When Cobb meets Eames in Mombasa what was he(Eames) doing? And why did Cobb say "Your spelling hasn't improved"?

Losing, only to produce two stacks of (forged) poker chips from...somewhere. Cobb picks a poker chip up before asking him this, so Eames probably misspelled a word that's on them.

TheAirline wrote:Losing, only to produce two stacks of (forged) poker chips from...somewhere. Cobb picks a poker chip up before asking him this, so Eames probably misspelled a word that's on them.

Yeah thats what I thought as well but for someone like him, he should be doing bigger jobs. It would be really nice know why he was there instead of doing big extraction jobs, as he's clearly very experinced. I mean when Cobb was talking to him about if Inception was possible, he was pretty much telling him most of a previous job and why it failed before.
He could have been there because of those compounds Yousif was making and felt it could help him with another job and he was just keeping himself ammused in Mombassa.

rbevanx wrote:

TheAirline wrote:Losing, only to produce two stacks of (forged) poker chips from...somewhere. Cobb picks a poker chip up before asking him this, so Eames probably misspelled a word that's on them.

Yeah thats what I thought as well but for someone like him, he should be doing bigger jobs. It would be really nice know why he was there instead of doing big extraction jobs, as he's clearly very experinced. I mean when Cobb was talking to him about if Inception was possible, he was pretty much telling him most of a previous job and why it failed before.
He could have been there because of those compounds Yousif was making and felt it could help him with another job and he was just keeping himself ammused in Mombassa.

Oh yeah, I agree. I was just commenting on what he was doing in the scene I got the impression that he's just killing time until someone like Cobb comes along and hires him, but there're quite a few possible/plausible reasons for why he was there.

I'm obsessed with the image of Eames living in Mombasa, partly because Tom Hardy is my favourite actor, partly because I'd love to live in Mombasa, and partly because of that great suit he wears. I've come to this conclusion:

Eames was a good, opportunistic forger who never turned down a job in his life. However, when attempting to perform Inception on someone, it went wrong (as he says himself), and became wanted by the people who he tried to incept, similar to the way in which Cobol were tailing Cobb. So, he hid away in the city of Mombasa, trying to lay low. There, his money slowly ran out and he took to gambling for hours on end, wearing the same, crumpled linen suit all day (even sleeping in it maybe?), and forging chips for himself. That's when Cobb arrives...

By saying 'your spelling hasn't improved', I think Cobb is just pointing out that Eames has forged the poker chips, but spelt something on them wrong.

christophmac wrote:I'm obsessed with the image of Eames living in Mombasa, partly because Tom Hardy is my favourite actor, partly because I'd love to live in Mombasa, and partly because of that great suit he wears. I've come to this conclusion:

Eames was a good, opportunistic forger who never turned down a job in his life. However, when attempting to perform Inception on someone, it went wrong (as he says himself), and became wanted by the people who he tried to incept, similar to the way in which Cobol were tailing Cobb. So, he hid away in the city of Mombasa, trying to lay low. There, his money slowly ran out and he took to gambling for hours on end, wearing the same, crumpled linen suit all day (even sleeping in it maybe?), and forging chips for himself. That's when Cobb arrives...

By saying 'your spelling hasn't improved', I think Cobb is just pointing out that Eames has forged the poker chips, but spelt something on them wrong.

Yeah thats a good conclusion as well christophmac but I just can't see him sleeping rough as he's has the gift of the gab (British term for a good smooth talker btw) and seems to be doing alright in Mombassa. He no problem getting rid of those chips in the casino even if they were spelt wrong

rbevanx wrote:

TheAirline wrote:Losing, only to produce two stacks of (forged) poker chips from...somewhere. Cobb picks a poker chip up before asking him this, so Eames probably misspelled a word that's on them.

Yeah thats what I thought as well but for someone like him, he should be doing bigger jobs. It would be really nice know why he was there instead of doing big extraction jobs, as he's clearly very experinced. I mean when Cobb was talking to him about if Inception was possible, he was pretty much telling him most of a previous job and why it failed before.
He could have been there because of those compounds Yousif was making and felt it could help him with another job and he was just keeping himself ammused in Mombassa.

I wondered this at first as well, but then I came to the conclusion that Forgers probably aren't needed for every job.

I get the whole "spelling hasn't improved yet" part.
But then Cobb asks: "How's your handwriting?" to which Eames answers "Versatile".
I'm curious as to whether 'handwriting' is a codename for forging- otherwise this is a very random conversation piece.

the_red_ninja wrote:But then Cobb asks: "How's your handwriting?" to which Eames answers "Versatile".
I'm curious as to whether 'handwriting' is a codename for forging- otherwise this is a very random conversation piece.

Yes, I think that's exactly the point.

I thought that obvious about the handwritting tbh