Actually, I have a question about this layout –
Cobb: No, no, no. Don't show me specifics. Only the dreamer should know the layout.
Ariade: Why is that so important?
Cobb: In case one of us brings in our projections. We don't want them knowing the details of the maze.
Ariadne: You mean in case you bring Mal in. You can't keep her out, can you?
Cobb: Right.
Ariadne: You can't build because if you know the maze, then she knows it. Well, She'd sabotage the whole operation. Cobb, do the others know?
Cobb: No. They don't.
Ariadne: You've got to warn them if this is getting worse.
Cobb: No one said it's getting worse. I need to get home. That's all I care about right now.
Ariadne: Why can't you go home?
Cobb: Because they think I killed her. [stands to walk away] Thank you.
Ariadne: For what?
Cobb: For not asking rather I did.
[The team devises the strategy for the inception]
Cobb: "I will split up my father's empire." Now, this is obviously an idea that Robert himself will choose to reject. Which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. The subconscious is motivated by emotion, right? Not reason. We need to find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.
Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?
Cobb: That's what we're here to figure out, right. Now Robert's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least.
Eames: Well can we run with that? We could suggest him breaking up his fathers company as a "screw you" to the old man.
Cobb: No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all yearn for reconciliation, for catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.
Eames: Alright, well, try this? "My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps."
Cobb: That might work.
Arthur: Might? Were gonna need to do a little better than "might".
Eames: [turning towards him] Thank you for your contribution, Arthur.
Arthur: Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames. [Eames looks confused, saying nothing] Specificity?!
Cobb: Inception's not about being specific. When we get inside his mind, we're gonna have to work with what we find.
[The team are standing in the first constructed dream level, an empty city]
Eames: On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father. Say, "I will not follow in my father's footsteps". Then, the next level down, we feed him "I will create something for myself". Then, by the time we hit the bottom level, we bring out the big guns:
Cobb: My father doesn't want me to be him.
Eames: Exactly.
Arthur: Three layers down, the dreams are gonna collapse with the slightest disturbance.
Yusuf: Sedation. For sleep, stable enough to create three layers of dreaming, we'll have to combine it with an extremely powerful sedative.
Yusuf: The compound we'll be using to share the dream creates a very clear connection between dreamers whilst actually accelerating brain function.
Cobb: In other words, it gives us more time on each level.
Yusuf: Brain function in the dream will be about 20 times normal. When you enter a dream within that dream, the effect is compounded. It's three dreams, that's 10 hours times 20--
Eames: [interrupting] I'm sorry, math was never my strong subject. How much time is that?
Cobb: It's a week the first level down, Six months the second level down, The third level--
Ariadne: That's 10 years. Who'd would want to be stuck in a dream for ten years?
Yusuf: Depends on the dream.
Arthur: So, once we've made the plant, how do we get out? I'm hoping you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head?
Cobb: A kick.
Ariadne: What's a kick?
Eames: This, Ariadne, would be a kick. [kicks Arthur's chair; Arthur flails but manages to right himself]
Cobb: It's that feeling of falling you get that jolts you awake. It snaps you out of the dream.
Arthur: Are we going to feel a kick with this kind of sedation?
Yusuf: Ahh, that's the clever part. I customize the sedative to leave inner ear function unimpaired. That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper still feels falling, or tipping.
Cobb: The trick is to synchronize a kick that can penetrate all three levels.
Arthur: We could use the musical countdown to synchronize the different kicks.
[The team are discussing a method to get Fischer by himself]
Eames: He hasn't got any surgery scheduled, no dental, nothing.
Cobb: Wasn't he supposed to have a knee operation?
Eames: Nothing. Nothing that they'll put him under for, anyway. We need at least a good ten hours.
Saito: Sydney to Los Angeles. One of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two weeks.
Cobb: He must be flying privately.
Saito: Not if there were unexpected maintenance with his plane...
Arthur: It would have to be a 747.
Cobb: Why is that?
Arthur: Cause on a 747 the pilots up top, and the first class cabin is in the nose, so no one would walk through. But you'd have to buy out the entire cabin. And the first class flight attendant.
Saito: I bought the airline. [Everyone looks at him incredulously. Awkwardly;] It seemed neater.
Cobb: Looks like we have our 10 hours...Ariadne? Terrific work, by the way.
[Ariadne has entered one of Cobb's hidden memories]
Mal: [turning towards Ariadne] What are you doing here?
Ariadne: [frightened] My name is –
Mal: I know who you are. What are you doing here?
