Christopher Nolan, the director behind the Dark Knight trilogy and science fiction epics like Inception and Interstellar, nearly always hits a winner with his films, commercially, critically, or both. The one blemish on an otherwise impeccable resume is Tenet, the 2020 sci-fi thriller that, depending on who you ask, falls somewhere between an ace and an unforced error. Tenet is arguably either a jumbled mess or one of Nolan’s best movies — but really, it’s both.
Tenet isn’t necessarily a time-travel movie, but it centers around the idea that the flow of an object or person through time can be reversed. For example, when fired, a gun “catches” a bullet that was already embedded in a wall. With that established, the film follows John David Washington’s character (unnamed, and who declares twice in the film he is “the Protagonist”) and the organization Tenet as they fight something of a time-bending Cold War against Kenneth Branagh’s villainous Russian oligarch Andrei Sator. The film is a lot.
It’s difficult to discuss Tenet without first discussing the context around its original theatrical release. Tenet was originally supposed to come out July 17, 2020 (the date being a cheeky palindrome like the film’s title: 7/17), but, of course, it didn’t. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic happened and the film industry struggled to survive amid the shutdown of movie theaters across the globe. Some underrated films were dumped in theaters where audiences were tiny. Others landed day-and-date on streaming services, a choice that would ultimately fracture Nolan’s relationship with Warner Bros and push him towards finding a new distributor for his next film.
Tenet premiered in a limited number of theaters on September 3, 2020, and performed well for the time, ultimately grossing over $365 million worldwide, helped by re-releases as more theaters started to open back up over the ensuing months. It’s not hard to imagine Tenet, despite its confusing plot, making double that in a normal summer movie season. Where brands like Marvel and DC are struggling to achieve their former billion-dollar peaks at the box office, Nolan is something of an ironclad brand unto himself.
Still, reviews at release were mixed, though “mixed” for a Nolan film really means a positive 70% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Nolan didn’t make it easy on audiences to become enamored with Tenet, though it has spawned a dedicated following in the half-decade since. Basically, if you thought Inception with its exposition-heavy, dream-rules-laden dialogue was a bit much to follow, Tenet is a next-level challenge. The way the film plays with time requires your full attention (a second screen film, this is not). This is made all the more challenging by just how difficult the dialogue is to hear, making watching Tenet without subtitles a Sisyphean task.
“Does your head hurt yet?” Robert Pattinson’s suave operator Neil says to the Protagonist in the film at one point. Neil is technically explaining the Grandfather Paradox and other time travel shenanigans, but he might as well be speaking directly to the audience. Earlier in Tenet, a researcher seemingly breaks the fourth wall as well when she tells the Protagonist not to try to understand the sci-fi jargon, but to feel it.
And feel it you shall. Tenet’s action sequences and set pieces are mesmerizing. An early fight through a restaurant kitchen shows the casual ferocity of Washington’s Protagonist, and a jet crashing into a freeport warehouse is a sight to behold. The fight through its hallways that follows is both well shot and well choreographed, and a fantastic use of the film’s reverse-time concept. The same can be said for a third-act car chase, which sees a crashed car on its hood jumping up, becoming undamaged, landing on its wheels, and speeding in reverse.
However, Nolan spends so much time explaining Tenet‘s sci-fi premise and bonkers plot (they’re trying to stop World War III, y’all) that he neglects giving its characters any depth. The Protagonist is really just a plot device to get from one sequence to another. Pattinson as Neil is a bright spot here, though even he was confused by the film. Still, he gives a subtle performance that’s even more fun to watch a second time once you know his character’s backstory. The duo’s relationship coalesces in the end, creating an equally thrilling and emotional finale.
Nolan’s climactic set-piece is particularly well-plotted and gripping, showing the full force of the Tenet organization in a firefight with Sator’s militia. It’s a little confusing, sure, with multiple teams of soldiers moving through time in reverse order. But, like that researcher said earlier, just go with it.
I first watched Tenet at home during the height of COVID. I bought it on Blu-ray, despite obviously not having seen it yet, figuring Nolan wouldn’t do me wrong. After it finished, I had an urge to immediately watch it again; Tenet was so arresting, and I was taken aback by how well its ending both closed loops and opened up the film for even more storytelling possibilities. Watching the film again this week for its five-year anniversary, I was immediately hit with that same feeling, wanting to hit “start over” and experience it all again.