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The Inception Crew

    The Team 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/541420_v1.jpg

"Assemble your team, Mr. Cobb. And choose your people more wisely."
Saito

A team of professionals of the dream-sharing technology assembled and led by Dominic Cobb. They are paid by Japanese billionaire Saito to cause an "inception" — implanting an idea in the mind of Saito's rival billionaire Robert Fischer through dream-sharing.


  • Anti-Hero: Both Cobb and Saito have rather selfish motives for messing with Robert Fischer's subconscious, and all the other team members are motivated by either money, curiosity, the thrill of the challenge, or a combination of all these. They're arguably altering Fischer's subconscious for the better, in that he'll have a more positive outlook on his father and life in general, but it's an outlook that was based on lies. Even if you put aside their selfish motives, the team's remarkably deceptive and manipulative methods are morally questionable, to say the least. Could be justifiable on Saito's behalf: when Saito explains the job to Cobb in Mombasa, he mentions that if Fischer's company isn't broken up then it will become a global energy monopoly, so by forcing the company to dissolve it would be preventing a possible global energy crisis.
  • Badass Crew: Who knew that a team of dream-invaders could be this cool? While looking like pretty much anyone else in the real world, in the dream worlds that they infiltrate, they're a team of expert heisters.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Everyone, though Arthur kicking ass and taking names in his Waistcoat of Style is a standout example.
  • Breaking the Fellowship: Implied. But they seem to be going their separate ways at the end.
  • Caper Crew: Everyone fulfills a specific role in the heist or at least finds some use. Given that we're using Dream Logic, many of the roles are performed by the same character.
    • Cobb "The Extractor": The Mastermind, The Con Man, and surprisingly, The Wild Card. He's the one who plans out the entire inception and dictates when and how the group goes off-script. Also, he's the one who tricks Fischer into thinking he, Ariadne, and Arthur are actually part of his mind security and not the one's infiltrating his mind. And the primary reason why the entire Inception goes off the rails is because his unresolved guilt about accidentally making his wife, Mal, commit a Psychic-Assisted Suicide manifests in "Mal" showing up to sabotage the plan.
    • Arthur "The Point Guy": The Partner in Crime, Coordinator, and The Searcher as Cobb's second in command and head of research for the team. Him actually missing that Fischer has had training to prevent a mind infiltration is an example of him failing at his role as The Searcher. Also has shades of The Muscle since he's the only one shown to do actual hand to hand combat with the mooks in the entire film.
    • Ariadne "The Architect": The New Kid with hints of The Hacker given that she's a young outside brought in by Cobb to design all of the dreams the team goes into. She can thus relay any information about where hidden paths and back entrances are.
    • Eames "The Forger": The Con Man, The Distraction, The Roper, and The Muscle. His expansive imagination allows him to do a lot, from copying and imitating real life people to fool the mark to conjuring up heavy duty weapons in order to deal with mooks.
    • Yusef "The Chemist": The Gadget Guy and The Driver as he is the one who gives the team the strong sedative to keep them under long enough to go into three dreams and is in charge of driving the van in the first dream.
    • Saito "The Tourist": The Backer who provides the team with the funds necessary to do their job. He buys out an entire airline in order to make sure the plan can happen.
  • Gentlemen Thieves: Granted, more subtle versions.
  • Gray-and-Gray Morality: All of them are generally mild-mannered and approach their job with a commendable level of professionalism (given that their job is mentally dangerous to them as well), but that job does involve searching through people's minds in order to steal important secrets and (in the film's main case) using lies to give someone an idea from the inside.
  • Mr. Exposition: They all get their part except Ariadne and Saito. Cobb and Arthur cover basic dream-sharing terminology, Eames handles the layout for Fischer's inception and Yusef knows everything about sedation.
  • Sharp Dressed Men and Girl: Especially evident at the second dream level at the hotel.
  • The Smurfette Principle: The crew consists of around six guys and one girl. There is one other important female character, and for most of the film, she's a projection of the main (male) character's subconscious.
  • The Team: Cobb has to assemble one for the inception.
    • Cobb is The Leader who is directing and coordinating the entire project, has the most experience with entering dreams, and has the most at stake since whether or not he's successful will determine if Saito will help him get the charges of murder against him dropped in the US so Cobb can return and see his family again.
    • Ariadne is the only woman in the group and based on her team role as the Architect, i.e., the imaginative one who is tasked with building the complex world of the dreams, she could be The Smart Guy. But narratively, she serves as The Lancer: she is the only one to see just how bad Cobb's Mal projection has gotten and the only one to push Cobb on the issue rather than silently acquiesce. She was not supposed to go inside the dream as a promise Cobb made to her professor, but she insists telling Cobb that someone in there needs to know the truth in order to know when and why things would go south. She even gives Cobb an ultimatum: let her join or tell Arthur. Cobb chooses the former, cementing her in this role.
    • In terms of the heist itself, Arthur is The Lancer as he often serves as Cobb's second in command; he was the only one Cobb didn't have to recruit because he was already working with him. Narratively, however, he plays much more like The Smart Guy, given the particularity he has over words, his Mr. Exposition role regarding Ariadne, his job as main researcher for the team, and for his Those Two Guys relationship he has with...
    • Eames, who as the Gentleman Thief with a big personality that brings the big guns and takes on an entire team of mook single-handedly, is a Boisterous Bruiser version of The Big Guy. He and Arthur are contrasted before they are even shown on screen with each other, with Eames ridiculing Arthur's Lack of Imagination, and the two share a playful and rivalrous back-and-forth for the majority of the film.
    • As the chemist, tasked with concocting all of the sedatives and sleeping agents to put the team under, Yusuf could be considered The Smart Guy or The Medic, but narratively he's not as easily definable given his limited screentime and interaction with the rest of the team members.
    • Saito is the Sixth Ranger who was not meant to be on the team, but insisted to be as the bankroller for the project in order to ensure things run smoothly.
  • True Companions: Ariadne tells Cobb to get over this guilt not for himself, but so that the others don't get stuck in Limbo. Cobb remains in Limbo to get Saito, who returns the favor by immediately making a call that gets Cobb off the hook.
  • Villain Protagonist: The "heroes" are all thieves trying to con an innocent man into giving up his company by exploiting his relationship with his cold and distant father. Even Mal is nothing more than Cobb's own subconscious working to kill them all (in a manner of speaking). While Cobb does have a somewhat sympathetic motive and none of the characters are especially horrible people, it still ends up being effectively a case of The Bad Guy Wins in the end.

