THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and temporarily shut down theaters to prevent the plague from spreading, I was afraid that cinema had died as us viewers relied on streaming originals for the time being. Although we received solid films from Netflix, hulu and Disney+ etc., we got a return to form when the theaters safely reopened and released new content, including the long awaited science fiction film Tenet. What we got was another mind bending science fiction epic by the acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
PLOT
The film stars John David Washington as a nameless protagonist who joins a secret organization named 'Tenet' after an operation at an opera house. His mission is to prevent the end of the world. When visiting scientist Barbara (Clémence Poésy), who has been studying bullets that are 'inverted', as in move backwards through time. The theory is that they're manufactured in the future, and there might be a weapon to destroy the world. When tracing the bullet to arms dealer Priya Singh (Dimple Kapadia) in Mumbai, The Protagonist discovers that she is also a Tenet agent. She reveals that she bought them from ogliarch Andrei Sator, who can commnicate from the future. He encounters his estranged wife, art appraiser Katherine Barton who's been manipulated by him by using a Goya drawing, to keep her under his control. The Protagonist and his partner Neil, along with a fixer named Mahir (Himesh Patel), crash a plane at Freeport, in order to steal the painting, but encounter two maksed men who come from a machine, fighting in reverse. After this event, he talks to Priya of this and she explains that the machine is called a 'Turnstile', which can invert people and objects, meaning that the two masked men were the same person. Kat introduces him to Andrei, discovering that the art's still intact. He poses as a freelancer and offers help to retrieve a case of plutonium. In Talinn, he and Neil attempt to ambush a convoy to get the case but it's revealed to be only be the artifact from the opera house. Their escape is compromised when encountering an inverted car crash. He gives Sator the case but he leaves Kat handcuffed in a moving car. The Protagonist saves her but both are captured by Sator and are taken to another building containing a Turnstile. There, an inverted Andrei shoots his wife with an inverted bullet while the normal one demands the location of the artifact where the Protagonist lies. Just then, Tenet operatives led by Neil and Ives (Aaron Taylor Johnson) appear in the act of an ambush and save the Protagonist but Andrei flees. In order to save Kat, the Protagonist puts her through the Turnstile which reverses her injury. But during this trip, he discovers that he's responsible for the inverted car crash, along with fighting himself and Neil at Freeport. Neil does admit that if he told him, then it would've not happened at all. When encountering Priya again, she explains that the artifacts are part of an algorithm that will catastrophically invert the world. People from the future have been using Andrei to assemble and Priya wants him to get all the pieces together, which he already does. When Kat mentions he has cancer, the Protagonist reveals that he has a 'dead man's switch', a switch meaning that when he dies, the world will too. Kat is sent to the past to delay his death, while the Tenet agents try to secure the algorithm. They find it at Northern Siberia but must commence a 'temporal pincer movement', meaning a red group led by Ives will go forward in time and a blue group led by Wheeler (Fiona Dourif) will go in reverse. When finding the algorithm, the Protagonist and Ives are blocked by a locked gate. But an inverted masked corpse springs to life taking a gunshot by one of Andrei's men, which saves the Protagonist's life and unlocks the gate. Right when the algorithm is secured, Kat kills her husband prematurely, refusing to let him die thinking he won. She jumps from the yacht, and her younger self witnesses it. Ives, Neil and the Protagonist split the algorithm's components and part ways. Before going back with Ives, Neil tells the Protagonist that he was recruited by him years earlier, and this mission is the end of a long friendship. As he leaves, he notices a red trinket on his backpack, implying that he will take his life for him to get the algorithm. The movie ends with the Protagonist killing Priya to prevent her from killing Kat, only after the realization that he was behind Tenet.
