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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 176 of 275 · ≈ 1 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.
He pays a heavy price for it — Kat is shot, the material is lost to Sator anyway, and he is left not knowing whether any of it mattered.
He pursues the fleeing Mercedes through reversed highway traffic.
Overhearing fragmented radio chatter about 'the hypocentre,' he closes on Sator's car.
The Protagonist wakes safely with Neil and the wounded Kat, en route back to Oslo, having lost the algorithm material to Sator.
This scene
Close on the hull, we see the water UNSPLASHING at the bow and SUCKING UNDERNEATH the stern as the ship steams majestically backwards through the cold North Sea...