Inception

Inception

Inception is a 2010 science fiction action about a man skilled in the art of invading the dreams of others to steal their secrets, a process known as Extraction. To redeem himself, Dom Cobb must complete a very difficult and dangerous mission in which he plants an idea in another person's mind: Inception.

Director(s): Christopher Nolan
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  Won 4 Oscars. Another 152 wins & 204 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.8
Metacritic:
74
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
PG-13
Year:
2010
148
$292,568,851
Website
8,421 Views
Your mind is the scene of the crime.
The dream is real.

[After Saito has been shot in the first dream layer]

Cobb:
We got blocked by a freight train.

Arthur:
[to Ariadne] Why'd you put a train crossing in the middle of a down-town intersection?

Ariadne:
I didn't!

Arthur:
Then where'd it come from?

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:
How could he be trained?

Arthur:
Fischer has had an extractor teach his subconscious to defend itself. His subconscious has militarized. It should have shown in the research. I'm sorry.

Cobb:
When why the hell didn't it?!

Arthur:
Calm down.

Cobb:
Don't tell me to calm down! This was your job, God damn it! This was your responsibility! You were meant to check Fischer's background thoroughly! We are not prepared to deal with this type of security!

Arthur:
We have dealt with some security before! We'll be a little more careful, and we'll be fine!

Cobb:
This was not a part of the plan! [on Saito] He's dying, for God's sake!

[Eames approaches with a gun and it aims it at Saito]

Eames:
I'm putting him out of his misery.

Cobb:
Don't do that! [shoves him back] Don't do that.

Eames:
[exasperated] 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"? If we die in a dream, we wake up.

Yusef:
Not from this. [everyone looks at him] We're too heavily sedated to wake up that way.

Eames:
So, what happens when we die?

Cobb:
We drop into Limbo.

Arthur:
[angry] Are you serious?!

Ariadne:
Limbo?

Arthur:
Unconstructed dream space.

Ariadne:
Well, what the hell is down there?

Arthur:
Just raw, infinite subconscious. Nothing is down there. Except for whatever that might have been left behind by whoever's sharing the dream who was trapped down there before. Which in our case, is just you.

Ariadne:
But how long could we be stuck there?

Yusef:
Not even think about waking up until -

Eames:
How long?!

Yusef:
Decades! It could be infinite! I don't know! [motioning to Cobb] Ask him, he's the one who's been there!

[Saito is moved upstairs]

Eames:
Great. [to Cobb, sarcastic] Thank you. So, now we're in Fischer's mind battling his own private army. And, if we get killed, we'll all be lost in Limbo until our brains turn to scrambled egg. Hm?

[Cobb says nothing and walks away]

[Cobb finds his wife, Mal, sitting on a window ledge]

Cobb:
Sweetheart, what are you doing?

Mal:
Join me.

Cobb:
Just step back inside, alright? Just step back inside now, come on.

Mal:
No. I'm going to jump and you're coming with me.

Cobb:
No, I'm not. You listen to me: if you jump, you're not gonna wake up, remember? You're going to die. Now, just step back inside so we can talk about this.

Mal:
We've talked enough. [her slipper falls into the street below] Come out onto the ledge, or I'll jump right now.

Cobb:
Okay. We're gonna talk about this, alright?

Mal:
I'm asking you to take a leap of faith.

Cobb:
No, honey. I can't. You know I can't do that. Take a second and think about our children. Think about James. Think about Philipa.

Mal:
If I go without you, they'll take them away, anyway.

Cobb:
What does that mean?

Mal:
I filed a letter with our attorney explaining how I'm fearful for my safety. How you've threatened to kill me.

Cobb:
Why would you do that? Why would you do this to me?

Mal:
I love you, Dom. I've freed you from the guilt of choosing to leave them. We're going home. To our real children.

Cobb:
No, no, no, Mal, you listen to me, alright? Mal, look at me, please!

Mal:
You're waiting for a train...

Cobb:
Mal, goddamn it! Don't do this!

Mal:
..A train that will take you far away..

Cobb:
James and Phillipa are waiting for you!

Mal:
..You know where you hope this train will take you,..

Cobb:
They're waiting for us!

Mal:
..But you can't know for sure..

Cobb:
Mal, look at me!

Mal:
..But it doesn't matter...because you'll be together.

Cobb:
Sweetheart, look at me! [Mal falls off the window ledge into the street below] Mal, No!! Jesus Christ!

[Cobb meets in Paris with his father-in-law, Miles]

Cobb:
You never did like your office, did you?

Miles:
No space to think in that broom cupboard...Is it safe for you to be here?

Cobb:
Extradition between France and the United States is a bureaucratic nightmare, you know that.

Miles:
I think they might find a way to make it work in your case.

Cobb:
[holding a bag] Look, I, uh, brought these for you to give to the kids when you get a chance.

