History Film / Tenet

''Tenet'' (stylized in all capital letters as ''TENET'', [[https://www.pinkbike.com/news/tenet-the-film-updates-logo-after-tenet-components-complaint.html formerly]] ''TENƎꓕ'') is a 2020 science fiction [[SpyFiction spy film]], written and directed by Creator/ChristopherNolan. It stars Creator/JohnDavidWashington, Creator/RobertPattinson, and Creator/ElizabethDebicki, with Dimple Kapadia, Creator/AaronTaylorJohnson, Creator/ClemencePoesy, Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/KennethBranagh and Creator/MartinDonovan in supporting roles. It is also the first Nolan blockbuster, and his first film in 15 years, not to be scored by Music/HansZimmer, as he was already committed to ''Film/Dune2021''; Music/LudwigGoransson was chosen in his place.

''Tenet'' (stylized in all capital letters as ''TENET'', [[https://www.pinkbike.com/news/tenet-the-film-updates-logo-after-tenet-components-complaint.html formerly]] ''TENƎꓕ'') is a 2020 science fiction [[SpyFiction spy film]], written and directed by Creator/ChristopherNolan. It stars Creator/JohnDavidWashington, Creator/RobertPattinson, and Creator/ElizabethDebicki, with Dimple Kapadia, Creator/AaronTaylorJohnson, Creator/ClemencePoesy, Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/KennethBranagh and Creator/MartinDonovan in supporting roles. It is also the first Nolan blockbuster, and his first film in 15 years not to be scored by Music/HansZimmer, as he was already committed to ''Film/Dune2021''; Music/LudwigGoransson was chosen in his place.

''Tenet'' (stylized in all capital letters as ''TENET'', [[https://www.pinkbike.com/news/tenet-the-film-updates-logo-after-tenet-components-complaint.html formerly]] ''TENƎꓕ'') is a 2020 science fiction [[SpyFiction spy film]], written and directed by Creator/ChristopherNolan. It stars Creator/JohnDavidWashington, Creator/RobertPattinson, and Creator/ElizabethDebicki, with Dimple Kapadia, Creator/AaronTaylorJohnson, Creator/ClemencePoesy, Creator/MichaelCaine, Creator/KennethBranagh and Creator/MartinDonovan in supporting roles. It is also the first Nolan blockbuster, and his first film in 15 years, not to be scored by Music/HansZimmer, as he was already committed to ''Film/Dune2021''; Music/LudwigGoransson was chosen in his place.

* ShoutOut: One of the last scenes references the ending of ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', [[spoiler: in Neil and the Protagonist's final conversation.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Kat and Sator accuse the Protagonist of being no different from Sator: using and lying to others to achieve his goals.

** A large boat that the Protagonist is performing pull-ups on is going backwards, but the wakes in the water are in ''front'' of it and are going in reverse. Another boat behind it does the same. [[spoiler: This is because in this scene, the Protagonist is currently inverted, experiencing normal time around him in reverse.]]

* ArcWords: A [[TitleDrop tenet]] that Neil believes in is that "What's happened's happened."

* CentralTheme: The theme of ''Tenet'' is about a person's belief about reality. Neil believes that "what's happened, has happened"; he later clarifies that it is his expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. Sator believes that the world is effectively in the palm of his hand, regardless of whether he is right about that. His backers, the unseen antagonists from the future, believe that they can destroy their ancestors without also erasing themselves in the process, regardless of whether they are right about that.

* CyanidePill: The Protagonist passes a SecretTestOfCharacter where he chooses to take a colleague's (fake) Cyanide Pill rather than give up his team.

* WeNeedADistraction: To break into Freeport at Oslo airport, Neil comes up with a crazy plan: have Mahir and his guys ''hijack a cargo-carrying 747'' on the ground and drive it into the building they're in, setting off the halon gas system so the staff have to evacuate the vaults. To create further chaos, [[MoneytoThrowAway they scatter the cargo of gold bullion on the runway]], forcing the police to stop and secure the area and also creating confusion over [[InfractionDistraction whether it was an act of terrorism or a heist gone wrong]], when the real target was in the Freeport vaults.

* SingleTear: Not called to attention, but following his recovery from Kiev, the Protagonist has the strength to only manage a few weak words and a tear.
-->'''Fay''': "Not you. You chose to die instead of giving up your colleagues."

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: The Algorithm, [[spoiler:the device that can invert the entire planet, is the only one of its kind, invented by a scientist who inverted the pieces and then [[DrivenToSuicide killed]] [[ShootTheBuilder herself]] so no one would be able to force her to recreate it.]]

