INCEPTION [2010]: Plot

Plot ON GOING!
This blog is still in process. More plots and images will be added soon. (^_^)v
#Red color --> information & explaination on clues









THE BEGINNING

1. Cobb washed up on the beach [Limbo]
The movie start with a "flash-forward", showing Cobb washed up on the beach.
A Japanese guard finds Cobb and sees a gun on his back. The guard takes Cobb's belonging to an old man in a Japanese fortress: a gun, and a small brass top.

Then Cobb is brought up to meet the old man [Saito], and they give him food to eat.
# If we look carefully, we can see that Cobb is wearing a WEDDING RING here.
Seeing the brass top, the old man starts to talk. Then he spins the brass top. As it spins constantly, Cobb stares at it, thinking of something, trying to remember...

# Noted that Saito touches the totem here, but he touches it in a dream [Limbo], so he doesn't really know the characteristic of the real totem, so it doesn't "ruin" the totem. And, remember that this scene is a near end scene too, there's no way it could affect the previous events.

Saito: Are you here to kill me?
[pause]
Saito: I know what this is... I've seen one before. Many many years ago. It belonged to a man I met in a half-remembered dream. He was possessed of some radical notions.
Cobb: I came here to tell you... something.
[pause]
Cobb: Something that... you once knew to be true.
Saito: [remembering] Impossible...

# The scene in the beginning and in the near-end looks a bit different, but it is from the same scene. Nolan cuts some frames and uses different frames for the beginning and the ending.

ABCDEFGHIJ [Full scene]
AB..D..FG...... [Beginning]
ABC..E....HIJ [Ending]

2. Arthur's dream - 2nd Layer: Saito's Resort & Vault

Then the scene moves on Cobb and Arthur facing Saito in the dining table, but they're all young. It's a flash back from the previous scene.

Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere. 

Cobb: I know how to find secrets from your Mind, I know all the tricks! 
 

Cobb and Arthur are trying to persuade Saito to tell them his company's secret. But Saito suspected them and they failed to persuade him. So they have to try another way, by entering Saito's vault to get the secret. When Cobb and Arthur go outside, they meet with Mal.

# Mal is Cobb's projection. And there was some "earthquakes" because the above dream is having a riot with explotions.

Mal: If I jump, would I survive?
Cobb: A clean dive, perhaps. Mal, what are you doing here?
Mal: I thought you might be missing me.
Cobb: You know I am but I can't trust you anymore.
Mal: So what?  

 Mal: Tell me, do the children miss me?
Cobb: You can't imagine.


When Cobb enters the vault and steals the document, Mal shows up with Saito. Cobb asks Saito.

Cobb: Did she tell you? Or you've known all along?
Saito: That you're here trying to steal from me? or that we are actually asleep?

Saito and Mal got Arthur hostaged. Mal threatened to shot Arthur.

Cobb: Ah.. There's no use threatening him in a dream, right, Mal?
Mal: It depends on what you're threatening. Killing him will just wake him up. But pain...
[shoots Arthur in the knee]
Mal: Pain is in the mind, and judging by the decorum we're in your mind, aren't we, Arthur? 

Mal shots Arthur's leg. To release him from pain, Cobb shots Arthur on the head. As Arthur dies, the dream starts to collapse.





3. Nash's dream - 1st Level: Saito's apartment

Arthur wakes up in a room, Nash is waiting there, Saito and Cobb are still sleeping. Saito starts to wake up while Cobb "refusing" to wake up because he's still trying to read the secret documents, and he finds the most important thing is missing. Nash pushes Cobb into the bathtub as a "kick" to wake him up.
# When Cobb is reachinng the tub's side, we can see his WEDDING RING again. This means they are still in a dream.

Cobb threatened Saito to reveal the secret that he hides. And Cobb pushes Saito into the carpet. When Saito fell on it, he starts laughing...

Saito: I've always hated this carpet. It stained and fade in such a distinctive ways. That way you know it's made of wools. But now... I'm lying on pollyester. Which means I'm not lying on my carpet in my apartment. You have lived after your reputation, Mr. Cobb. I am still dreaming.

4. Real world: Waking up on a train

Arthur: Asshole! How did you mess up the carpet?
Nash: It wasn't my fault.
Arthur: You're the architect!
Nash: I didn't know he was going to rub his damn cheek on it! 

Arthur: And you... [glares at Cobb]  What was all that about?
Cobb: I got it inder control.
Arthur: I would hate to see you out of control.

The mission fails. They wake up on a train in Japan. Cobb touches Saito's vein to check his heart pulse. # We can see Cobb is not wearing a wedding ring.
Then Cobb says he's going down on Kyoto Station, the nearest station, because he doesn't like train. # When Cobb and Mal lost in Limbo, they kill themself on a train rail.

Cobb: I'm getting off at Kyoto.
Nash: Why? He's not gonna check every compartments.
Cobb: I don't like trains.

