Christopher Nolan - Inception - The Shooting Script

ARIADNE

Oh my God. We’re dreaming .

Cobb nods. The RUMBLE is BUILDING.

COBB

Stay calm. We’re actually asleep in the workshop. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming, remember?

Ariadne looks around, mind REELING. Cobb BRACES—

The restaurant VIOLENTLY FRAGMENTS, EXPLODING AND IMPLODING PARTICLES OF FURNITURE, WALLS, PEOPLE FLYING AROUND — Ariadne WONDERS at the MAYHEM WHIRLING around them — Cobb SHIELDS his head against the debris. She sees him—

ARIADNE

(shouting over noise)

If it’s just a dream, why are you covering your—

Ariadne is WIPED FROM HER SEAT BY A MASSIVE BLAST and we—

CUT TO:

INT. WORKSHOP — DAY

Ariadne JOLTS awake.

COBB (O.S.)

Because it’s never just a dream.

Ariadne turns to Cobb’s voice. They are both sitting in the lawn chairs. Arthur watches over them.

COBB

And a face full of glass hurts like hell, doesn’t it? While we’re in it, it’s real.

ARTHUR

That’s why the military developed dream sharing — a training program where soldiers could strangle, stab and shoot each other, then wake up.

ARIADNE

How did architects get involved?

COBB

Someone had to design the dreams.

(to Arthur)

Let’s go another five minutes—

ARIADNE

We were only asleep for five minutes? We talked for an hour at least…

COBB

When you dream, your mind functions more quickly, so time seems to pass more slowly.

ARTHUR

Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream.

COBB

Let’s see how much trouble you can cause in five minutes. And we—

CUT TO:

EXT. SAME PARISIAN STREET — DAY

Ariadne walks down the crowded street with Cobb. Cobb looks around at the street, the cafe, approving.

COBB

It’s good. You’ve got the cafe, the layout… you forgot the book shop but pretty much everything else is here.

Ariadne looks at the passers-by.

ARIADNE

Who are the people?

COBB

They’re projections of my subconscious.

ARIADNE

Yours?

COBB

Sure — you are the dreamer, I am the subject. My subconscious populates your world. That’s one way we get at a subject’s thoughts — his mind creates the people, so we can literally talk to his subconscious.

ARIADNE

How else do you do it?

COBB

Architecture. Build a bank vault or a jail, something secure, and the subject’s mind will fill it with information he’s trying to protect.

ARIADNE

Then you break in and steal it.

COBB

Exactly.

Ariadne wonders at the detail of the street.

ARIADNE

I love the concrete sense of things—

(stamps foot)

Real weight, you know? I thought a dream space would be all about the visual, but it’s the feel of things. Question is, what happens as you start to mess with physics…

She CONCENTRATES on the street. The street starts to BEND IN HALF — the buildings on either side FOLDING IN until they form the INSIDE OF A CUBE OF CITY, GRAVITY FUNCTIONING INDEPENDENTLY ON EACH PLANE. Ariadne looks up (or down) at the people on the opposite city surface. Cobb watches her excitement.

ARIADNE

It’s something, isn’t it?

COBB

(quiet)

Yes. It is.

As they walk, Ariadne notices more and more of the projections STARING at her.

ARIADNE

Why are they looking at me?

COBB

Because you’re changing things. My subconscious feels that someone else is creating the world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections converge on you.

ARIADNE

Converge?

COBB

They feel the foreign nature of the dreamer, and attack — like white blood cells fighting an infection.

ARIADNE

They’re going to attack us?

COBB

Just you, actually.

They walk along the street to where it joins the next gravitational plane. They step up onto the different plane and walk down the street towards a river. As Ariadne approaches, steps emerge from the flagstone, and she leads Cobb up onto a small jetty. As she concentrates, pillars emerge and a BRIDGE starts to telescope out from the jetty. They step onto it as it grows. Cobb is impressed.

COBB

It’s beautiful… but if you keep on changing things…

People crossing the bridge STARE at Ariadne. Several of them BUMP her shoulder as they pass.

ARIADNE

Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?

COBB

That’s why it’s called sub conscious. I don’t control it.

The bridge now spans the Seine. Cobb marvels at it.

COBB

Arched stone, iron pillars… it’s…

36.

Cobb pauses, thinking. Remembering.

INSERT CUT: Mal, hair blowing, turns to Cobb, smiling, laughing. He smiles back. They are on the same bridge.

COBB

I know this bridge. This place is real—

(serious)

You didn’t imagine it, you remembered it…

ARIADNE

(nods)

I cross it every day on my way to the college.

COBB

Never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places.

ARIADNE

You have to draw from what you know—

COBB

(tense)

Use pieces — a streetlamp, phonebooths, a type of brick — not whole areas.

Several people around them ECHO Cobb’s attitude…

ARIADNE

Why not?

COBB

Because building dreams out of your own memories is the surest way to lose your grip on what’s real and what’s a dream.

ARIADNE

Did that happen to you?

Cobb says nothing. He stands there, staring at Ariadne.

PEOPLE around her stop and look at her, hostile.

COBB

Look, this isn’t about me—

Cobb reaches for Ariadne’s arm, turns her to him—

ARIADNE

Is that why you need me to build your dreams?

A passerby GRABS Ariadne’s shoulder—

COBB

Leave her alone—

More of the crowd join in, PULLING at Ariadne, holding her arms open— Cobb PULLS people off — the crowd PUSHES him away — Cobb sees someone WALKING PURPOSEFULLY through the crowd towards the helpless, Ariadne — it is Mal. She approaches with even strides — Ariadne stares at her, uneasy.

ARIADNE

Wake me up, Cobb.

As Mal walks, she pulls out a LARGE KNIFE—

COBB

Mal, no!

ARIADNE

Wake me up!

Ariadne SCREAMS as Mal LUNGES at her with the knife and we—

CUT TO:

INT. WORKSHOP — DAY

Ariadne WAKES, BREATHING HARD. Arthur moves to her—

ARTHUR

It’s okay.

ARIADNE

Why couldn’t I wake?

ARTHUR

The only way to wake from inside the dream is to die.

Cobb, in the lawn chair opposite, PULLS his tubes out.

COBB

She’ll need a totem.

ARIADNE

What?

ARTHUR

Some kind of personal icon. A small object that you can always have with you, and that no one else knows.

Cobb gets to his feet, Ariadne stares at him, furious. He heads to the bathroom.

ARIADNE

That’s some subconscious you’ve got, Cobb.

(calls after him)

She’s a real charmer!

ARTHUR

Sounds like you’ve met Mrs. Cobb.

ARIADNE

(surprised)

She’s his wife?

Arthur nods, pulling off Ariadne’s tubes.

ARTHUR

So. A totem. You need something small, potentially heavy…

INT. BATHROOM, WORKSHOP — CONTINUOUS

Cobb takes out his PEWTER SPINNING TOP, SPINS it on the marble counter…

INT. WORKSHOP — CONTINUOUS

Ariadne looks at Arthur, puzzled.

ARIADNE

Like a coin?

ARTHUR

Too common. You need something that has a weight or movement that only you know.

INT. BATHROOM, WORKSHOP — CONTINUOUS