Miles:
It'll take more than the occasional stuffed animal to convince those children they still have a father.

Cobb:
I'm just doing what I know. I'm doing what you taught me.

Miles:
I never taught you to be a thief.

Cobb:
No, you taught me to navigate people's minds. But after what happened there weren't a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.

Miles:
...What you doing here Dom?

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

Miles:
You're here to corrupt one of my brightest and best.

Cobb:
You know what I'm offering. You have to let them decide for themselves.

Miles:
Money.

Cobb:
Not just money. You remember. It's the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities, things that never existed, things that couldn't exist in the real world.

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.

Miles:
Design it yourself.

Cobb:
Mal won't let me.

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

Cobb:
Reality. Those kids, your grandchildren, they're 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 way...I need an architect who's as good as I was.

Miles:
I've got somebody better.

Cobb:
They say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential. Now that's when we're awake. When we're asleep, our mind can do almost anything.

Ariadne:
Such as?

Cobb:
Well, imagine you're designing a building. You consciously create each aspect. But sometimes it feels like it's almost "creating itself", if you know what I mean.

Ariadne:
Yeah, like I'm discovering it.

Cobb:
Genuine inspiration, right? Now, in a dream, our mind continuously does this. We create and perceive our world simultaneously, and our mind does this so well that we don't even know it's happening. That allows us to get right in the middle of that process.

Ariadne:
How?

Cobb:
By taking over the creating part. Now this is where I need you. You create the world of the dream. We 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 it's reality?

Cobb:
Well, dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange...Let me ask you a question. 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... [she trails off, looking confused]

Cobb:
Think about it, Ariadne, how did you get here? Where are you right now?

Ariadne:
[realises] 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.

[As Ariadne's perception fails, the Paris street begins to explode and collapse]

[Cobb tries to dodge some of the debris]

Ariadne:
If it's just a dream then why are you--?

[Debris falls on Ariadne waking her up]

[Now both awake]

Cobb:
Because it's never just a dream is it? And a face full of glass hurts like hell. When you're in it, it feels real

Arthur:
That's why the military developed dream sharing. It was a training program for soldiers to shoot and stab and strangle each other..and then wake up.

Ariadne:
How did architects become involved?

Cobb:
Well, someone had to design the dreams, right?[to Arthur] Why don't you give us another five minutes.

Ariadne:
Wha, Five minutes? We were talking for at least an hour!

Cobb:
In a dream, your mind functions more quickly. Therefore, time seems to feel slower.

Arthur:
Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream.

Cobb:
Why don't you see what you can get up to in five minutes?

Ariadne:
I guess I thought that the dream space would be all about the visual, but it's more about the feel of it. My question is what happens when you start messing with the physics of it all?

[Ariadne folds the city in on itself]

Ariadne:
It's something isn't it

Cobb:
Yes, it is

[Projections start to stare at Ariadne as they walk by]

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 on you.

Ariadne:
Converge?

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

Ariadne:
What, they're gonna attack us?

Cobb:
No, no....Just you.

[Ariadne creates a bridge]

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

[One of Cobb's projections bumps into Ariadne]

Ariadne:
Jeez, mind telling your subconscious to take it easy?

Cobb:
It's my subconscious. Remember? I can't control it.

[Ariadne comes to a stop, Pulls two mirrors together and creates a pathway]

Cobb:
Very impressive. [Cobb starts to realize the location]. I know this bridge. This place is real, isn't it?

Ariadne:
Yeah, I cross it every day to get to the college.

Cobb:
Never re-create places from your memory. Always imagine new places.

Ariadne:
You gotta draw from stuff you know, right?

Cobb:
[Cobb starts to become nervous] Only use details. A streetlamp or a phone booth, Never entire areas.

Ariadne:
Why not?

Cobb:
Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what's real and what is a dream.

Ariadne:
Is that what happened to you?

Cobb:
Listen to me. [Cobb grabs Ariadne, All projections stop and stare] This has nothing to do with me, understand?

Ariadne:
Is that why you need me to build your dreams?

[Projections start to converge on Ariadne, Cobb tries to fight them off]

Cobb:
Hey, get off her. Back up. Back up

[Projections separate Ariadne from Cobb]

Ariadne:
Hey. [Ariadne begins to yell for cobb] COBB! COBB!

Cobb:
GET OFF OF HER!

Ariadne:
LET ME GO! LET ME GO!

Cobb:
MAL! MAL!

Ariadne:
COBB! WAKE ME UP!

[Cobb's projection of his wife, walks up and stabs Ariadne, waking her up]

[After Ariadne is stabbed by Mal in a dream, she wakes up gasping for air]

Arthur:
Hey, hey, hey. Look at me. You're okay. You're okay. Hey

Ariadne:
Why wouldn't I wake up?