THE PREPARATION

5. Saito's Offer

As Cobb made it back to the hotel, he holds the gun with his right hand, and he spins his Totem [the brass top] with his left hand. # No wedding ring. He sees the Totem wobbles and falls. Cobb is ready to blow his head off to wake himself up if the Totem continues to spin.
Then he receives a call from his children in The States.
Cobb: [over the phone] How are you, huh? How are you doing?
James: Okay, I guess.
Cobb: Who's just okay? Is that you, James?
James: Yeah. Is Mommy with you?
Cobb: James, we talked about this. Mommy's not here anymore.
James: Where?

When Cobb and Arthur trying to run away from Japan, Saito gets into them, Nash betrayed Cobb and Arthur by telling Saito where they are. Saito gives Cobb the honor to kill Nash for his betrayal, but Cobb says it's not his way to deal with problems. Saito doesn't kill Nash, he lets him off, but he says he cannot guarantee what the Cobbol Company would do to him if they finds him.

Saito offers Cobb a job, not to steal from someone's mind, but to plant an idea instead.
Arthur says it's impossible. In order to make an idea grow, that person must think that it is HIS idea.

Cobb: What do you want from us?

Saito: Inception. Is it possible?

Arthur: Of course not.

Saito: If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, then why can't you plan one idea instead?

Arthur: Ok, here's me planting an idea in your head, I say "don't think about elephants", what do you think?"
Saito: Elephants.
Arthur: 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.
Cobb: It's not true.
Saito: Can you do it?
Cobb: Are you offering me a choice? Coz I can find my own way to square the things with The Cobbol.

Saito: Then You do have a choice.

Cobb: And I choose to leave, Sir.

Saito tells what he wants from Cobb, and he let Cobb decides if he wanted to take the mission or leave and find his own way to deal with The Cobbol Company.

Saito: I need him to decide to break apart his father's empire.

Then Saito asks Cobb whether Cobb wanted to go home and see his kids again, he says he CAN make the charges dropped.

Saito: Hey Mr. Cobb. How would you like to go home? To America... to your children...

Cobb: If I even could do it... I need a guarantee. How do I know you can deliver?
Saito: You don't. But I can. So... don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?

7. Going to Paris

Arthur: Look, I know how much you wanted to go home. This can't be done.

Cobb: Yes it can. We just have to go deep enough.

Arthur: You don't know that.

Cobb: I've done it before.

Arthur: Who'd you do it to?

[Cobb silence]

Arthur: Why we're going to Paris?

Cobb: We need a new Architect.

8. Getting A New Architect

Cobb visits Prof. Miles, his father, in a university/school.
Prof. Miles: Is it safe for you to be here?

Cobb: The extradiction between Europe and The United States is a bureaucratic nightmare, you know?

Prof. Miles: I never taught you to be a thief.

Cobb: You taught me to navigate people's minds. But after what happened, there are a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.

Prof. Miles: What are you doing Here, Dom?

Cobb: I think I found a way home. It's a job for some very VERY powerfull people... People who I believe could fix my charges permanently. But I need your help.

Prof. Miles: You're here to corrupt one of my brightest invest.

Cobb: What I'm offering, you have to let them decide for themself.

Prof. Miles: Money?

Cobb: Not just money. You remember... It's a chance to built a cathedral, entire city, things that never existed, things that couldn't exist in the real world.

Prof. Miles: So you want me to let someone else... follow you into your fantasy?

Cobb: They don't actually come into the dream. They just design the levels and teach them to the dreamers. That's all.

Prof. Miles: Design it yourself.

Cobb: Mal won't let me.

Prof. Miles: Come back to reality, Dom... Please...

Cobb: Reality... Those kids... your grand children... They are waiting for their father to come back home. That's their reality. And this job, this LAST job, that's how I get there. I would not be standing here if I knew any other ways. I need an Architect who is as good as I was.

Prof. Miles: I've got somebody better.

Cobb meets Ariadne, a real Architect.
Professor: Mr. Cobb has a job offer he would like to discuss with you.
Ariadne: Like a work placement?
Cobb: Not exactly. 

Ariadne: Won't you tell me anything about this first?
Cobb: Before I describe the job I have to know you can do it.
Ariadne: Why?
Cobb: It's not, strictly speaking, legal. 

He asks Ariadne to make a maze in 2 minutes that'll need 1 minute to be solved. Then he takes Ariadne into dreams. At the first training, Ariadne doesn't realized that she's in a dream, until Cobb asks her how did they get into the cofee shop.

Cobb: You create the world of the dream, you bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious.
Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that its reality?
Cobb: Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on.
Ariadne: I guess, yeah.
Cobb: So how did we end up here?
Ariadne: Well we just came from the a...
Cobb: Think about it Ariadne, how did you get here? Where are you right now?
Ariadne: We're dreaming?
Cobb: You're actually in the middle of the workshop right now, sleeping. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming. Stay calm. 

