If you'd like to be totally surprised by the Tenet film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer. Otherwise, I think it's safe to watch it, as you probably won't understand what's happening in the trailer, so it won't spoil your experience.
Tenet, movie (2020) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
video © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Article updated: 2022.03.06
The Tenet (2020) is a contemporary fantasy action / thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Tenet, movie (2020)
Original title: Tenet
Series: -
Setting: contemporary alternate / fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: contemporary fantasy action / thriller, Style: sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, contemporary fantasy, action, time travel
Release: Premiere: 2020.08.22 (Australia, preview screening), Release: 2020.08.26
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2020.09), first time
Rating: Good (2+ out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Tenet, a contemporary fantasy action / thriller movie from 2020. It's about a team of agents trying to prevent the end of the world. The Tenet film is interesting, but confusing, so I only recommend it to dedicated fans of the genre.
Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
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Review (spoiler-free) - Tenet, movie (2020)
After seeing all those advertisements about Tenet, I was interested in watching it. I also happen to love Nolan's movies, so I was waiting for its release, and went to watch it as soon as I could. I've seen the trailers.
The Tenet movie is about a team of agents trying to prevent the end of the world.
The story is good, there are plenty of twists. The pacing is strange, it often feels that scenes are missing. There are no character arcs. There are some logical problems, but most come from the basic concept of time travel.
Much of the story doesn't make sense. The characters get from one place to another, from one goal to another without explanation.
The cinematography is great. The scenes are interesting visually. The action scenes are very nice, and easy to follow. The special effects are good.
The characters are not well developed, we barely get to know most of them. The actors were great, though.
The music (by Ludwig Göransson) is okay, it fits the movie. Many people complain about the sound balance, but I didn't find it much of a problem. There were parts of the dialogue that I did not understand, but I assume those parts were not essential.
The film was enjoyable, but not exceptional. The concept might have worked better as a short movie, showing the special effects the creators wanted us to see, without the need to stretch the whole thing into a 2 and a half hour long feature film.
Tenet is an interesting contemporary fantasy action / thriller, but I think only dedicated fans of the genre will enjoy it, due to its confusing nature.
My experience
I was not satisfied with Tenet (2020). I prefer stories with well-thought, logical plots, and Tenet couldn't delivered that.
Rating: Good (2+ out of 3 points). Tenet is a well-made film, with a story that makes no sense.
Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points). Tenet has an interesting concept, that I liked, but I didn't like the story.
Rewatchability: Average. I think it's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested, but if it catches your taste, you might like to watch it multiple times, as there are plenty of cool scenes in it.
Chance of watching it again: Unlikely, but there's a small chance. I didn't like it enough to want to watch it again, but if I'd be in the company of people who'd want to watch Tenet, I wouldn't walk out.
Chance of watching a sequel: I'd probably watch it.
Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like Tenet.
If you like supernatural or fantasy movies, you might like Tenet.
If you like action thriller movies, you might like the Tenet movie.
If you don't mind illogical elements in your movies, you can enjoy this.
If you like to be surprised by the development of events, this movie is for you.
If you prefer visuals over story, you will still able to enjoy the movie, even if you don't care about the confusing plot.
If you hate subtitles, although there are some in the movie, you'll probably able to understand what's going on even without reading them.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in time travel stories, I think it's worth watching the Tenet movie for the plot points. Even if it's just so you don't make the same mistakes the creators do.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals probably look better if you watch it in cinema. However, unlike the previous Inception, there weren't many grandiose scenes that would require a large screen to enjoy the movie. I assume it's a similar experience on small screens, as it's mostly the plot that drives this movie.
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Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Review with spoilers - Tenet, movie (2020)
I didn't like the Tenet movie, but I really admire the action scenes in the film.
The creators really know how to use tension, there's always some time limit, or some other thing that makes makes the characters hurry through their actions, not giving them time to think or to properly plan.
Cover
The cover of the movie is okay, it doesn't say much, but it doesn't spoil the movie.
The trailer
The trailer is okay, although it spoils some minor parts of the movie.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the Tenet film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will make the movie less fun for you.