    Dominic "Dom" Cobb 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inception_ending_explained_1003919_1.jpg

"Our dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up we realize things were strange."

The Extractor. A master architect of dreams and the world's best thief of secrets within the dreams. Following a botched job for Cobol Engineering, he assembles and leads a crew to cause an inception at Saito's behest, but can't perform his architect duties due to being haunted by memories and projections of his deceased wife Mal.


  • Ambiguous Situation: Did Cobb ever really get back to his family, or is he still dreaming? He spins the top totem to check, but doesn't watch it long enough to be sure, and the film ends with the top wobbling, but not falling.
  • Anti-Hero: He certainly isn't a mean person, but he also doesn't hesitate to use the occasional Batman Gambit to get what he needs, depending on the job.
  • Author Avatar: Given the common interpretation that the entire film is an allegory for the film-making process, Cobb himself is clearly a stand-in for director Christopher Nolan and physically resembles him to a great extent.
  • Badass Boast: He's the most skilled extractor, and had boasted as such.
  • Broken Ace: The foremost expert in dream-sharing technology and techniques, who drove his wife insane during the process of experimentation.
  • Byronic Hero: Very guilt-ridden over his wife's death.
  • Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Why he continuously has to spin his totem to check if he's in a dream or not.
  • Cold Sniper: When the team enters the third level, Cobb is equipped with a sniper rifle and shoots several mooks to clear the way to the fortress. Subverted in that he's unable to bring himself to shoot Mal, who then shoots Fischer.
  • Crusading Widower: Though rather than revenge he wants to reunite with his children.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: His beloved wife committed suicide after making sure he would be blamed for her death, forcing him to be constantly on the run, unable to see his children. His past also has a major impact on his ability to work. Not that he feels he has to be upfront about it to those endangered by it!
  • Determinator: Deconstructed. Quite literally, Cobb is his own worst enemy. The mental projection of his wife that hounds the protagonists is merely his dogged determination to keep his wife "alive" in some shape or form, to ease his own guilt over her death. Furthermore, Inception itself is revealed to be this but played for drama. Once an idea is incepted, it defines the victim, making that single idea the one thing that they will never give up on, no matter what.
  • Disappeared Dad: Cobb is one for his children, whom he hasn't seen in years. When he managed to call them, they wondered when he's coming home, to which he replied he can't.
    Miles: It would take more than a few stuffed animals to convince those children they still have a father.
  • Double Think: ...of what's real and what isn't.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: He essentially went through two limbo experiences to see his children again, or find a projection of them.
  • Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Making a living through industrial espionage was the only option for a man of his skills given that he's a wanted fugitive. Unlike the usual version of this trope he's good at it and the job pays well, but not enough to give him what he really wants.
  • Guile Hero: His Mr. Charles persona. Basically a manipulative ploy to convince the dreamer that he's a projection of the mind.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Dead wife and children he can never see, and he's arguably the world's greatest extractor.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: He didn't explain the risks behind the sedation and limbo to his team because he needed to go through with the job to get back to his children.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: A common interrogation technique of his for extraction, but only in dreams.
  • Longing for Fictionland: He really wishes the projection of Mal in his dreams could match the real Mal.
  • The Lost Lenore: His dead wife, Mal.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Played with interestingly. Cobb's love for Mal prompted him to Mind Rape her in order to get her out of Limbo. In turn, the brainwashed Mal ruined Cobb's life to make sure he would commit suicide with her. Cobb then knowingly risked the lives of his crew by trying to keep Mal alive in his dreams, whereupon she constantly sabotaged his jobs and attempted to kill his comrades so that he would join her in Limbo.
  • Loving a Shadow: The projection of Mal and the memories he relives in his dreams is the only connection Cobb still has with his dead wife. In the end, Cobb is able to admit Mal's projection is a poor attempt to hold onto his dead wife because his imagination can't come close to replicating the real Mal.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Several cases. He recruited Ariadne by exposing her to the dream technology and counted on her wanting to further experiment with it. He didn't warn his team about being killed and sent to limbo. The Mr. Charles ploy. He also performed inception on Mal by destroying her belief in reality so they could wake up from their time in limbo.
  • Manly Tears: Looks and sounds like he's about to shed some too when Mal throws herself to her death.
  • Meaningful Name: "Cobb" means "dream" in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. It's also an old English word for "spider" (hence the word "cobweb"). Fitting, for a man who weaves webs and traps others in them.
  • Moving Beyond Bereavement: Throughout the film, Cobb's dreams are haunted by Mal's shade, a reflection of him being unable to move on from her death. However, in the finale, he is able to confront her and finally admit the Awful Truth: he's directly responsible for the real Mal's death, having forced her to leave Limbo by planting the idea that the dreamworld wasn't real - only for her to become convinced that the real world was a dream as well and commit suicide in an attempt to wake up. Furthermore, Cobb acknowledges that the shade is just his best effort at recreating his wife in his dreams - but it's nowhere near as good as the real thing. After this confrontation, Mal troubles him no further.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: The inception he performed on Mal wound up defining her worldview and drove her to suicide, destroying Cobb's life and leaving him with a crushing sense of guilt, manifesting in the shade of Mal that stalks Cobb throughout the film.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: To escape limbo with his wife, he destroyed her idea of reality so she would kill herself to wake up. After that she still thought reality wasn't real and killed herself again.
  • Obnoxious In-Laws: Downplayed; while they never interact on-screen, there's an implication that Cobb's mother-in-law doesn't much care for him, telling his children (who are in her care) that he's never coming home and refusing to speak with him about it. Even if she doesn't believe that he killed Mal (which is likely, as she allows contact between Cobb and the children), her opinion of him, or at least his chances of ever coming home, doesn't seem particularly high.
  • Older Than They Look: In the middle of the film, he has lived eighty years mentally (around 50 years with Mal in Limbo)— by the end, it's unknown how old he is.
  • Perma-Stubble: Can double as a Beard of Sorrow.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Cobb is the more intense and reckless Red one to Arthur's stiff Blue Oni.
  • There's No Place Like Home: He takes part in the inception job just because Saito offers him a chance to return home to his kids.
  • Trauma Button: Virtually any reminder of the scene of his wife's suicide triggers flashbacks to the event, and likely makes it easier for Cobb's subconscious to interfere with the job.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: His motivation in incepting Mal into believing their world in Limbo wasn't real (and thus prompting her to wake up) was clearly done out of love and noble intent. But it also resulted in her death, him being an exile, and pretty much everything bad that happens in the film.
  • When You Coming Home, Dad?: Said word for word by his son James.
  • Where Do You Think You Are?: "You're in a dream."
  • You Can't Go Home Again: He was implicated by his wife Mal for her death in a letter she filed with her attorney; as a result he became a wanted fugitive who can never return home to his children.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. He doesn't wish to dispose of Nash like Saito offered.
  • Your Worst Memory: Has developed the ability to keep troubling memories sealed in a prison in his mind - chief among them being the scene of Mal's suicide and the moment when he had to leave his children to go on the run. However, during the mission, these memories begin leaking out, resulting in the shades of James and Phillipa haunting him at odd moments... and then Mal shows up again.

