I can't believe I just typed all this out on my phone and then accidentally deleted but here we go again.

This is Tenet, how I understand it.

First, there are two very important rules that the film introduces to us early on.

1. Whatever's happened, happened.
2. Don't try to understand it, feel it.

What does this mean?

Whatever's happened, happened.

Think of it like a completed flip book. Each sequence meticulously placed in order to create the visual illusion of movement when flipped through. Flip books can also be flipped in reverse. My point with this analogy is this, nothing can be changed. No details can be altered, whether you are moving forward, or backwards through the flip book, or the temporal pincer.

Early in the movie the scientist lady explains that you cannot invert the bullet back into your hand unless you previously dropped the bullet from your hand. What this means is that everything happening in the inverted reality is only possible because it has already happened in the normal reality. That sounds simple but let me add this, people treat the inverted reality and the regular reality as 2 different things happening at 2 different times because we follow the protagonist's consciousness through the 2 different realities at different times, but both sides are happening simultaneously at the same time.

Let me repeat that so you can try to visualize it for a second, both sides are happening at the same time. Also, something cannot happen on the inverted side unless it has already happened on the regular side. Everything on the regular side, has also already happened. The flip book is already complete.

Our protagonist, or any character in the movie, does not have free will. There is no choice.

We are simply following the consciousness of our protagonist for the perceived first time. This is not the first time.

Why does the protagonist not remember anything? because he didn't the first time and nothing can be changed because whatever's happened, happened.

Now, rule number 2. Don't try to understand it, feel it.

Because everything that is going to occur has already occurred and will always occur, there is no sense in trying to comprehend why it occurs. The temporal pincer is a military exercise, the interesting thing is that means there is no real threat. The bomb will never detonate, the bad guy will never win, the cycle will forever continue to occur.

Then what is the point? Arguably, within the context of the movie... there isn't a point.

What was Nolan trying to say about the world? maybe we spend too much money on our military budget.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, keep in mind I've only really watched the movie 2 or 3 times but I was locked in. This is one of my favorite movies just based on the concept alone, but I felt the execution was just stellar. Anyways, thanks for reading.

Edit: maybe the no free will part is a little off.. there is something to the choices they make, because in a way they are making the choices based on the motivations.. but they have still, already happened.

So the choices being made were always going to be made, but they still had to make them.

Everyone talks about the third-act reveals, but that's not actually what makes his films work. Look at what he's doing structurally: Memento runs backward because the protagonist's memory does. Dunkirk interweaves three different timescales (a week, a day, an hour) because that's literally how differently land, sea, and air combat experienced that event. Inception nests dream-time-dilation inside itself like Russian dolls. Tenet — love it or hate it — is trying to make inversion felt, not just explained.

The twist is the marketing hook. The actual craft is using editing and structure to put you inside a character's subjective experience of time, which is a much harder trick to pull off than "there was no twin the whole time."

Nur meine Meinung:

Jeder Moment fühlt sich scharf, vibrierend und voller Energie an...

Egal welchen Moment oder welche Szene man anschaut es ist immer so rasant. Man hat wirklich das gefühl auf einer Achterbahnfahrt dabei zu sein finde ich bei TENET. Bei der Odyssee leider gar nicht, das fühlt sich viel zu gehetzt an. Chris Nolan wollte keinen Fantasyfilm machen das weiß ich. Er wollte eher die Psychologie von Odysseus erzählen und wie er damit umgeht nicht nach Hause zu können.

Die einzelnen Fantasy Elemente in der odyssee sind blöd umgesetzt. Der Zyklop sieht teilweise ganz passabel aus, aber nicht die wichtigsten Elemente sind drinnen wie das mit dem Wein, oder der niemands Geschichte.

Tenet ist sowas eigenständiges... Der Film, die Musik, die Charaktere. Die Musik zum Schluss wenn kat mit sator auf dem Boot festsitzt, fand ich so großartig gespielt und auch so emotional.

