What do you want from us?
Inception. Is it possible?
If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead?
Okay, here's me planting an idea in your head: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants." What are you thinking about?
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.
Are you offering me a choice? Because I can find my own way to square things with Cobol.
Then you do have a choice.
Then I choose to leave, sir.
What is the most resilient parasite?...A bacteria?...A virus?...An intestinal worm?
Uh....What Mr. Cobb is trying to say...
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.
For someone like you to steal?
Yes. In the dream state, your conscious defenses are lowered and it makes your thoughts vulnerable to theft. It's called extraction
Mr. Saito, we can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor.
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]
Enjoy your evening, Gentlemen, as I consider your proposal.
[Saito walks away]
He knows. Saito's playing with us.
It doesn't matter. I can get it.
[Environment begins to shake]
What's going on up there?
You've got the basic layout. Bookstore, cafe. Almost everything else is here too.
Projections of my subconscious
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.
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?
Then you break in and steal it?
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.
So, he gives himself the idea.
Precisely. That's the only way it'll stick. It has to seem self-generated.
[laughs]
Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur. Thank you.
[about Mal]
I couldn't shoot her. There's no use in reviving him. It's over.
So that it, then? We failed?
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.
Wait, there's still another way! We just have to follow Fischer down there.
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.
[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...
Nash We're in mine.
[Saito's subconscious projections suddenly break into the room and attack Nash]
Robert Fischer, heir to the Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate.
What's your problem with this Mr. Fischer?
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.
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.
That's where we come in...How is Robert Fischer's relationship with his father?
Rumor is the relationship is quite complicated.
Well, we can't work based solely on rumor, can we?
Can you get me access to this man here? Browning. Fischer Senior's right-hand man. Fischer Junior's godfather.
It should be possible, if you can get the right references.
References are something of a specialty for me, Mr. Saito.
You don't seem to understand, Mr. Saito. The corporation that hired us, they won't accept failure. We won't last two days.
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!
[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.
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?
You can't fix that. No one can.
No idea is simple when you need to plant it in somebody else's mind.
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.
Cobb, we should walk away from this
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?
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.
The compound we'll be using to share the dream creates a very clear connection between dreamers whilst actually accelerating brain function.
In other words, it gives us more time on each level.
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--
[interrupting]
I'm sorry, math was never my strong subject. How much time is that?
It's a week the first level down, Six months the second level down, The third level--
That's 10 years. Who'd would want to be stuck in a dream for ten years?
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?
This, Ariadne, would be a kick. [kicks Arthur's chair; Arthur flails but manages to right himself]
It's that feeling of falling you get that jolts you awake. It snaps you out of the dream.
Are we going to feel a kick with this kind of sedation?
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.
The trick is to synchronize a kick that can penetrate all three levels.
We could use the musical countdown to synchronize the different kicks.
You are seeking a chemist?
To formulate compounds for a job?
And to go into the field with us.
No, I rarely go into the field, Mr. Cobb.
Well, we'd need you there to tailor compounds specific to our needs.
A dream within a dream? Two levels?
[Cobb leans in]
...Three.
Not possible. That many dreams within dreams is too unstable.
It is possible. You just have to add a sedative.
A powerful sedative....How many team members?
Six...The only way to know you've done the job is if I go in with you.
There's no room for tourists on a job like this, Mr. Saito.
This time, it seems there is.
This, I think, is a good place to start. I use it everyday.
Here, I'll show you... [Yusuf grabs his keys, then gives it second thoughts]...Perhaps you will not want to see.
[After Ariadne is stabbed by Mal in a dream, she wakes up gasping for air]
Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. You're okay. You're okay. Hey
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]
She'll need a totem.
A totem. It's a small personal...
That's some subconscious you've got on you, Cobb! She's a real charmer.
Ah, I see you've met Mrs. Cobb.
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.
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.
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]
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.
Eames?...No, He's in Mombasa. It's Cobol's backyard.
There's plenty of good thieves.
We don't just need a thief. We need a forger.