    Arthur 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inception-joseph-gordon-levitt_8863.jpeg

"A dream within a dream within a dream? Is that even possible?"

The Point-man. Dom Cobb's most trusted friend and partner in their extraction/inception schemes. Has a certain taste for the finer things in life that he can't help but bring with him to every job.


  • Badass Bookworm: His job with the group is to do the research, and his hallway fight definitely pushes him into badass territory. Cobb mentions that he's in charge of doing the research, and he's smart enough to figure out how to simulate falling in zero gravity. He's also badass enough to pull it off, in limited time, while fighting off mooks. Again, in zero gravity.
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor Arthur. He gets shot twice at the beginning. Once just to cause him pain, and once BY HIS OWN TEAMMATE (admittedly to wake him up). When it comes to testing out the "kicks", somehow Arthur's always the one getting his chair knocked over, his gun dissed by Eames, and so on. His awesomeness at the end makes up for it, though.
  • The Comically Serious: Arthur is the most level-headed and serious member of the team, and as such is not amused by Eames' somewhat careless behavior, getting his chair constantly tipped over, or loud music.
  • Consummate Professional: He has an intense professionalism and intolerance to the lack of detail that goes into the inception job.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Usually targeted at Eames, though he tends to buckle down once the work starts.
  • Foil: To Eames; they're both professionals, associates of Cobb, and part of the team, but Arthur's clean-cut appearance, serious and unimaginative personality, and personal loyalty to Cobb contrasts with Eames, who is more rugged, playful and creative, and Only in It for the Money.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Cobb are old friends in addition to working together; notably, Arthur is one of the few characters in the film who knew Cobb back when Mal was still alive (the implication being that he was her friend as well).
  • Lack of Imagination: Eames mentions that Arthur has no imagination, which is why he believes inception is impossible; notably, unlike the others on the team whose roles are based on creativity (Ariadne the architect, Yusuf the chemist, Eames the shapeshifting forger), Arthur serves as more of a facilitator, doing groundwork in the real world. Which doesn't stop him from being a fierce fighter in the dream world when he needs to be.
  • The Lancer: This would be his role on the team as Cobb's right-hand man and most trusted friend.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Adores fine suits and even finer hotels and establishments. With him being the dreamer of the second layer, its locale changes to a very swanky and expensive hotel, and even on their first job while infiltrating Saito's mind, Mal automatically assumes that their current locale seems like Arthur's taste.
  • Mr. Exposition: Provides Ariadne with a lot of expository information, both about the dreamscape (in which he's an expert) and about Cobb (being one of his oldest friends).
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Cobb's Red Oni. Eames even refers to Arthur as a "stick in the mud" with "no imagination."
  • The Reliable One: For all that Arthur "has no imagination", he's the best he is at what he does, which is making sure that you get out of any situation in one piece. Definitely the kind of guy you want watching your back.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: While all the men on the team favor stylish attire, Arthur is never seen without a sharp-looking tie and waistcoat combo.
  • Ship Tease: It's implied that he is attracted to Ariadne, though nothing seems to come of it.
  • The Perfectionist: "Specificity"
  • Reality Warper: Arthur's no slacker when it comes to warping reality, and he even manages to turn recursive, impossible geometry back on his opponents.
  • The Reliable One: To Cobb, he's the one man he always needs in a dream job.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: His signature look.
  • Waistcoat of Style: Normal dress style.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Arthur's comments about Mal imply that the two of them were friends while she lived. The projection of Mal has no problem shooting Arthur in the leg to coerce Cobb.

