After a long, tumultuous wait and a long stretch of an uncertain time for the world, which is still very much ongoing, the latest epic from revered and beloved auteur Christopher Nolan has finally gotten released to a variety of places around the world. Tenet is a movie that has been divisive in some aspects, but is a genuinely brilliant cinematic experience and an enthralling piece of entertainment.
The narrative of the film can be incredibly hard to follow once all of the time inversion and typical Nolan-esque confusion gets thrown into the mix. Still, with how the film progresses and ends, there is an argument to be had that a sequel to Tenet could be beneficial.
Sequel - Creation Of The Algorithm
In what was quite the reveal/twist in Tenet, audiences find out that Sater is not looking to start World War 3. There is no nuclear cold war coming, it is merely the impending end of the world, as Sater is dying and wants to take the world with him.
To do this, Sater has a dead man's switch linked to the algorithm - a machine sent back from the future in pieces by scientists, which has the power to turn time completely backward, erasing the past. A sequel to the film could explore the algorithm further, both the scientists who created it and those who will be hunting for the pieces hidden by the Protagonist and Ives.
One Was Enough - It Is Unlikely
Other than the Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan does not do sequels. Even if a concept is fascinating and could still have a lot of potential exploration, the filmmaker is yet to do one.
Nolan prefers to work on original stories and concepts. It is obvious, but getting hotly anticipated for a sequel that will never come may sour some people to aspects of Tenet that would be perfect for a sequel, nonsensically hurting the film.
Sequel - Neil & The Protagonist's Friendship
Robert Pattinson's Neil and John David Washington's 'The Protagonist' are the two main heroes of the story, and in the movie, there are definite glimpses of friendship at some points in the film.
At the end of the movie, Neil reveals that he has known The Protagonist for a long time, and was hired by him, hence his knowledge and insight to everything that is going on. It gets teased that the two do a lot of crazy stuff together, and a sequel with these two incredible actors would be perfect for exploring that.
One Was Enough - Could Be Treading Familiar Waters
The idea of time is explored in one way or another in every Nolan film, whether it be its manipulation, muddling up, or it getting raced against, and Tenet takes the concept further than anyone else in cinematic history.
Going on to do Tenet 2 and exploring the concept of time inversion again may just be treading the same water of time in the same way. Nolan is the most original and daring blockbuster filmmaker out there - he will continue to thrive on original concepts, not examinations of previous ones.
Sequel - Exploration Of The Characters
Perhaps the most significant issue with Tenet is the lack of an emotional core, going hand in hand with the lack of insight audiences get to the characters, performed by the excellent cast.
Pattinson's Neil is as suave and charismatic as they come, and John David Washington is a star, but their characters get nothing. Debicki's Kat is the only one who gets anything, and even then, it tends to be one-note and mostly unexplored. A sequel could bring these characters back and flesh them out, improving this film in the process.
One Was Enough - A Sequel Could Hurt It
Tenet may very well be the most Nolan-esque movie yet, and no filmmaker past or present could have done this film, and as such, if any of the things one would want to happen in a sequel were to happen, it would need to be Nolan.
Should another filmmaker do the sequel, it may hurt either the characters or concepts created in the first film. Even if Nolan comes back, exploring the ideas further could convolute it or mess it up.
Sequel - Further Exploration Of Time Inversion
The altering entropy of objects and people, having them move both forwards and backward in time, has been Nolan's most ambitious venture yet, and with only two and a half hours to tell a story and detail the idea, it seems as though there is more to know regarding inversion.
A sequel could delve further into the science behind it, into those who created the algorithm as mentioned earlier, and how the discovery of time inversion came to be, and how it even may get furthered somehow.
One Was Enough - Could Go Too Far
For a while now, some film fans have worried that Christopher Nolan may, at some point, go too far. Whether it be with too complex and convoluted a concept or too much spectacle for spectacle's sake, some people have Nolan on a timer.
There is no doubt that his films are enormous, this being the pinnacle of that. So, for a sequel, Nolan would undoubtedly go further, and the worry is he may go too far. Tenet itself can be too much at times. Could Nolan's reach exceed his grasp on a sequel?
Sequel - The Protagonist & The Tenet Organization
The end of the movie pretty much confirms that The Protagonist is the one who created the Tenet organization, and in the future, he hires Neil and is the mastermind behind the events of the movie.
A sequel exploring his future with Neil and with Tenet would be incredible to see, and even if the high concept time inversion stuff is kept the same, another story revolving around it and Tenet could still be fantastic.
One Was Enough - Perhaps Nolan Should Explore Other Things
Dunkirk was the type of film that had not been explored by Nolan before. It still played with the idea of time but was a war movie, and it was a fantastic war movie at that. Perhaps it is time for Nolan to step away from the mind-bending sci-fi epic for his next projects.
Tenet was his third time manipulating a two-and-a-half hour plus sci-fi epic in 10 years. Nobody wants Nolan to stop doing these for good, but perhaps instead of coming back to this world, Nolan can play in another - a different genre, a different idea, a different story, more character, and the same originality. If Nolan's next five films are all sprawling sci-fi epics, they will probably be mind-blowingly incredible but could get tiresome and could go too far. Something original and out of the realm of sci-fi may benefit Nolan.