THOUGHTS
When getting the chance to see this in theaters during the worst of times, I have to admit that this is the surreal cinematic experience I have ever had. This is probably the most mind bending film compared to Nolan's catalog because it's the kind of movie where you think you can guess what happens next, but you don't. This is what going to the movies is all about, where you want to see something new and I am relieved that I got just that. Tenet is the kind of movie where looking away is impossible because if you do, you might miss something important. While I love the superhero trend, that genre is at the point of being predictable with their stories. What is done best here is being introduced to this new interpretation of time travel. We see that you can travel through time, but your younger self will see it in reverse. Also, you're not supposed to make contact with your forward self and need a separate set of air. If one of those rules are not implied, you'll die once your particles come into contact. Every time we see an inversion, it becomes all the more breathtaking to witness. I highly respect that there is a minimum of visual effects as this movie relies on being practical with moments like the plane crash. The combination of Jennifer Lame's editing and Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography ensure the experience to be just as mesmerizing. The costumes positively feel like a James Bond film which makes sense because Nolan has admitted to being a fan of the iconic franchise. Ludwig Göransson's score perfectly increases the intensity that is played. Travis Scott's song 'The Plan' accurately describes the adventure that we had transpired. There is no way I would've guessed the layer of twists that were presented, which proves what a great writer Nolan is as well. Despite the praise that I’ve said thus far, there were still moments in the story that I still question. First off, the opera scene is so intense to witness because you don’t know how it’s gonna go, like the rest of the movie would play out. My question is how did the Protagonist get every bomb in to throw in the private room under two minutes? It didn’t look like he had help from his team but if Neil was helping in reverse, we should’ve got a hint of that too. The first depiction of the Freeport is amazing to see but why doesn’t he keep questioning Neil on fighting the other? A simple answer like ‘I took care of him’ is not enough of an answer when working for a secret agency. I also find it odd how he doesn’t even question the broken side mirror before the reverse crash. The guy is smart but it’s out of character for him to not question small things like that. The technology is unique to witness such as the Turnstile. But how the hell is there radios that have a range from Siberia to an underground nuclear test site at Vietnam? With the addition that Mahir got a signal by Ives when he was traveling back in time makes it the most confusing part for me because that sounds harder to make than a Turnstile. However, this movie is still great once you ignore these flaws. For a movie like this, you can't go wrong with a memorable ensemble. Just as I expected, John David Washington's path to greatness as an actor continues to grow. He is in command as the Protagonist and you just feel the pressure his character is in. For a clever one liner moment such as “I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago” shows that his charm works in every genre he tackles. He is generally a great character because he is the most selfless of heroes we've ever seen. Even though it's hard for him as it is for us to grasp with everything, he knows something has to be done. If he doesn't do anything, no one else will and seeing him take control as much as he can is empowering because it inspires viewers to take a stand for their beliefs. You may not know all the answers, but you know enough to care for it. I've been enjoying Robert Pattinson's work since 2014 and even here with the role of Neil, it is another great performance. This was a character that tricked everyone and Pattinson nails it from pretending to be clueless to revealing he knows more than anyone in the room. The revelation around him is earned in its emotional standpoint. It has such meaning because it represents how things happen for a reason and changing it undoes its purpose. So knowing that his sacrifice can't be undone proves how the hardest choices require the strongest wills. So like the Protagonist, you respect what he has to do to save the world. And if he really is Kat’s son, then that is a deeper connection between him and Protagonist being created. I wasn't so crazy about Michael Caine here as Michael Crosby because he is only there to exposit the estranged relationship between the Andrei and Kat. For someone who's worked with Nolan before, I feel like he deserved a bigger role. Speaking of Andrei and Kat, their subplot surprisingly kept me on board. Kenneth Branagh succeeds at being pure evil with the role of Andrei and is mostly frightening because of how he can be steps ahead of his goal. The fact that he shot his wife when she wasn’t inverted yet was clever because he was ensuring low chances of her surviving, due to the fact that inverted bullets are stronger than normal ones. I try not to root for villains, but I gotta admit that was pretty smart. Elizabeth Debicki is on point being the damsel trying to escape from her pain. So when she does by shooting her husband in her part of the mission, you feel the same relief she gains, knowing that she is free from every aspect of abuse that came her way. What I respect is that they don't force any romance between her and the Protagonist. Yes he cares about her, but there is a bigger thing to worry about. What I'm trying to say is that there is relief that they don't stretch a "will or won't they" scenario between the two characters because it could have been a distraction. To come to a close, Tenet is another home run by Christopher Nolan due to being another fresh original story that will be impossible to duplicate. If you love a complex science fiction like Inception or Interstellar, see it now.
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