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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 175 of 275 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act two
An unnamed intelligence operative, recruited into a shadow war fought through time-inverted weapons and objects, teams with an enigmatic ally to stop a dying Russian oligarch from using technology gifted by a dying future to erase the present.
The Protagonist in his zone of comfort — a skilled, anonymous field operative, competent and confident inside the Kiev operation.
Broken by torture and 'killed,' he needs a new purpose; Fay offers one that transcends the nation-state loyalties that just got his team killed.
He enters the wholly unfamiliar situation of Tenet — the wind turbine, the password test, and Barbara's proof that time itself can run backward.
Mumbai, London, Oslo, and Amalfi — he adapts to the world of inverted physics and Sator's inner circle, paying costs (Kat's trust, his own safety) to get close to the target.
The Tallinn ambush succeeds — he gets what the mission wanted, extracting the plutonium '241' from the armored convoy.
Sator, split across forward and inverted selves, tortures the Protagonist and shoots Kat, forcing the lie that hands Sator the algorithm's first section — the reversal that reveals the mission was always to lose, not win.
He plants his phone's tracker inside the empty orange case by the roadside.
He pursues the fleeing Mercedes through reversed highway traffic.
Overhearing fragmented radio chatter about 'the hypocentre,' he closes on Sator's car.
This scene
The Protagonist comes to on a stretcher. Kat is on a stretcher next to him. Neil sits between them. The Protagonist looks at his hands, feels his face, confused.
NEIL
The heat transfer was reversed –
you may be the first case of
hypothermia from a gasoline
explosion in history.
PROTAGONIST
At this point, nothing surprises.
The Protagonist looks around the shipping container.
NEIL
You left Ives and his team one hell
of a clean-up.
PROTAGONIST
We’re on our way back to Oslo?
NEIL
In a Rotas shipping container.
PROTAGONIST
He’s got the material, Neil. I
handed it to him on a plate.
NEIL
I warned you –
PROTAGONIST
‘What’s happened’s happened.’ I get
it, now. But it’s tough to take
things on trust from people
speaking half-truths.
NEIL
That’s not fair –
PROTAGONIST
You were part of this before we
met. Were you working for Priya?
NEIL
No.
PROTAGONIST
Who recruited you, Neil?
NEIL
It can’t possibly do you any good
to know that right now. When this
is over, if we’re still standing
and you still care, you can hear my
life story, okay?
Kat GROANS, her eyes flicker open to see the Protagonist.
PROTAGONIST
I’m sorry I involved you.
KAT
You need to tell me what’s going
on.
PROTAGONIST
Apparently, Neil here knows more
about it than I do.
(to Neil)
Good luck, pal.
NEIL
By telling Kat anything we’re
compromising her in Priya’s eyes.
PROTAGONIST
In Priya’s eyes she’s already
compromised. And she has a right to
know why she might die.
KAT
I’m going to die?
PROTAGONIST
Not if we have anything to say
about it.
NEIL
And we do.
KAT
Who are you?
NEIL
Let me start with the simple stuff.
Every law of physics operates the
same forwards and backwards, except
one. Entropy...
The Protagonist moves to the back of the container, pulls out his phone, checks Neil’s attention is on Kat...
SATOR
(via recording)
–bring– –final section– –directly
to the hypocentre– –with the other
parts– –the algorithm–
The recording breaks up. The Protagonist puts the phone away, FLEXES his elbow, feeling out some pain... He rolls up his sleeve – there is a DARK PATCH of skin forming –
NEIL
Are you injured?
PROTAGONIST
What’s the ‘algorithm’, Neil?
NEIL
The 241 is one section of it. One
out of nine. It’s a formula
rendered into physical form so it
can’t be copied or communicated. A
black box with one function.
PROTAGONIST
Which is?
NEIL
Inversion. But not objects or
people. The world around us.
KAT
I don’t understand.
NEIL
As they invert the entropy of more
and more objects...
Neil holds his hands, fingers spread, pointing at each other –
NEIL (CONT'D)
The two directions of time are
becoming more intertwined...
He slowly brings his fingers together, into the ‘Tenet’ gesture –
NEIL (CONT'D)
But because the environment’s
entropy flows in our direction...
He pushes one hand back with the other –
NEIL (CONT'D)
...we dominate. They’re always
swimming upstream. It’s what saved
your life – the inverted explosion
was pushing against the
environment.
PROTAGONIST
Pissing in the wind.
NEIL
But the algorithm can change the
direction of that wind. It can
invert the entropy of the world.
KAT
And if that happens?
NEIL
Oh, end of play.
PROTAGONIST
‘End of play’? Can you be a little
more precise?
NEIL
Our present wiped out, our past
obliterated. Everyone and
everything who ever lived destroyed
instantly. Precise enough?
KAT
Including my son.
Neil nods, gravely. Kat winces, clearly in pain.
NEIL
Let me sedate you – the more you
sleep the faster you’ll heal.
Neil injects Kat in the arm. Her eyes close.