Ariadne: I'm just trying to... understand.
Mal: How could you understand? Do you know what it is to be a lover? To be half of a whole?
Ariadne: No.
Mal: I'll tell you a riddle: you're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where the train will take you? [she picks up a jagged wine glass]
Cobb: [behind Ariadne] Because you'll be together.
Mal: [upset] How could you bring her here, Dom?
Ariadne: What is this place?
Cobb: This is the hotel suite where we used to spend our anniversary.
Ariadne: What happened here?
[Mal suddenly dashes towards them, as Cobb and Ariadne throw themselves in the elevator]
Mal: You promised! You promised!
Cobb: Please! I need you to stay in here! Just for now!
Mal: You said we'd be together! You said we'd grow old together!
Cobb: [starting the elevator] I'll be back. I promise.
[After they awake in the real world]
Ariadne: Did you think that you could build a prison of memories to lock her in? Did you think you could contain her?
[Everyone has just entered Yusuf's dream, a city in a heavy downpour]
Arthur: You couldn't have peed before you went under?
Yusuf: Sorry.
Eames: A bit too much free champagne before takeoff, eh, Yusuf?
Yusuf: [deadpan] Ha ha bloody-ha.
Cobb: Well, we know he's going to be looking for a taxi in this weather.
[After a gunfight in the streets]
Arthur: You all right?
Eames: Yeah, I'm fine, I'm okay. [pause] And Fischer's okay. Unless he gets carsick.
[After Saito has been shot in the first dream layer]
Cobb: Get Fischer in the backroom now. [Opens car door] Get him in the backroom. Move. What the hell happened?..Has he been shot? Is he dying?
Arthur: I don't know.
Cobb: Jesus Christ.
Arthur: Where were you what happened to you?
Cobb: We were blocked by a freight train.
Arthur: [to Ariadne] Why would you put a train crossing in the middle of a down-town intersection?
Ariadne: I didn't!
Arthur: Then where'd it come from?
Cobb: Let me ask you a question: why the hell were we ambushed? Those were not normal projections, they've been trained, for God's sake!
Ariadne: How could he be trained?
Arthur: Fischer has had an extractor teach his subconscious to defend itself. His subconscious has militarized. It should have shown in the research. I'm sorry.
Cobb: When why the hell didn't it?!
Arthur: Calm down.
Cobb: Don't tell me to calm down! This was your job, God damn it! This was your responsibility! You were meant to check Fischer's background thoroughly! We are not prepared to deal with this type of security!
Arthur: We have dealt with some security before! We'll be a little more careful, and we'll be fine!
Cobb: This was not a part of the plan! [on Saito] He's dying, for God's sake!
[Eames approaches with a gun and it aims it at Saito]
Eames: I'm putting him out of his misery.
Cobb: Don't do that! [shoves him back] Don't do that.
Eames: [exasperated] He's in agony. I'm waking him up.
Cobb: No. It won't wake him up.
Eames: What do you mean, "it won't wake him up"? If we die in a dream, we wake up.
Yusef: Not from this. [everyone looks at him] We're too heavily sedated to wake up that way.
Eames: So, what happens when we die?
Cobb: We drop into Limbo.
Arthur: [angry] Are you serious?!
Ariadne: Limbo?
Arthur: Unconstructed dream space.
Ariadne: Well, what the hell is down there?
Arthur: Just raw, infinite subconscious. Nothing is down there. Except for whatever that might have been left behind by whoever's sharing the dream who was trapped down there before. Which in our case, is just you.
Ariadne: But how long could we be stuck there?
Yusef: Not even think about waking up until –
Eames: How long?!
Yusef: Decades! It could be infinite! I don't know! [motioning to Cobb] Ask him, he's the one who's been there!
[Saito is moved upstairs]
Eames: Great. [to Cobb, sarcastic] Thank you. So, now we're in Fischer's mind battling his own private army. And, if we get killed, we'll all be lost in Limbo until our brains turn to scrambled egg. Hm?
[Cobb says nothing and walks away]
Arthur: Someone got First Aid? [Lays Saito on table, then turns to Cobb] So, you knew about these risks and you didn't tell us?
Cobb: There weren't meant to be any risks. I didn't know we'd be dealing with a load of gunfire.
Arthur: You had no right.
Cobb: This is the only way to go three layers deep.
Arthur: [turning on Yusef] And you! You knew about this and went along with it?
Yusef: [about Cobb] I trusted him!
Arthur: You trusted him? When he promised you half his share?