Promise of the first scene
The protagonist saves an agent that has been revealed by the enemy. He also saves the people who were going to die due to the bombs used by the enemy. He gets saves by an unknown agent. I have no clue where will they take this story, but I assume the guy he saved will play some role. Also, we might get to know who saved him.
Execution: Although the guy he saved was not important, the device the guy had, was. It was also revealed, who was the unknown agent, and they teamed up. I'm not sure I'm entirely satisfied with the fulfilment of the promise, but it was an interesting start for sure.
Plot summary / Synopsis
There's an agent (John David Washington as the Protagonist) who saves another agent who is about to get killed. The other agent also has a device.
The agent is captured, and tortured. But it turns out it was just a test by a secret organisation (Tenet), who want to recruit him.
The agent has to find parts of a device, to stop an apocalyptic event. He is introduced to his partner agent (Robert Pattinson as Neil). He is also introduced to the concept of inversion - using technology to make things move backwards in time, enabling them to be sent back into the past. Their enemy has an apocalyptic device that was sent back to him from the future, to destroy the Earth.
The enemy uses inverted weapons they are able to trace back to an arms dealer (Dimple Kapadia as Priya Singh). She tells them that her source is a Russian guy (Kenneth Branagh as Andrei Sator).
In order to get a connection to the Russian guy, they meet his wife (Elizabeth Debicki as Katherine Barton). She agrees to help them if they help her get back a forged painting that his husband uses to blackmail her. They help her do that. There's also a plane explosion involved in the heist. It is also revealed that the apocalyptic device is connected to the heart monitor of the Russian guy.
They approach the Russian guy, but he finds out about the ruse. The wife is shot, but agents of the secret organisation arrive to save them, while the Russian guy escapes.
A commando from the secret organisation storms the base of operation of the Russian guy. They are able to obtain the apocalyptic device, but the agent's partner sacrifices himself to save the agent.
The wife sneaks on board of the Russian's ship, and kills him.
The arms dealer wants to kill the wife, but the agent kills her.
The setting
Tenet is set on contemporary Earth, probably 2020.
In the future, people have created a time machine, and they were able to send it into our time, so we can build time gates.
Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Time travel
It seems that this universe uses a fixed timeline. Whatever happens, it already happened, and you can't change the past or the future.
The inversion
There are turn-gates that send materials back in time, making them inverted materials.
An inverted organism is not able to breathe non-inverted air, or eat non-inverted food.
Palindrome passwords are useful for inverted agents, as they can be understood by others even if they are not inverted.
Inverted bullets are poisonous to their victims. This is probably also true of other inverted items, inserted into non-inverted people.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
The scenes of the Tenet film are played in sequence, following the same storyline.
There is no single viewpoint character.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution.
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Things I liked
- I liked the action scenes.
- I especially liked the assault scene.
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
From the writer (Christopher Nolan), I've seen Memento (2000), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Man of Steel (2013), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), that were good. The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010) were great. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) was average. It's hard to compare them to Tenet, as Tenet is fun, but makes no sense.
From the director (Christopher Nolan), I've seen Memento (2000), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), that were good. The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010) were great. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) was average.
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Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Analysis of the story - Tenet, movie (2020)
I mostly liked the story, but there were so many problems that have prevented me from enjoying Tenet.
Problematic elements
Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas: As someone who is interested in history, I knew about this "magic square". When they first mentioned Tenet as the name of the organisation, I thought it's clever, referring to the square. Then we got all other words in the list, as names of the characters, and Opera referring to an opera house.
The plan of the future enemy: As they probably know about the fixed timeline, I don't really understand why did they even try? They knew it from the beginning that it didn't work out.
The protagonist's confidence: There were some situations when I found it strange that the protagonist just jumps into situations without sufficient preparations, or contingency plans. He is just a normal guy, no matter how trained he is.
The naive Russian: Why does the Russian guy let the Protagonist live? Why does he have so much faith that he won't turn against him? He should just cut the story short by stuffing things in his mouth.
Problematic elements - The physics
The scientific parts of the movie often doesn't make sense.
Reversed matter: In order to survive while reversed, they have to take a reverse air supply with them. However, if they touch their original, they would be annihilated?
They can't be in an antimatter state, so they would need some forcefield to protect them from getting in contact with even a single regular atom, otherwise they would violently explode.
