Possibly one of the most confusing movies in the history of cinema, Tenet has sparked massive debates and discussions among cinephiles. Director Christopher Nolan is known for stringing together genre-bending narratives that are not made for the fickle-minded. He has a dedicated fan-following, a troupe of people who like having their intellect stimulated while watching a movie.

Christopher Nolan Explains the Concept Behind Tenet

Tenet
Tenet

Although Christopher Nolan almost always receives smashing views for his work, Tenet is one of those projects that went by without mass appreciation. Critics and fans alike felt dumbfounded after watching the film. It has been 4 years since the movie was released, and viewers are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened in the film.

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In a recent video circulating on the internet, we can see Nolan trying to explain the concept behind Tenet. He explains the physics of entropy and how the movie features machines that are capable of changing time. The sci-fi film takes the science of it all pretty seriously. He says,

“Tenet is not a film about time travel in the conventional sense. It is about the direction of time. And that’s defined by a thing called entropy. All laws of physics are symmetrical, they’re identical in whichever direction time is running in, other than entropy. And there’s debate in the field of physics as to whether that defines the direction of time or whether it just shows the direction of time, whether it’s a cause of it or whether it’s a product.”

After this explanation, Tenet might just get a second life among the viewers as fans will view the movie with fresh eyes and the concept already unraveled. Nolan agrees that the movie is hard to follow, but it’s not impossible.

What is Tenet About?

John David Washington in Tenet
John David Washington in Tenet

The official plot synopsis of the movie states that a CIA operative has to go on a mission to protect sensitive tech that reaches the wrong people. In a future where machines can change time, the Protagonist must race against time to save the world. As dramatic as the plot sounds, viewers couldn’t understand what the movie stood for.

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With the right knowledge, fans would be able to appreciate the story of the movie while understanding the educational concepts behind it. In the video, he continued,

“Tenet takes on this idea of entropy as the cause. What’s happening in Tenet is that rather than just moving backward and forwards in time, machines have been developed that can change the direction of time for an object or a person. So you’re mixing the two directions of time within the same scene, and the same frame. You don’t have to view cause and effect as defined by one coming before the other. There’s nothing in the laws of physics that says you couldn’t look at time in a different direction. So, in the scene where the protagonist holds the sand over the inverted bullet and it jumps up into his hand, you made it happen, whether or not you drop the bullet, whether or not it flies up to your hand, it has to be your hand, it has to be your will that’s making it happen. A lot of Tenet is constructed like the title. It’s a palindrome. Reads the same forwards and backward.”

Tenet was the first movie to be released after the pandemic stopped theatre releases in 2020. With Robert Pattinson and John David Washington in the lead, the movie was not critiqued as positively as Nolan’s other movies have been received. With Nolan’s elaborate explanation, fans might want to go back to the movie to realize what they missed.

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