Tenet

Fay: We all believe we’d run into the burning building. But until we feel that heat, we can never know. You do. The Protagonist: I resign. Fay: You don’t work for us, you’re dead. Your duty transcends national interest. This is about survival. The Protagonist: Whose? Fay: Everyone’s. There’s a cold war, cold as ice. To even know its true nature is to lose. This is knowledge divided. All I have for you is a gesture, in combination with a word. “Tenet”. Use it carefully. It’ll open the right doors, but some of the wrong ones, too. The Protagonist: That’s all they've told you? Fay: That test you passed? Not everybody does. Barbara: With a high-vis vest and a clipboard, you can get almost anywhere...Almost. The Protagonist: An obscure Tenet. Barbara: [Barbara leads The Protagonist into a secure room] No small talk. Nothing that might reveal who we are or what we do. The Protagonist: I thought I was here to find out what we do. Barbara: You're not here for "What", You're here for "How"..."W

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0

Barbara: Aim it and pull the trigger. The Protagonist: [checks the magazine] It's empty. Barbara: Aim it. [The Protagonist aims and fires] Check the magazine. The Protagonist: [The Protagonist checks the magazine which is now no longer empty] How?

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0

Barbara: One of these bullets is like us, traveling forwards through time...The other one's going backwards...Can you tell which is which? Barbara: How about now? [she holds out her hand out and bullet flies from table into her palm] It's inverted. It's entropy runs backwards. So, to our eyes, its movement is reversed. We think it's a type of inverse radiation triggered by nuclear fission. The Protagonist: You didn't make it? Barbara: No, we don't know how yet. The Protagonist: So, where'd it come from? Barbara: Someone's manufacturing them in the future. They're streaming back at us... Try it. The Protagonist: [Holds out hand over bullet that doesn't move] Barbara: You have to have dropped it. The Protagonist: [places hand over the bullet as if he just dropped it; it flies up into his palm] How can it move before I touch it? Barbara: From your point of view, you caught it...But from the bullet's point of view, you dropped it. The Protagonist: But cause comes before effect. Barbara: No

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Protagonist: [points gun at wall and fires multiple times] Why does it feel so strange? Barbara: You're not shooting the bullet, you're catching it. The Protagonist: Whoa. [walks up closer to the wall] I've seen this type of ammunition before. Barbara: In the field? The Protagonist: I was almost hit. Barbara: Then you were exceedingly lucky. An inverted bullet passing through your body would be devastating. Not pretty. The Protagonist: These look like today's. Barbara: They may have been made today and inverted years from now. The Protagonist: Where did you get them? Barbara: Came with the wall. I was assigned it, like all the material I'm studying here. The Protagonist: Do you have an analysis on the metals? Barbara: Sure. Why? The Protagonist: The mixture of the alloys can tell me where they might have been made. Look...I'm not seeing Armageddon here.

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0

Barbara: The bullet may not seem like much, but it's a simple machine...Lead bullet, brass casing, gunpowder. If they can invert that, I see no reason they couldn't invert pretty much anything. Even a nuclear weapon can only affect our future...An inverted weapon might be able to affect our past as well. [Opens a drawer of random items that have been inverted] Now that we know what to look for, we're finding more and more inverted material. Remnants of complex objects. The Protagonist: [Holds hand over one of the items that flies into his palm] What do you think we're seeing? Barbara: The detritus of a coming war.

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0

Steward at Restaurant: May I help you, Sir? The Protagonist: I'm Mr. Crosby's lunch. Steward at Restaurant: I presume you mean Sir Michael Crosby's Lunch. The Protagonist: Presume away. Steward at Restaurant: If you'll follow me. [leads The Protagonist to Sir Michael's Table] Sir Michael Crosby: Started without you. Hope you don't mind. The Protagonist: I'll catch up...[points to Sir Michaels Plate and gestures to The Stewart]...Same for me, Please. Steward at Restaurant: I'll send the waiter. The Protagonist: No, Just Pass on the Order. Sir Michael Crosby: I gather you have an interest in a certain Russian national. The Protagonist: Anglo-Russian. So I have to watch my step. Sir Michael Crosby: Indeed. He's tapped into the intelligence services. I've warned them he's feeding them rubbish...but they don't seem to care. The Protagonist: Tell me about him. Sir Michael Crosby: I assume you're familiar with the Soviet-era secret cities. The Protagonist: Closed cities, not shown on maps. Bu

Tenet, CC BY-SA 4.0