Christopher Nolan - Inception - The Shooting Script

ARTHUR

Everybody okay? Saito?

Arthur looks at Saito. Saito’s hand is at his belly. Covered in BLOOD.

EXT. WAREHOUSE — MOMENTS LATER

The sedan and cab pull into the side entrance— Eames jumps out − PULLS the shutter down behind them—

INT. WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS

Yusuf and Eames PULL Fischer from the cab, HUSTLING him through a doorway. Cobb JUMPS out of the sedan, furious.

COBB

Arthur! Arthur what the—

Arthur pulls the bloody Saito from the front seat.

COBB

Oh, Christ. Is he dying?

ARTHUR

I don’t know. What happened back there? Where were you?

COBB

We were blocked by a freight train.

ARTHUR

(to Ariadne)

Why would you put a train crossing in a downtown intersection?

ARIADNE

I didn’t.

COBB

(snaps)

Why were we all ambushed, Arthur?! Those weren’t regular projections — they’d been trained !

ARIADNE

How could they be trained?

ARTHUR

Fischer’s had an extractor teach his mind to defend itself. His subconscious is militarized. It should’ve shown on the research—

COBB

So why the hell didn’t it?!

ARTHUR

Calm down.

COBB

Don’t tell me to calm down — you were meant to check Fischer’s background thoroughly. You can’t make this kind of mistake — we’re not prepared for this kind of violence—

ARTHUR

Cobb, we’ve dealt with sub-security before. We just have to be more—

COBB

This wasn’t part of the plan, Arthur!

(points at Saito)

He’s dying !

EAMES

So we put him out of his misery.

Eames steps into the room, pulls his gun and moves over Saito.

COBB

No.

EAMES

He’s in agony. Let’s wake him up—

Cobb GRABS Eames’s arm.

COBB

No!

(they lock eyes)

It won’t wake him up.

EAMES

What do you mean, it won’t wake him? When you die in a dream you wake up.

YUSUF

Not from this. We’re too heavily sedated to wake up that way.

Eames looks at Yusuf, then to Cobb.

EAMES

So what happens if one of us dies?

COBB

That person doesn’t wake up. Their mind drops into Limbo.

ARIADNE

Limbo?

ARTHUR

Unconstructed dream space.

ARIADNE

What’s down there?

ARTHUR

Raw, infinite subconscious. Nothing there but what was left behind by anyone on the team who’s been trapped there before. On this team… just Cobb.

ARIADNE

How long would we be stuck there?

YUSUF

You couldn’t even think about trying to escape until the sedation eases—

EAMES

How long?

YUSUF

Decades — it could be infinite — I don’t know! Ask him — he’s the one who’s been there before!

Eames moves to Cobb. Looks him in the eye.

EAMES

Great. So now we’re stuck in Fischer’s mind battling it out with his private army, and if we get hit we’re stuck in Limbo ’til our brains dissolve into scrambled egg?

Cobb says nothing. Saito groans more loudly.

ARTHUR

Let’s just get him upstairs.

INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE — MOMENTS LATER

Saito is laid out on an old desk. Arthur examines him. He motions to Ariadne. Eames watches Cobb.

ARTHUR

Hold this. Firm pressure.

Arthur turns to Cobb.

ARTHUR

You knew the risks and you didn’t tell us.

COBB

There wasn’t meant to be any risk. We weren’t supposed to be dealing with a load of gunnre.

ARTHUR

You had no right.

COBB

It’s the only way you can go three layers deep, Arthur.

Arthur turns to Yusuf, hostile.

ARTHUR

And you. You went along with this?

YUSUF

I trusted him.

ARTHUR

You trusted him? When? When he promised you half his share?

YUSUF

(offended)

No! His whole share. Plus, he told me he’d done it before.

Arthur turns to Cobb.

ARTHUR

Oh, yeah? With Mal? That worked out great, didn’t it, Cobb?

Cobb grabs Arthur.

COBB

You don’t know anything about that. This was the only way to do this job, Arthur. I did what I had to do to get back to my children.

EAMES

So you led us into a war zone with no way out.

COBB

We have a way out. The kick. We just have to push on, do the job as fast as possible and get out using the kick.

EAMES

Forget it. We go any deeper, we just raise the stakes. I’m sitting it out on this level.

COBB

You’ll never make it, Eames. Fischer’s security is surrounding this place as we speak. The ten hours of the flight is a week at this level — you’ll never make it without getting killed. Downwards is the only way forwards. We have to carry on.

Saito groans. Cobb looks at him—

COBB

And we have to do it fast.

Eames and Arthur weigh this.

COBB

Eames, go get ready. Arthur, let’s get in there and soften him up.

INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE — LATER

Cobb and Arthur, wearing BALACLAVAS, PULL the sack from Fischer’s head. He is chained to the radiator.

FISCHER

I’m insured against kidnapping up to ten million — this’ll be simple—

COBB

No, it won’t.

Fischer looks at Cobb, unnerved.

ARTHUR

In. your lather’s office, below the bookshelves, is his personal safe. We need the combination.

FISCHER

I never noticed a safe—

COBB

Doesn’t mean you don’t know the combination.

FISCHER

Well, I don’t.

ARTHUR

We have it on good authority that you do.

FISCHER

Whose?

INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS

Yusuf looks through Fischer’s wallet. Eames is opening a HINGED, THREE-WING MIRROR.

YUSUF

Five hundred dollars, this cost?

EAMES

What’s inside?

YUSUF

Cash, cards, ID… and this—

Yusuf holds up a SNAPSHOT: the photo from Maurice Fischer’s office — YOUNG ROBERT holds his HOMEMADE PINWHEEL, his FATHER blows on it. Eames takes it from Yusuf. STUDIES it. Cobb enters. Eames hands him the snapshot.

EAMES

Useful?

Cobb studies the snapshot. Eames examines himself in the hinged mirror from multiple angles: ONE BY ONE the myriad Eames reflections BECOME BROWNINGS. Cobb pockets the photo.

COBB

You’re on. You’ve got an hour.

EAMES

An hour? I was supposed to have all night to crack him.

COBB

And Saito was supposed to keep his guts on the inside. You’ve got an hour — get something we can use.

Eames turns from the mirror AS BROWNING. He glances at his watch, then SCREAMS, as if begging for mercy—

INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS

Browning’s CRY reverberates— Fischer looks up, concerned—

FISCHER

What’s that?

ARTHUR

Good authority.

Another cry rings out. Fischer recognizes the voice.

FISCHER

Uncle Peter?! Make them stop—

ARTHUR

The combination.

FISCHER

I don’t know it!

ARTHUR

Why would Browning tell us you did?

FISCHER

Let me talk to him — I’ll find out.

INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE — MOMENTS LATER

Cobb pushes Browning (Eames), bloody and bruised, into the room and forces him down next to Fischer. Cobb handcuffs Browning’s wrist to a metal bracket on the side of the sink.

COBB

You’ve got an hour. Get talking.

Cobb leaves.

BROWNING (EAMES)

They’ve had me for two days. They’ve got 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—

FISCHER

Neither do I, Uncle Peter.

BROWNING

(confused)

Maurice told me that after he passed only you would be able to open it.