When Ariadne feels shocked, the dream starting to collapse, the surroundings explodes and the buildings are collapsing. They wake up in the warehouse. Then they continue the training with anouther 5 minutes [1 hour in their dream].
*****


Within this dream, Ariadne experimenting by changing the physycal surroundings. The people around them are looking at Ariadne [Cobb's projections].
Ariadne: I guess I thought the dream-space would be all about the visual, but it's more about the feeling. My question is what happens when you start messing with the physics of it. 

Ariadne: That's something, is it?

Cobb: Yes it is.

[Cobb and Ariadne walk through the vertical road, the people around them looking at Ariadne]

Ariadne: Why are they all looking at me?

Cobb: Cause my subconscious feels that someone else is creating this world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections start to converge them.

Ariadne: Converge?

Cobb: It sense the foreign nature of the dreamer. They attack like white blood cells fighting an infection.

Ariadne: Are they going to attack us?

Cobb: No. Just you.

[Ariadne creates a bridge from nowhere in the middle of the road]

Cobb: This is great but I'm telling you, if you keep changing things like this...


Cobb's subconscious mind feels that someone is messing with his mind so his projections starting to look for the dreamer. This cannot be controlled by him, because it's his subconscious.
Ariadne: Jesus... You mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?
Cobb: It's my subconscious. Remember, I can't control it.

Then Cobb realizes that Ariadne is building the dream based on the real world, from her memory. Cobb warns her not to do that, that'll make people get lost easier because they wouldn't be able to tell which is a dream or reality.
Cobb: I know this bridge. This place is real, isn't it?
Ariadne: Yeah, I cross it everyday to get to the college.
Cobb: Never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places!
Ariadne: Well, you gotta draft from stuff you know, right?
Cobb: Only use details. A street lamp or a phone booth. Never entire areas.
Ariadne: Why not?
Cobb: Because building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp from what's real and what is a dream.
Ariadne: Is that what happened to you?
Cobb: Listen to me. This has nothing to do with me, understand?
[The crowd stops moving and they're standing and looking at Ariadne]
Ariadne: Is that why you need me to build your dreams?
[Cobb feels upset and his projections start grabbing roughly at Ariadne] 
Cobb: Get off her. Back up. Back up!!
Ariadne: Cobb!



Since it is a place where Cobb has spent time together with Mal, his emotions becomes unstable, and as Ariadne insisted with her opinion, Cobb's projection has becoming more rude and start to attack Ariadne. Mal comes and stabs Ariadne. Ariadne wakes up in shock and upset.
Ariadne: [wakes up after being stabbed by Mal in a dream] Why... why wouldn't I wake up?
Arthur: 'Cause there was still some time on the clock and you can't wake up from within a dream unless you die

Cobb: She's gonna need a totem.
Ariadne: What?
Arthur: A totem, it's a small, personal...


Ariadne: That's sound subconscious you've got on you, Cobb! She's a real charmer!
Arthur: Oh, I see you've met Mrs Cobb.


Cobb says she needs a Totem, because she might get lost in a dream with her way of creating the dream world based on her memories. Cobb spins his Totem, the small Brass Top to check.
Arthur: So, a totem. It's a small object, potentially heavy, something you can have on you all the time...
Ariadne: What, like a coin?
Arthur: No, it has to be more unique than that, like - this is a loaded die.
[Ariadne reaches out to take the die]
Arthur: Nah, 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 you're not in someone else's dream. 


Ariadne left in anger, but Cobb says she'll be back. And she does.
Arthur: Cobb said you'd be back.
Ariadne: I tried not to come, but...
Arthur: But there's nothing quite like it.
Ariadne: It's just... pure creation.



Ariadne: [contemplating her totem] An elegant solution for keeping track of reality.


Arthur teaches Ariadne about "paradox" to keep the maze going so The Mark/Subject won't realize that he's in a dream.

Ariadne: My subconscious seems polite enough.
Arthur: Well wait, it'll turn ugly. No one wants to feel someone else messing around their mind. 

Ariadne: Cobb can't build anymore, can he?
Arthur: I don't know if he can't, but he won't. He thinks it's safer if he doesn't know the layouts.
Ariadne: Why?
Arthur: He won't tell me, but I think it's Mal.
Ariadne: His ex-wife?
Arthur: No, not his ex.
Ariadne: They're still together?
Arthur: No. She... she's dead. What you see in there is just his projection.
Ariadne: What was she like in real life?
Arthur: She was lovely.





9. Mombasa: Getting A Forger

Arthur: Where are you gonna be?
Cobb: I gotta go visit Eames.
Arthur: (looks displeased) Eames? No, he's in Mombasa. It's Cobol's backyard.
Cobb: It's a necessary risk.
Arthur: There is plenty of good thieves.
Cobb: We don't just need a thief. We need a forger.
 

