Thread by @dustinzliu

Now that TENET is trending again...

WHY TENET IS FAR AND AWAY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S BEST MOVIE AND ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES IN A LONG WHILE: A THREAD

The definitive TENET rant. 1/?

Nolan takes the two biggest threats to humanity (climate disaster and nuclear holocaust), combines and packages them into a psychedelic sci-fi espionage caper about how the FREE WILL of human beings to DO GOOD is what keeps the world moving. And it SLAPS.

2/?

It is about how - in a reality where time is a block with no beginning, no end, all of it exists at once in a single moment, expanding in and out and upon itself, with seemingly no free will and where nothing can change - people MUST STILL ACT to do good.

3/?

As Neil says, “What’s happened, happened. We’re just an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.” Nolan is fusing reality with the spiritual. The divine with the here and now.

4/?

And as Clemence says, “The bullet wouldn’t have moved if you hadn’t put your hand there.” He’s telling people our actions make the difference. We have a responsibility with our free will. We have to try to do good, because if we don’t, the world will be overcome by evil.

5/?

The entropy of time going forwards and backwards is a metaphor for this: good vs. evil. Forward entropy (good), reverse entropy (bad). The flow of forward entropy (good) overpowers reverse entropy (evil), and that’s why reality continues to exist. A timeless story.

6/?

About “raging against the dying of the light.” To fight against nihilism. Against the threats of climate change, neoliberal capitalist society, nuclear proliferation. Against the apocalypse. If there aren’t people actively fighting against these forces, it will destroy us.

7/?

It’s also about the self. The psychedelic and pantheistic conception of self. Self as in The One. As in Self = Universe. Self = God. The Protagonist is following a threaded fate predetermined and created by who? HIMSELF. TENET’s about coming into your own destiny.

8/?

At the end of the film, The Protagonist goes on to set into motion every moment we see in the movie to ensure they save the world in the same way again and again. He is not only the puppet, but the puppet master. The Protagonist becomes his own God, creating his own reality.

9/?

The #TENET hand gesture symbolizes a handshake between you and yourself. Creating unity. It also represents the two flows of time interlocking. As well as good and evil butting against each other throughout eternity. Almost like a 4-Dimensional Ying Yang.

10/?

Like the Sator Square it takes its shape from, the film acts as a singular work, locked into its own internal logic. A palindrome with precise structure, unable to be altered without its whole being collapsing. Impenetrable at first, but yields many rewards on rewatches.

11/?

In fact, it is designed to be watched more than once. Nolan’s movies are about movie-making. He always tries to layer them in a way that they are more rewarding on rewatches. This one is about specifically that: Rewatching and the fixed timeline nature of movies.

12/?

Whenever you play the movie (streaming or physical), you are viewing a fixed reality of the film world. 150 minutes. Locked in. You can scrub forwards and backwards through an unchangeable timeline. The physical form of the movie takes on the conception of time presented.

13/?

Everytime you watch the movie, you’re basically watching another “cycle” of the events in the story happening as if it were reality. The first time you watch it, you are The Protagonist: Confused, a rookie, being thrown and tossed around with no idea what’s happening.

14/?

The second time you watch it, you are Neil. You're in on the temporal pincer, coming in with an understanding of what’s happening (“TEMPORAL PINCER” are ya kidding me??? How can you not be into the ridiculousness of that). YOU GUIDE your first-time self through the story.

15/?

3+ times, you are viewing different cycles of the temporal pincer from the POV of future Protagonist. You begin to know it all. Discovering more. You help your past self understand and evolve to God-level. The form of TENET itself makes it one of the most rewatchable movies

16/?

But that’s all higher level shit, whatever. But on simpler movie level terms, people complain about Nolan’s coldness and lack of emotion. I think Nolan is an EXTREMELY emotional filmmaker, but audiences get caught up in his cerebral concepts (me included).

17/?

“Don’t try to understand it, feel it.” People say that’s his smug way of telling you how to watch TENET. Valid, but I want to expand. I think he’s telling audiences to focus on the emotional elements of his stories, to get caught up in the other stuff is to miss the point.

18/?

For example, THE PRESTIGE is a very emotional movie. We try to figure out how the cloning shit works, but really, we’re ignoring the emotional story. About how sacrificing your personal relationships for your art - by literally drowning yourself - is a cautionary tale.

19/?

With #TENET, regarding characters and emotions (which there are loads of - it’s all just hidden under spectacle and character action), it’s really a tragic story. It’s a “Twilight World” where no information, no personal details, can be shared with those you’re closest to.

20/?

The relationships are suppressed because relationships can’t happen in the reality of a top-secret mission. A bromance blooms in the shadows, glimpses of a deeper emotional connection flicker by, but by the time it’s realized, it’s ultimately too late and always will be.

21/?

A platonic relationship between a spy who can’t help but exude warmth and humanity and a woman trapped in an abusive prison develops. Glimpses of their humor and chemistry peek through, but ultimately can’t be pursued. The reality of this film is: You can’t know each other.

22/?

Like a Michael Mann film who Nolan is so inspired by (which TENET is him at his most Michael Mann), people pass each other by, focused on their jobs first, before each other. Tragic. When people complain about no character, I don’t blame them. But IT IS there.

