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 k**ed 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?
YUSUF: Yup. Sorry.
COBB: Suppress them. We don't bring our own projections into the dream-we let Fischer's subconscious supply the people.
EAMES: Saito, when do I get to see Browning?
SAITO: You fly out to Sydney on Tuesday. We've arranged for you to spend several days...
INT. ANTEROOM, MAURICE FISCHER'S OFFICE - DAY
Eames sits in the crowded room. Boxes and files are piled high. Browning stands by a pair of double doors.
SAITO (V.O.): ...as part of a consulting litigation team working for Browning.
BROWNING: I'm not smelling settlement here-we take them down.
LAWYER: Mr. Browning, Maurice Fischer's policy is always one of avoiding litigation-
Browning turns to the lawyer. Calm, but POWERFUL.
BROWNING: Shall we relay your concerns directly to Maurice?
Browning opens the doors to Maurice Fischer's inner office. Eames leans in to watch as Browning beckons the Lawyer into-
INT. MAURICE FISCHER'S INNER OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
The office is a MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL ROOM: a BED where the desk should be. Browning addresses a figure at the window. ROBERT FISCHER, 30'S, abstracted.
BROWNING: How is he?
Fischer turns to Browning. Motions silence, as he glances at his FATHER in the bed. Wheezing gently.
BROWNING: I don't want to bother him unnecessarily but I know he-
FATHER: Robert! I've told you to keep out the damn!-
MAURICE LASHES OUT, KNOCKING things from his bedside table. A NURSE calms Maurice as Fischer crouches to retrieve a FRAMED PHOTOGRAPH. He looks at the photo through the broken gla**- a YOUNG BOY holds a PINWHEEL CLEARLY MADE BY A CHILD (each of the points is numbered in pen), his FATHER blows on it.
BROWNING: Must be a cherished memory of his-
FISCHER: I put it by his bed. He hasn't even noticed.
BROWNING: Robert, we have to talk about a power of attorney. I know this is hard for you, but it's important that we start to think about the future-
FISCHER: Not now, Uncle Peter.
Browning looks at Fischer, considering. Biding his time.
EAMES (V.O.): The vultures are circling. The sicker Maurice Fischer becomes, the stronger Peter Browning becomes...
Eames WATCHES Browning, STUDYING his every move.
INT. BATHROOM - DAY
Eames gestures at a mirror, as if offering to shake hands...
EAMES (V.O.): I've had time to learn Browning's physical presence and mannerisms...
In the mirror: BROWNING GESTURES BACK.
INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUS
EAMES: Now, in the dream, I can impersonate Browning and suggest the concepts to Fischer's conscious mind...(draws a diagram) Then we take Fischer down another level and his own subconscious feeds it right back to him.
ARTHUR (impressed): So he gives himself the idea.
EAMES: Precisely. That's the only way to make it stick. It has to seem self-generated.
ARTHUR: Eames, I'm impressed.
EAMES: Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur.
CUT TO: INT. DESERTED HOTEL LOBBY - DAY
The team sit on the steps of the large marble lobby, debating. Ariadne is showing Arthur the lobby.
EAMES: He's not scheduled for surgery, no dental, nothing.
COBB: I thought he had some knee thing?
EAMES: Nothing they'd put him under for. Besides, we need a good ten hours.
SAITO: Sydney to Los Angeles.
They turn to Saito.
SAITO: Twelve hours and forty-five minutes -- one of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two weeks...
EXT. AIRFIELD - DAY
Fischer steps out of a black town car and walks across the tarmac towards a GULF STREAM JET, accompanied by two aides.
COBB (V.O.): Surely he flies private?
SAITO (V.O.): Not if there were unexpected maintenance with his plane.
Fischer is met at the steps by a DISTRAUGHT FLIGHT OFFICER.
INT. HOTEL LOBBY - DAY
Cobb chews this over. Arthur comes over.
ARTHUR: It'd have to be a 747.
COBB: Why?
ARTHUR: On a 747 the pilots are up above, first cla** is in the nose so nobody walks through the cabin. We'd have to buyout the whole cabin, and the first cla** flight attendant-
SAITO: We bought the airline.
Everyone turns to Saito.
SAITO: It seemed... neater.
COBB: Neater, huh? (gets to his feet) Well, now we have ten uninterrupted hours.
COBB (CONT'D) (to Ariadne): Nice lobby, by the way.
And we-
CUT TO: INT. WORKSHOP - DAY
The group is back in the workshop, deep in discussion.
ARTHUR: My question is how we go down three layers with enough stability. Three layers down a little turbulence is gonna translate into an earthquake. The dreams are gonna collapse with the slightest disturbance.
Yusuf clears his throat.
YUSUF: Sedation. For sleep stable enough to create three layers of dreaming...
INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAY
Yusuf depresses a plunger. Arthur is SLEEPING in a chair.
YUSUF (V.O.): We will have to combine it with an extremely powerful sedative....
Eames SLAPS Arthur, HARD. Arthur does not stir.
INT. WORKSHOP - DAY
Arthur unconsciously rubs his cheek.
YUSUF: The compound we'll be using to share the dream is an advanced Somnacin derivative. It creates a very clear connection between dreamers, whilst actually accelerating brain function.
CUT TO:
COBB: Buying us more time in each level.
YUSUF: Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times normal. And when you go into a dream within that dream the effect is compounded.
ARIADNE: How much time?
YUSUF: Three dreams... that's ten hours, times twenty, times twenty, times twenty...
EAMES: Math was never my strong suit.
COBB: It's basically a week one layer down, six months two layers down-
ARIADNE: And ten years in the third level. Who wants to spend ten years in a dream?
YUSUF: Depends on the dream.
EAMES: It's not going to take us long to crack Fischer open once we get going. We'll be out in a couple days, max.
ARTHUR: How do we get out once we've made the plant? (to Cobb) I hope you've got something a little more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head like last time.
Arthur tilts back in his chair. Yusuf turns to Cobb.
COBB: A kick.
ARIADNE: What's a kick?
Eames slips his foot under Arthur's chair leg. TIPS it- Arthur's legs SHOOT UP INSTINCTIVELY for balance-
EAMES: That, Ariadne, would be a kick.
COBB: That feeling of falling which snaps you awake. We use that to jolt ourselves awake once we're done.
ARTHUR: But how are we going to feel that through the sedation?
YUSUF: That's the clever part. I customize the sedative...
INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAY
Cobb, Eames and Yusuf watch Arthur, ASLEEP, in a chair.
YUSUF (O.S.): To leave inner ear function unimpaired...
Yusuf, with a wicked grin, slowly TIPS Arthur's chair backwards... as he falls, Arthur's body JERKS, EYES OPENING just before he HITS the floor.
INT. WORKSHOP - DAY
Arthur thinks, nodding slowly.
YUSUF: That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper will still feel falling...
INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAY
Yusuf gleefully LEANS a SLEEPING ARTHUR to one side...
YUSUF (V.O.): Or tipping...
Arthur goes down with a CRASH, JERKING AWAKE-
INT. WORKSHOP - DAY
Arthur thinks this through.
ARTHUR: Even that won't cut through three layers of deep sleep.
COBB: The trick is to devise a kick for each level, then synchronize them to get a snap that penetrates all three layers.
Arthur looks at Cobb, getting it.
ARTHUR: We can use the musical countdown to synchronize the different kicks.