Cobb: Your spelling hasn't improved? How's your handwriting?

Eames: The best in town.
Cobb: Good.

Cobb: Inception. Now, before you bother telling me it's impossible...
Eames: No, it's perfectly possible. It's just bloody difficult. Interesting.
Cobb: So Arthur keeps telling me it can't be done.
Eames: (cynical laugh) Arthur... You still work with that stick and mind?
Cobb: He's good at what he does, right?
Eames: Oh, he's the best. He has no imagination.
Cobb: Not like you.
Eames: Listen, if you're gonna perform inception you need imagination.

Eames: Do you have a Chemist?
Cobb: No... Not yet.
Eames: Right... There's a man here, Yusuf, he uh... he formulates his own versions of compounds.
Cobb: When will you take me there?
Eames: Once you loose your tail.
The man at the bar.
Cobb: Cobol Engineering. That price on my head, is it dead or alive
Eames: Don't remember. Let's see if they start shooting.
Cobb: Without interference I'll meet you downstairs in about say uh.. half an hour?
Eames: Back here?
Cobb: It's the last place they'd suspect.
Eames: Hmm Hmmm... Well...
[walks toward the bar]

Eames: Fredy! Fredy Simmons? My God, it's you isn't it... [pause] No it isn't...

Cobb is being chased by the Cobbol men. They start shooting and trying to kill him. Saito comes in time for the rescue, to protect his investment. Then Eames joins them to discuss the mission.





10. Mombasa: Getting The Chemist

Cobb, Eames, and Saito visits Yusuf's shop and sees his underground laboratory. They need Yusuf to make a specific drug for them to make 3 layers dream.

Inception is hard to do because they have to go deep enough: 3 layers. It's dangerous because:

Yusuf: Dreams within dreams is too unstable!

Arthur: With the slightest disturbance, the dream's going to collapse.

To enter 3 layers dream, they need a stronger sedative, and this is also dangerous. Since the sedative is so strong, if they die they won't wake up, they'll be sent into a Limbo.
If the dream collapse before the sedative runs out, or collapse while they're still in deeper layer, they'll also sent to Limbo.

# Going into Limbo is dangerous because when they enter the Limbo they'll forget things, they won't remember what's real and not real. They have to remember that they're dreaming before they can decide to kill themself to wake up (this can be done if the strong sedative already runs out). And if they fail to remember that they're actually asleep for a long time (in real world), their mind will become vegetables, just like going into a coma state.

In the underground there are people who sleep using Yusuf's sedative. They're all connected to the PASIVE Device (the dream machine).
Eames: Do they come here to sleep?
Thin Man: [Looking at Cobb] No, They come here to be woken up. Dream has become their reality! Who are you to say, otherwise?

During the test in Mombasa, Cobb dreamt about Mal, how they die on the train tracks, reminded him on how he accidently incepted Mal's mind. 

When Cobb washes his face in the restroom, he's "seeing" the window where Mal jumped to suicide.

He's haunted by that & he nervously spun his Totem & it fell off from his hand when Saito showed up to see how he's doing.

# The dream brought up his guilt, made him remember how Mal suicides and this is symbolized by the window scene. There is a "theory" saying that Cobb stucks in his dream during the test in Mombasa, this is not true. When Cobb wakes up in shock after his dream, he's not wearing his wedding ring, this means he's awake from his dream.

 

11. The Reason

Saito said that his company is the last company who's still standing between Fischer's company and the total energy dominates. And his company can no longer compete. This would make Fischer's company takes over half of the entire world's energy marketplace. If this happens, Fischer company will become a new global superpower dominator.

Saito: The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind.

Cobb: You're asking me for Inception. I hope you do understand the gravity of that request. Cobb: The seed that we planted in this man's mind may change everything.

They have to make 3 layers, because they have to plant the "seed" deep enough, to make Robert Fischer Jr. thinks that it is HIS idea. And the deeper the dream is, the deeper the subconscious is. So when he wakes up, he won't really remember about meeting them in dreams.

Ariadne will make the design and architecture, creating a maze. She makes a miniature, and she teaches the "dreamers" how to make the maze.

When Cobb met Prof Miles [his Dad] to find a new Architect, Prof Miles asked if he's going to corrupt another of his brilliant student, and take her to enter his dream world. Cobb answers that the Architect would only teach the dreamers how to make the maze.
Ariadne wasn't suppose to enter the mission with them, but she insisted to go along because she's the only one in the team who knew about Cobb's problem and also seen Cobb's dream about Mal.

Then when Cobb asked about her progress, Ariadne took the meniature and tried to explain her plan, Cobb said "No no.. don't tell me the details. Only dreamers should know the details." Cobb worries that if he knows the maze, then Mal would know too, and she will ruin the whole mission.