    Saito 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ken_watanabe_inception_6838.png

Played by: Ken Watanabe

"...So do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?"

The Tourist. A Japanese billionaire and CEO of Proclus Global, Dom Cobb was hired to extract informations from on behalf of rival company Cobol Engineering. It didn't work out, and Saito ended up hiring Cobb to cause an inception in the mind of rival billionaire Robert Fischer in order to dismantle his company. He spares no expense to that end, and demands to be part of the inception crew to make sure they get the job done.


  • Affably Evil: While Saito is a shady businessman, he also remains polite to his employees and sticks to his end of the bargain.
  • The Chessmaster: Saito allowed Cobb and Arthur to infiltrate his mind at the start of the film as an "audition" for the Fischer job, as well as finding out enough about Cobb to get the perfect lure to make sure he accepts Saito's offer.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: He hired the team to break apart his rival's company using Mind Rape techniques. However, given how said rival is equally corrupt, Saito's motives can be seen in a more sympathetic light. And he also honors the agreement he makes with Cobb.
  • Fiction 500: When the team points out that they will have to buy several dozen first-class seats on a trans-pacific jumbo jet flight to permit them to dream-share with Fischer without interruption;
    "I bought the airline. ...It seemed neater."
  • Hidden Depths: His mind is as close to a steel trap as you can get, to the point where Cobb completely fails the job for Cobol. That said, the elaborate attempt still impressed Saito nonetheless.
  • Honor Among Thieves: Claims he will honor his deal with Cobb no matter what. He does.
  • I Gave My Word: Even after being shot on the first dream level, Saito promises to honor his arrangement with Cobb. Despite the decades he spends trapped in limbo, as soon as he wakes up, Saito keeps his promise.
  • Instant Expert: Played with. He becomes a self-taught dream architect during the unknown-but-lengthy time he spends in limbo, but by that point he's had plenty of time to practice.
  • Karma Houdini: Double Subverted, it looks like he's going to be trapped in limbo but Cobb rescues him and he suffers no consequences in having a business competitor inceptioned... After spending decades inside his dream.
  • The Load: Eames warns him that a shared dream is no place for "tourists." He becomes a literal load as soon as the first dream stage when he's shot and has to be carried around, although he gets better from the second stage on. He redeems himself in the third dream level when he's tasked with protecting Robert, and later despite being in great pain from his wound, he uses his teeth to pull a pin from a grenade and take out some projections in the air duct before they can reach him, Cobb and Ariadne.
  • Older Than They Look: If you count the transpacific flight time, which is 10 hours real-time, Cobb hunted Saito through Limbo no less than 9 and a half hours. Multiplied by 20, by 20, by 20 and by 20 again, it comes to a whopping 170+ years.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: While most shady CEOs would simply brush off Cobb's demands for the particulars of the inception on a "need to know basis", Saito actually answers questions if he's convinced they're good ones, and makes a personal effort to help facilitate the heist and "protect his investments."
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Not the worst example of it, and it even contributes to a Funny Moment. Think about it: he's rich enough that not only can he outright buy an entire airline, but did so on almost zero notice, implying he's also well-connected enough that he was able to fast-track whatever governmental approval was needed for such a purchase. He's also able to set up, from Japan and in a similarly short timeframe, a network which will allow him to get the murder charge against Cobb thrown out pursuant to a go/no-go phone call from him.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Justified in that he's a corporate executive.
  • Sixth Ranger: He forces his way onto the team as their sixth member despite lacking the training and experience with the dream-sharing technology that the rest of them have.
  • The Team Benefactor: He is paying everyone.
  • Took a Level in Badass: As the team goes deeper, he plays a more active role, even taking out some dream-mercenaries with a grenade. And despite lacking any formal training in dream-architecture, he's managed to build a pagoda, complete with servants, for himself by the time Cobb is able to find him.
    Saito: No room for tourists on these jobs.
    Eames: [smiling] Don't be silly.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Saito sells the mission to incept Fischer as a need to prevent Fischer's company from getting a monopoly on the world's energy concern and becoming, in effect, a new superpower. Whether he's being totally honest about it is left ambiguous.

    Ariadne 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ariadne_inception_93.jpg

Played by: Elliot Page

"Don't lose yourself."

The Architect. The most brilliant student of Professor Stephen Miles, she's chosen by Dom Cobb as the team's architect of dreams, though unknowingly to the rest of the team, is also Cobb's tether.


