Tenet (2020) (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Cooper]

Here's another sort of fun question...

So, when we get the scene where the Protagonist meets his opposite in time self, they have the big exciting fight, where opposite in time Protagonist fires his gun multiple times (for a reason perhaps if you think about it but probably not a great one) could he have just prevented the fight (which is obviously dangerous and could have killed him ending the mission of saving the world) by lifting his mask and showing forward in time protagonist that he was him moving backwards in time?

Granted, a mind blower, but hey, he would recognize himself.

Nope, because the fight had already happened, he had already attacked himself when he didn't know it was him, so he couldn't change that outcome.

This is actually stated in Tenet I think. Don't think about it just feel it, right?

I think Austin Powers 2 explained it the best.

 

[jayembee]

Here's an interesting deconstruction of Tenet:

Tenet’s ending sets up the sequel perfectly, except the sequel is Tenet

Nolan made a sequel to his own movie within the dang movie

www.polygon.com

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Nope, because the fight had already happened, he had already attacked himself when he didn't know it was him, so he couldn't change that outcome.

Forward in time Protagonist does not know who he is fighting but backward in time Protagonist always knows who he is fighting because he can see he is fighting himself. So at any point he could lift his mask and say "Hey, it's me, you, this is part of the operation, don't touch me or we'll explode." or he can pull out his gun and risk shooting himself which...well...not sure where that would leave the operation.

 

[KeithDA]

Here's an interesting deconstruction of Tenet:

I was obviously going to re-watch my copy of this film at some point, but this article might make me do so sooner rather than later - and watch it as a sequel - intriguing!

 

[dpippel]

We finally got a chance to watch the 4K disc last night. Hoo-boy, I thought the film was a beautiful, pretentious mess. Nolan really went off the deep end with this one IMO.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Watching now. Fantastic UHD, awesome individual scenes. The dialog is paced too quickly, and the film tries to stay way ahead of the viewer, and it will be up to the individual viewer if he/she wants to invest the time for repeat viewings to try to decipher what the Hell is going on.

 

[Sam Posten]

Christopher Nolan Still No Closer To Understanding End Of ‘Tenet’ After Watching Dozens Of YouTube Explainer Videos

LOS ANGELES—Visibly exhausted from his hours-long binge, Christopher Nolan was reportedly still no closer to understanding the end of Tenet Tuesday after watching dozens of YouTube explainer videos. “Wait, so what the hell was that turnstile thingy?” said Nolan, pausing a 35-minute long video...

entertainment.theonion.com

 

[John_Bilbrey]

We watched this a couple of weeks ago. And, I have no idea what I just watched. I need someone to explain it to me like I'm 5, or point me in the direction of a Cliff Notes.

 

[Sam Posten]

You definitely are not alone.

 

[Edwin-S]

We watched this a couple of weeks ago. And, I have no idea what I just watched. I need someone to explain it to me like I'm 5, or point me in the direction of a Cliff Notes.

The whole thing boils down to the hero "white knighting" to rescue a woman from an abusive relationship, If you ignore all the time traveling nonsense and the clichéd evil billionaire trying to destroy the world story.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Yep, and Nolan's love for cool sets in IMax.
Must say, after second viewing (on Blu) I kinda get the story, but I'm not impressed, and the Imax stuff just because it looks cools gets old really fast. If it doesn't help telling the story, why do it? Just cuz it looks cool? And it does, but so what?
I was confused, but impressed, after my first viewing, in a theater, but less impressed, however less confused, after the second.
Like Inception, or Nolan, for that matter, not as smart as it initially appears.

 

[Tommy R]

I still haven’t seen Tenet, but I’ve seen Inception a few times since 2010, and while I really enjoyed it the first time, I can’t stand watching it anymore without picking it apart because there’s so much of it that doesn’t make sense.

 

[Edwin-S]

I still haven’t seen Tenet, but I’ve seen Inception a few times since 2010, and while I really enjoyed it the first time, I can’t stand watching it anymore without picking it apart because there’s so much of it that doesn’t make sense.

You will have a field day with TENET then, because INCEPTION is a far better film than TENET will ever be.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Tenet is a "ride" film, you get in and go for a ride. I honestly don't think Nolan wants you to think about it much but rather just to settle in and have fun. There is a basic through line story that is told out of sequence as he seems to just really enjoy doing this and the time travel aspect is just a way for him to play with this again. So, it is like Memento in many ways just not put together as well.

