Christopher Nolan - Inception - The Shooting Script

MILES

It’ll take more than the occasional stuffed animal to convince those children they still have a father.

COBB

I know. I thought you could talk to Marie about bringing them on vacation. Somewhere I could meet—

MILES

Why would she listen to me?

COBB

You were married for twenty years.

MILES

She blames me as much as you.

COBB

Doesn’t she understand that my kids need me?

MILES

Yes, she does. We all do. Go back and face the music, Dom. Explain what Mal did.

COBB

Be realistic, Stephen. They’d never understand — they’d lock me up and throwaway the key. Or worse.

MILES

You think what you’re doing now is helping your case?

COBB

Lawyers don’t pay for themselves. This is what I have. This is what you taught me.

MILES

I never taught you to be a thief.

COBB

No, you taught me to navigate other people’s minds. But after what happened with Mal there weren’t a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.

Miles looks at Cobb.

MILES

Why did you come here, Dom?

Cobb shifts slightly.

COBB

I found a way home. A job. For powerful people. If I pull it off, I can get back to my family. But I need help.

Miles realizes something.

MILES

My God. You’re here to corrupt one of my brightest and best.

COBB

If you have someone good enough, you have to let them decide for themselves. You know what I’m offering—

MILES

Money?

COBB

No, not just money: the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities — things that have never existed, things that couldn’t exist in the real world…

MILES

Everybody dreams, Cobb. Architects are supposed to make those dreams real.

COBB

That’s not what you used to say. You told me that in the real world I’d be building attic conversions and gas stations. You said that if I mastered the dream-share I’d have a whole new way of creating and showing people my creations. You told me it would free me.

Miles looks at Cobb, sad.

MILES

And I’m sorry. I was wrong.

COBB

No, you weren’t. Your vision was a vision of pure creativity. It’s where we took it that was wrong.

MILES

And now you want me to let someone else follow you into fantasy.

COBB

They won’t actually come on the job, they’ll just design the levels and teach them to the dreamers.

MILES

Design them yourself.

COBB

Mal won’t let me.

Miles looks at Cobb. Appalled.

MILES

Come back to reality, Dom. Please.

COBB

You want to know what’s real, Stephen? Your grandchildren waiting for their dad to come back.

(MORE)

COBB (CONT’D)

This job — this last job — is how I get there.

Miles looks down, fiddles with his papers.

COBB

I wouldn’t be standing here if there were any other way. I can get home. But I need an architect who’s as good as I was.

Miles looks Cobb in the eye. Decides.

MILES

I’ve got someone better.

INT. CORRIDOR — LATER

Miles and Cobb stand by as STUDENTS file out of a lecture.

MILES

Ariadne…

A young woman carrying books turns. This is ARIADNE.

MILES

I’d like you to meet Mr. Cobb.

She sizes him up with quick eyes. Offers her hand.

ARIADNE

Pleased to meet you.

MILES

If you have a few moments, Mr. Cobb has a job offer to discuss with you.

ARIADNE

A work placement?

COBB

(smiles)

Not exactly.

EXT. ROOFTOP, ÉCOLE D’ARCHITECTURE — MOMENTS LATER

Ariadne leans against the parapet, overlooking Paris. She unwraps a sandwich, watching Cobb pull out a pad of GRAPH PAPER and a PEN. He offers them. She bites her sandwich.

COBB

A test.

ARIADNE

(mouth full)

Aren’t you going to tell me anything?

COBB

Before I describe the job, I have to know you could do it.

ARIADNE

Why?

COBB

It’s not, strictly speaking, legal.

Ariadne raises her eyebrows.

COBB

You have two minutes to draw a maze that takes me one minute to solve.

Ariadne takes the pad and pen. Cobb looks at his watch.

COBB

Go.

She starts DRAWING LINES on the grid, constructing a maze.

COBB

Stop.

Ariadne hands the pad and pen to Cobb. He glances at the pad, then, looking her in the eye, TRACES the solution. She is taken aback. Cobb RIPS off the sheet, hands the pad back.

COBB

Again.

She traces straight lines, CONCENTRATING…

COBB

Stop.

She hands Cobb the pad, a touch pleased. Cobb solves the puzzle instantly, as before. Her smile falls.

COBB

You’ll have to—

She GRABS the pad, frustrated… but this time she FLIPS it over and starts drawing on the BLANK CARDBOARD of the back. Cobb watches, surprised. He smiles as he sees that she’s drawing CIRCLES, creating a maze based on concentric rings.

Ariadne hands back the pad, defiant. Cobb takes the pen, starts the maze. This time he gets stuck. Nods.

COBB

(working the maze)

More like it.

EXT. NARROW STREET, PARIS — DAY

Arthur stops at a warehouse door. Consults a piece of paper.

INT. WORKSHOP — CONTINUOUS

A large, dusty warehouse. The SLIDING DOOR cracks open. Arthur enters. Looks around, approvingly.

INT. SAME — LATER

Arthur DRAGS LAWN CHAIRS into the middle of the room. He erects a table. Lays out several SILVER CASES, unpacking them, laying out lines of tubing, MECHANISMS…

EXT. PARISIAN CAFE — DAY

Cobb and Ariadne sit at an outdoor table.

COBB

They say we only use a fraction of the true potential of our brains… but they’re talking about when we’re awake . While we dream, the mind performs wonders.

ARIADNE

Such as?

COBB

How do you imagine a building? You consciously create each aspect, puzzling over it in stages… But sometimes, when your imagination flies—

ARIADNE

I’m discovering it.

COBB

Exactly. Genuine inspiration.

Cobb leans forwards and draws on the paper table cloth.

COBB

In a dream your mind continuously does that…

Cobb has drawn a circle made of two arrows.

COBB

It creates and perceives a world simultaneously . So well that you don’t feel your brain doing the creating. That’s why we can short-circuit the process…

ARIADNE

How?

COBB

By taking over the creating part.

Cobb draws a straight line between the two arrows.

COBB

This is where you come in. You build the world of the dream. We take the subject into that dream, and let him fill it with his subconscious.

ARIADNE

But are you trying to fool him that the dream is actually real life?

COBB

(nods)

While we’re in there, We don’t want him to realize he’s dreaming.

ARIADNE

How could I ever get enough detail to convince him that it’s real?

COBB

Our dreams reel real while we’re in them . It’s only when we wake up we realize things were strange.

Ariadne gestures around them—

ARIADNE

But all the textures of real life — the stone, the fabric, cars… people … your mind can’t create all this.

COBB

It does. Every time you dream. Let me ask you a question: You never remember the beginning of your dreams, do you? You just turn up in the middle of what’s going on.

ARIADNE

I guess.

COBB

So… how did we end up at this restaurant?

ARIADNE

We came here from…

Ariadne trails off, confused.

COBB

How did we get here? Where are we?

Ariadne THINKS, unable to remember. A FAINT RUMBLE begins.