Leonardo DiCaprio credited as playing...
Cobb
- Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.
- Arthur: It would have to be a 747.
- Cobb: Why is that?
- Arthur: Because in a 747, the pilot's up top, and the first class cabin's in the nose, so no one would walk through. But you'd have to buy out the entire cabin. And the first class flight attendant...
- Saito: I bought the airline.
- [Everybody turns and stares at him. Saito just shrugs]
- Saito: It seemed neater.
- Cobb: She locked away a secret, deep inside herself, something she once knew to be true... but chose to forget.
- Cobb: [from trailer] Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.
- Cobb: I'm going to improvise. Listen, there's something you should know about me... about inception. An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.
- Mal: We'd be together forever. You promised me.
- Cobb: I know. But we can't. And I'm sorry.
- Mal: You remember when you asked me to marry you? You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together.
- Cobb: But we did. We did. You don't remember?... I miss you more than I can bear, but... we had our time together. And I have to let go... I have to let you go.
- Saito: Have you come to kill me? I've been waiting for someone...
- Cobb: Someone from a half remembered dream.
- Saito: Cobb? Impossible. We were young men together. I'm an old man.
- Cobb: Filled with regret...
- Saito: Waiting to die alone...
- Cobb: I've come back for you... to remind you of something. Something you once knew...
- [the top spins without end]
- Cobb: That this world is not real.
- Saito: To convince me to honor our arrangement.
- Cobb: To take a leap of faith, yes. Come back... so we can be young men together again. Come back with me...
- [Saito reaches for the gun]
- Cobb: Come back...
- 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, we can do almost anything.
- Cobb: I can't stay with her anymore because she doesn't exist.
- Mal: I'm the only thing you do believe in anymore.
- Cobb: I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough.
- Arthur: So, once we've made the plant, how do we go out? Hope you have something more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head?
- Cobb: A kick.
- Ariadne: What's a kick?
- Eames: This, Ariadne, would be a kick
- [kicks the leg of the chair Arthur's swinging at]
- Arthur: [finds his balance and glares at Eames]
- Mal: [Sitting on the ledge, to Cobb] I'm asking you to take a leap of faith.
- Cobb: No I can't. You know I can't do that. Take a second, think about our children. Think about James. Think about Phillipa now.
- Mal: If I go without you they'll take them away anyways.
- Cobb: What does that mean?
- Mal: I filed a letter with our attourney explaining how I'm fearful for my safety. How you've threatened to kill me.
- Cobb: Why did you do that?
- Mal: I love you, Dom.
- Cobb: Why did you... why-why would you do that?
- Mal: I freed you from the guilt of choosing to leave them. We're going home to our real children.
- Cobb: No, no, no, no. Mal you listen to me, alright? Mal look at me, please.
- Mal: [Closing her eyes] You're waiting for a train...
- Cobb: Mal, goddammit! Don't do this!
- Mal: A train that will take you far away...
- Cobb: James and Phillipa are waiting!
- 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: Yet it doesn't matter...
- Cobb: Mal, goddammit!
- Mal: Because you'll be together.
- Cobb: Sweetheart! Look at me!
- Mal: [Jumps off of the ledge]
- Cobb: Mal, no! Jesus Christ!
- Cobb: What do you want?
- Saito: Inception. Is it possible?
- Arthur: Of course not.
- Saito: If you can steal an idea, why can't you plant one there instead?
- Arthur: Okay, this is me, planting an idea in your mind. I say: don't think about elephants. What are you thinking about?
- Saito: Elephants?
- Arthur: Right, but it's not your idea. The dreamer can always remember the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake.
- Cobb: No, it's not.
- Cobb: "I will split up my father's empire." Now, this is obviously an idea that Robert himself would choose to reject. Which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. Subconscious is motivated by emotion, right? Not reason. We need to find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.
- Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?
- Cobb: That's what we're here to figure out, right? Now, Robert's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least.
- Eames: Well, can we run with that? We could suggest to him breaking up his father's company as a "screw-you" to the old man.
- Cobb: No, 'cause I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all yearn for reconciliation, for catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.
- Eames: Alright, we'll try this, umm... "My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps."
- Cobb: That might work.
- Arthur: Might? We're gonna need to do a little better than 'might'.
- Eames: Oh, thank you for your contribution, Arthur.
- Arthur: Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames.
- [Eames appears confused at the word]
- Arthur: Specificity?
- Yusuf: Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times to normal. When you enter a dream within that dream, the effect is compounded: it's three dreams, that's ten hours times twen...
- Eames: I'm sorry, uh, maths was never my strong subject. How much time is that?
- Cobb: It's a week the first level down. Six months the second level down, and... the third level...
- Ariadne: ...is ten years! Who would wanna be stuck in a dream for ten years?
- Yusuf: Depends on the dream.
- Ariadne: Why are they all looking at me?
- Cobb: Because 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: It's the foreign nature of the dreamer. They attack like white blood cells fighting an infection.
- Ariadne: They're going to attack us?
- Cobb: No. Just you.