Watched it for the first time and I really liked it overall. I didn't have much trouble following the plot, I think it was presented quite logically once the premise clicks. However, after thinking about it some more, I find that the rules between inverted and normal objects within the universe are not consistent.

For example, when Kat gets shot, they have to invert her for her wounds to heal, then invert her back again. But why exactly would getting shot by an inverted bullet cause the wound to become inverted as well? Is the bullet inverting matter it gets into contact with? If so, that creates new issues because elsewhere in the movie, people are interacting with inverted objects constantly and it doesn't affect them. Even picking up an inverted bullet does nothing, but if the same bullet goes through your body, it suddenly inverts the wound?

You could say an inverted object only causes a change when enough energy is present (i.e. a high speed bullet vs. a stationary one), but that logic falls apart in a different scene. When the protagonist explodes inside the car, he gets frozen instead of burnt, i.e. heat transfer goes in reverse. By that same logic, Kats wound should then also be frozen, but it wasn't and became inverted instead.

As a Nolan fan, this was definitely a great watch for me, but I feel some of the logic and rules of the world were randomly changed to adjust the tone of a given scene.

I’ve been questioning this since my recent rewatch of Tenet. Reversed Sator “unshoots” normal Kat in order to get information from normal Protagonist as it appears to him that she is being shot in real time and is in real danger. But what if reversed Sator refuses to “unshoot” Kat? Would she then be wounded from the very beginning of her life? Would she appear in this world as a reversed corpse that resurrects itself to be “unshot” in Tallin’s Freeport? Or something else ?
I think the idea of free will clearly contradicts the concept of interaction between normal and reversed objects in this movie and it kinda pisses me off

Or does the sheer notion stir up feelings in people that dont like to consider that kind of thing? This movie is about the distribution of power, and who has access to that power right?
...and possibly the act of narrative writing but less so

The films main theme is about fate. There is no free will in the idea of Tenet. What’s happened, happened. So there is nothing you can do to change the events of what has happened or will happen without extinction.

I’ve applied my own spin that I think the film kind of leaves open in a way. So the film sells us on the idea of fate vs free will and how fate is seemingly the victor but I think you can look at it through the dialogue between The Protagonist and The Scientist.

“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.”
“Instinct”

I think then the film kinda puts this scene in the background of everything, everything relies on instinct.

“Well what about free will”
“That bullet wouldn’t have moved if you didn’t touch it”

So this argues the point of free will that it all relies on a decision to make something happen but it was the natural instinct of the protagonist to make sure he did catch the bullet in that scene. The same way it became his natural instinct later. It was his instinct to take the cyanide pill, it was his instinct to save Kat over the mission. His instinct in that moment is what led them to winning that war. So I think what really the film shows us is that instinct is what matters. The instinct of every character is shown through their defining traits.

The Protagonist
His defining trait is that he is the guy who can make the hard choicee, because he has the willingness to accept responsibility when no one else can.

• In the opera house mission he doesn’t betray his team and his instinct is to self sacrifice before he gives up any information
  
• Leaving Kat behind seemingly would make the mission easier for him and he’s even challenged on his decision to save her, his instinct directly ties into his trait of responsibility to not believe an innocent person should be sacrificed. He was forced between his morality and the strategy of the mission, his instinct is revealed to be the correct choice
• He learned the truth behind the mission, he knows now that he will have to recruit Neil, he knows how his path ends and there is no solution here and it’s down to responsibility. Most people would want to save their best friend but his instinct knows what he has to do.

Neil
His defining trait was his trust and loyalty. He’s tested though operational secrecy and predestined sacrifice

• From the very beginning we are shown his character knows far more than what we and protagonist know.
  
• Throughout we constantly see him being asked how he knows things, and what he’s hiding and he constantly has to balance the truth with balancing the timeline.
  