  • Audience Surrogate: In a refreshing twist on the trope, she doesn't just sit there and ask questions so that the more experienced characters can provide exposition. She catches on to the idea of dream-sharing rather quickly, and makes an effort to sway Cobb from his self-destructive course. Not to mention that it's her idea to go into the fourth level after Cobb and Eames have basically given up. In short, she's a character who behaves exactly as the audience likes to believe they would in that situation.
  • Badass Bookworm: Designs all the dream levels, complex enough that if Mal hadn't showed up to screw everything up, the mission most likely would have gone smoothly.
  • Brainy Brunette: All the level designs are a result of her talent as an architect.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: Professor Miles even refers to Cobb as wanting to "corrupt" one of his best students. Cobb openly tells her the job is not legal, but he, Arthur, and Ariadne herself each admit that after tasting the power of dream architecture, she would never want to go back. She willingly joins The Team.
  • Fascinating Eyebrow: Makes this when Cobb shows her a Reality Warper act for the first time in the dream.
  • A God Am I: Enjoys herself too much while learning what it means to be an architect. She later describes the experience as "pure creation".
  • The Heart: Her status as this helps her to get closer to Dom and realize that he has issues that need resolving.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: This is essentially what the dream world offers compared to reality and is what Cobb counts on for Ariadne to join the team.
  • Implied Love Interest: Arthur and Ariadne develop a camaraderie over the course of the film that is mostly kept in the background, culminating in a brief scene where Arthur gets Ariadne to kiss him under the guise of hiding from projections. She does not rebuff him even after figuring out it was a ruse, implying that she might return his interest, but the kiss is not mentioned again and their interactions from that point onward carry basically no change in tone.
  • Longing for Fictionland: She can design much better pieces of architecture in a dream than she could in reality.
  • Meaningful Name: With a name like that, of course you'd be making mazes.
  • Naïve Newcomer: The plot conveniently gets rid of the previous Architect so Ariadne can come in and learn (in tandem with the audience) everything there is to know about dream-sharing technology over the course of the film.
  • The Not-Love Interest: To Cobb. She grows to understand him more than any of the other crew, and is perhaps the person responsible for saving his soul. At the same time, her concerns are more practical than romantic, as Cobb was taking an enormous gamble with everyone's lives. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that Cobb is still in love with his late wife Mal, while Ariadne had some Ship Tease with Arthur.
  • Ordinary High-School Student: She starts out as a normal, if talented, architecture student before she was recruited by Cobb to participate in their mission.
  • Prim and Proper Bun: She wears this hairstyle on the second dream level.
  • Reality Warper: Her first dream session with Cobb is all about learning to use her architecture skills to develop levels.
  • Refusal of the Call: Tries this, but it doesn't last long.
  • The Smurfette Principle: She is the only woman on the Inception Crew, and a newcomer on top of that.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The mission was called a failure when Fischer was sent to limbo but she devised the plan to go find him and pull off the mission, Eames and Cobb didn't pick the extra limbo time but she's a fast learner. She also shoots Mal.
  • Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. None of the crew are especially bad, but Ariadne's motive for entering the field is to help protect everyone from Cobb's projection of Mal, a far less selfish motive than anyone else on the team (even Cobb himself) can boast of. She's also the only one out of the team to voice any particular objections to the potential damage they might inflict on Fischer, voicing concern about ruining his relationship with his godfather and asking if killing projections might be damaging his mind.
  • The Watson: Being the newbie of the group, a lot of her lines involve her asking questions about the dream mechanics.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Once she had designed the dream levels, Ariadne's job was done. She could have simply taken the money and left. However, having learned about how dangerous sharing a dream with Cobb really is, she insists on joining the team in the field to help keep everyone safe.

    Eames 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_54821_medium_8354.jpg

Played by: Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger (Browning disguise), Talulah Riley (blonde girl disguise)

The Forger. A professional thief, shapeshifter within the dreams and forger with connections.


  • Ambiguously Gay: Eames calls Arthur "darling" and flirts with Saito (as well as Fischer, although that one is a part of the job) in a girl's form.
  • The Big Guy: When the team encounters a problem, his solution is to pull out a grenade launcher.
  • Collector of Forms: Can shapeshift in dreams; however, he indicates that he needs to examine a target closely first before he can accurately assume their form. When preparing for the mission, he sneaks himself into the offices of Fischer Morrow in order to study Christopher Browning up close and learn his mannerisms so he can later pose as him. Because this ability is dependent on memory and acting ability, Eames can't impersonate any of the projections sent after the team, but he does have a few shapes he can recall from past jobs, allowing him to become "a lovely young lady I've used before" while stealing Fischer's wallet in the second level.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The biggest one in the film. The majority of his quips are directed at Arthur, but Saito, Cobb, and Yusuf all get burned by Eames at one point or another.
    Arthur: Eames, I am impressed.
    Eames: Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Eames is first seen gambling in a Mombasa casino, loses his last two chips, then walks up to the cashier with a stack of forged chips that he successfully trades in for cash, showing him as a shady character who is very good at what he does. He also voices a belief that, contrary to what Arthur has been saying, inception is perfectly possible, just "bloody difficult", showing that he's willing to think outside the box.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: "Friends" might be pushing it, but Eames starts out dismissive of Saito, calling him a "tourist" when he insists on joining the team, but over the course of the job, Eames is suitably impressed and retracts the remark on the third dream level.
    Saito: "No room for tourists on these jobs".
    Eames: [smiling] Don't be silly.
  • The Gambling Addict: Gambles a lot during his free time, and Cobb finds him in a gambling parlour.
  • The Gadfly: His every interaction with Arthur is basically him trying to unnerve him. He also gets Saito nervous posing as a blonde woman then pointing it out.
  • Guile Hero: Specializes in manipulating the emotions of marks by impersonating people close to them in their dreams. Would be called a Manipulative Bastard if he wasn't part of a hero team.
  • Kick the Dog: After the job seems to have failed, Eames remarks to Cobb that "it's not me that doesn't get back to my family, is it?".
  • Master of Disguise: After learning someone's mannerisms and using his dream skill of looking like another person.
  • Meaningful Name: "Eames" is the last name of architects and designers Charles and Ray Eames.
  • More Dakka: When Arthur was having some difficulty trying to shoot off the projections in the first dream level, he simply pulls out a grenade launcher and blew up the enemies in no time.
  • New Job as the Plot Demands: He's somehow able to get a job placement in the Fischer company right within their head office in no time to observe Browning. His justification? "References are sort of my specialty."
  • One-Man Army: In the snow level, he distracts an entire scout team so that Saito and Fischer can infiltrate the stronghold. He then beats the scout team consisting of several snowmobiles and skiing mooks all by himself, steals one of their snowmobiles, and proceeds to destroy an entire convoy of a snow-Humvee and several skiing mooks by cutting the rope between the Humvee and the mooks with his snowmobile and blowing up the Humvee by throwing up a C4 into the turret-guy's hand. Moreover, when he told the injured Saito to look after Fischer, Eames went outside to the perimeter of the base, defended the base from a ton of Mooks while planting C4 in every pillar.
  • Perma-Stubble: Unlike Cobb's though, it's more to showcase his playful personality.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Mentions going back to his family when the mission is declared a failure at first.
  • Reality Warper: In the dream world, Eames is the team's "forger", which also explains why he's the team's most competent member during the execution of the mission. His forging ability allows him to pull out a grenade launcher out of nowhere in the first level, shapeshift in the second level, and to a certain extent become a One-Man Army in the third level.
  • Warrior Therapist: He works out most of Fischer's "problems" before and during the dream. He even sarcastically mentions that he should be getting paid more by Fischer than Saito for the job.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Eames considers Arthur a "stick in the mud" and clearly gets a kick out of messing with him, but they seem to genuinely enjoy each others' company, especially later in the film.

