Corporate espionage. Cobb can invade people's dreams, so corporations hire him to steal business secrets from rivals' subconscious. Saito, an energy magnate, wants Cobb to do the reverse: not take information, but plant an idea in a rival's mind. In return, he'll fix problems with the US government so Cobb can return to his children. Cobb takes the near-impossible job, planning three layers of dreams within dreams for the mark. It requires a larger team taking a powerful sedative: if something goes awry, the dreamers may not awake. Cobb doesn't tell his team that his past nurtures feelings powerful enough to bring on this comatose state for all of them. And the children - are they real?

During production, details of the film's plot were kept secret. Christopher Nolan, who wrote the script, cryptically described it as a contemporary sci-fi action thriller "set within the architecture of the mind."

Cobb:
Never recreate from your memory. Always imagine new places!


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Continuity: The first time the cab is hit, the front grille with the Hyundai logo is smashed in, and disappears. The grille reappears in the next scene, and the car has less damage than before. In the warehouse scene, the grille disappears again.

Written by Charles Dumont and Michel Vaucaire
Performed by Édith Piaf
Courtesy of EMI Music France
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music