# They want Robert Fischer to change his mind and break apart the company. But they can't just "tell him" to break it apart, because people's subconscious would reject negative cause, survival instinct. So they have to make it in a possitive way. That's why they're using Robert's relationship with his father as a mean to reach their goal.

They agree to make the idea as a strong possitive emotion that would look like self-improvement. In this case, a possitive development on Fischer's relation with his father.
Arthur: Eames, I am impressed.
Eames: Your condescension is always much appreciated, Arthur. Thank you. 

They plan to put the idea in the third layer. But before that, in each layers they will "direct" him to think the way they want him to think. This is where Eames's "forgery ability" needed.

Cobb: I will split up my father's empire. Now this is obviously an idea that Robert Fischer will choose to reject - which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. Subconscious is fueled by emotion, right? Not reason. We need a find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.

Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?

Cobb: Well, that's what we're here to figure out, right? Now Fischer's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least...

Eames: Well, can we run with that? Suggest splitting up the empire as a "screw-you" to the old man?

Cobb: No, cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all crave reconciliation - we're catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.

Eames: Alright, well try this. 'My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps'.

Cobb: That might work.

Arthur: Might? We're gonna need to do a little better than might.

Eames: Oh, thank you for your contribution, Arthur!

Arthur: Forgive me for wanting a little specificity.

[Eames appears confused at the word]

Arthur: Specificity?

***** ***** *****

Yusuf, The Chemist, explained that the deeper the dream, it's 20x the above layer.

Eames: Errr... Math is not my favorite subject. How much time is that?

10 hours flight is approximately:
1st layer = 1 week
2nd layer = 6 months
3rd layer = 10 years


Arthur: So, once we've made the plant, how do we go out? Hope you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head?
Cobb: A kick.
Ariadne: What's a kick?
Eames: This, Ariadne, would be a kick
[kicks the leg of the chair Arthur's swinging at]
Arthur: [finds his balance and glares at Eames

Yusuf: The compound that'll be used to share the dream created a very clear connection between dreamers, plus actually accelerating brain function.

Cobb: In other words, it gives us more time on each level. 

Yusuf: Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times normal. When you enter a dream within that dream the effect is compounded. It's three dreams, that's 10 hours, that's twenty...

Eames: I'm sorry, math is never my strong subject. How much time is that?

Cobb: It's a week the first level down. Six months the second level and the third level...

Ariadne: Is ten years. Who would wanna be stuck in a dream for ten years?

Yusuf: Depends on the dream.

Arthur: So, once we've made the plant, how do we go out? Hope you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head?
Cobb: A kick.
Ariadne: What's a kick?
Eames: This, Ariadne, would be a kick
[kicks the leg of the chair Arthur's swinging at]
Arthur: [finds his balance and glares at Eames]

Cobb: It's a feeling of falling, you get the jolts, you awaken... snaps you out of the dream.

Arthur: Are we gonna feel a kick with this kind of sedation?

Yusuf: Oh, that's the counterpart. I've customized it to leave any ear function unimpaired. That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper still feels falling. Or tipping.

Cobb: The trick is to synchronize a kick, that can penetrate all three levels.

Arthur: We can use a musical content to synchronize the different kicks.

Eames: We need at least a good ten hours.
Saito: Sydney to Los Angeles. One of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two months.
Cobb: He must be flying privately.
Saito: Not if there was unexpected maintenance with his plane…
Arthur: It would have to be a 747.
Cobb: Why is that?
Arthur: Because on a 747 the pilot is up top, and the first class cabin is in the nose, so no one would walk through. But you’d have to buy out the entire cabin. And the first class flight attendant. 
Saito: I bought the airline.
[Everybody turns and stares at him. Saito just shrugs]
Saito: It seemed neater.

12. Cobb's Secret

Cobb: I need to get home. That's all I care about right now. 

Ariadne: Why can't you go home?
Cobb: Because they think I killed her.
Ariadne: [remains silent]
Cobb: Thank you.
Ariadne: For what?
Cobb: For not asking whether I did.

Ariadne often sees Cobb trying the dream machine on himself. One night when she sees Cobb sleeping alone, she enters Cobb's dream, and finds Cobb and Mal living in his dreams, based on his memories.

Cobb: You shouldn't be here

Ariadne: I just want to see what kind of tests you're doing here alone every night.

Cobb: Whatever it was, it has nothing to do with you.

Ariadne: It has everything to do with me. You've asked me to shared dreams with you.

Cobb: Not these. These are my dreams.


Ariadne: These aren't just dreams, these are memories and you said never to use memories! 


Cobb: The moment's passed. Whatever I do I can't change this moment. I'm about to call out to them. They run away. If I'm ever going to see their faces I've gotta get back home. The real world.

Ariadne: Why do you do this to yourself?

Cobb: It's the only way I can still dream.

Ariadne: Why is it so important to dream?

Cobb: In my dreams we're still together.