    Yusuf 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inception-yussuf-dileep-rao_8598.jpg
Played by: Dileep Rao

"Do you still dream, Mr. Cobb?"

The Chemist. He specializes in the various sedating substances that are needed for the dream-sharing technology.


  • Badass Driver: In the first layer, he has to continue driving the van and perform the kick while the projections are trying to kill them.
  • Bollywood Nerd: A cool nerd, though, and one who can handle himself in the heat of action, which is key considering his dream is the top layer.
  • Good Old Ways: His old-fashioned apothecary.
  • Meaningful Name: Yusuf is the Arabic variant of Joseph (the one who famously interpreted Pharaoh's dreams in The Bible).
  • Only in It for the Money: Took Cobb's pay as well as his own, so he didn't tell anyone about the risk of being killed and sent to limbo.
  • Potty Emergency: His having to go before falling asleep results in the first dream layer having a drenching downpour.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Or even being named on the poster for that matter, despite being a member of the main cast.
  • The Smart Guy: All members of the team are extremely intelligent (they have to be to survive as long as they have in their line of work), but Yusuf best fits this role in a traditional group arrangement.

Others

    Malorie "Mal" Cobb 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mal_cobb_6165.jpg

Played by: Marion Cotillard

"I'll tell you a riddle. You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where that train will take you?"

The Shade. Dom Cobb's beloved late wife, who committed suicide. Cobb is still haunted by her as both of them went too far in the use of the dream-sharing technology. As a result, Cobb's subconscious produces projections of Mal within the dreams, and those often end up real nuisances to his extraction/inception missions.


