Christopher Nolan will go down in history as one of the most original, daring, influential, and brilliant filmmakers of his generation, and with his latest sci-fi epic Tenet, he has once again pushed the cinematic boundaries of blockbuster filmmaking.
Updated on March 30th, 2021 by Mark Birrell: Like so many of Christopher Nolan's movies, from Memento and The Prestige to The Dark Knight and Inception, Tenet is a thriller that is best appreciated after several viewings and all of the details of its story can only be unpacked over time. Now that the movie has had longer to sit in the minds of fans, its best quotes have become easier to identify as the best lines of dialogue often play into the movie's evolving themes and ideas. These quotes from Tenet are both thought-provoking and funny, demonstrating the best of the movie's engaging storytelling.
"We All Believe We'd Run Into That Burning Building. But Until We Feel That Heat, We Can Never Know. You Do."
This quote from a Tenet agent sticks out as one of the best descriptions of who the Protagonist is and his utter dedication to the cause.
His unflinching bravery is reflected in his partner, Neil, whose courage at the end of the story mirrors the Protgaonist's self-sacrifice at the beginning.
"We Live In A Twilight World." // "And There Are No Friends At Dusk."
This quote is one said many times throughout the film, and is a secret call and response code phrase used by field agents similar to how the word "Tenet" is used in conjunction with a hand sign to confirm a person's knowledge of Tenet.
It's a mysterious phrase and one of the many fun details of spy genre worldbuilding that Nolan uses throughout the movie.
"You British don't have a monopoly on snobbery, you know." // "Well, not a monopoly. More of a controlling interest."
The Protagonist has a meeting with a contact, Sir Michael Crosby played by Sir Michael Caine, to get his initial information on the movie's villain and where they come from. He also gets some pointers on getting an inroad into the billionaire world of his target.
The two have a fun back and forth with their evenly matched wits and, when Sir Michael starts to suggest a tailor, the Protagonist has a quick comeback that Sir Michael finishes off with a sly observation. It's one of the best examples of Tenet's homaging of Bond movie suaveness.
"Well, That Part Is A Little Dramatic."
Robert Pattinson is a genuinely fantastic actor. Over the past decade, he has proven himself time and time again, and he seems to be getting rewarded with recognition from mainstream audiences finally.
He is excellent here with what he gets given, and is so incredibly sophisticated and Bond-like, just as John David Washington is. This line referring to the plane crash is just delivered so memorably, and it is aided by how much it is used leading up to the film.
"Bold I'm Fine With. I Thought You Were Gonna Say Nuts."
Himesh Patel is another actor who has a small role in the film, aiding Neil and the Protagonist in the plane crash at Oslo airport, and he has this line that sums up a lot of the feelings fans had in the movie.
Crashing a plane in a movie for spectacle is a bold move. Crashing a plane in real life for spectacle in a movie is nuts, yet Nolan pulls it off, just as he does with so many highly technical practical effects in this and other movies.
"One man's probability of death...is another man's possibility for a life."
Andrei Sator is one of Christopher Nolan's most cold-blooded villains and he's given a frightening degree of reality and humanity through Kenneth Branagh's performance as the apocalyptically evil billionaire.
As he explains the origins of his involvement in the long-running doomsday plan at the heart of the story, he describes his early days working on an extremely dangerous plutonium retrieval job. Here, Sator's referencing how the future empowers him to become their agent of destruction in the past but it's also foreshadowing of the movie's ending, which we'll get to next.
"I'll See You At The Beginning, Friend."
The climax of the movie is breathtaking and extremely overwhelming, dishing out hard to comprehend visuals, an overload of auditory stimulation, and a bunch of information at the end.
After retrieving the algorithm, the Protagonist, Neil, and Ives talk about hiding the separate pieces, before it gets revealed Neil is fated to save the Protagonist's life by sacrificing his own. His death is both the emotional core of the movie and ties together a number of plot threads and themes shown throughout the story.
"What's happened, happened, it's an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world, it's not an excuse for doing nothing."
The time inversion aspect of Tenet was undoubtedly the most fascinating thing about the movie going into it. It needs multiple viewings to grasp fully, and with all the twists and turns that go along with it, it can get overwhelming.
That is the case as it pertains to Neil, who raises many questions with his time loop, and who says this quote to the Protagonist when he inquires about changing the course of time and the effects of doing so. It isn't very clear, and perhaps even Neil does not understand, but he must do his duty and have faith that all will work out.
"Don't Try To Understand It. Feel It."
Clémence Poesy plays scientist Laura, a character who appears in one crucial scene in which the Protagonist learns about the concept of time inversion.
Laura says this quote, and it pretty much sums the whole movie up. Nolan trusts the audience to figure out stuff on their own and go on the journey with the Protagonist.
"It's the bomb that didn't go off. The danger no one knew was real. That's the bomb with the real power to change the world."
After Neil walks away to his death at the ending of the story, all that's left is the tying up of loose ends, which the Protagonist does while saving Katherine's life from an assassin without her knowledge.
The situation is, like Neil's death, an example of the kind of stoic and soldierly secrecy that Nolan salutes throughout the movie.