Eames turns from the mirror AS BROWNING. He glances at his watch, then SCREAMS, as if begging for mercy—
INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS
Browning’s CRY reverberates— Fischer looks up, concerned—
FISCHER
What’s that?
ARTHUR
Good authority.
Another cry rings out. Fischer recognizes the voice.
FISCHER
Uncle Peter?! Make them stop—
ARTHUR
The combination.
FISCHER
I don’t know it!
ARTHUR
Why would Browning tell us you did?
FISCHER
Let me talk to him — I’ll find out.
INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE — MOMENTS LATER
Cobb pushes Browning (Eames), bloody and bruised, into the room and forces him down next to Fischer. Cobb handcuffs Browning’s wrist to a metal bracket on the side of the sink.
COBB
You’ve got an hour. Get talking.
Cobb leaves.
BROWNING (EAMES)
They’ve had me for two days. They’ve got someone with access to your father’s office and they’re trying to open his safe — they thought I’d know the combination, but I don’t—
FISCHER
Neither do I, Uncle Peter.
BROWNING
(confused)
Maurice told me that after he passed only you would be able to open it.
FISCHER
He never gave me the combination.
Browning thinks for a minute. Realizes something.
BROWNING
He did, he just didn’t tell you that it was a combination.
FISCHER
What, then?
BROWNING
Something only you would know. Some meaningful combination of numbers from your experiences with Maurice—
FISCHER
We didn’t have a lot of meaningful experiences together.
BROWNING
Perhaps after your mother died…
FISCHER
After my mother died, I went to him in my grief.
(MORE)
FISCHER (CONT’D)
You know what he told me? “There’s really nothing to be said, Robert.”
BROWNING
He always had a hard time with emotional—
FISCHER
I was eleven, Uncle Peter.
Browning (Eames) takes this in.
BROWNING
He loved you, Robert. In his way.
FISCHER
“In his way?” At the end he called me to his deathbed. He could barely speak, but he took the trouble to say one last thing to me. He pulled me close… I could make out only one word. “Disappointed.”
Browning can say nothing.
INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS
Cobb pulls off his balaclava. Looks down at Saito, who is breathing fast, shallow.
COBB
How’s he doing?
ARIADNE
He’s in a lot of pain.
Cobb takes Saito’s hand. Looks him in the eye.
COBB
When we get you down to the next level, the pain will be less intense.
Saito nods, breathing hard.
ARIADNE
(low)
And if he dies?
COBB
His conscious mind will drop out of the dream. He’ll be trapped in Limbo for a lifetime…
ARIADNE
What will that do to him?
Cobb looks at her. Grave.
COBB
When he wakes… his mind could be completely gone.
SAITO
When… when we wake I will still honor our arrangement…
Cobb looks down at Saito sadly.
COBB
Saito-san, when you wake you might not even remember that we had an arrangement. You’ll have forgotten this world. Limbo will be your reality. Lost there so long, you’ll have become an old man…
SAITO
Filled with regret?
COBB
Waiting to die alone. Yes.
SAITO
Then I’ll take the chance and come back. And we’ll be young men together again.
Saito smiles weakly. Cobb nods at him, turns to Ariadne.
ARIADNE
When were you trapped in Limbo?
Cobb says nothing. Ariadne pulls him away from Saito.
ARIADNE
Cobb, you might have convinced the rest of this team to carry on with the job. But they don’t know the truth.
COBB
What truth?
ARIADNE
The truth that at any minute you might bring a freight train through the wall. The truth that Mal is bursting up through your subconscious.
(MORE)
87.
ARIADNE (CONT’D)
The truth that as we go deeper into Fischer, we’re also going deeper into you — and I’m not sure we’re going to like what we find there.
Cobb stares back at Ariadne. Saying nothing.
ARIADNE
This is not just about Fischer, it’s about you. Tell me what happened to you and Mal. Trapped in Limbo.
Cobb looks at her. Thinking it through.
COBB
We were on a job. Exploring dreams within dreams. But we didn’t understand how your mind can turn hours into years. How you can get trapped. Trapped so deep that when you wash up on the shore of your subconscious…
INSERT CUT: MAL LIES ON THE SAND, STARING UP AT A CLOUDLESS SKY, WAVES WASHING OVER HER…
COBB
You can lose track of what’s real.
ARIADNE
How long were you stuck?
Cobb pauses before he answers. Looks at Ariadne.
COBB
Fifty years.
Ariadne stares at him, incredulous.
ARIADNE
How did you stand it?
INSERT CUT: COBB AND MAL BUILD A SANDCASTLE ON THE BEACH…
COBB
We built. We created a whole world for ourselves…
INSERT CUT: COBB AND MAL WALK THROUGH A DESERTED CITY.
COBB
It’s not so bad at first, being gods. The problem is knowing that it’s not real. It became impossible for me to live like that.
ARIADNE
But not for her?
COBB
She accepted it. At some point…
INSERT CUT: INT. MAL’S CHILDHOOD HOME — DAY
Mal opens a DOLL’S HOUSE. Inside is a SAFE. She opens it — it is empty. She pulls out her SPINNING TOP.
COBB (V.O.)
…she’d decided to forget that our world wasn’t real.
Mal places the top inside the safe. LOCKS IT AWAY…
INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE — CONTINUOUS
ARIADNE
And when you finally woke up?
COBB
To wake from that. From decades lived. To be old souls thrown back into youth. It was hard. At first Mal seemed okay. But I started to realize something was wrong. Finally she admitted it. This idea she was possessed by. This simple little idea that changed everything…