INT. WORKSHOP - DAY

Arthur sits at the table, working on a mechanism. A small COUGH prompts him to look up: Ariadne is there.

ARTHUR: He said you'd be back.

ARIADNE: I tried not to come.

ARTHUR: But there's nothing else quite like it.

ARIADNE: No paper, no pens... nothing between you and raw, direct creation.

Arthur picks up his mechanism.

ARTHUR: Shall we take a look at paradoxical architecture?

Ariadne nods, takes off her coat and we-

CUT TO: INT. PENROSE STEPS - LATER

Arthur leads Ariadne down some busy steps in a large glass and steel ATRIUM in an office complex.

ARTHUR: You're going to have to master a few tricks if you're going to build three complete dream levels.

A SECRETARY DROPS some papers as they pass...
ARIADNE: What sort of tricks?

They take a tight turn and continue down the next flight.

ARTHUR: In a dream, you can cheat architecture into impossible shapes. That lets you create closed loops, like the Penrose Steps. The infinite staircase.

Ariadne FREEZES- THEY ARE IN THE EXACT SPOT THEY STARTED DESCENDING FROM, next to the Secretary gathering her papers.
Ariadne puzzles at the impossible construction of the stairs.

ARTHUR: See...

Arthur stops her gently- they are on the highest step, with a LARGE DROP to the next step. Arthur gestures at the drop.

ARTHUR: Paradox. A closed loop like this helps you disguise the boundaries of the dream you've created.

ARIADNE: How big do the levels have to be?

ARTHUR: Anything from the floor of a building, to an entire city. But it has to be complicated enough for us to hide from the projections.

ARIADNE: A maze.

ARTHUR: And the better the maze-

ARIADNE: The longer we have before the projections catch us.

Ariadne looks around. Sees people LOOKING at Arthur.
ARIADNE: My subconscious seems polite enough.

ARTHUR: You wait, they'll turn ugly. No one likes to see someone else messing around in 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. I think it's Mal. I think she's getting stronger.

ARIADNE: His ex-wife?

ARTHUR: She's not his ex.

ARIADNE: They're still together?

Arthur turns to Ariadne. Gentle.

ARTHUR: No. No, she's dead, Ariadne. What you see in there is just his projection of her.

ARIADNE: What was she like in real life?

ARTHUR (quiet): She was lovely.
CUT TO: EXT. ROOFTOP, OLD TOWN, MOMBASA - DAY

Saito deposits a FILE in front of Cobb: PHOTOS, DOCUMENTS. As Cobb runs through them, he passes them to Eames.

SAITO: Robert Fischer, 32. Heir to the Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate. He's spent his whole life being groomed as successor-breaking up his father's empire will take a radical shift in his thinking.

COBB: What's your problem with Fischer?

SAITO: That's not your concern.

COBB: This isn't the usual corporate espionage, Mr. Saito. This is inception. The seed of the idea we plant will grow in this man's mind. It'll change him. It might even come to define him.

Saito looks at Cobb.

SAITO: My sources suggest you might not have always been so cautious.

COBB: Then you need new sources, Mr. Saito.

Saito considers Cobb. Shrugs.

SAITO: Fischer Morrow has the regulators in their pockets. 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. They'll be able to blackmail governments, dictate policy. In effect, they become a new superpower. The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind.

EAMES: That's where we come in. How's Robert Fischer's relationship to his father?

SAITO: Rumor is the relationship is complicated.

COBB: We'll need more than rumor, Mr. Saito.

Eames picks up a photo: a distinguished executive (68).

EAMES: Can you get me access to him? Browning. Fischer senior's right-hand man. Fischer junior's godfather.

SAITO: It should be possible. If you can get the right references.

EAMES: References are something of a specialty for me, Mr. Saito.

EXT. DECREPIT BUILDING, MOMBASA - LATER

Eames leads Cobb and Saito down uneven steps to a doorway.

INT. STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS

Peeling paint, buzzing flies. They ascend to a dusty, wire-reinforced glass door which Eames pushes open-

INT. PHARMACY - CONTINUOUS

Row upon row of wooden shelves holding hundreds of dusty glass bottles of all shapes and colors. At the far end, a portly 40-year-old man rises from behind his desk, beckoning. This is YUSUF.

YUSUF: Come, come.

Eames shakes Yusuf's hand. Yusuf stops at Cobb.

YUSUF: Ah, yes. Mr. Cobb. I've heard so very much about you. (indicates chairs) please.

Yusuf chases a CAT off Saito's chair.

YUSUF: Bloody cats.

Yusuf moves to a shelf and runs his fingers over the glass bottles. None of them has a label.

YUSUF: You work using Somnacin, I think, Mr. Cobb?

COBB: You're well informed, Mr. Yusuf.