  • Anti-Villain: The projection of Mal only wants to have Cobb all to herself but sabotages every dream mission he does.
  • Ax-Crazy: She's a dangerous lunatic who kills several people to get to Cobb.
  • Big Bad: She's the main antagonist of the film who tries to sabotage all the dream jobs. This is eventually revealed to be much more complicated as she's an aspect of Cobb's guilt-ridden psyche, so he's essentially fighting his own angst.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • Brainwashed in that Dom's inception in her mind of the idea "your world is just a dream" could reasonably be considered brainwashing, and crazy in that though she may be technically sane as a living person, Dom's subconscious version of her is just wacked out.
    • She's crazy as a living person too: because of the brainwashing, she thinks that she's still living in the dream, and then intends to kill herself and Dom to get back to the "real world". She goes to such lengths as to get herself declared sane and him abusive so that he'll be arrested and kept away from his own children, all in order to make sure he kills himself too.
  • Brainy Brunette: Before her breakdown, Mal was the one who originally came up with the idea of totems, items that would stabilize a dreamer's sense of reality.
  • Broken Bird: The real one, after waking up from limbo, stopped believing in reality.
  • Dissonant Serenity: When the dream is collapsing and everyone else is running around frantically, what does Mal do? She calmly walks through the destruction and is amused at how Dom gave Saito the wrong documents.
  • Dream Apocalypse: Cobb eventually comes to terms with the fact that Mal is just a projection of his dead wife, which is simply not good enough. Mal flies into a rage in response and Cobb is forced to kill her, where she cries that she doesn't want to die but remain with him.
  • Driven to Suicide: In her mind, she thought she would just wake up from a dream.
  • Enemy Within: She's a part of Dom's own mind, a shade of his dead wife.
  • Faux Affably Evil:
    • The projection of Mal affects a calm exterior, coming across as polite and even friendly towards Cobb, and to a lesser extent, Arthur and Ariadne. However, she never loses an air of menace, and it doesn't take much for her to show herself as a vicious Yandere who can become violent at the drop of a hat. On the third dream level, she greets Fischer with a polite "hello" before shooting him twice in the chest.
    • Even after the inception, the real Mal kept up a mildly cheerful, loving tone as she made it clear that she'd methodically arranged things so that Cobb's life would be utterly destroyed if he refused to join her in death.
  • Glitch Entity: She's a stray projection whose mere appearance in a dream job means that she's going to sabotage it.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Meet one of the first people to have ever been subject to inception. It doesn't end well.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Mal is a psychotic, deadly, unkillable, relentless enemy that exists inside of the protagonist's mind. What horrendous form does this monster take? A French woman.
  • Implacable Woman: Absolutely relentless and nearly impossible to reason with. Even if you're a trained dream infiltrator, when she shows up it's time to panic.
  • The Lost Lenore: To Cobb, who is still heartbroken after losing her to a suicide which he personally witnessed.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Her love for Cobb and her children drove her to frame him for murder so they could be together in the "real world", which she was convinced was one more layer above what Cobb thinks is the real one already. The Mal projection simply wants Cobb and her to be together forever and is willing to kill for it.
  • Mental Monster: Mal is a memory of Cobb's late wife who, due to his lingering regret, keeps appearing in the dream missions to sabotage them.
  • Missing Mom: Her kids don't even understand why she is gone.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Mal" is a word in French, Spanish, Portuguese and other Romance languages, which can be used in different contexts to mean "bad", "evil", "hurt", "pain" or "sick".
  • Older Than They Look: For the same reason as Dom.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: She's never referred to as Malorie in the film proper, only Mal.
  • The Ophelia: Troubled and beautiful.
  • Posthumous Character: It's eventually revealed that Mal has been dead for years. The one Cobb and the team repeatedly encounter is a projection of Mal.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: She's the crazed projection of Cobb's now-deceased wife.
  • The Pursuing Nightmare: Regularly pursues Cobb whenever he dreams and sabotages any job he's assigned to. For good measure, it's not uncommon for her to chase and corner Cobb's allies in sequences that range from tense to outright nightmarish - even teaming up with a mob of Projections in Ariadne's training session so she can stab the apprentice architect to death.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Averted when Cobb rejects the idea of spending the rest of his life in Limbo with Dream Mal, as she's only a twisted figment of the woman he once loved.
  • Spanner in the Works: Quite a couple of times, Mal puts a dent in the plans.
  • Thanatos Gambit: Mal commits suicide, but makes it look like Cobb murdered her so he'll be compelled to do it with her or lose custody of the children. Of course, like the many characters who kill themselves in dreams in this movie, she doesn't believe she's really dying.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In-Universe; Arthur describes the real Mal as a lovely person, but Dream Mal is a treacherous, murderous reflection of Cobb's guilt complex.
  • Tragic Villain: Mal really has no choice about being a psychotic, murderous, obsessed Femme Fatale. She just wants to be with Cobb forever, but the villainous Mal in Cobb's dreams isn't even his real wife, but a shade of the woman he can't bear to forget. The dead Mal herself was brainwashed by Cobb, but inadvertently became so obsessed with the notion of her world not being real that she killed herself and framed Cobb for it to force him to come with her out to the next dream layer (which did not exist). All out of love.
  • Walking Spoiler: The trailers make it out that she's the Psycho Party Member of sorts, but given the spoilers, she's actually Cobb's wife who killed herself and continued to exist through Cobb's guilt, manifesting into something unstoppable.
  • Yandere: At least, the projection of her created by Dom's subconscious. Though real Mal, after her Inception, was a Yandere as well, seeing as how she pretended to be kind and gentle, but in reality was psychotic beyond words, going so far as to trash her own hotel room as part of an elaborate plan to make it seem like Cobb killed her.

    Robert Michael Fischer Jr. 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/47141-29239_3753.jpg
Played by: Cillian Murphy

"At the end, he called me to his deathbed. He could barely speak, but he took the trouble to tell me one last thing. He pulled me close... and I could only make out... one word: Disappointed."

The Mark. The son of billionaire Maurice Fischer. After inheriting his father's company and assets, he becomes de facto a rival to Saito, who hires Dom Cobb and his crew to perform an inception in the mind of Robert to have him dismantle his company.


  • Anti-Villain: Type IV. He's only a "villain" in so far as he's inheriting his father's legacy of creating a monopoly and his subconscious generates militarized projections.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Cobb and his team are surprised to find out he has trained his subconscious to generate militarized projections in case an extraction is attempted on him, which makes the inception mission considerably more difficult.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Upon realizing he's been kidnapped on the first dream level, Fischer just lets out a resigned "wonderful".
  • Fiction 500: Even more than Saito. He's so rich that should he not break up his company it will become an energy monopoly that controls half the world, and that's not even counting his off-hand comments about his wallet being worth more than $500 and him being insured for $10 million in the case of kidnapping.
  • Inadequate Inheritor: He believes he's this to his father, as despite being set to inherit the monopoly he can't help but fear he's just a "disappointment" that got it only because he was the sole heir.
  • Living MacGuffin: Is an interesting variant in that he is living but it is his projection that is more relevant.
  • Manchild: In an interview with Irish Voice Reporter, Cillian Murphy said he played Fischer as a "petulant child who's in need of a lot of attention from his father, he has everything he could ever want materially, but he's deeply lacking emotionally".
  • Manly Tears: Sheds these in the third dream level's strong room when he opens the safe next to his dying father's bed and finds the toy pinwheel from his childhood inside it, then looks up to see his father is dead.
  • Meaningful Name: Fischer's name may be a reference to the Arthurian legend of the Fisher King, whose kingdom physically changes to parallel his wounds and suffering; this is appropriate given that much of the film takes place within his troubled mental landscape. Also, "Robert Fischer" was the name of the famous chess player.
  • Missing Mom: His mother died when he was only 11.
  • Nice Guy: Despite his wealthy upbringing and occasional smugness, he's overall a good person who cares for others.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Justified for the same reason as Saito.
  • The Sixth Ranger: Joins the inception crew in the third dream layer, under the impression that he's getting information on someone who was trying to extract from him.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Though he usually puts up the image of The Stoic, it's clear that he cares about other people and has an emotional side.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The intended effect of the "Mr. Charles" gambit - Cobb and his team con Fischer himself against his own subconscious and make him a part of their team to break into his own mind, as it is the only way to give himself the idea to break up his father's company.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He yearns for his cold, dying father's affection and eventually receives it, but only in his subconscious.