Also, we see them touching themselves, so the annihilation rule is probably not true.
However, I don't think they would be able to take any object while reversed. If they grab anything, they would duplicate it - it would stay in its original time path, but another copy would be carried by the character. So, I think everything would be immovable, and that's why they need to have their own air supply, as they cannot breath - and move - the air around them.
Pulling reversed bullets out of the walls with the gun: If you really think about it, it's unlikely that it could work in that way.
- In order to do that, someone has to bury all those reverse bullets around the target area, so the soldiers would be able to use them. Then, the opponent could just use a metal detector (or possibly a reverse metal detector?) to find and remove them.
- There must be a very precise reverse bullet detector in those guns, that somehow show it to their users that they are pointing their gun in the direction of a reverse bullet of the right caliber. If they are not pointing the gun directly towards the bullet, it just won't pull. If they are pointing it at the wrong caliber bullet, it might destroy their guns.
Reverse damage: When things get "fixed" by collisions and hits, does that mean that they were manufactured already broken? The quality control of most companies wouldn't let them out of the factory.
Using inverted equipment: Cars and guns use the air from the outside to work. If regular air doesn't work for an inverted human, it probably also won't work for their equipment.
Unanswered questions
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Possibilities of improvement
How it could have been better?
If the logic of the inversion would have been more plausible, I would have accepted the concept better.
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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Tenet, movie (2020)
image © Warner Entertainment (AT&T)
Uses for the film - Tenet, movie (2020)
Plot
- There's an evil guy, who wants to destroy the world.
- There's a secret organisation that wants to defeat an evil guy that wants to destroy the world.
- There's time travel technology, enabling them to send material backwards in time.
Scenes
Designs
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Terror attack: The attacker wants to destroy a place. The defender sets up the playing area, including scenery that represents important things, and a number of objectives around the place. The attacker is deployed on any edge of the playing area. Every attacker carries one bomb. Put a bomb token on the attacker models. If an attacker reaches an objective, the bomb token is placed on the objective, with a timer set. Place a counter (a dice could work) on the bomb. At the end of the turn, decrease the counter by one. If the counter reaches zero, the bomb goes off, destroying the area, and every model still in the area is hit by the explosion. At the beginning of the second turn, deploy the defenders at any edge of the playing area. A defender model touching a bomb token can grab it, and move with it, but the timer is still working on the bombs. The defender can either put the bomb down in a safe place to explode there, or leave the playing area with the bomb, disabling the effect. The attacker wins if more than half of the objective points get destroyed by the bombs, while more than half of their units is still alive. The defender wins if more than half of the objective points remain intact.
Random arrival (harder for the defender): At the beginning of every turn after the first, roll a d6. On 1-3, the defenders arrive.
Defender groups (harder for the defender): Before the game begins, stack the defender models into groups. At the beginning of every turn after the first, roll a d6 for each group. On 1-3, that group arrives.
Specialists (easier for the defender): There are some special defender models who are able to disable the bombs. A specialist model touching a bomb is able to disable it with an action.
Uncertain time to disable the bomb (harder for the defender): After every action they spend with the bomb, test for skill, or roll a d6, and on 1-3, the bomb is disabled.
Assassinate: The attackers want to kill an enemy leader. There are bombs around the place that will blow up the whole place if the leader is killed, so the attackers wouldn't be able to get intel from the documents / get the treasures. The defender sets up the playing area, with a base in the middle. Place a number of bombs around the base. If a bomb explodes, it destroys the area it is in. If every bomb explodes at the same time, it destroys the whole base. The defender deploys their units anywhere on the playing area, including the leader. Then the attacker deploys their units on any edge of the playing area. The attackers can capture the leader with a successful close combat action. As long as the leader is not captured, he can commit suicide, starting the bombs. An attacker model touching a bomb is able to disable it with an action. Remove the bomb from the game. The defender wins if they defeat the attackers. It's a minor victory for the defender if they kill more than half of the attackers. The attacker wins if they capture the place intact, while more than half of their units is alive. It's a minor victory for the attacker if the enemy leader is killed or captured.
