精彩对白

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 subconscious¹. The 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 business strategy into emotion?

Cobb: That's what we're here to figure out. Robert's relationship with his father is stressed, to say the least.

Eames: Can we run with that? We suggest breaking up his father's company as a "screw you" to the old man.

Cobb: No, because I think positive emotion trumps² negative emotion every time. We all yearn³ for reconciliation⁴, for catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.

Eames: All right, well, try this. Um..."My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps." That might work.

Arthur: Might? We're gonna need to do a little better than "might."

Eames: Thank you for your contribution, Arthur.

Arthur: Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames.

Cobb: Specificity? Inception's not about being specific. When we get inside his mind, we're gonna have to work with what we find.

Eames: On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father...and say, "I will not follow in my father's footsteps." Then the next level down, we feed him, "I will create something for myself." Then, by the time we hit the bottom level, we bring out the big guns.

Cobb: "My father doesn't want me to be him."

Eames: Exactly.

Arthur: Three layers down, the dreams are gonna collapse⁵ with the slightest disturbance⁶.

Yusuf: Sedation. For sleep stable enough to create three layers of dreaming we'll have to combine it with an extremely powerful sedative⁷. Good night.The compound we'll be using to share the dream creates a clear connection between dreamers whilst accelerating brain function. In other words, more time on each level. Brain function in the dream will be about 20 times normal. And when you enter a dream within that dream, the effect is compounded. It's three dreams, that's 10 hours times 20...

Arthur: Math 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: That's 10 years. Who'd wanna be stuck in a dream for 10 years?

Yusuf: Depends on the dream.

Arthur: So once we've made the plant, how do we get out? I'm hoping you have something more elegant than shooting me in the head.

Cobb: A kick.

Ariadne: What's a kick?

Eames: This, Ariadne, would be a kick.

Cobb: It's that feeling of falling you get that jolts⁸ you awake. Snaps you out of the dream.

Arthur: We gonna feel a kick with this sedation?

Yusuf: That's the clever part. I customized the sedative to leave inner-ear function unimpaired. That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper⁹ still feels falling. Or tipping.

Cobb: The trick is to synchronize¹⁰ a kick that can penetrate¹¹ all three levels.

Arthur: We could use a musical countdown to synchronize the different kicks.

Eames: He hasn't got any surgery scheduled, no dental, nothing.

Cobb: Wasn't he supposed to havea knee operation?

Eames: Nothing. Nothing that they'll put him under for, anyway. And we need... We need at least a good 10 hours.

Saito: Sydney to Los Angeles. One of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two weeks.

Cobb: He must be flying private, then.

Saito: Not if there were unexpected maintenance with his plane.

Arthur: It would have to be a 747.

Cobb: Why's that?

Arthur: On a 747, the pilot's up top... the first-class cabin's in the nose, so no one would walk through. You'd have to buy out the entire cabin and the first-class flight attendant.

Saito: I bought the airline. It seemed neater.

Cobb: Well, looks like we have our 10 hours. Ariadne? Terrific work, by the way.

妙语佳句 活学活用

1. to say the least：退一步说，最起码。例如：Such a view is incorrect, to say the least.（至少可以说这样的见解是错误的。）

2. screw you：用来形容沉重打击，这里的意思是“我们让他觉得解散公司是对他父亲的沉重打击”。

3. catharsis：精神或心理的疏泄，宣泄。也可以指精神净化（如通过戏剧或其它艺术活动）。

4. follow in one’s footsteps：仿效某人，步某人的后尘。也可以说成是tread in someone's footsteps。

5. big guns：有影响力的重要人物。在口语中也可以用bigwig表示，也可以指重要事件，致命武器。

例如：All the important decisions are made by the big guns at the head office in London.（所有的重大决定都是由伦敦总部里的大人物们做出的。）

6. That's the clever part：妙就妙在这儿。

7. inner-ear function：这里指内耳的平衡功能。

8. first-class cabin：头等舱。

9. nose：飞机、船等的前端。但在美式足球中，nose guard不是指“前卫”，而是指“中卫”。

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