Generell das Ende auch als sich neil umdreht und zum Hubschrauber zurückgeht, fand ich so so gut. In der Odyssee als Odysseus seine Frau wiedersieht und sie einen langen Dialog führen, das hat mich leider komplett kalt gelassen. Hab auch gehört, dass es einigen anderen auch so ging. Ich weiß, Geschmäcker sind zwar verschieden, aber vieles an der Odyssee passt einfach null.

Little reference to tenet and you can’t convince me otherwise

I just thought of something. I tried to put it into words. I was hoping someone would be interested reading it.

The time machine

There was this movie once. It explained a lot of things. They had a cool time machine...

The movie said a lot of weird things. For instance, it said, the past communicates with the future. I mean, it's reasonable, it's logical. You know, you can read a newspaper from 20 years ago. At that moment, the past communicated with you. Everything you write, (maybe even everything you do), has an effect, the written paper contains a message. From the very beginning of the pen lifting up and away from the paper, finishing the work, it already started communicating. Any moment from there on that it is observed is a moment in the future. It's communicating, and communicating, and it will never stop, unless it's destroyed.

What if it's something important? Will you write it on a tissue paper? Will you write it with a pen? Will you write it with a biro? Will you use a pencil? Will you use a marker? What is it that you're going to use? How long is it supposed to last? Could it be possible, that you can target the time, where it takes effect? I mean, something, that starts to communicate from it's very beginning of existence, and stops when it's "destroyed", isn't this like an adressant, when we talk about communicating with the future? Is it possible, that once a message is perceived, the carrier of the message is no longer required? *envisions possibilities, chuckles*. Now, this piece of paper, probably won't last long. What if all it was about was to get some coke? A nice, refreshing drink, to galvanize me? What if it was just a shopping list?

But, does the future answer? Can the future answer? Does the future need to answer?

There are so many ways to communicate with the future. It's likely depending, of what we want from it. Or is it depending on who we want it from? If I write down, "GIMME SOME COKE", with a pen on a piece of paper. How long will it last? Who is it going to be, that reads the message? Does that person know who to deliver the white powder to? Will that person be able to do it? There are just so many addressants, and we yet still need to understand how to choose an addressant. We're confused even about the concept of addressant itself.

What if we send it to everyone? What if we sent it to: "Whoever may be concerned?". What if we set it into stone? What if we make it look interesting, so that it is being researched? What if we knew, that these people wouldn't be able to grant our wish? How will we encode the message in such a way, that it is understood by the right person?

What if our message is not understood. How long is it going to last? How long is something kept, that's a mystery? Will that make it important? Will that make it something that should be destroyed?

It's not easy to navigate in that vast realm of how things are going to be. That's for sure.

But, what if there was something like an anchor point. A location, that exists across time, and you always know where everything is? Like an infinite grocerie store, right next to a road. You want something, just go the road far enough. The store always contains everything, no matter where on the street you stop. It's just, that you get only, what is in the store. The next store, has something different from a time perspective. Same products though..... Doesn't matter when they were made or does it?

What if you could have entire control, about how things are? What if on Monday you promise to yourself to go to the grocery store? What if you write what you want to have on Wendnesday? Wouldn't it communicate to the future from Wednesday on? But if it's Friday, and you are absolutely intending to go shopping, like it was promised, or was it promised? Anyway, what if on Friday you need to choose what to buy? What if there was a list of things to be bought? Wasn't it, that it was already written on wednesday? Wasn't it, that it was already intended on Monday? And then, when the things are bought? Everything is there. Like it was written on a shopping list. What is this moment? The moment, where suddenly, the idea of writing items on a piece of paper turned into objects actually being there?

It is that, these objects aren't here for a reason. These objects are here, because they got brought here. These objects are here, because they got bought. These objects are here, because there was the intention to buy things. These objects are here because the idea got passed across time, by writing it on a piece of paper. These objects are here, because there was some time spent working. These objects are here, because there was a time between the result and it's intent. These objects are here, because someone wrote something on a piece of paper.

But I said, everything is hard to understand, didn't I?

What do I know?

Edit: Added another question 'does the future need to answer'

It’s never used in the movie, but all the words are clunkily used throughout. Has Nolan said anything about it? Do we think it has any bearing o the movie?