Christopher Nolan - Inception: The Plan lyrics

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.