Ext. Narrow street, Paris - day

 

Arthur stops at a warehouse door. Consults a piece of paper.

 

INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUS

 

A large, dusty warehouse. The SLIDING DOOR cracks open.

Arthur enters. Looks around, approvingly.

 

INT. SAME - LATER

 

Arthur DRAGS LAWN CHAIRS into the middle of the room. He

erects a table. Lays out several SILVER CASES, unpacking

them, laying out lines of tubing, MECHANISMS...

 

EXT. PARISIAN CAFE - DAY

 

Cobb and Ariadne sit at an outdoor table.

 

COBB

They say we only use a fraction of

the true potential of our brains...

but they're talking about when

we're awake. While we dream, the

mind performs wonders.

 

ARIADNE

Such as?

 

COBB

How do you imagine a building? You

consciously create each aspect,

puzzling over it in stages... But

sometimes, when your imagination

flies-

 

ARIADNE

I'm discovering it.

 

COBB

Exactly. Genuine inspiration.

 

Cobb leans forwards and draws on the paper table cloth.

 

COBB

In a dream your mind continuously

does that...

 

Cobb has drawn a circle made of two arrows.

31.

 

COBB

It creates and perceives a world

simultaneously. So well that you

don't feel your brain doing the

creating. That's why we can short-

circuit the process...

 

ARIADNE

How?

 

COBB

By taking over the creating part.

 

Cobb draws a straight line between the two arrows.

 

COBB

This is where you come in. You

build the world of the dream. We

take the subject into that dream,

and let him £111 it with his

subconscious

 

ARIADNE

But are you trying to fool him that

the dream is actually real life?

 

COBB

(nods)

While we're in there, We don't want

him to realize he's dreaming.

 

ARIADNE

How could I ever get enough detail

to Convince him that it's real?

 

COBB

Our dreams reel real while we're in

them. It's only when we wake up we

realize things were strange,

 

Ariadne gestures around them-

 

ARIADNE

But all the textures of real life-

the stone, the fabric. cars...

people... your mind can't create

all this.

 

COBB

It does. Every time you dream. Let

me ask you a question: You never

remember the beginning of your

dreams, do you? You just turn up in

the middle of what's going on.

32.

 

ARIADNE

I guess.

 

COBB

So... how did we end up at this

restaurant?

 

ARIADNE

We came here from...

 

Ariadne trails off, confused.

 

COBB

How did we get here? Where are we?

 

Ariadne THINKS, unable to remember. A FAINT RUMBLE begins.

 

ARIADNE

Oh my God. We're dreaming.

 

Cobb nods. The RUMBLE is BUILDING.

 

COBB

Stay calm. We're actually asleep in

the workshop. This is your first

lesson in shared dreaming,

remember?

 

Ariadne looks around, mind REELING. Cobb BRACES-

 

The restaurant VIOLENTLY FRAGMENTS, EXPLODING AND IMPLODING

PARTICLES OF FURNITURE, WALLS, PEOPLE FLYING AROUND- Ariadne

WONDERS at the MAYHEM WHIRLING around them- Cobb SHIELDS his

head against the debris. She sees him-

 

ARIADNE

(shouting over noise)

If it's just a dream, why are you

covering your-

 

Ariadne is WIPED FROM HER SEAT BY A MASSIVE BLAST and we-

 

CUT TO:

 

INT. WORKSHOP - DAY

 

Ariadne JOLTS awake.

 

COBB (O.S.)

Because it's never just a dream.

 

Ariadne turns to Cobb's voice. They are both sitting in the

lawn chairs. Arthur watches over them.

33.

 

COBB

And a face full of glass hurts like

hell, doesn't it? While we're in

it, it's real.

 

ARTHUR

That's why the military developed

dream sharing-a training program

where soldiers could strangle, stab

and shoot each other, then wake up.

 

ARIADNE

How did architects get involved?

 

COBB

Someone had to design the dreams.

(to Arthur)

Let's go another five minutes-

 

ARIADNE

We were only asleep for five

minutes? We talked for an hour at

least...

 

COBB

When you dream, your mind functions

more quickly, so time seems to pass

more slowly.

 

ARTHUR

Five minutes in the real world

gives you an hour in the dream.

 

COBB

Let's see how much trouble you can

cause in five minutes.

 

And we-

 

CUT TO:

 

EXT. SAME PARISIAN STREET - DAY

 

Ariadne walks down the crowded street with Cobb. Cobb looks

around at the street, the cafe, approving.

 

COBB

It's good. You've got the cafe, the

layout... you forgot the book shop

but pretty much everything else is

here.

 

Ariadne looks at the passers-by.

 

ARIADNE

Who are the people?

34.

 

COBB

They're projections of my

subconscious.

 

ARIADNE

Yours?

 

COBB

Sure-you are the dreamer, I am the

subject. My subconscious populates

your world. That's one way we get

at a subject's thoughts-his mind

creates the people, so we can

literally talk to his subconscious.

 

ARIADNE

How else do you do it?