Cobb's dream devided into levels, the deeper level, the darker the memories. And at the bottom of all, is Cobb's deepest regret of his life, the memory of Mal doing suicide on their anniversary day. Ariadne gets into the elevator alone and she pushes the button to the lowest level. The elevator takes her into a messy hotel room, Mal was there.

Mal: What are you doing here?
Ariadne: My name is...
Mal: I know who you are. What are you doing here?
Ariadne: I'm just trying to understand...
Mal: How could you understand? Do you know what it is to be a lover? To be half of a whole?
Ariadne: No...
Mal: I'll tell you a riddle. You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where this train will take you?
Cobb: Because you'll be together



[Mal attacks Cobb and Ariadne; Cobb closes elevator door before Mal can reach them]
Mal: You promised! You promised!
Cobb: Please, I just have to keep you here, just for now.
Mal: You said we'd be together! You said we'd grow old together!
Cobb: I'll come back, I promise.
[Mal glares at them]

Ariadne: Cobb, I'm coming with you.
Cobb: I promised Miles...
Ariadne: The team needs someone who understands what you're struggling with. And it doesn't have to be me, but then you have to show Arthur what I just saw.
Cobb: [to Saito] Get us another seat on the plane. 

THE MISSION



13.  On The Plane

Cobb: If I get on this plane and you don't honor our agreement.. When we land, I go to jail for the rest of my life.

Saito: Complete the job on board. I'll make one phone call from the plane. You will have no trouble getting through immigration.

When Fischer enters the first class cabin, Eames stands in the way, pretend opening his jacket. When Fischer passes by, Eames steals Fischer's passport and then hands it to Cobb.

Cobb gives the passport back to Fischer as an excuse to start a small conversation with him.

Cobb: Excuse me, I think this is yours? You must've dropped it.

Stewardess: Gentlemen, can I have your drink?

Cobb: Oh, water please.

Fischer: The same, please.

Fischer: (checking his passport) Thank you.

Cobb: you know I couldn't help but notice, but you won't happen to be related to... "The Maurice Fischer", would you?

Fischer: Yes, he... he was my father.

Cobb: Well he was a very inspiring figure. I'm sorry for your loss.

Stewardess: Sir. (handing in a glass of water to Cobb)

Cobb: (Drops a sedative into the water and gives the glass to Fischer)Here you go.

Fischer: Thank you. (Trying to put the glass away)

Cobb: Hey, to your father. May he rest in peace, huh. (Moves his glass to Fischer to make a toast)

Fischer: (accepts the toast and drink the sedated water)

Not long after that Fischer falls asleep. Yusuf finishes his last glass of champagne. Cobb and his team prepares and connect themselves into the PASIVE Device (the dream machine in the briefcase).






14. 1st Layer: Rainy City (Yusuf's Dream)


As they fall asleep they enter the first dream, it's Yusuf's dream and it's raining hard. This happens because Yusuf drinks a lot of champagne and didn't get the chance to pee before he sleep, hence the rainfall.

Arthur: You couldn't have peed before you went on there.

Yusuf: Sorry.

Eames: Pitching much free champagne before take off, right, Yusuf?

Yusuf: Ha-ha. Bloody ha!

Cobb: Well now, he's gonna be looking for taxi in this weather.

They didn't plan for the rainfall, so they make a little change of plan, they predicted that Fischer would be looking for a taxi, so they need to get a taxi. Arthur and Saito get the taxi and Fischer gets in. Eames gets into the taxi too after Fischer sits inside and Saito points a gun at Fischer.
Fischer: [handing his abductors his wallet] There's five hundred dollars in there. And the wallet's worth more than that.

Not long after that a bunch of armed guys shows up and attacks them. Meanwhile Cobb and Ariadne gets blocked by a train comes from nowhere. They run to a warehouse and gather there.


Arthur: What happened to you?
Cobb: Got blocked by a train.
Arthur: Why would you put a freight train in the middle of a street?
Ariadne: I didn't.
Arthur: Then why was it there?
Cobb: Let me ask you a question, why the hell were we ambushed? Those were not normal projections, they've been trained for God's sake!
Ariadne: Trained? How could they be trained?
Arthur: Fischer's had an extractor train his subconscious to defend itself. It should have showed in the research I'm sorry. 



Eames: Now, let's put him out of his misery. (Pointing a gun on Saito)
Cobb: No, no! Don't do that!
Eames: What's the matter, Cobb?
Cobb: Don't do that.
Eames: He's in agony, I'm waking him up.
Cobb: No, it won't wake him up.
Eames: What do you mean, it won't wake him up?
Cobb: It won't wake him up.
Eames: When we die in a dream, we wake up.
Yusuf: Not from this. We're too heavily sedated to wake up that way.
Eames: Right, so what happens when we die?
Cobb: We drop in a limbo.
Arthur: Are you serious?
Ariadne: Limbo?
Arthur: Unconstructed dream space.
Ariadne: What the hell is down there?
Arthur: Just raw infinite subconscious. Nothing is down there. Except for whatever might have been left behind by anyone sharing the dream who has been trapped there before. Which in our case, is just you (Cobb).
Ariadne: How long can we be stuck there?
Yusuf: I can't even think about trying to escape until the sedation is....
Eames: How long, Yusuf?
Yusuf: Decades, it could be infinite. I don't know. Ask him (Cobb), he's the one who's been there.