Yusef: No! [beat] His whole share. Besides, he said he'd done it before.
Arthur: What, with Mal? Because that worked so good?!
Cobb: It had nothing to do with you. I did what I had to to get back to my children.
Eames: So you led us into a war zone with no way out?
Cobb: There is a way out. We continue on with the job, and we do it as fast as possible and we get out using the kick, just like before.
Eames: Forget it. We go any deeper, we just raise the stakes. I am sitting this one out on this level boys.
Cobb: Fischer's security is surrounding this place as we speak. Ten hours of flight time is a week at this level. That means each and everyone of us will be killed. That I can guarantee you. We have no other choice but to continue on and do it as fast as possible. Downwards is the only way forwards. [To Eames] Get ready. [To Arthur] You, come on. Let's go shake him up.
[Fischer and "Browning" are speaking after being kidnapped]
"Browning": Those bastards have been at me for two days. They have someone with access to your father's office, and they're trying to open his safe. They thought I'd know the combination, but I don't know it.
Fischer: Well, neither do I.
"Browning": What? Maurice [Fischer's father] told me that when he passed, you'd be the only one able to open it!
Fischer: No, he never gave me any combination.
"Browning": Well, maybe he did. Maybe you just didn't know it was a combination.
Fischer: Well, what, then?
"Browning": I don't know, some meaningful combination of numbers based on your experiences with Maurice.
Fischer: [laughing] We, um, we didn't have many "meaningful" experiences together.
"Browning": Perhaps after your mother died.
Fischer: [sighs] After my mother died, you know what he told me? "Robert, there's really nothing to be said."
"Browning": Well, he was bad with emotion.
Fischer: [upset] I was eleven, Uncle Peter.
[Browning and Fischer are discussing Fischer senior's will]
Browning: It splits off the component businesses of Fischer-Morrow. It'd be the entire empire as we know it.
Fischer: Destroying my whole inheritance. Why would he suggest that, you think?
Browning: I just don't know. He loved you, Robert. In his own way.
Fishcer: In his own way? At the end, he called me into his deathbed, and he could barely speak. But he took the trouble to tell me one last thing. He pulled me close, and I could only make out one word: "Disappointed".
Ariadne: [to Cobb] When were you in Limbo?...You might have the rest of the team convinced to carry on with this job, but they don't know the truth.
Cobb: Truth? What truth?
Ariandne: The truth that, at any minute, you might bring a freight train through the wall. The truth that Mal is bursting through your subconscious, The truth that as we go deeper into Fischer, we're also going deeper into you. And, I'm not sure we're gonna like what we find.
Cobb: We were working together. We were exploring the concept of a dream within a dream. I kept pushing things. I wanted to go deeper and deeper. I wanted to go further. I just didn't understand the concept that hours could turn into years down there...that we could get trapped so deep that when we...when we would up on the shore of our own subconscious, we lost sight of what was real. We created. We built the world for ourselves. We did that for years. We built our own world.
Ariadne: How long were you stuck there?
Cobb: ...Something like 50 years.
Ariadne: Jesus. How could you stand it?
Cobb: It wasn't so bad at first, feeling like gods.The problem was knowing that none of it was real. Eventually, it just became impossible for me to live like that.
Ariadne: And what about for her?
Cobb: She had locked something away, something deep inside her. A truth that she had once known, but chose to forget. Limbo became her reality.
Ariadne: What happened when you woke up?
Cobb: Well, to wake up from that after years, after decades. To become old souls thrown back into youth like that? I knew something was wrong with her. She just wouldn't admit it. Eventually, she told me the truth. She was possessed by an idea. This one very simple idea that changed everything. That our world wasn't real. That she needed to wake up to come back to reality...that in order to get back home...we had to kill ourselves.
Ariadne: What about your children?
Cobb: She thought they were projections. That our real children were waiting for us up there somewhere.
[Mal yelling to try and convince Cobb they are still dreaming as Cobb carries the children into the next room. "Mal": I'm their mother!. "Cobb": Calm down . "Mal" Don't you think I can tell the difference. "Cobb": If this is my dream, why can't I control this? "Mal": BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR DREAMING.]
Cobb: She was certain there was nothing I could do no matter how much I begged, no matter how much I pleaded. She wanted to do it, but she could not do it alone. She loved me too much, so she came up with a plan on our anniversary.
[Cobb finds his wife, Mal, sitting on a window ledge]
Cobb: Sweetheart, what are you doing?
Mal: Join me.
