Book: Inception – the Shooting Script (Christopher Nolan)

Inception: the shooting script contains an interview (or a conversation) of Christopher Nolan by his brother, instructions for the PASIV device (also available here), storyboards and a graph of the heist by Nolan (looking a little like this one) and of course the script.

Having never read a script before, it was interesting to imagine the director, or the actor holding this script and trying to visualize the movie. And you can take your time to savor the dialogues.

Reading this script, I realized something interesting about Ariadne. Ariadne, in the mythology is the “Mistress of the labyrinth”, she helped Theseus to escape from the Minotaur’s labyrinth. A first name which speaks for itself…

During his interview, Nolan confirmed he was a lucid dreamer. It was more accidental than voluntary. In his youth, he was interrupting his sleep to get breakfast, before going back to bed for a few hours, a classic WBTB induction.

[SPOILERS WARNING]

The script contains a few scenes that were not in the final movie. For instance, the scene between Cobb and Miles in Paris, in the lecture hall:

COBB

I thought you could talk to Marie about bringing them on vacation. Somewhere I could meet-

MILES

Why would she listen to me ?

COBB

You were married for twenty years.

MILES

She blames me as much as you.

And this scene, to my recollection, was shorten in the movie, yet it is key to the comprehension:

EAMES

We could split the idea into emotinal 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 FOOTSEPS.” 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 emotinal triggers ?

EAMES

I forge each emotional concept in the style and manner of Peter Browning, a key figure in Fischer’s emotional life.

[...]

EAMES

Now, in the dream, I can impersonate Browning and suggest the concepts to Fischer’s conscious mind…

EAMES

(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.

And just for the pleasure, some key scenes:

Saito and Cobb – first heist

COBB

What’s the most resilient parasite ? An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea’s taken hold in the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. A person can cover it up, ignore it- but it stays there.

SAITO

But surely-to forget…?

COBB

Information, yes. But an idea? Fully formed, understood? That sticks…

First shared dream between Cobb – Ariadne (dreamer Cobb)

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.

Second shared dream between Cobb and Ariadne (dreamer Ariadne)

COBB

Because you’re changing things. My subconscious feels that someone else is creating the world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections converge on you.

ARIADNE

Converge ?

COBB

They feel the foreign nature of the dreamer, and attack-like white blood cells fighting an infection.

ARIADNE

They’re going to attack us ?

COBB

Just you, actually.

[...]

ARIADNE

Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy ?

COBB

That’s why it’s called subconscious. I don’t control it.

Similar Posts:

• What is a lucid dream ?
• The great adventure of lucid dreaming
• Android application for lucid dreams

Tags: Books, Lucid dreaming, Movies