It is actually several weeks since I watched Inception, but things have been super busy at school, so I haven’t had a chance to complete the beat sheet until now. Hooray for school holidays!!!
This is based off one viewing in the cinema. I peeked at my watch a few times to try and keep a track of the timing, but I didn’t write it down soon enough and thus I don’t have any timings.
This is not very detailed, but I hope it shows the beats clearly enough.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What follows is a run-down of Inception in 15 beats. It has plenty of spoilers. Don’t read if you haven’t seen it.
Opening Image: Waves crash on a beach in super slow motion. Cobb, our protagonist, washes up on a beach. He sees two children, playing in the sand, but cannot make out their faces. Armed men arrive and drag Cobb before an ancient man sitting alone at a table. Guards place Cobb’s gun and a spinning top in front of the man.
Theme Stated: During Cobb’s dialogue with the old man, they talk about being old men, filled with regret, waiting to die alone.
Set-up: Cobb, a master thief, is a purloiner of information. He is able to infiltrate people’s dreams and extract information from them. We are exposed to some of the rules of the dream world: if you are injured in a dream, you experience pain, but if you are killed in a dream you wake-up.
Mal, a mysterious woman, foils Cobb’s plan to steal information off a man named Saito. When Cobb is dunked in a bathtub we are shown ‘the kick’- a method of forcing someone out of a dream. It is also revealed that Cobb is separated from his children because he is unable to return to America to see his family.
Catalyst: Saito realises he was in a dream within a dream and that he is still dreaming. Cobb and his accomplice, Arthur, narrowly escape; Saito, however, catches the other member of Cobb’s team. Saito offers Cobb the chance to clear his name and return to America to see his children.
Debate: Saito wonders if Cobb can Cobb perform ‘inception’ – that is, can Cobb plant an idea in someone’s head, rather than merely extract information from somebody’s brain. Cobb takes on the job, knowing inception is possible – he has performed it before.
Break into Two: Cob accepts Saito’s job of incepting Robert Fischer, the heir of a giant energy company. Cobb begins to assemble his team.
B-Story: Based on the recommendation of his father-in-law, Cobb hires Ariadne as his new architect. This is the B Story in Inception. Ariadne is the one who digs into Cobb’s past and discovers the reason for Mal’s intrusions into Cobb’s plans. It is Ariadne who forces Cobb to deal with his deep-seated problems and overcome them. This also ties in with the theme. Mal is angry at Cobb for what she perceives as his abandonment of her – she wanted him to be with her and for them to grow old together.
Fun and Games: Cobb arrives in an African city to recruit Eames, the forger. While there, Cobb narrowly escapes Cobol security goons. Ariadne experiments with creating mazes and city bending – MC Escher sort of stuff. Yusuf, the chemist, concocts his serum that will guarantee them some solid dream states. Ariadne is informed about the totem, a device that each individual has that acts a certain way in the dream-world – a way to keep track of what is reality and what is dream. Ariadne discovers Cobb’s secret memories – that Mal has been killed, and Cobb can’t return to America to see his kids because he is wanted for Mal’s murder. We also find out that Mal’s reappearances are merely projections of Cobb’s subconscious.
Mid-point: Cobb and his team launch into their mission. As they fly from LA to Sydney there is a False Victory as Cobb successfully picks Fischer’s passport from his pocket and spikes Fischer’s drink with Yusuf’s magic potion. The mission is ON!
Bad Guys Close In: On the inside of the dream, however, things go pear-shaped. Fischer’s subconscious has been trained to defend itself in the event of an intrusion and Cobb and his team come under heavy fire. A time-clock is introduced in the form of a bullet wound to Saito. Cobb and his team take cover in a warehouse and prepare to go to the next dream level. Eames impersonates Browning, one of Fischer’s advisors, in an effort to get some information necessary for the plan.
All is Lost: Saito’s injury is serious. They must readjust the plan to go much quicker or else Saito could die – and because of the heavy sedation, he may never wake up. He could end up lost in Limbo – the dream-world.
Dark Night of the Soul: The reason for Mal’s death is revealed. She couldn’t come to grips with what was dream and what was reality, as a result of being incepted by Cobb. She committed suicide and framed Cobb so it would appear he killed her.
Break into Three: Yusuf, the only one left in the first dream level, drives the van over the edge of a huge bridge, in preparation for ‘the kick’ that will wake them up once the plan is finished. Fischer is convinced by Cobb, posing as a certain ‘Mr Charles’ (who claims to be a member of Fischer’s security team) and they go to the next level of dreaming, a snow fortress.
Finale:
1. Gathering the Team – While Yusuf and the van drop from the bridge in super slo-mo, Arthur rigs the hotel with explosives so that there will be the necessary kick to wake up from the dream. Cobb and the others attack the fortress.
2. Executing the Plan – They attack the snow military outpost. It looks like they will succeed in incepting Fischer with the idea that his father wanted him to break up the energy company, and instead create his own identity, separate from his father’s empire.
3. The High Tower Surprise – They are foiled by Mal, who kills Fischer, sending him into Limbo. The plan has failed, but…
4. “Dig, Deep Down” – Ariadne suggests that they go into Limbo to rescue Fischer – but if they do, they could be lost in the dream-world forever. And if they do manage to make it back, they could be permanently affected.
5. The Execution of the New Plan – Despite the risk, Ariadne and Cobb enter Limbo. Cobb confronts Mal. Tying in with the theme, Cobb reveals to Mal that they did, in fact, grow old together in Limbo – he didn’t abandon her. They rescue Fischer.
Final Image: In Limbo, Cobb washes up on the beach. This time we understand that the old man Cobb is brought to is Saito. Cobb has risked an eternity in Limbo to rescue him. Saito makes a call and Cobb is allowed to enter the US. He is reunited with his children and this time he gets to see their faces. As Cobb walks out to see his children he spins the top, his totem. It spins and spins. There is a hint of a wobble as the screen cuts to black.