There is no doubting Christopher Nolan's status as one of the most daring, original, and brilliant filmmakers of this, or even any other generation. His latest sci-fi epic Tenet appears to be the epitome of so many of Nolan's filmmaking proclivities. Many people have issues with the confusion, the sound mixing, and the lack of emotional core the movie presents. Still, there is no doubting its spectacle, ambition, and moments of genius.
Like in so many Nolan movies that came before, but also more than any other, Tenet is a movie that leaves you confused and reeling from its plot and sensory overload, and there are a handful of scenes that represent all of this most.
The Opera Opening
Christoper Nolan has many, many talents, one of which is opening scenes, for which he has a selection of fantastic and interesting ones, from the bank heist to the dream heist to this fast-paced action scene.
The scene is trippy in its confusion. We are thrown into this action, not quite sure what is going on, who wants what, and what the goal is. It then gets made even trippier when the Protagonist's life gets saved from a mysterious man who inverts a bullet, the first look at inversion in the film.
Killing Priya
Priya is an arms dealer who works with inverted weaponry and pops up a few times throughout the film as a character in the know, seemingly about the Tenet organization and the threat to the world.
The end of the film sees Priya following Kat intending to kill her, only for the Protagonist to turn up, kill her, and reveal himself as the mastermind behind the Tenet organization. The whole scene leaves us with so many questions32w and has quite a bit of shock when the Protagonist just coldly shoots Priya in the back.
Meeting With Laura
Played by Harry Potter alumni Clémence Poésey, Laura is the scientist whom the Protagonist seeks out who lets him and the audience in on the concept of inversion and the reversal of entropy.
The scene is simple from a structure standpoint and is just two characters in a room talking; however, it is the contents of this conversation that makes it trippy. As Laura says, "don't try to understand it, feel it." The theory is hard to follow, and there is a lot to take in from this scene.
Final Conversation Between The Protagonist, Neil, & Ives
Just before the final sequence of events involving the Protagonist's assassination of Priya, fans get treated to the epic, action-packed climax to the film, which itself ends with a conversation.
This three-character scene with the Protagonist, Neil, and Ives has a lot in it. We find out Neil was the mystery person dead in the room with the algorithm as well as the mysterious figure who saved the Protagonist in the opera house. On top of that, it gets revealed the Protagonist hired Neil; Neil is moving through time differently from the Protagonist and needs to close his loop. Overall the scene is loaded with information, and after all the action that just happened, it is a lot to take in.
Retrieving The Algorithm
Going back to that whole part of the movie, Neil's dead body in the room alongside the algorithm got mentioned earlier, and that entire scene is another, which is incredibly trippy.
There is a yacht-load of tension in the scene with the characters racing against time in different directions in time, but containing that in one singular scene when the Protagonist and Ives attempt to retrieve the algorithm is itself very trippy. There is a random dead person (Neil) who comes alive and takes a bullet before running off inverted, and stuff does not go exactly to plan for anyone with the algorithm itself.
The Hallway Fight
For all the narrative issues the film suffers from - for many people - it is filled with exhilaration, and some incredible action-based scenes, with one of the very best being the hallway fight.
The scene is simple in its trippiness; it is the Protagonist fighting with a masked individual who is inverted. It is pretty exceptionally crafted, but watching the inversion of the unknown individual, who turned out to be the Protagonist from the future, was pretty mind-bending to watch.
The Inverted Plane Crash
Christopher Nolan makes his movies for the big screen, believing wholeheartedly in the value of seeing movies at the theatre. As such, he so often intertwines spectacle with his meticulous plots to craft arthouse-esque flicks creating innovative cinema.
With Tenet, Nolan went all out in the spectacle department, literally crashing an airplane. However, the forward version of these events is just spectacle for spectacle's sake. The inverse, though, is pretty trippy as if you observe the airport, people and objects are moving backward while the heroes move forward while going back in time.
First Proper Look At & Explanation Of The Turnstile
There were many a theory going into the movie about it having two timelines and a pathway between the two connected to the red and blue lighting seen in much of the promotional material.
This was spot on as there was a door between the forward-moving timeline and that which is inverted, known as the turnstile. The first time we see this turnstile is when Sator captures the Protagonist and makes him watch an inverted Sator and Kat as he shoots her and demands the location of the algorithm piece. It is as overwhelming as well as tense and is a critical moment in the film.
The Inverse Car Chase
Speaking of inversion, it was the source of much speculation and then confusion, and appears to be the pinnacle of Christopher Nolan's obsession with time.
The first proper look at the fully inverted world comes right after the full turnstile reveals as the Protagonist sets out to stop Sator retrieving the Protagonist. The scene is a lot to take in; not only are there things moving backward, but there is a car explosion that leads to the Protagonist suffering from hypothermia and somehow getting retrieved by Neil, very trippy.
The Climactic Temporal Pincer Movement
It has gotten mentioned a couple of times, but the colossal climax of the film, more of a sequence rather than an individual scene, is full of insane set pieces and action and is a terrific cinematic experience.
Between the two teams involved in the pincer movement, Neil changing his direction, the race against time, the battle, buildings exploding coming back together and exploding again, and everything else going on, it is one of Nolan's trippiest pieces of extravagance.