Tenet (2020) - Christoper Nolan

mrlizard said:
If someone could explain the no requirement for breathing apparatus for the female lead on the boat near the end that would be great....!!
Click to expand...

On the big yellow boat? She was in an air vacuum in whatever room she was in. Or if you mean the yacht, she was uninverted at that point as she got off the big yellow boat and uninverted at the airport where the plane crashed.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
On the big yellow boat? She was in an air vacuum in whatever room she was in. Or if you mean the yacht, she was uninverted at that point as she got off the big yellow boat and uninverted at the airport where the plane crashed.
Click to expand...

I meant the Yacht yep - thanks for that!

Right ok so she inverted when in the larger device (whilst doing this time from their perspective is going backwards?) then they rushed her to the airport to uninvert (is that a word) in the smaller device - so there were two version of here going forwards in time, noninverted in that time line. Though the other version ends up going back and catching up with the one on the yacht eventually?
 
mrlizard said:
I meant the Yacht yep - thanks for that!

Right ok so she inverted when in the larger device (whilst doing this time from their perspective is going backwards?) then they rushed her to the airport to uninvert (is that a word) in the smaller device - so there were two version of here going forwards in time, noninverted in that time line. Though the other version ends up going back and catching up with the one on the yacht eventually?
Click to expand...

Yep, so Cat's timeline first saw the other girl diving off the yacht, then meeting the protagonist etc, she then gets inverted by Sator and shot after the highway chase. The protagonist and Neil invert and take her to the airport backwards where she then uninverts and the protagonist fights himself. They then all move forwards through time and avoid their original selves. Cat ends up back on the yacht, kills Sator and dives off, which is what she originally saw thus completing her loop. She then just has to stay in hiding until after the first inversion and she can get on with her life.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
Yep, so Cat's timeline first saw the other girl diving off the yacht, then meeting the protagonist etc, she then gets inverted by Sator and shot after the highway chase. The protagonist and Neil invert and take her to the airport backwards where she then uninverts and the protagonist fights himself. They then all move forwards through time and avoid their original selves. Cat ends up back on the yacht, kills Sator and dives off, which is what she originally saw thus completing her loop. She then just has to stay in hiding until after the first inversion and she can get on with her life.
Click to expand...

But would she actually have the first inversion? The events that lead to that inversion, protagonist meeting her, Sator shooting her etc, are inherent on Sator being alive but she killed him on the Yacht.
 
ZXSpectrum said:
But would she actually have the first inversion? The events that lead to that inversion, protagonist meeting her, Sator shooting her etc, are inherent on Sator being alive but she killed him on the Yacht.
Click to expand...

The Sator she kills on the Yacht is the one that is on her timeline as he also inverted after the highway chase, which is why he is shocked when he sees the scar as he thinks she is the Cat from the original timeline as he thought he'd killed her. The Sator from the original timeline is either somewhere else on the Yacht or somewhere else altogether. This also explains why Sator in the original timeline is confused when cat accuses him of cheating because she'd seen her future self dive off.

Just remember that at certain points there are multiple timelines where the same person exists because they inverted and uninverted however many times. At the end there are 4 Neil's, 1 at the Opera, 1 going backwards during the battle, 1 going forwards in the humvee and then backwards again when he gets shot after unlocking the door, which completes his loop. Actually there's 5 Neil's if you include Cat's son Max, who I think is actually Neil that gets recruited by the protagonist.
 
I'm not sold on Neil being Cat's son, there is nothing to say he isn't of course but i'd expect some more clear indications towards it being the case based on previous Nolan movies.
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
The Sator she kills on the Yacht is the one that is on her timeline as he also inverted after the highway chase, which is why he is shocked when he sees the scar as he thinks she is the Cat from the original timeline as he thought he'd killed her. The Sator from the original timeline is either somewhere else on the Yacht or somewhere else altogether. This also explains why Sator in the original timeline is confused when cat accuses him of cheating because she'd seen her future self dive off.

Just remember that at certain points there are multiple timelines where the same person exists because they inverted and uninverted however many times. At the end there are 4 Neil's, 1 at the Opera, 1 going backwards during the battle, 1 going forwards in the humvee and then backwards again when he gets shot after unlocking the door, which completes his loop. Actually there's 5 Neil's if you include Cat's son Max, who I think is actually Neil that gets recruited by the protagonist.
Click to expand...

i am not convinced.. :D
 
Just watched this...thought it was pretty cool. No idea what was going on half the time but was entertaining. I dont want to think about it too much especially the Cat stuff.

Nolan needs to start listening to his sound mixers though!! Bass was OTT that had to turn it way down and the dialogue through masks, trains, boats....really Nolan??

I sum up this film as 'min-max' the movie with his future self dictating his correct past actions through cause and effect.
 
Last edited:
VincentHanna said:
I pride myself in following complicated movies, but I think I needed a PHD in physics to follow this.

Watching it at home with subtitles might be useful. I know Nolan likes to use on set dialogue and not use CGI much but it really could have benefited from some ADR, as so many people are talking with masks on or lots of background noise.
Click to expand...

  • Found the dialogue hard to hear in a few parts.

  • Opera house opening - What was this about? Was Sator there?
ETA - Sator sanctioned the Opera house attack to get the artifact piece. Hence Washington's comments to him later, "do you like Opera".

  • When he takes the suicide pill at the start, he ends up in a wind tower waiting for a boat? What was that about?
ETA: "Washington wakes up on a boat, where his boss explains that his new mission is to join something called Tenet, which we know is the name of the movie but he doesn’t. Then the CIA puts Washington inside a windmill. The reason he has to live in a windmill is to get his present self out of the way so his future self can operate freely during this part of the timeline, but they don’t explain this in the moment so it seems like they just want him to get really good at pull-ups." - lol.
  • Michael Caine is looking old :(

  • Pattinson gives his part to Washington and reveals that, from his perspective, they’ve actually known each other for years: Future Washington recruited past Pattinson into the Tenet organization - which is how he knew what drink he wanted (diet coke) at the beginning of the movie, pretty cool :)

  • Fight scenes were poor, they lacked, "punch" and there was no force to their blows.

  • You’ve got to wear an oxygen mask because your reversed lungs can’t breathe normal air, and whatever you do, don’t physically touch your past self - so how does he fight himself? Timecop, you touch each other and your molecules can't handle this and game over - this was also hinted at in Tenet.

ETA - so it looks like clothing forms a mystical barrier :(
  • End battle was lame - couldn't see hardly any enemy soldiers, who were they fighting?! The scene reminded me of Starship Troopers.

  • Is there a recommended video/blog that breaks down/explains the movie?
ETA: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/tenet-ending-explained/


Good movie, but no Interstellar etc.
 
Last edited:
ivrytwr3 said:
ETA: "Washington wakes up on a boat, where his boss explains that his new mission is to join something called Tenet, which we know is the name of the movie but he doesn’t. Then the CIA puts Washington inside a windmill. The reason he has to live in a windmill is to get his present self out of the way so his future self can operate freely during this part of the timeline, but they don’t explain this in the moment so it seems like they just want him to get really good at pull-ups." - lol.
Click to expand...

Pullup is also a palindrome ;)
 
ivrytwr3 said:
That was quite funny and did explain some stuff in a way - loved the nose bleed
Click to expand...

Heavy spoilers channel has done a few videos on Tenet, along the lines of 'things you missed' and 'temporal pincer explained' - remain quite objective, neither fanboying or slating out right.
 
Started to get a headache half way through but then suddenly things started to click into place and understood it. Might watch it again on 4k if I get it. The battle at the end is pretty amazing when you think about how it must have been filmed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom