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Inception - 2010 | Cast / Characters



Leonardo DiCaprio
as Dominic Cobb

A professional thief who specializes in conning secrets from his victims by infiltrating their dreams.


Joseph Gordon-Levitt
as Arthur

Cobb's partner who manages and researches the missions.


Ellen Page as Ariadne

A graduate student of architecture who is recruited to construct the various dreamscapes.


Tom Hardy as Eames

A sharp-tongued associate of Cobb's. He is referred to as a fence but his speciality is identity theft.



Ken Watanabe as Mr. Saito

A Japanese businessman who employs Cobb for the team's mission.



Dileep Rao as Yusuf

The team's chemist.



Cillian Murphy
as Robert Fischer

The heir to a business empire and the team's target.



Tom Berenger
as Peter Browning

Robert Fischer's godfather and fellow executive at the Fischers' company.



Marion Cotillard as Mal Cobb

Dom's deceased wife. She is a manifestation of Dom's guilt about the real Mal's suicide.



Michael Caine
as Prof. Stephen Miles

Cobb's mentor and father-in-law, and Ariadne's college professor who recommends her to the team.



Pete Postlethwaite
as Maurice Fischer

Robert Fischer's father and the dying founder of a business empire.



Lukas Haas as Nash

An architect in Cobb's employment who betrays the team and is later replaced by Ariadne.




Inception - 2010 | Enhanced Synopsis Presentation



Dawn. Crashing surf. The waves toss a young man onto wet sand. He lies there, exhausted and delirious. A child's shout makes him lift his head to see: a little blonde boy crouching, back towards us, watching the tide eat a sandcastle.


A little blonde girl joins the boy. The man tries to call them, but they run off, faces unseen. He collapses.


The barrel of a rifle rolls nudges him on the shoulder, no response. The rifle barrels lifts his shirt, revealing a handgun stuffed in the back of his pants. The Japanese security guard then calls up the beach to a colleague. Behind him, perched on a high rocky mound is a Japanese castle. The castle guard rushes into the seaside palace.


Japanese castle dining room: An elderly Japanese man sitting at the dining table, his back to us. The elderly man is told that the man asked for him by name. He was carrying nothing but . . . He puts a handgun on the table, then a small pewter cone alongside the gun. The elderly man stops eating. He orders for the man to be brought in.


The man is dragged in and given some food. The Elderly Man watches the Man wolf down his food. The Elderly Man wants to know if he is here to kill him. The Man pauses, then back to his food. The Elderly Japanese Man picks up the cone between thumb and forefinger, he knows what it is. He has seen one before. Many, many years ago.


The Elderly Japanese Man stares at the top mesmerized. He spins it onto a table. It circles gracefully across the polished ebony .. . a spinning top. The old man says, "It belonged to a man I met in a half-remembered dream. A man possessed of some radical notions." The Elderly Japanese Man stares, remembering.


The stranger looks up in realization as the scene shifts . . .


At the same elegant dining room years earlier, is a speaker. Dom Cobb, 35, handsome, tailored. A young Japanese man, Saito, eats as he listens. Cobb and his partner, Arthur, speak to the prospective client about the services they provide; specifically protection against thieves specialized in extracting valuable information from a subject while they're dreaming.


Cobb explains that, when one is asleep, one's mind is vulnerable to attack and what he can do is train Saito's mind to subconsciously defend against extractors to protect whatever secrets he may be hiding.


He backs up his claim by revealing that he is the most skilled extractor there is and knows all the tricks involved. He can teach Saito to his subconscious so that even when he is asleep, his guard is never down. But Cobb would need to know his way around his thoughts better than anyone. Saito gives this a flicker of a smile, telling Cobb he will consider his proposal. Saito stands to leave and exits the room to join a lavish party.


They watch Saito leave. Arthur turns to Cobb, worried. Arthur saying, he knows. A tremor starts, they steady their glasses, Cobb glances at his watch - the second hand is frozen.


A filthy bathroom, Cobb, asleep, sitting in a chair at the end of a steaming bath. The chair is up on a cabinet - the bottom of the legs level with the rim of the tub. A sweating man (40's) watches over Cobb. This is Nash. A distant explosion rumbles through the room. Nash moves to the window, parts the curtains. Outside: a chaotic developing-world-city - the street filled with rioters - smashing, burning. Nash checks Cobb's left wrist: above his watch, tape holds two thin yellow tubes in place. Nash looks at Cobb's watch- the second hand crawls unnaturally slow.