Arthur: And you! You knew about this and went along with it!
Yusuf: I trusted him!
Arthur: You trusted him! What, when he promised you half his share?
Yusuf: No, his whole share. Besides he said he'd done it before.
Arthur: You've done it before? What, with Mal? 'Cause that worked so good!
Cobb: That has nothing to do with it. I did what I had to do to get back to my children.

Eames (talking to Cobb): So now we're trapped in Fischer's mind battling his own private army... and if we get killed, we'll be lost in limbo till our brains turn to scrambled egg, hmm?

Eames: I think I'm going to sit this one out on this level, boys.
Cobb: 10 hours of flight is a week in the first level that means every one of us will be killed, that i can guarantee you.

Cobb: How is he doing?
Ariadne: He's in a lot of pain.
Cobb: When we get down to the lower levels, the pain will be less intense.
Ariadne: And if he dies?
Cobb: Worst case scenario? When he wakes up, his mind is completely gone.
Saito: Cobb, I will still honor the arrangement.
Cobb: I appreciate that, Saito. But when you wake up you won't even remember that we had an arrangement. Limbo is gonna become your reality. You're gonna be lost down there so long that you're gonna become an old man.
Saito: Filled with regret?
Cobb: Waiting to die alone.
Saito: No, I'll come back. And we will be alive together again.

Eames disguishes as Peter Browning and try to get some information from Robert Fischer within their conversation. He told Fischer about the breakable-inheritance will that Maurice Fischer left for Robert Fischer.
Fischer: Destroy my whole inheritance? But why would he suggest such a thing?
Browning [Eames]: I just don't know. He loved you, Robert... in his own way.

Fischer: After my mother died, you know what he told me? "Robert, there's really nothing to be said."
Peter Browning: He was bad with emotions.
Fischer: I was eleven.

Eames: [Shows up while Arthur is in a gunfight] You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
[Pulls out a grenade launcher]

Arthur: What about his security? It's gonna get worse as we go deeper.
Cobb: I think we run with Mr. Charles.
Arthur: No.
Eames: Who's Mr. Charles?
Arthur: Bad idea.
Cobb: The second we get in that hotel with Fischer, his security is gonna be all over us. We run with Mr. Charles like we did on the Stein job.
Eames: So you've done it before?
Arthur: Yeah, and it didn't work. The subject realized he was dreaming and his subconscious tore us to pieces.
Eames: Excellent. But you've learned a lot, right?
Cobb: I need some kind of distraction.
Eames: No problem. How about a lovely lady that I've used before?

Cobb: Listen to me. You drive carefully, alright?
Yusuf: Yeah.
Cobb: Getting down there is gonna be unstable as hell.

Arthur: Don't jump too soon. We only have one shot at that kick you're gonna make.
Yusuf: I'll play the music and you'll know it's coming, the rest is on you.

15. 2nd Layer: Hotel (Arthur's Dream)

Yusuf: [after surviving a van crash] Did you see that? 

 

Saito: [thinking it's Eames shape shifted into Browning] Hey, I see you've changed.
Peter Browning: [confused] Sorry?
Eames: [appears in the background and silently warns Saito it's not him]
Saito: Ahh... I'm sorry. I mistook you for a friend.
Peter Browning: Well, good-looking fellow, I'm sure.
Eames: That's Fischer's projection of Browning. Let's follow him and see how he behaves.
Saito: Why?
Eames: Because how he acts will tell us if Fischer is starting to suspect him just the way we want him to.



Browning [Fischer's projection] appeared in the hotel room and mentioned the "idea" that Eames had planted in the 1st layer.
Browning: I'm sorry, Robert. This company has been my entire life, I just can't let you destroy it.
Fischer: I'm not gonna throw away my inheritance. Why would I?
Browning: I couldn't let you rise to your father's last taunt. The will, Robert. That "will", that's his last insult. A challenge for you to built something for yourself... by telling you you're not worthy for his accomplishments. But he's wrong... You can build a better one.
Cobb: [whispering to Robert Fischer] He's lying.



Arthur: And I will lead them on a merry chase.  






16. 3rd Layer: Hospital / Snow Fortress (Eames's Dream)


Fischer: Couldn't somebody have dreamt up a goddamn beach?