Cobb: Just step back inside, alright? Just step back inside now, come on.
Mal: No. I'm going to jump and you're coming with me.
Cobb: No, I'm not. You listen to me: if you jump, you're not gonna wake up, remember? You're going to die. Now, just step back inside so we can talk about this.
Mal: We've talked enough. [her slipper falls into the street below] Come out onto the ledge, or I'll jump right now.
Cobb: Okay. We're gonna talk about this, alright?
Mal: I'm asking you to take a leap of faith.
Cobb: No, honey. I can't. You know I can't do that. Take a second and think about our children. Think about James. Think about Philipa.
Mal: If I go without you, they'll take them away, anyway.
Cobb: What does that mean?
Mal: I filed a letter with our attorney explaining how I'm fearful for my safety. How you've threatened to kill me.
Cobb: Why would you do that? Why would you do this to me?
Mal: I love you, Dom. I've freed you from the guilt of choosing to leave them. We're going home. To our real children.
Cobb: No, no, no, Mal, you listen to me, alright? Mal, look at me, please!
Mal: You're waiting for a train...
Cobb: Mal, goddamn it! Don't do this!
Mal: ..A train that will take you far away..
Cobb: James and Phillipa are waiting for you!
Mal: ..You know where you hope this train will take you,..
Cobb: They're waiting for us!
Mal: ..But you can't know for sure..
Cobb: Mal, look at me!
Mal: ..But it doesn't matter...because you'll be together.
Cobb: Sweetheart, look at me! [Mal falls off the window ledge into the street below] Mal, No!! Jesus Christ!
Cobb: [to Eames] What did you get?
Eames: That boy's relationship with his father is even worse than we imagined.
Arthur: This helps us how?
Cobb: The stronger the issues, the more powerful the catharsis.
Arthur: How are you going to reconcile them if they're so estranged?
Eames: Well, I'm working on that, aren't I?
Arthur: Move fast. Projections are closing in quick. [he loads an assault rifle] We gotta break out of here before we're totally boxed in.
Cobb: We need to shift his animosity from his father to his godfather.
Ariadne: We're going to destroy his one positive relationship?
Eames: No, we repair his relationship with his father whilst exposing his godfather's true nature. We should charge Fischer a lot more than Saito for this job.
Ariadne: Who or what is "Mr. Charles"?
Arthur: It's a gambit designed to turn Fischer against his own subconscious.
Ariadne: And why don't you approve?
Arthur: Because it involves telling the mark that he's dreaming. Which involves attracting a lot of attention to us.
Ariadne: Didn't Cobb say never to do that?
Arthur: So now you've noticed how much time Cobb spends doing things he says never to do.
Ariadne: What's happening?
Arthur: Cobb's drawing Fischer's attention to the strangeness of the dream. Which is making his subconscious look for the dreamer. For me. [the projections begin staring at them] Quick, give me a kiss. [Arthur and Ariadne kiss]
Ariadne: [confused] They're still looking at us.
Arthur: Yeah, it was worth a shot. We should probably get out of here.
[Fischer and Cobb are speaking in the hotel bar]
Cobb: [as "Mr. Charles"] I specialize in a very specific type of security. Subconscious security.
Fischer: Are you talking about dreams? Are you talking about extraction?
Cobb: I am here to protect you... [the projections in the bar suddenly look at Cobb, and he glimpses images of his children through a window] ...Mr. Fischer, I am here to protect you in the event that someone tries to access your mind through your dreams. You're not safe here. They're coming for you. [rain suddenly begins pouring down outside] Strange weather, isn't it? You've actually been trained for this, Mr. Fischer. [chairs and glasses in the bar begin shifting sideways] Pay attention to the strangeness of the weather, the shift in gravity. None of this is real. You're in a dream. [the projections stare at Cobb again] Now, the easiest way for you to test yourself is to try and remember how you arrived at this hotel. Can you do that?
Fischer: Yeah, I, uh... [looks confused]
Cobb: Breathe, remember your training. Accept the fact that you're in a dream and I'm here to protect you. Go on.
Fischer: You're not real?
Cobb: No, no. [the projections ignore him again] I'm a projection of your subconscious. I was sent here to protect you in the event that extractors tried to pull you into a dream. And I believe that what's going on right now, Mr. Fischer.
Fischer: Yeah, okay. Can you get me out of here?
Cobb: Right away. Follow me.
[The team is entering Fischer's subconscious]
Ariadne: Wait, whose subconscious are we going into, exactly?