Nash follows the tubes to a silver briefcase, a PASIV - Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous, a device which feeds them the sleep drug Somnacin, keeping them all asleep and allow dream-sharing. Arthur is asleep in an armchair. Tubes connect the briefcase to Arthur's wrist. Nash follows another set of tubes from the briefcase to where they pass under the door to the bedroom. Through the crack of the door, Nash sees Saito asleep on the bed, tubes running to his wrist. Boom - a closer explosion.


A rooftop terrace of the Japanese castle, a low tremor rumbles through the castle. Cobb and Arthur steady themselves against the wooden rail. Several tiles and pieces of masonry fall. Below them a black sea churns. Other guests wander the massive terraces. Cobb knows where Saito's secrets are; he glanced over at a safe the minute Cobb mentioned the word.

Arthur nods. Then spots someone over Cobb's shoulder, asking him what she's doing here. Cobb turns to see a beautiful woman, elegantly dressed, staring out at the sea. This is Mal. Cobb watches her. Cobb assures him that he'll take care of it and to proceed with the job.


Cobb approaches the woman, she looks out at the drop. The wind whips her hair. She turns to look at him, amused. She smiles and asks if he misses her. He leans in, mesmerized. She stares up at him, inviting. He responds that he does but can't trust her anymore.


Moments later, are now in a bedroom suite of the Japanese castle. Mal sips champagne as she studies a painting by Francis Bacon. Cobb is looking down through the window at the guards patrolling the castle at ground level. He turns to Mal, donning a pair of black leather gloves and asks her to have a seat. Mal lowers herself gracefully into a leather wingback chair. Cobb approaches, pulls out a length of black rope and kneels at Mal's feet.

She looks down at him. Cobb ties the rope around the chair legs. Mal asks him if the children miss her. Cobb pauses. He lets his gloved fingers lightly touch Mal's ankle. He looks up at her, "you can't imagine." Mal looks uncomfortable. Cobb gets to his feet, letting out the rope as he moves back to the window. Cobb tosses the rope out. He tugs on the rope, testing. The weight of the chair, with Mal on it, holds. And with that, he jumps. Mal considers the open window.

Outside the castle wall, Cobb rappels down the wall, darting past windows. He stops at a particular one. Gets out a glass cutter. Suddenly he starts dropping. The empty chair slides across the floor - wedges under the window. Cobb jolts to a stop 15 ft. lower. He looks up at the bedroom window. Shakes his head. Starts climbing back. Moments later in the castle kitchen. Cobb drops silently from the window into the darkened kitchen.

He pulls a pistol from his belt, screwing a silencer onto the barrel as he glides across the room. Entering a hall, Cobb slips through the shadows towards a guard stationed at the head of a grand staircase. Cobb flashes out of the shadows, silenced pistol up, aiming - PHHT - head shot - the Guard starts to drop, but Cobb is already there to catch him, sliding on his knees and lowering the Guard silently to the floor.

Continuing to the dining room, he takes out another guard. In the dining room, Cobb moves to a sliding door, opens it, revealing a safe. Cobb spins the dial, pulls it open, grabs an envelope from within, stuffs it into his waistband, where there is already an identical envelope Lights come on. Cobb freezes.


Cobb turns. At the far end of the room: Saito. Next to him is Mal, gun in hand. She smiles at Cobb and demands his gun. Cobb doesn't move. Mal motions outside - two guards drag Arthur into the room. Mal puts the gun to his head. Cobb slowly places his gun at his end of the long table, then slides it along the polished ebony. It comes to rest halfway down the length or the table.

Saito requests the envelope. Cobb reaches into his waistband, removes one of the envelopes, slides it along the table. Steps back, hands raised. Cobb asks Saito if 'she told him'. Saito responds, "That you are here to steal from me, or that we are actually asleep?" Arthur gives Cobb an I-told-you-so look. Saito demands to know who is his employer.




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Resources: wikipedia.org, imdb.com



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Enhanced Synopsis Presentation

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Ariadne's Inception Q&A


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