 

COBB

Architecture. Build a bank vault or

a jail, something secure, and the

subject's mind will fill it with

information he's trying to protect.

 

ARIADNE

Then you break in and steal it.

 

COBB

Exactly.

 

Ariadne wonders at the detail of the street.

 

ARIADNE

I love the concrete sense of things-

(stamps foot)

Real weight, you know? I thought a

dream space would be all about the

visual, but it's the feel of

things. Question is, what happens

as you start to mess with

physics...

 

She CONCENTRATES on the street. The street starts to BEND IN

HALF- the buildings on either side FOLDING IN until they form

the INSIDE OF A CUBE OF CITY, GRAVITY FUNCTIONING

INDEPENDENTLY ON EACH PLANE. Ariadne looks up (or down) at

the people on the opposite city surface. Cobb watches her

excitement.

 

ARIADNE

It's something, isn't it?

 

COBB

(quiet)

Yes. It is.

35.

 

As they walk, Ariadne notices more and more of the

projections STARING at her.

 

ARIADNE

Why are they looking at me?

 

COBB

Because you're changing things. My

subconscious feels that someone

else is creating the world. The

more you change things, the quicker

the projections converge on you.

 

ARIADNE

Converge?

 

COBB

They feel the foreign nature of the

dreamer, and attack-like white

blood cells fighting an infection.

 

ARIADNE

They're going to attack us?

 

COBB

Just you, actually.

 

They walk along the street to where it joins the next

gravitational plane. They step up onto the different plane

and walk down the street towards a river. As Ariadne

approaches, steps emerge from the flagstone, and she leads

Cobb up onto a small jetty. As she concentrates, pillars

emerge and a BRIDGE starts to telescope out from the jetty.

They step onto it as it grows. Cobb is impressed.

 

COBB

It's beautiful... but if you keep

on changing things...

 

People crossing the bridge STARE at Ariadne. Several of them

BUMP her shoulder as they pass.

 

ARIADNE

Mind telling your subconscious to

take it easy?

 

COBB

That's why it's called subconscious.

I don't control it.

 

The bridge now spans the Seine. Cobb marvels at it.

 

COBB

Arched stone, iron pillars...

it's...

36.

 

Cobb pauses, thinking. Remembering.

 

INSERT CUT: Mal, hair blowing, turns to Cobb, smiling,

laughing. He smiles back. They are on the same bridge.

 

COBB

I know this bridge. This place is

real-

(serious)

You didn't imagine it, you

remembered it...

 

ARIADNE

(nods)

I cross it every day on my way to

the college.

 

COBB

Never recreate places from your

memory. Always imagine new places.

 

ARIADNE

You have to draw from what you know-

 

COBB

(tense)

Use pieces-a streetlamp,

phonebooths, a type of brick-not

whole areas.

 

Several people around them ECHO Cobb's attitude...

 

ARIADNE

Why not?

 

COBB

Because building dreams out of your

own memories is the surest way to

lose your grip on what's real and

what's a dream.

 

ARIADNE

Did that happen to you?

 

Cobb says nothing. He stands there, starinq at Ariadne.

PEOPLE around her stop and look at her, hostile.

 

COBB

Look, this isn't about me-

 

Cobb reaches for Ariadne's arm, turns her to him-

 

ARIADNE

Is that why you need me to build

your dreams?

37.

 

A passerby GRABS Ariadne's shoulder-

 

COBB

Leave her alone-

 

More of the crowd join in, PULLING at Ariadne, holding her

arms open- Cobb PULLS people off- the crowd PUSHES him away-

Cobb sees someone WALKING PURPOSEFULLY through the crowd

towards the helpless, Ariadne- it is Mal. She approaches with

even strides- Ariadne stares at her, uneasy.

 

ARIADNE

Wake me up, Cobb.

 

As Mal walks, she pulls out a LARGE KNIFE-

 

COBB

Mal, no!

 

ARIADNE

Wake me up!

 

Ariadne SCREAMS as Mal LUNGES at her with the knife and we-

 

CUT TO:

 

INT. WORKSHOP-DAY

 

Ariadne WAKES, BREATHING HARD. Arthur moves to her-

 

ARTHUR

It's okay.

 

ARIADNE

Why couldn't I wake?

 

ARTHUR

The only way to wake from inside

the dream is to die.

 

Cobb, in the lawn chair opposite, PULLS his tubes out.

 

COBB

She'll need a totem.

 

ARIADNE

What?

 

ARTHUR

Some kind of personal icon. A small

object that you can always have

with you, and that no one else

knows,

 

Cobb gets to his feet, Ariadne stares at him, furious. He

heads to the bathroom.

38.

 

ARIADNE

That's some subconscious you've

got, Cobb.

(calls after him)

She's a real charmer!

 

ARTHUR

Sounds like you've met Mrs. Cobb.

 

ARIADNE

(surprised)

She's his wife?

 

Arthur nods, pulling off Ariadne's tubes.

 

ARTHUR

So. A totem. You need something

small, potentially heavy...