I can find funny aspects of it but some people seem to feel that Nolan is trying to be funny with this picture. I did think just calling the main character The Protagonist was funny and I felt like he was pulling our legs to make us laugh but with Nolan it is hard to say because he seems serious and he also seems to be in a fairly bad mood of late...understandably.

I've not yet watched this a second time so I am curious how it will play for me when I watch it again. I certainly think it is a picture that you are meant to watch more than once and I am hoping this is true and more of the nuance will come through on repeat viewings.

I'd kind of approach it as a big, fun, Bond film with some science fiction tossed in.

 

[Edwin-S]

I never thought anything in the film as funny. When I watch his films I always think Nolan us being entirely serious and doesn't really know the meaning of the word funny.

Calling the lead " The Protagonist" wasn't all that funny to me. To me, it only served to make a character that was already hard to care for even more so because the name "The Protagonist" reduced the character from a personality to a thing.

I'm not saying the film was terrible, but the end result came out as essentially lifeless because I just couldn't generate much care for the characters. Even the villain felt dull in the film and he was the one with the most personality. The sum of this film just felt like someone experimenting with a cheesy film effect because he could and forgetting that he was supposed to be telling an entertaining story.

Edit: However, I only saw it once in the theatre, so maybe I'll have a different impression if I see it again. After my initial viewing TENET left me feeling indifferent about what I had seen. For a film make, leaving members of your audience feeling like that may be a worse state than leaving them either loving or hating it.

 

[jayembee]

Calling the lead " The Protagonist" wasn't all that funny to me. To me, it only served to make a character that was already hard to care for even more so because the name "The Protagonist" reduced the character from a personality to a thing.

I dunno. I don't see it as any different than Dashiell Hammett writing numerous stories and novels about a character called the Continental Op, who's never named. He was given the name Hamilton Nash (a twist on the author's name) in a TV adaptation of The Dain Curse.

The same is true of Harry Palmer. The character is given that name in the various films starring Michael Caine, but in the original novels by Len Deighton, he's never named.

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Some of the dialogue seemed to be intended as 'funny', or I just misunderstood.
First, meaningless banter about his clothes, are they fancy enough to pass him of as a millionaire? Brooks Brothers not good enough? There were a number of lines regarding his clothes that didn't really make any sense other than as a distraction. And also didn't pay off later (or earlier?) in the movie, as the clothes were never questioned after that.

Then the dialogue with the waiter when the Protagonist was having lunch with Caine's character, that also seemed as Nolan's dig at British snobbishness, or something, but as it never resolved (he didn't get his doggy bag), it just came off as grumpy.
Or funny, I don't know. It seemed out of place to me anyway, like a try to introduce some of 007's wit, but failing.

 

[Tommy R]

There are articles floating around about someone that put the entire movie of Tenet across 5 Game Boy Advance cartridges. This delights me to no end.

 

[TonyD]

Well, I finally watched it last night in the home theater. I did not see it in a cinema. I had no issues with the dialogue but I have a question...

Some of the dialogue is played backwards, which is intentionally not comprehensible, we're all on the same page with that right?

I watched it last night, wasn’t the backwards dialogue followed very closely with a forward translation?
At least I think it was in the scene when Sator shoots his wife?

Also why was Protag shooting him self when he obviously knew he was shoooting at himself?

Was an interesting experiment of a movie but too much didn’t make sense or wasn’t explained well enough.

End discussion.



From what i remember they wanted the bomb to go off at the end or did I miss something in that part of the dialog?

Again why was Protag shooing at himself when he could see who it was?

They had a ship loaded with dozens of giant vertical time shifting turnstiles?

The end, the movie just ended with a thud.

Going to watch again but the movie didn’t fully click with me.

 

[TonyD]

Ok I guess I’m late to this since no one seems to be talking about it anymore.

So watched it again.

Now that I have some understanding of what was going on I think it was a great movie.

Loved it At the point where everything starts going in reverse.
I didn’t really catch what was happening when that started but now I get it.
It really does all come together.

At the transition there are a couple people talking g backwards but we do also hear them speaking normal too, I have to look at that scene again to be sure.

The conclusion of the battle is still a little foggy with someone coming back to life and the business with the algorithm device needed to be buried or not buried.

Also still don’t understand why Protag was shooting at himself as he knew it was himself.

It’s kind of a shame that Nolan cares so little about sound and the quality of sound in his movies.
I understand why we don’t hear some of the dialog in this because we didn’t need to, I’m just wondering about the sound being somewhat muddled.
Too much low end. Was almost a lossy track.

His movies would benefit from a nice Atmos or dts-x track.