Christopher Nolan's latest film, Tenet, features a time-bending story so complex that even the actors needed help understanding it, says its star John David Washington. The espionage film is set to be released in theaters in July, unless the coronavirus pandemic is still serious enough to keep theaters closed, and will feature another one of Nolan's signature plots revolving around time and time manipulation.

Tenet also stars Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Clémence Poésy. The second Tenet trailer was released this week in an event in Fortnite, and reveals very little beyond what we saw in the first trailer released last year. However, it is clear that much of Tenet will see with the Protagonist dealing with time manipulation, and the plot confused even the star himself.

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During the trailer reveal event in Fortnite, Washington revealed that fans shouldn't feel alone in being confused by the movie's plot. While being interviewed by Geoff Keighley (via Comicbook.com), he said that he often struggled to come to grips with the story, and had to resort to asking Nolan what was happening on a daily basis.

"Every day I had questions for him. But he was very gracious, and he answered them very calmly and patiently. It was important that the actors could track the story correctly so we could tell it the best way we could, and he was very patient with us. I say that very politely."

Tenet Movie John David Washington

Washington's sentiments echo those of Caine, who said earlier this year that he wasn't granted access to the full script, and had no idea what the film was about even after he completed shooting. Little about the film's plot has been released, beyond the fact that it deals with international espionage and time manipulation, using the word, and title of the movie, "tenet", as some sort of code. The new trailer muddies the waters even further, as it had long been assumed that by time manipulation, Nolan meant time travel. However, as revealed in the second trailer, the movie actually deals with time inversion or reversal, an entirely different concept, which does help to explain some of the more mind-bending footage.

Washington's comments make it clear that Tenet, much like Nolan's masterpiece Inception, will likely require multiple viewings in order to  fully understand the plot. It's an exciting development, as Inception stands up to this day, revealing subtle nuances even a decade after its release. Added to that is the fact that Nolan has gone on record as saying that Tenet is far more ambitious than any film he's made before, making anticipation for this film even greater.

Let's hope that the mysterious marketing doesn't work against Nolan, though, as Tenet is set to be the first major blockbuster released to theaters once the coronavirus lockdown is eased. It could be a hard sell to get casual movie fans into a confined space to watch a movie they might not fully understand. But, given his track record, Nolan is rightfully confident that Tenet has the potential to become a box office smash.

Next: Every Movie Still Releasing In Summer 2020

Source: Fortnite (via Comicbook.com)

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