23/?

Look at the ending. The Protagonist's face. It’s tragic. He knows it. He’s relegated to this Sisyphean fate to keep saving the world and securing the Algorithm again and again. He can’t know anyone, and at the end, he forever has to send his friend to die to save the world.

24/?

Kat is a character that’s been criticized as being the cliche wife with no agency. But she HAS AGENCY. She makes decisions for herself that get her in trouble. She is actively helping JD for her own personal needs, which often makes his mission more difficult.

25/?

Especially the last act. She fucking kills Sator before she’s supposed to, raising the stakes for The Protagonist. And she comes into her own destiny that at the beginning of the film, she could only dream and be envious about. She does what she wants! ! I love it!

26/?

Sator doesnt get enough credit. He is a very tragic figure. A terrible, irredeemable monster, but tragic. He is someone who has had his fate decided for him in his youth. He found the gold bars and instructions from the future to find The Algorithm and that’s been his life.

27/?

His behavior is all about trying to reclaim control of his own life. Abusing Kat. Suicide. Etc. What makes it funnier is my theory that The Protagonist is also pulling the strings for Sator, ensuring he ends up with the Algorithm. The Protagonist makes a cuck out of Sator.

28/?

Neil is GOAT. He’s also Kat’s son. Which adds dramatic irony and thematics. “My greatest sin was having a son…” says Sator. That son then grows up to become the hero who stops him. Neil = Nolan’s John Connor. More to say, but just watch with that in mind.

29/?

Also just wanna say something about the young talent in front of and behind the camera. The young trio of leads + Ludwig Gorannson/Jennifer Lame gives this movie such a YOUTHFUL energy. TENET is funnier, faster, and fresher than any previous Nolan movie.

30/?

Throw them together with Nolan vets (Crowley, Hoyte, etc.) and you got one of the best movies on a technical level in years. The brutalist, quantum cold war design, shot with such coolness and with such documentary reality, on IMAX no less. Sexy SeXy SEXY

31/?

And on @ludwiggoransson The best film score in years. Music tells the story by itself. Fucking slaps and bumps. Techno quantum club beats. Pulls you in with its own entropy and doesn’t let go. I mean when the beat drops during that opera siege, you know it's time to party..

32/?

Summary: TENET is a Sisyphean, psychedelic story about keeping evil at bay, delivered in an earnest, stupidly cool, quantum espionage package. Please watch TENET again. Pop an eddie. Turn down the lights. The doors are closing and the dream is about to begin. 10/10 flick.

END

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

This is the closest we get to a Hideo Kojima movie. Look at this fucking boat scene this is fucking sick. And Aaron Taylor Johnson shows up halfway through the movie wearing a beret??? Iconic. Movie just keeps getting sexier.

The Protagonist is basically Matt McConaughey in the tesseract, pulling the strings of the past from the future. #TENET

Sator’s insane, ridiculous tiger monologue. “You don't negotiate with a tiger. You watch the tiger until it turns on you and reveals its true fucking nature.” Well, the tiger is actually Kat. KAT IS THE TIGER that turns on him and reveals her true nature. (Her name is Kat!)

From each individual perspective (Protag/Sator), they are throwing the suitcase to each other. But it looks like one is passing, one is catching. But in reality, both are throwing it at each other, nobody is catching it, it just looks like it. That’s how crazy inversion shit is.

The imagery of the military industrial complex. Very Kojima-esque indeed. This is literally a Forever War. Fought by proxy where the future self recruits their past self to fight.

Shoutout to Volkov (name is almost a palindrome). My favorite henchman in any movie. Love when he eats the food and loyally does inversion stuff. Like, what is this guy thinking when he’s doing all this time travel shit?

Love how insane Sator is that he had to tell his Target worker/server to put this fucking priceless Goya painting on a platter and serve it to his wife on his cue. A real spy movie villain.

And this fucking boat scene. One of the boldest scenes since the Matrix Reloaded rave scene. You’re either with the movie here or you're not. Could go on, but I won’t. If you know, you know.

I also love how this movie is set around fucking shipping containers boats. The “twilight world” that we rarely see and think about in which the world keeps moving. Our main characters spend a fucking week in a tin container waxing philosophical about time.

Protagonist is the one sending gold and instructions to Sator from the future. Deliveries come in these containers that are seen on the ice breaker boat, and The Protagonist knows where to get gold bars - which gives a reason why there are random gold bars during the 747 crash

PALINDROMIC STRUCTURE:

Opera siege and Stalsk-12 climax happen at the same moment (listen to the soundtrack for a nice clue, too)

PALINDROMIC STRUCTURE:

Protagonist doing pull-ups on icebreaker at the same time he passes his past self doing pull-ups while hiding out in a windmill

PALINDROMIC STRUCTURE:

The Protagonist first and last main interactions with Kat are mirrors of each other. Talking about the same flashback moment. Both end with him giving Kat instructions to call him.

Where's my TENET hive at... Spread the word!

@davidlsims @leahmarilla @BilgeEbiri @JustinCChang @SilentDawnLB @GuyLodge @heavyspoilers @patrickhwillems

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Podcast episode we recorded at the beginning of the year where I talk about some of these things. Check us out on Spotify now!