Cobb: We're going into Fischer's. But I told him it was Browning so he can be a part of our team.
Arthur: [amused] he's gonna help us break into his own subconscious.
Cobb: That's right.
Eames: Security is going to run you down hard.
Arthur: And I will lead them on a merry chase.
Eames: Make sure to be here in time for the kick –
Arthur: Go to sleep, Mr. Eames.
[Cobb watches through a window with a sniper rifle as Mal sneaks up on an unaware Fischer]
Ariadne: Cobb. No! She is not real!
Cobb: [hesitating] How do you know that?
Ariadne: She is just a projection. Fischer is real!
Mal: [to Fischer] Hello. [she shoots him in the chest]
Eames: What happened?
Ariadne: Mal killed Fischer.
Cobb: [about Mal] I couldn't shoot her. There's no use in reviving him. It's over.
Eames: So that it, then? We failed?
Cobb: We're done. I'm sorry.
Eames: Well, it's not me that doesn't get back to my family, is it? It's a shame, I really wanted to know what was going to happen in there. I swear we had this one.
Cobb: Let's set the charges.
Ariadne: Wait, there's still another way! We just have to follow Fischer down there.
Eames: Not enough time.
Ariadne: No, but there will be enough time down there, and we will find him! As soon as Arthur's music kicks in, use the defibrillator to revive him. We can give him his own kick down below. You get him in there (the vault). You blow the building, and we all ride the kick back up the layers.
Eames: Saito, I need you to take care of Fischer while I go set some charges, okay?
Saito: [smiling, quoting what Eames said earlier] "No room for tourists on these jobs."
Eames: Don't be silly.
Maurice Fischer: [in Robert Fischer's dream; on his deathbed] Dis... disa... disap...
Fischer: I know, Dad. I know you were disappointed that I couldn't be you.
Maurice Fischer: No. No, no. I was disappointed... that you tried.
[The last scene in limbo, Saito's dining room]
Saito: Have you come to kill me?... I am waiting for someone...
Cobb: ...Someone from a half-remembered dream.
Saito: Cobb? [chuckles] Impossible. We were young men together. I'm an old man...
Cobb: ...Filled with regret...
Saito: ...Waiting to die alone....
Cobb: ...I've come back for you... To remind you... Something... Something you once knew... That this world is not real...
Saito: ...To convince me to honor our arrangement...
Cobb: ...To take a leap of faith, yes. Come back. So we can be young men together again... Come back with me...Come Back.
[Scene cuts to all team members waking up on the plane, Saito gives a look of appreciation to Cobb for going into Limbo to pull him out. [The plane is about to land] Cobb looks at Saito to see if he will honor the agreement. Saito makes a phone call. Each team member passes through customs, Cobb goes last; Cobb is able to safely walk through without being arrested. Miles is at pickup to take Cobb home.]
Miles: Welcome. This way.
[Cobb has a look of joy finally going back home. Cobb arrives home happy to see his children, but after thinking about the events of the day, decides to check his reality one last time with the spinning top, [As the top spins] Cobb see's his children outside as they usually appear in his dreams but now visibly older.]
Miles: James? Phillipa? Look who's here [Unlike in his dreams. The kid's look up and see their father and run to him]
Cobb: Hey...Hey, guys! Hey! How are you?
Phillipa: DADDY! DADDY!
James: DADDY!
[Cobb runs to embrace his children. Miles smiles as he goes inside]
Cobb: How are you?
James: Look what I've been building.
Cobb: What are you building.
James: We're building a house on the cliff!
Cobb: On a cliff? Come on...I want you to show me. Can you show me?
James: Let's go.
Phillipa: Come on, Daddy!
[Scene transitions back over to the spinning top...still...spinning...but...just as the top begins to topple, the scene cut's to black. [movie ends] ]

About Inception

  • Mr. Nolan doesn’t cater to the executives at some big company, he really does what he wants to with a film. He manages to do it within the current big system because he’s that good and he can, but ‘Inception’ and his films aren’t developed by committee. And it wasn’t him saying, ‘How am I going to make a big summer hit?’ ‘Inception’ was about him following his own fascinations.
  • The clash of objective reality with our subjective view of the world, that’s pretty interesting stuff. This is something I thought about doing for a very long time. I’ve been thinking about it off and on since I was about 16. It was the approach I wanted to take to an almost alternate reality — approaching the dream life as another state of reality. And one that in certain circumstances can be manipulated.

Taglines

  • Your mind is the scene of the crime.
  • The dream is real.
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