Arthur:
Cause there was still some time on the clock. You can't wake up from within the dream unless you die.

[Cobb wakes up and immediately heads to the bathroom to check his reality]

Cobb:
She'll need a totem.

Ariadne:
What?

Arthur:
A totem. It's a small personal...

Ariadne:
That's some subconscious you've got on you, Cobb! She's a real charmer.

Arthur:
Ah, I see you've met Mrs. Cobb.

Ariadne:
She's his wife?

Arthur:
Yeah. So a totem. You need a small object, potentially heavy. Something you can have on you all the time that no one else knows.

Ariadne:
Like a coin?

Arthur:
No, it needs to be more unique than that. [shows her a small red die] This is a loaded die. [Ariadne reaches for it, he pulls his hand away] No, 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 that you're not in someone else's dream.

Ariadne:
I don't know if you can't see what's going on, or if you just don't want to, but Cobb has some serious problems that he's tried to bury down there. And I'm not about to just open my mind to someone like that.

[Ariadne leaves as Cobb comes out of the bathroom]

Cobb:
She'll be back. I've never seen anyone pick it up that quickly before. Reality's not gonna be enough for her now, and when she comes back....when she comes back, you're gonna have her building mazes.

Arthur:
Where are you gonna be?

Cobb:
I gotta go visit Eames.

Arthur:
Eames?...No, He's in Mombasa. It's Cobol's backyard.

Cobb:
It's a necessary risk.

Arthur:
There's plenty of good thieves.

Cobb:
We don't just need a thief. We need a forger.

Cobb:
Inception. Now, before you bother telling me it's impossible, let me.

Eames:
No, it's perfectly possible. It's just bloody difficult.

Cobb:
Interesting. Because Arthur keeps telling me it can't be done

Eames:
Hmm. Arthur. You still working with that stick in the mud?

Cobb:
He is good at what he does, right?

Eames:
Oh, he's the best but he has no imagination

Cobb:
Not like you

Eames:
Listen, if you're gonna perform inception, you need imagination.

Cobb:
Let me ask you something. Have you done it before?

Eames:
We tried it. Uh, we got the idea in place, but it didn't take

Cobb:
You didn't plant it deep enough?

Eames:
No, it's not just about depth. You need the simplest version of the idea in order for it to grow naturally in your subject's mind. It's a very subtle art. So, what is this idea that you need to plant?

Cobb:
We need the heir of a major corporation to dissolve his father's empire

Eames:
Well you see right there you have various political motivations and anti-monopolistic sentiments and so forth. But all of that stuff, it's um.... It's really at the mercy of your subject's prejudice, you see? What you have to do is start at the absolute basic.

Cobb:
Which is what?

Eames:
The relationship with the father. [Cobb gives a look of approval]. Do you have a chemist?

Cobb:
No, not yet

Eames:
Right. Okay, well, there's a man here, Yusuf. He, uh, formulates his own versions of the compounds

Cobb:
Why, don't you take me there?

Eames:
Once you've lost your tail. The man at the bar.

Cobb:
Cobol engineering. That price on my head, was that dead or alive?

Eames:
Don't remember. Let's see if he starts shooting.

Cobb:
Run interference. I'll meet you downstairs in the bar in, say, uh, say half an hour?

Eames:
Back here?

Cobb:
It's the last place they'd suspect

Eames:
[Chuckles] All right.

[Ariadne walks back into the warehouse]

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.

Arthur:
Shall we take a look at some paradoxical architecture?

[Arthur and Ariadne are walking up a wooden staircase in the dream]

Arthur:
You're going to have to master a few tricks if you're going to build three complete dream levels. [Projection drops papers in front of Arthur]..Excuse me.

Ariadne:
What kind of tricks?

Arthur:
In a dream you can cheat architecture into impossible shapes. That lets you create closed loops. Like the Penrose Steps. An infinite staircase. [The camera reveals they are walking on an impossible, looping staircase] See?...Paradox.

Arthur:
So a closed loop like that will help you disguise the boundaries of the dream you create

Ariadne:
But how big do these levels have to be?

Arthur:
It could be anything from the floor of a building to an entire city. But they have to be complicated enough that we can hide from the projections.

Ariadne:
A Maze?

Arthur:
Right, a maze. And the better the maze...

Ariadne:
Then the longer we have before the projections catch us?

Arthur:
Exactly.

Ariadne:
My subconscious seems polite enough.

Arthur:
[Arthur laughs] Ha,ha. You wait, they'll turn ugly. No one else like to feel someone else messing around in their mind.

Ariadne:
Cobb can't build anymore, can he?

Arthur:
Well 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. It's....no she's dead...What you see in there is just his projection of her.

Ariadne:
What was she like in real life?

Arthur:
She was lovely.


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