    Professor Stephen Miles 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bogfkmgrjmdktztzmzc00ote5ltg0n2itztlmytlhmwu0yjq5xkeyxkfqcgdeqxvyoty2mdm3mjm_v1_sx1777_cr001777728_al.jpg
Played by: Michael Caine

"Come back to reality, Dom."

Mal's father and a professor of real life architecture Dom Cobb learned a lot from to build dream settings. Despite not approving of Cobb's lifestyle as a thief, he nonetheless supports him when he can.


  • Cool Old Guy: While not entirely approving, he's fully privy to Cobb's criminal lifestyle, and even provides him with accomplices to help him when he can.
  • The Mentor: He was this to Cobb. Presumably Mal as well, given her knowledge of the dream world.
  • The Professor: A professor in Architecture who somehow knows about the dream mechanics, and was the one who taught Cobb and Mal everything they know. He's also Ariadne's teacher.

    Maurice Fischer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inception_pete_2669.jpg
"...Disappointed."

A billionaire and CEO of Fischer Morrow Energy Conglomerate, Saito's primary competitor. Dying and bedridden, his son Robert is set to take up the empire upon his death.


  • Ambiguous Situation: He never had a good relationship with his son, but there is enough missing information that it's possible he did still love his son deep down. His last word to Robert was "disappointed", which Robert interpreted to mean his father was disappointed his son couldn't live up to the family. Cobb and his team plant the suggestion that his father in reality was disappointed that Robert tried to be like him and that Maurice wanted his son to be his own person.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Implied, though due to his very limited time on screen it's not confirmed.
  • Disappointed in You: Zigzagged. Maurice was cold and distant to his own son all the way up to his death bed, his last word being "disappointed". In the dream, Cobb and his team turn it on its head so that Robert can have his desired reconciliation, with Maurice's projection revealing that he's disappointed that his son tried to be like him, not that he couldn't.
  • Jerkass: Towards his son at least.
  • Parental Neglect: Maurice Fischer prioritized his business over his relationship with his son. When Robert's mother died, Maurice told his son that there was really nothing to be said. Robert was 11 years old at the time.
  • Present Absence: Maurice only appears in two scenes (and in the second, he's only a projection, with the real deal being dead), but his relationship with his son (or lack thereof) is vital to the plot.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He appears for less than five minutes but him building up a soon-to-be monopoly is what kicks off most of the plot.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He only appears for one scene before he dies, and reappears once as a projection.

    Peter Browning 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ezgif_7_77141855955f.png
Played by: Tom Berenger

"He loved you, Robert. In his way."

Robert's godfather and Maurice's longtime friend and legal counsel. With Maurice dying, Peter has been scrambling for more and more power within the company. Eames impersonates him within Robert's dream in order to turn Robert against him.


  • Abduction Is Love: Eames as Browning uses this as justification as part of their gambit.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Whereas it's implied with Maurice, he's outright stated to be the fact for Browning. The sicker Maurice becomes, the more powerful Browning becomes. Eames even outright calls him a "vulture."
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Browning is a power-grubbing Corrupt Corporate Executive who treats his associates like crap, but he seems to legitimately care about Robert.
  • Honorary Uncle: Robert even calls him "Uncle Peter."
  • Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The real Browning is only present for one scene in the film, with all other appearances being either Eames in disguise, or Fischer's own mental projection of the man.
  • Jerkass: While he's always been kind to Robert, he's shown to be very rude and dismissive towards his associates.
  • Unwitting Pawn: While it's true that Browning was grabbing more power for himself, it's very likely that he did in fact love Robert. A major part of the crew's deception is making Browning look like the bad guy to Robert, likely ruining their relationship for good.

    Nash 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/transferir.jpeg
Played by: Lukas Haas

"It wasn't my fault."

The architect of dreams who was hired by Dom Cobb for the extraction mission that targeted Saito. He gets replaced by Ariadne later on as his mistakes made him unreliable.


  • Dirty Coward: Believing that Cobol will have them all killed, he ran to Saito for protection, selling out Cobb and Arthur. Unfortunately Saito had his own agenda.
  • In-Universe Factoid Failure: Nash creates a dream replica of Saito's "love nest", but forgets details like what the carpet's made out of. This lets Saito know he's still in a dream.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Saito offers Cobb and Arthur the chance to kill him, but they decline. Saito claims his men won't harm him, but what Cobol will do is another matter.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: His leaving early gives way to Ariadne getting hired by Cobb.

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