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 killed 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 glass- 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 class is in the nose so nobody walks through the cabin. We'd have to buyout the whole cabin, and the first class 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.