Thread by @SashaKokotla, 'Tenet': a thread (THIS IS NOT A REVIEW!!) 'Memento' is Nolan's best [...]

'Tenet': a thread (THIS IS NOT A REVIEW!!)

'Memento' is Nolan's best film. and 'Tenet' is a very close second. people who argue that 'Inception' is better than these two probably are unaware that 'Inception' was far easier to pull off as a director than 'Memento' and 'Tenet'. in essence, 'Inception' is far less complex.

that is from a direction pov, from a cinematography pov, 'Inception' was waaaay more difficult to shoot and that's why Pfister is goated. but anyways, back to 'Tenet'. how tf Nolan conceptualised the screenplay is beyond me. but if he doesn't get an Oscar for it then fuck them.

i want people to understand that Nolan woke up one day with the idea of 'Tenet' in his head and wrote a whole screenplay on it...that is enough proof that this man is a genius. that movie is A LOT to stomach bc at each point there's A LOT going on.

and this here is my attempt to break it down so here goes: first and foremost, to understand how inversion works and all that one needs basic knowledge of the concept of entropy and how one can use it to interpret time. i will not be getting into that on this thread though.

so kindly research it or something (if you didn't understand enough when it was being explained in the movie). once you can grasp the idea of entropy, the next thing you need to know is that INVERSION DOES NOT MAKE YOU YOUR PAST SELF!!!!

also, reverting yourself does not return you to the the present if you're in the past, it just fixes your entropy. if you are inverted, everything you do will be 'reversed' to the outside world and everything in the outside world is 'reversed' to you. until you revert

inverted people and things experience the consequence then the action. like when the Protagonist shot himself at the free port. when he was in the container with Neil the bullet showed up in his arm...and he started bleeding. even though he hadn't shot himself yet.

he was experiencing the consequence. then when he finally did shoot himself (and thus experiencing the action), the bullet returned to the gun (bc remember inverted bullets have already been shot, they just return to the gun). now you can read that as much as you need

to wrap your head around it...i can't find a better way to explain that man

then there's Neil's line: "you have a future in the past" a few moments before homeboy died (yes, Neil dies at the end of the movie).

because (as i mentioned before) inversion does not make you your past self, there can be more than one you at any given point in time. e.g. when Sator's wife was on the yacht with Sator, that was her present self. her past self was with her kid on the raft or whatever.

the fact that multiple versions of a single person can exist at a time is THE MOST IMPORTANT KEY to understanding the story. and the person who had the most versions of himself flying around? Neil. when he told the Protagonist that he had a future in the past, he meant that the

Protagonist's future self went to the past to recruit him. so in essence the Protagonist spends his future in the past (bc remember, once you're in the past you can't go back to the future so you will need to live out that time). the mission at the beginning of the movie? that

essentially is where the mission Tenet starts but at the same time isn't. here's the chain of events on how Tenet the mission started (which is essentially an endless loop):
1. the Protagonist in the future (NOT SHOWN IN THE MOVIE) becomes the founder of Tenet.

2. he then travels back into the past to recruit Neil and other members of Tenet...but most of them don't know his identity. he and Neil become very good friends.
3. he then becomes the present Protagonist's partner and helps him about his business.

4. Neil and the present Protagonist go through a series of weird events that lead them to Stalsky 12 (where Sator grew up).
5. Neil inverts himself and travels to Oslo, to save the past Protagonist's life (remember the mysterious shooter from the beginning of the movie?)

then he dashes. (while the present Protagonist prepares for the Stalsky 12 mission on the ship)
6. the past Protagonist is taken hostage and drinks the 'the pill' and dies.
7. Neil arrives at Stalsky 12 in time for the brief. he and the present Protagonist are in separate teams

and they carry out the mission.
8. during the mission, Neil reverts to so he can go help the Protagonist and that other gent
9. the present Protagonist is trying to get inside that cage thing but they find an inverted dead body that helps them

10. Neil (now reverted) helps them get out of that place before it explodes. they now have all parts of the algorithm. they split it then decide they will each go hide their share. Neil gives the present Protagonist his share to go hide. that is when the mission 'ends'.

but Neil has to go back and invert himself so he can sacrifice his life in the cage (he was the inverted dead body). that was the end of their friendship for Neil but only the beginning for the Protagonist bc he was gonna find him in his future. present Protagonist then goes off

into the future to hide the algorithm and start Tenet the mission...thus the cycle continues. also, future Protagonist (bc he was in the past and he knows he started Tenet) saved Sator's hun (she called and bc he's been living through the past, he was there to save her)

and that's how the end of the world was avoided in the movie...a review will come soon. this is me trying to explain. if you don't understand then akkksss...i don't mind going on about this for hours

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