Tenet - A Misunderstood Masterpiece

Tenet is a movie about a man

Inception: time goes slow Interstellar: time goes fast Tenet: time goes brrr

It's funny because I'm black and I never thought about the fact that JDW was "black" as the protagonist because it was never brought up or focused on. It literally had nothing to do with the plot and I love that. Let an artist just be an artist.

Great analysis!!! But you forgot to mention the subtext: Just like Inception is about filmaking, Tenet is about film watching. The Pincer manouver is just like when you watch a movie for the second time and you already know what's going to happen, and you still feel the same way... This is the underapreciatted genius of Nolan...

The sixth time I watched this film, I turned on subtitles and it really opened up the entire thing for me.

The saddest part was that Neil had to pretend he didn't know an old friend the entire time. That always got me.

''The real Tenet was literally the friend he made along the way'' had me dying

I finally saw Tenet yesterday and this is the first video to accurately capture how electrified I felt by watching this movie, and helped me articulate how and why it did. Thank you!!

The version of time travel that is used in this movie, the whole "what's happened happens", the whole thing that seems to have turned off a lot of viewers because it brings up the question of free will and a whole "what's the point" perspective on the whole movie, can very easily be explained by one of the most important lines of the movie. When Adam (that's what I call him) talks to the scientist, and she describes how the inverted bullet can jump in your hand, she specifies: "you need to have dropped it". This is crucial. Even if you see the effects before the cause, that cause is inherently free willed. Yeah, you wouldn't see those effects if you didn't do it, but the fact is you did do it, of your own volition, which is why you see the effects. It's not any more complicated than that: you have free will, and you can do things to impact the world. Usually, the effects of those choices are only seen after you make the choice. Nothing changes if the effects come before, you still made the choice. It was still up to you, up to your free will. Because you need to have dropped it.

Incredible video that's what I think!

"9 foot Goddess energy" is the perfect way to describe Elizabeth Debicki.

Awesome job on this. One of the ways I've rewatched is looking for the red vs. blue clues. There is SO much of it all over the movie- another level of genius filmmaking and production/costume design. In this scene specifically, as the timelines merge you can visually see the red and blue vehicles merge onto the same timeline (and street) as well. I hope other people find this moment as SWEET as I do.

8:44 - “this film is an intellectual exercise” - thank you for explaining why I FREAKING LOVE THIS MOVIE.

you couldn't have picked a better subject for a first video, we need more of these!

There is also the fact that the film itself fundamentally requires a temporal pincer movement for it to actually make sense. You have to watch the film and then go back and rewatch it knowing everything you already know from the first viewing in order to piece together a coherent story. Only after having carried out the temporal pincer movement yourself will you have witnessed a coherent plot and movie. Watching it without rewatching it is as good as watching a series of nonsensical and unrelated pictures on a screen because watching it once through is only half of the pincer movement.

Tenet is an extremely emotional movie, people just don't get invested enough in Neil and PT's relationship on first viewing so they miss it. It's gotta be the only movie in existence where someone has to say goodbye to their best friend that is going to die before they even become best friends. Once you make this emotional connection, it's honestly really hard not to cry at the end when PT realizes who Neil truly is.

My absolute favorite detail and trick nolan plays on us is with neil. The knowledge he’s privvy to really makes it seem like hes a double agent, and the film naturally leads you to believe that. What a marvel of a film

Thank you for making this video specifically for me

The final moment with Neil and the Protagonist hit my emotions like a truck. Especially the line about "for me, this is the end of a great friendship. For you, it's only the beginning."

If it was possible, I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop. Two years later, prepping for Oppenheimer, I have found myself deep diving into Tenet analyses like this one once again. I saw it 3 times in the cinema and countless time since. If it was possible I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop.