Christopher Nolan - Inception - The Shooting Script

How long in dream time?

YUSUF

With this compound… about forty hours. Each and every day.

Saito surveys the room, appalled.

SAITO

Why do they do it?

YUSUF

Tell him, Mr. Cobb.

COBB

After a while…

(looks at Saito)

It becomes the only way you can dream.

YUSUF

Do you still dream, Mr. Cobb?

Cobb STARES at the sleepers. Uneasy.

EAMES

They come here every day to sleep?

ELDERLY BALD MAN (O.S.)

No.

Cobb turns to the Elderly Bald Man, who looks fondly at his dreamers.

ELDERLY BALD MAN

They come to be woken up… the dream has become their reality…

The Elderly Bald Man pokes a crooked finger at Cobb’s chest.

ELDERLY BALD MAN

And who are you to say otherwise?

Cobb STARES at the Elderly Bald Man. DISTURBED. Cobb turns to Yusuf. TOSSES him the bottle.

COBB

Let’s see what you can do.

INT. SAME — MOMENTS LATER

Cobb is lying on an empty cot, asleep. Yusuf stands over him.

As we move in on Cobb’s SLEEPING FACE we hear the sound of a FREIGHT TRAIN, BUILDING, and we—

CUT TO:

EXT. WASTELAND — DAY

CLOSE ON Cobb’s face as he lies, EYES CLOSED, cheek pressed to a METAL RAIL — THE SOUND OF THE TRAIN IS DEAFENING — Cobb is BREATHING, BREATHING, BREATHING, and we—

CUT TO:

INT. BACK ROOM, PHARMACY — DAY

Cobb’s eyes open. Yusuf is watching him.

YUSUF

Sharp, no?

Cobb nods. Gets to his feet, looking around—

INT. BATHROOM, PHARMACY — CONTINUOUS

Cobb SPLASHES water on his face, breathing hard—

INSERT CUT: A CURTAIN BILLOWS. MAL TURNS TO US, HAIR BLOWING, SMILING.

Cobb fumbles in his pockets, pulls out his spinning top. He tries to set it spinning on the back edge of the sink, but it FALLS to the floor and rolls towards the door — Saito is there. WATCHING Cobb. He looks down at the spinning top.

SAITO

Everything alright, Mr. Cobb?

Cobb dries his face with a paper towel. Picks up his top.

COBB

Everything’s fine.

INT. BACK ROOM, WORKSHOP — NIGHT

Close on a small BRASS CHESS PIECE. Ariadne tips it over.

Frowning, she picks up a micro drill, peels back the felt on the bottom and widens a hole in one side of its base. Tests the TIPPING POINT again. A NOISE makes her look up.

INT. WORKSHOP — CONTINUOUS

Ariadne comes into the main space. Someone is there, unpacking one of the MECHANISMS. Cobb.

ARIADNE

You’re back.

Cobb looks up with a start. Caught out.

ARIADNE

Are you going under on your own?

COBB

I just— I need to test some things. I didn’t realize anyone was here.

ARIADNE

Just working on my totem.

Ariadne holds up the chess piece. Cobb reaches for it.

COBB

Let me see—

Ariadne SNAPS it out of his reach. Smiles. Cobb nods.

COBB

You’re learning.

ARIADNE

It’s an elegant solution to keeping track of reality. Your invention?

COBB

No. Mal’s.

Cobb pulls out his spinning top. Looks at it.

COBB

This one was hers. She’d spin it in a dream and it would never topple. Just spin and spin…

ARIADNE

Arthur told me she died.

COBB

She did. How are the mazes coming?

Ariadne indicates three large ARCHITECTURAL MODELS.

ARIADNE

Good. Each level relates to the part of the subject’s subconscious we’re trying to access. I’m making the bottom level a hospital, so that Fischer will bring his father there—

COBB

Don’t tell me. Remember, you only want the dreamer to know the layout.

ARIADNE

Why’s that so important?

COBB

In case one of us brings in part of our subconscious. You wouldn’t want any projections knowing the layout.

ARIADNE

In case you bring Mal in.

Cobb says nothing.

ARIADNE

You won’t build yourself because if you know the maze, then she knows it. And she’d sabotage the operation. You can’t keep her out, can you?

Cobb says nothing.

ARIADNE

Do the others know?

COBB

No.

ARIADNE

You have to warn them if it’s getting worse—

COBB

(gentle)

I didn’t say it’s getting worse. Look, Ariadne, I need them for this job. I need you for this job. Without your help, I’ll never get back to my children. And that’s all I can care about right now.

ARIADNE

Why can’t you go home, Cobb?

Cobb looks at her, deciding what to say.

COBB

They think I killed her.

ARIADNE

How did she die?

Cobb thinks.

INSERT CUT: Mal, wind BLOWING her hair, smiles at Cobb. Now we see Cobb — SHAKING HIS HEAD, TEARS STREAMING, BEGGING-

COBB

Thank you.

ARIADNE

For what?

COBB

Not asking whether I did.

INT. WORKSHOP — DAY

Ariadne, Arthur, Yusuf, Eames and Saito sit around the room, looking at FILES. Cobb presides.

COBB

The mark is Robert Fischer, heir to the Australian energy conglomerate, Fischer Morrow.

Cobb opens a large presentation pad.

COBB (reads aloud)

“I WILL SPLIT UP MY FATHER’S EMPIRE.”

Cobb turns to the team.

COBB

An idea Robert Fischer’s conscious mind would never accept. We have to plant it deep in his subconscious.

ARTHUR

How deep?

COBB

Three levels down.

ARTHUR

A dream within a dream within a dream? Is that even possible?

COBB

Yes. It is.

COBB

Now, the subconscious motivates through emotion, not reason, so we have to translate the idea into an emotional concept.

ARTHUR

How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?

COBB

That’s what we have to figure out. Robert and his father have a tense relationship. Worse, even, than the gossip columns have suggested…

EAMES

Do you play on that? Suggest breaking up his father’s company as a ‘screw you’ to the old man?

COBB

No. Positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We yearn for people to be reconciled, for catharsis. We need positive emotional logic.

Eames thinks. Paces. Looking back at the board.

EAMES

Try this… “MY FATHER ACCEPTS THAT I WANT TO CREATE FOR MYSELF, NOT FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS.”

COBB

That might work.

ARTHUR

Might? We’ll have to do better than that.

EAMES

Thanks for the contribution, Arthur.

ARTHUR

Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames.

COBB

Inception’s not about specificity. When we get inside his head, we’re going to have to work with what we find.

Arthur shrugs, frustrated. And we—

CUT TO:

EXT. NEW YORK STREETS — DAY

The team are in the middle of a DESERTED intersection.

Ariadne is showing Yusuf aspects of the geography.

EAMES

We could split the idea into emotional triggers, and use one on each level.

COBB

How do you mean?

EAMES

On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father…. Say: “I WILL NOT FOLLOW IN MY FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS.” Next level down we’ve accessed his ambition and self-esteem. We feed him: “I WILL CREATE SOMETHING MYSELF.” Then, the bottom level, we bring out the emotional big guns…

COBB

"MY FATHER DOESN’T WANT ME TO BE HIM."

EAMES

That could do it.

ARTHUR

How do you produce these emotional triggers?

EAMES

I forge each emotional concept in the style and manner of Peter Browning, a key figure in Fischer’s emotional life.

Two AFRICAN PEDESTRIANS wander into view.

ARTHUR

Are those yours?

Eames shakes his head. Cobb turns to Yusuf.

ARTHUR

Yusuf?