** The Protagonist and his quarry use "We live in a twilight world" and its response phrase "And there are no friends at dusk" in the ActionPrologue. [[spoiler:They abandon it because Sator knows the "twilight world" line.]]
** "[[TitleDrop Tenet]]," accompanied by intertwined fingers with palms apart, lets the members of the organization reveal each other.

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: The Algorithm, the device that can invert the entire planet, is the only one of its kind, invented by a scientist who destroyed all records of its creation, inverted the pieces, then [[DrivenToSuicide killed]] [[ShootTheBuilder herself]] so no one would be able to force her to recreate it.

** On the other hand when Sator threatens to shoot Kat unless the Protagonist reveals where he hid the MacGuffin, the Protagonist lies because he knows Sator will kill her anyway.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: The Protagonist repeatedly jeopardises his plans to save or protect Kat, [[spoiler:and even continues protecting her from afar once the mission is over. That said, it pays off when she proves invaluable in the final operation, fooling Sator (who had left her to die in the Rotas firm in Tallinn) for as long as she did.]]

-->'''Neil:''' Time travel?\\
-->'''The Protagonist:''' No. Technology that can invert an object's entropy.\\
-->'''Neil:''' You mean reverse chronology. Like Feynman and Wheeler's notion that a positron is an electron moving backwards in time?\\
-->'''The Protagonist:''' Sure, [[BlatantLies that's exactly what I meant]].\\
-->'''Neil:''' I have a master's in physics.\\

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The heroes managed to stop Sator from destroying the world but can never go back to live normal lives again. The Protagonist's knowledge of the Algorithm means he will always be a target, either from enemies in the future, and from Ives who must silence him because HeKnowsTooMuch and thus, he will not see Kat again except as her guardian angel from afar. However, it turns out that in the future, ''he'' will become the new head or even the founder of Tenet! Also, to complete the StableTimeLoop, Neil must go back in time and make a HeroicSacrifice to save the Protagonist so he can complete this mission in the first place. And [[EarnYourHappyEnding Kat, as mentioned, is free to live without Sator hanging over her, able to take care of Max in peace]]. But, of course, the threat of the climate apocalypse that drove the film’s unseen villains still looms on the horizon.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The heroes managed to stop Sator from destroying the world but can never go back to live normal lives again. The Protagonist's knowledge of the Algorithm means he will always be a target, either from enemies in the future, and from Ives who must silence him because HeKnowsTooMuch and thus, he will not see Kat again except as her guardian angel from afar. However, it turns out that in the future, ''he'' will become the new head or even the founder of Tenet! Also, to complete the StableTimeLoop, Neil must go back in time and make a HeroicSacrifice to save the Protagonist so he can complete this mission in the first place. And [[EarnYourHappyEnding Kat, as mentioned, is free to live without Sator hanging over her, able to take care of Max in peace]].]]

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: When Kat throws her abusive husband overboard to drown, the Protagonist must dive in and save him, to Kat's anger. [[spoiler:Which is just as well as we later discover he's wearing a DeadManSwitch that will set off the Algorithm, so they can't even kill him until they're sure it's been deactivated.]]

* DeadManSwitch: [[spoiler:Sator's Fitbit]] is revealed as one of these, [[spoiler:meant to trigger the reverse-entropy Algorithm. He wants to take the entire world with him when he dies]].

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:"Then you had better tie up those loose ends." - Priya, just as she sets the rearview mirror back and the Protagonist shoots her.]]

* BavarianFireDrill: Notably, both the protagonist's insertion at the Kiev opera [[spoiler: And his inverted insertion into the Freeport]] involve entering blended in amongst a wave of first responders.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: When Protagonist test-fires his first inverted bullet, he notes that the gun is empty. The inverted bullet is fired and he pulls the magazine to discover a round loaded in it. However, the round shouldn't be in the magazine, it should be in the chamber; the last round in a magazine is the ''second''-to-last round a semiautomatic weapon fires.

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: Minor case in the scene with the Protagonist and the concrete slab full of inverted bullets. When he makes one of the bullets fly back into his handgun by pulling the trigger, he finds it in the previously empty magazine although it should have been in the gun's chamber instead.

** At a highway, the heroes are attacked by the BigBad Sator, who seems to know all their moves ahead of time. It turns out this is the Sator of 20 minutes from now, having been fed intel by a past Sator who he then gives to his next self in a StableTimeLoop.]]
** [[spoiler:Returning to her husband's yacht, Kat sees a woman jump off and assumes it's someone Sator was having an affair with. The ending reveals the other woman was the future Kat herself, escaping after killing Sator.