MILES
You think what you’re doing now is helping your case?
COBB
Lawyers don’t pay for themselves. This is what I have. This is what you taught me.
MILES
I never taught you to be a thief.
COBB
No, you taught me to navigate other people’s minds. But after what happened with Mal there weren’t a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.
Miles looks at Cobb.
MILES
Why did you come here, Dom?
Cobb shifts slightly.
COBB
I found a way home. A job. For powerful people. If I pull it off, I can get back to my family. But I need help.
Miles realizes something.
MILES
My God. You’re here to corrupt one of my brightest and best.
COBB
If you have someone good enough, you have to let them decide for themselves. You know what I’m offering—
MILES
Money?
COBB
No, not just money: the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities — things that have never existed, things that couldn’t exist in the real world…
MILES
Everybody dreams, Cobb. Architects are supposed to make those dreams real.
COBB
That’s not what you used to say. You told me that in the real world I’d be building attic conversions and gas stations. You said that if I mastered the dream-share I’d have a whole new way of creating and showing people my creations. You told me it would free me.
Miles looks at Cobb, sad.
MILES
And I’m sorry. I was wrong.
COBB
No, you weren’t. Your vision was a vision of pure creativity. It’s where we took it that was wrong.
MILES
And now you want me to let someone else follow you into fantasy.
COBB
They won’t actually come on the job, they’ll just design the levels and teach them to the dreamers.
MILES
Design them yourself.
COBB
Mal won’t let me.
Miles looks at Cobb. Appalled.
MILES
Come back to reality, Dom. Please.
COBB
You want to know what’s real, Stephen? Your grandchildren waiting for their dad to come back.
(MORE)
COBB (CONT’D)
This job — this last job — is how I get there.
Miles looks down, fiddles with his papers.
COBB
I wouldn’t be standing here if there were any other way. I can get home. But I need an architect who’s as good as I was.
Miles looks Cobb in the eye. Decides.
MILES
I’ve got someone better.
INT. CORRIDOR — LATER
Miles and Cobb stand by as STUDENTS file out of a lecture.
MILES
Ariadne…
A young woman carrying books turns. This is ARIADNE.
MILES
I’d like you to meet Mr. Cobb.
She sizes him up with quick eyes. Offers her hand.
ARIADNE
Pleased to meet you.
MILES
If you have a few moments, Mr. Cobb has a job offer to discuss with you.
ARIADNE
A work placement?
COBB
(smiles)
Not exactly.
EXT. ROOFTOP, ÉCOLE D’ARCHITECTURE — MOMENTS LATER
Ariadne leans against the parapet, overlooking Paris. She unwraps a sandwich, watching Cobb pull out a pad of GRAPH PAPER and a PEN. He offers them. She bites her sandwich.
COBB
A test.
ARIADNE
(mouth full)
Aren’t you going to tell me anything?
COBB
Before I describe the job, I have to know you could do it.
ARIADNE
Why?
COBB
It’s not, strictly speaking, legal.
Ariadne raises her eyebrows.
COBB
You have two minutes to draw a maze that takes me one minute to solve.
Ariadne takes the pad and pen. Cobb looks at his watch.
COBB
Go.
She starts DRAWING LINES on the grid, constructing a maze.
COBB
Stop.
Ariadne hands the pad and pen to Cobb. He glances at the pad, then, looking her in the eye, TRACES the solution. She is taken aback. Cobb RIPS off the sheet, hands the pad back.
COBB
Again.
She traces straight lines, CONCENTRATING…
COBB
Stop.
She hands Cobb the pad, a touch pleased. Cobb solves the puzzle instantly, as before. Her smile falls.
COBB
You’ll have to—
She GRABS the pad, frustrated… but this time she FLIPS it over and starts drawing on the BLANK CARDBOARD of the back. Cobb watches, surprised. He smiles as he sees that she’s drawing CIRCLES, creating a maze based on concentric rings.
Ariadne hands back the pad, defiant. Cobb takes the pen, starts the maze. This time he gets stuck. Nods.
COBB
(working the maze)
More like it.
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.
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 fill it with his subconscious.