TENET (2020)

Plot of TENET: A secret service agent known as The Protagonist, is recruited by a secret organisation, TENET. He is given the task of recovering an “artefact” from a Russian oligarch who, he is told, has communication with the future and intends to cause WW III to start on 14th, a date which has passed by which he has the ability to return to by inverting time. The Protagonist and his fellow agent, Neil, track Sator, the Russian and find that he is married to striking young woman who he is abusing and at some point intends to kill. In order to capture the artefact The Protagonist and Neil ambush a truck which contains part of it, but in a subsequent fire fight, Sator recovers it by threatening to kill his wife. Events occur at this time which seem to involve inverted time, and as it turns out this is a moment targeted by the Protagonist which will allow him to reverse future events.

Content: No sex or nudity or drug taking. Maybe some drinking at social events. A whole load of set pieces starting with the opera in Kiev where terrorists are taken on by black clad soldiers in an extensive fire fight. Later a Boeing 747 is hijacked to crash into a building, I think as a diversion. The evil Sator is shown being nasty to his wife Kat. People are inverted by passing through a portal and once there must wear breathing devices. We see things happening in reverse, explosions unplode, buildings re-assemble,  and when strange things happen in time going forward, we sometime see them explained in time going in reverse. There is an impressive scene of sailing in one of those sort of hydrofoils, and a guest appearance by the Loke Viking as the Tenet base ship, going in reverse towards their final conflict.

A View: This film won an Oscar for Visual Effects. It cost more than $200 million and may eventually have lost Warner Bros more than $50 million, once marketing is taken into account. Although it was absolutely dazzling in its presentation I had a job with the reversing of time, particularly since in the best time travel stories you are not able to meet your earlier self. In this this presentation several selves can exist at the same time. So I enjoyed it for its sheer ambition and the exciting, but confusing presentations. Maybe if you want to watch it don’t try too hard to understand everything.

Fun Fact: Although budgeted for a aircraft sequence using models, the director found that it was cheaper to purchase and use a real 747.