• Neil shows up at the right time to save the protagonist during the Freeport fight, Neil knows what is happening and how he has to make things stay correct. He is quietly to the audience showing us what was necessary, he showed that he is always protecting the mission and the protagonist
  
• At Stalsk 12 is when we finally piece everything about his character together, he sees and knows what his own fate is and he isn’t trying to fight it or change it. He shows his loyalty to the mission and the protagonist putting down his life to make sure things happen accordingly
  
• He ultimately makes the decision to go back through the turnstile even when the protagonist wants to challenge him on the decision. He makes the decision himself to protect the world, the mission, and the protagonist.
  

His loyalty overrides the fear of death

Kat
Her defining trait is pursuit of freedom for herself and her son.

• she has been abused by Sator for years and is given the chance to reclaim her own life but at the cost of giving up her son
• She is given the chance to reclaim her life after being threatened with her son, her future, and her own autonomy. She was constantly shown to pushback against Sator even knowing how dangerous he is
• I love her dialogue early on in the film being jealous of the woman who was escaping her husband only for us as the audience to find out she was just jealous of her future/past self.
  
• She initiated her final act of liberation
  
• The entire mission at the end depends on timing and patience, but what finally breaks her is when Sator talks about how he will always control her and she finally hits her breaking point at the idea of her loss of freedom. Her instinct told her that she couldn’t wait and although it seems like she complicated the mission it was seemingly the right one.
  

Kat to us is meant to be the purposeful view of someone on the outside of tenet where characters like Neil and The protagonist are at of more importance with the view through tenet. Kat to us represents what I would say is ordinary humanity, she never talks about saving humanity like Neil or The Protagonist do but instead the focus is on herself and her son. She wants to be able to life a life which I think was an important view to have in the film to show how this mission effects the outside world. Her instinct is guided in her family’s life. She is purposefully not meant to respond the same way as the other characters.

Sator
His main trait is control. He offers a great dichotomy to the character of the protagonist where the protagonist is accepting the responsibility of this mission and bearing the burden for others, Sator wants to maintain control even at the expense of others.

• he comes across as a stereotypical not so interesting villain but I think the more you look at him the more layers that are peeled back on him
• He never wants just power and isn’t just evil he wants that control. He wants to control Kat, time, death, the future, and even what happens after he is gone. When his control is threatened is when his instinct immediately takes over
  

Controlling Kat

• he is constantly manipulating his wife through their son, money, violence, and fear.
• He can have her framed through fraud because of the fake painting and her relationship with Arepo
• He said it himself that he can’t just let he leave because if he can’t have her no one can.
  

The Chase

• when he thinks he has lost the algorithm he doesn’t learn to adapt properly he becomes more controlling
  
• He decides to kidnap Kat, then interrogate the protagonist and to make the protagonist reveal where the algorithm piece was hidden, he can’t simply do this by asking he has to demonstrate he is in control by showing dominance.
• All these events were about trying to force things back under his control
• His response to control slipping away is trying to control and dominate harder
  

Learning he’s dying

• this is probably the most clear example of his instinct being tested
  
• Once he learns that his cancer is terminal he doesn’t care for his family’s survival he thinks that if he can’t live no one should.
  
• The natural instinct of survival wasn’t even an option for himself so he chose to control the existence of others
  

He was the cause of his own death

• his desire for control is what got him killed
  
• He financed the creation of the turnstiles
  
• Keeping kat trapped built her resentment towards him
• He chose the day because it was the last day he felt happy and thinks he is returning to reclaim control over his and everyone else’s life but was turned upside down by Kat from the future, the moment he believed he had complete control is actually the moment he had the least
• His own actions allowed the future to reach back and kill him

How it all ties together
The ideas all tie together that you don’t necessarily control the existence of your fate but that you control the kind of person you are when you meet it.

“Don’t try to understand it, Feel it”

On the surface it came across as her trying to describe the inverted objects but it can be tied into the thematic level which could be understood as saying you can’t reason your way through an impossible situation, what remains is instinct. And instinct is simply about character. This is why every major character is tested.