Uncertain time to disable the bomb (harder for the attacker): After every action they spend with the bomb, test for skill, or roll a d6, and on 1-3, the bomb is disabled.
Specialists (harder for the attacker): Only some special models are able to disable the bomb. If a non-specialist tries to disable it, roll a d6, and on a 6, the bomb explodes.
The objectives: At the beginning of the game, place a couple of objectives around the area. These are the things the attackers want to get. If a model touches an objective, it can carry it, or drop it anywhere. If the model is killed, it drops the objective. If an objective gets in an explosion, it gets destroyed. The defender wins if more than half of the objectives are kept from the attacker. The attacker wins if they kill the enemy leader, and get more than half of the objectives.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Commandos: Human-sized modern human soldiers in full armour.
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Similar stories - Tenet, movie (2020)
Movies
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019): I don't know this movie, but it was recommended on a list.
Looper (2012): Criminals of the future use time travel to achieve their goals through agents in the past.
Predestination (2014): Time travelling agent wants to stop a terrorist.
See You Yesterday (2019): I don't know this movie, but it was recommended on a list.
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Frequently asked questions - Tenet, movie (2020)
Is the Tenet film based on a book or comics?
No, Tenet is not based on either books or comics.
Is the Tenet film a remake or reboot?
No, the Tenet film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Tenet? Does Tenet have end credit scenes?
No, there's no post credit scene in Tenet.
Where can I see Tenet? What is Tenet playing on? What streaming service is Tenet on? Where can I watch Tenet online? Is Tenet available on Netflix? Is Tenet on Amazon?
As of 2022.02.05, Tenet is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Rakuten TV, YouTube.
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Resources - Tenet, movie (2020)
Official
Tenet: Official website.
https://www.instagram.com/tenetfilm/
https://www.facebook.com/tenetfilm/
Information
IMDB: Tenet (2020): Database article.
WikiPedia: Tenet (film): Database article.
Letterboxd: Tenet 2020: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Tenet 2020: Database article.
TVTropes: Film / Tenet: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
Reviews with no spoilers - Tenet film (2020)
: Review video about the Tenet film with no spoilers.¤
Reviews with spoilers - Tenet film (2020)
: Review article of the Tenet movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Tenet movie (2020)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Tenet.¤
Ryan George (for Screen Rant): TENET Pitch Meeting: Humorous analysis video of the Tenet movie.¤
Humour - Tenet (2020)
Cracked: We Remade Tenet For $20: Parody video about the trailer of Tenet.¤
Review with spoilers
The Critical Drinker: Tenet - The Best and Worst of Christopher Nolan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDMs9TNdG8E
https://www.facebook.com/OCinemaD/posts/2032567380207974
Obsessive Cinema Disorder 電影強迫症: Tenet Review: Review article with no spoilers.
Marco Minniti (for Asbury Movies): (in Italian): Review article with spoilers, in Italian.
English version by Google Translate
http://www.asburymovies.it/2020/08/25/tenet/
WardWorks (for Cross the Netflix Stream): : Review article with spoilers.
https://crossthenetflixstream.blogspot.com/2020/12/tenet-movie-review.html
greigzilla (for We've Got (Back) Issues): : Review article of the movie, with spoilers.
https://wevegotbackissues.com/2020/09/03/tenet/
Nate Zoebl: : Review article about the film with no spoilers.
republished on Psycho Drive-In
https://nathanzoebl.com/2020/12/17/tenet-2020/
https://psychodrivein.com/tenet-2020/
https://twitter.com/PsychoDriveIn/status/1341113163022942208
https://www.facebook.com/psychodrivein/posts/1722344624593988
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEqDQBn39T/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WZKi5kUub8
analysis video about the battle
https://letterboxd.com/impressionblend/film/tenet/
https://geekvilag.hu/featured/vizio-vagy-bloff-tenet-filmajanlo/
https://www.facebook.com/geekvilagblog/posts/881631625698374
http://sfmag.hu/2020/08/25/tenet-2020/
https://www.puliwood.hu/kritikak/tenet-kritika-283446.html
https://www.movieandgamezone.com/tenet-2020-a-must-watch-for-all/
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Buying the product - Tenet, movie (2020)
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Have you seen the Tenet film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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