Cobb: But there's no use in reviving him... his mind's already trapped down there. It's all over.
Eames: So that's it? Then we failed?
Cobb: We're done. I'm sorry.
Eames: Well, it's not me who's gonna get back to my family, is it?
It's a shame, I really want to know what's gonna happen in there. I swear we have this one...
Cobb: Let's set the charges.
Ariadne: No, there's still another way. We just have to follow Fischer down there.
Cobb: We don't have time.
Ariadne: No, but there will be enough time down there. And we will find him.
Okay, as soon as Arthur's music kicks in just use the defibrillator to revive him. We can give him his own kick down bellow.
Look, you get him in there. As soon as the music ends, you blow up the hospital. And we all ride the kick back up the layers.
Eames: That worth a shot. And Saito can hold the guards out while I set the charges.
Cobb: Saito will never make it, will he?
Eames: [shooked his head]

When Robert Fischer enters the hospital room alone, it was HIS projections.
Cobb: Let's hope he likes what he finds in there.
Eames: It's a shame, I really want to know what is in that safe, I swear we had it this time.

When Robert Fischer enters the vault in the third level dream, he finds the Pin-mill in the safe. The Pin-mill is something memorable for Robert Fischer, because it reminds him of the happy time he spent with his father when he was a kid.

Before Maurice Fischer passed away [while he was still sick and lying in the bed], there was a photo of them smiling together on the table beside the bed [Robert put it there without Maurice knowing]. In the photo he was holding the Pin-mill, while his father holds him from behind.
When Robert Fischer finds out that Maurice Fischer kept the Pin-mill in his safe, he feels that he actually meant a lot to his father.




Robert Fischer Jr.: I know you are disappointed… I couldn’t be you.
Maurice Fischer: No... I was disappointed… you just try hard [to be me].
Since it was his own projection, it's becoming "his" idea. And it can grow. When Fischer and Browning [Eames] survived from the river [1st layer], Fischer already had that idea planted and growing in his mind.
Fischer: That "will" means that he wanted me to have my own way, not just to live for him. That's what I'm gonna do, Uncle Peter...







17. 4th Layer: Limbo (Cobb's Dream)

Cobb: [Repeated Lines] You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. Yet it doesn't matter. Now, tell me why?
Mal: Because, We'll be together!

Ariadne: Cobb, we need to get Fischer.
Mal: You can't have him.
Cobb: If I stay here, will you let him go?
Ariadne: What are you talking about?
Mal: Fischer's on the porch.
Cobb: Go check if he's alive, Ariadne.
Ariadne: Cobb, you can't do this.
Cobb: Go check if he's alive, right now! Do it.
Ariadne: He's here and it's time but you have to come now!
Cobb: Take Fischer with you, alright?
Ariadne: You can't stay here to be with her!
Cobb: I'm not. Saito's dead by now, that means he's down here somewhere. That means I have to find him.

Cobb: That's the kick, Ariadne! You have to go now!
Ariadne: Don't lose yourself! Find Saito and bring him back!







18. Cobb & Saito in Limbo


Cobb didn't remember when he first enter the Limbo. He was delirious, not talking clear and straight forward. He asks for Saito because of his determination to find Saito, go home, and see his kids.

dding ring

 

As they see the spinning totem (the Top), they're repeating the dialogues they used to say to each other and starting to remember.

Saito: So have you come to kill me? I've been waiting for someone to come for me...
Cobb: Someone from a half remembered dream...
Saito: Cobb? Impossible - He and I were young men together, now I'm an old man.
Cobb: Filled with regret...
Saito: Waiting to die alone...
Cobb: I've come back to remind you of something... something you once knew...
[Sees the top spinning without end]
Cobb: that this world isn't real...
Saito: To convince me to honor the arrangement.
Cobb: To take a leap of faith yes. Come back, and we'll be young men together again. Come back to me...
[Saito reaches for the gun]
Cobb: Come back...


How Cobb & Saito were able to come back?
They shot themselves in time when the sedative already runs out, when Cobb & Saito wakes up on the plane, Fischer and the other team are already awake.



How do we know the sedatives already runs out?
Fischer already sits firmly, Eames is wiping face with hot towel, Arthur & Ariadne [secretly] looking at him as if they’re wondering if Cobb would ever wake up.






19. In The Airplane and Airport

When Cobb wakes up, he looked like trying to regain his senses, his expression shows that he's thinking and wondering if he's realy awake.


Saito wakes up in kinda awkward position and has a hard-to-explain expression on his face. Old soul that finally returns to youthly body. Then he honor his word, and make the call to drop the charges on Cobb.



One way to know you're in a dream is that you couldn't remember how you get there.
When Cobb wakes up in the plane, he's back to where he was, he's not waking up in some unknown place with no explanation of how he got there.

Cobb: [from trailer] Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.



Cobb doesn't wear a Wedding Ring as he does in dreams.
And as Cobb walks through the immigration check and drags his luggage out, his worried and relieved expression is really shown.

 











20. Coming Home