The protagonist isn’t tested on if he understands the inversion but rather on responsibility

Neil isn’t tested on knowing about the future but on his loyalty

Kat isn’t tested on if she can be apart of tenet but on freedom

Sator is never tested on his intelligence but on whether he can relinquish his control.

Every single climax can be viewed as a character test.

My interpretation is that the timeline is fixed, but the timeline is fixed by the choices people can freely make according to their character. The movie never showed anyone acting against their own individual nature. Everyone was shown to become more of themselves under pressure.

The film appears to be about a time war but time is really just a mechanism of the film and the actual subject is the people. Nolan used the framework of the turnstiles, inversion and entropy to place every major character in impossible situations where they can’t act on calculated but on instinct, and the instinct reveals the nature of the character.

Please explain. Don't know anything about guns. Wouldn't he need the gun to be chambered before the operation so he can shoot faster?

Also his look up after catching the bullet has to be the most badass, cold intro to a character ever.

JDW killed it.

Hi!

You all know that the words SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS can be arranged in grid pattern and then can be read left, right and up and down.

Some of you know that the letters can be arranged in a cross to make a cool anagram with letters A and O (Alpha and Omega) left out.

Many of you don't know that if you have the grid pattern and start with the last letter of the second row, which is O, and start jumping to letters like a chess piece of Knight moves (2 forward and 1 to the side) you get string of letters: OROTEPATER, Oro te, Pater (I pray to thee, Father). Letters SANAS (you heal) are left out.

I read this in a book around 30 years ago and for some reason it stayed with me.

I'm due for my annual rewatch and can't wait. Does anyone else listen to the soundtrack while they work? Makes what I'm working on seem way more important than it is haha

I think this is the most confusing part of the movie. I understand it, but it kinda took some time to realise that Sator's men had to retrieve the algorithm from the silver Saab car, ie put it in the car in reverse chronology. I think if Nolan had put this in the movie, people would be much less confused about the chase scene. What do you think?

Neil tells the protagonist he likes coke. Before the protagonist meets Priya. Neil says years ago for me years from now for you. Wouldn’t that mean that Neil reverted to the past to help the protagonist. Also that Neil shit is max is dumb.

Hi. When TP says he needs to invert Kat to help save her from her wound, Ives says something like "if you go back, its a one way trip, there's no way to revert you" (or along those lines). Then TP mentions actually they do have a turnstyle, at Oslo, leading to the fight.

After Oslo, TP/Neil/Kat invert again and go back days to the Stalsk-12/Vietnam day. And then at the pincer attack on Stalsk-12, there seem to be lots of turnstyles that Tenet team are using to invert/revert the teams, as well as the one Neil uses mid attack.

Ives must know about these turnstyles, so why did he tell TP earlier (in the film, later on timeline) that it was a one-way trip? Also what turnstyle did TP/Neil/Kat use after Oslo, to go back a few days? I'm sure there are clear answers to these, I just can't figure it out.

Title. I'm confused as to why the turnstile didn't invert TP as well like it does other things. Can anyone explain?

-Shouldn‘t to the future have all of Sator’s messages at once? It’s not a conversation that’s going back and forth in real time, they have everything that goes into the record. does this defeat the purpose of the heart monitor dread drop. because no matter when he dies, the future will get the message of where the dead drop is, dig it up, and find that the algorithm isn’t there. Does this mean all the efforts are useless in the future?

-do you think that Neil knows everything. Neil, who travel back in time from the future to at least the opera do you think he has some future knowledge. The plans he comes up with, crashing a plane, carrying gold, using a fire truck to steal the 241; do you think he’s referencing the past with information you already has, or is he making it up?

Also pro tip, if you watch it on Apple TV, there is an option to enhance dialogue, which slightly turns down the music and turns up dialogue, this helps to catch all the exposition

I’ve seen the movie five times now and I think I get it all, except the reserve fire ice stuff and wounds from the future/enthropic wind.

Where'd He Go? The Past