Yusuf places a bottle on the desk in front of Cobb.

COBB (dubious): Somnacin?

YUSUF (proudly): Yusuf's Somnacin.

Yusuf pulls the stopper, holds it towards Cobb's nose.

COBB: As good as the real thing?

Yusuf WHIPS the bottle away from Cobb, offended.

YUSUF: Better.

Yusuf holds the bottle to the light, marveling.

YUSUF: Binds the dreamers tight. Let's them dream as one. Makes it real. Of course, if you'd prefer, you could use Somnacin brand. If you could explain to the international control council what you wanted it for.

Yusuf puts the bottle back onto the shelf. Sits.

YUSUF: You are seeking a chemist? (Cobb nods) To formulate compounds for a job?

COBB: And to come into the held with us.

YUSUF: I rarely go into the held, Mr. Cobb.

COBB: We need you there to tailor compounds to our particular requirements.

YUSUF: Which are?

COBB: Great depth.

YUSUF: A dream within a dream? Two levels?

COBB: Three.

YUSUF: Not possible. That many dreams within dreams would be too unstable.

COBB: I've done it before. You just have to add a sedative.

YUSUF: A powerful sedative. How many team members?

COBB: Five.

SAITO: Six. (to Cobb) The only way to know you've done the job is if I go in with you.

COBB: There's no room for tourists on these jobs, Mr. Saito.

SAITO: This time, it would seem there is.

Cobb looks at him, uneasy. Yusuf pulls out another bottle.

YUSUF: Of course. I use it every day.

Yusuf hands it to Cobb, who considers the white liquid inside.

COBB: For what?

Yusuf beckons them further into the pharmacy, to a METAL DOOR. He STOPS- second thoughts.

YUSUF: Perhaps... you will not want to see.

Cobb motions to continue. Yusuf pulls out a large key.

INT. BACK ROOM, PHARMACY - CONTINUOUS

A dark room with ROWS of low COTS. Each with a sleeping occupant. Tubes connect their wrists. An ELDERLY BALD MAN watches over them.

EAMES (counting): Eighteen, twenty-all connected, bloody hell.

YUSUF: They come every day. To share the dream.

Yusuf nods at the Elderly Bald Man, who moves to the nearest bed. Reaches out to the OCCUPANT. Gives his face a FIRM SLAP. The sleeper does not even stir.

YUSUF: See? Very stable.

COBB: How long do they dream?

YUSUF: Three, four hours. Every day.

COBB: How long in dream time?

YUSUF: With this compound... about forty hours. Each and every day.

Saito surveys the room, appalled.

SAITO: Why do they do it?

YUSUF: Tell him, Mr. Cobb.

COBB: After a while... (looks at Saito) It becomes the only way you can dream.

YUSUF: Do you still dream, Mr. Cobb?

Cobb STARES at the sleepers. Uneasy.

EAMES: They come here every day to sleep?

ELDERLY BALD MAN (O.S.): No.

Cobb turns to the Elderly Bald Man, who looks fondly at his dreamers.

ELDERLY BALD MAN: They come to be woken up... the dream has become their reality...

The Elderly Bald Man pokes a crooked finger at Cobb's chest.

ELDERLY BALD MAN: And who are you to say otherwise?

Cobb STARES at the Elderly Bald Man. DISTURBED. Cobb turns to Yusuf. TOSSES him the bottle.

COBB: Let's see what you can do.

INT. SAME - MOMENTS LATER

Cobb is lying on an empty cot, asleep. Yusuf stands over him. As we move in on Cobb's SLEEPING FACE we hear the sound of a FREIGHT TRAIN, BUILDING, and we-

CUT TO: EXT. WASTELAND - DAY

CLOSE ON Cobb's face as he lies, EYES CLOSED, cheek pressed to a METAL RAIL- THE SOUND OF THE TRAIN IS DEAFENING- Cobb is BREATHING, BREATHING, BREATHING, and we-

CUT TO: INT. BACK ROOM, PHARMACY - DAY

Cobb's eyes open. Yusuf is watching him.

YUSUF: Sharp, no?

Cobb nods. Gets to his feet, looking around-

INT. BATHROOM, PHARMACY - CONTINUOUS

Cobb SPLASHES water on his face, breathing hard-

INSERT CUT: A CURTAIN BILLOWS. MAL TURNS TO US, HAIR BLOWING, SMILING.

Cobb fumbles in his pockets, pulls out his spinning top. He tries to set it spinning on the back edge of the sink, but it FALLS to the floor and rolls towards the door- Saito is there. WATCHING Cobb. He looks down at the spinning top.

SAITO: Everything alright, Mr. Cobb?

Cobb dries his face with a paper towel. Picks up his top.

COBB: Everything's fine.