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.

1. Scenes 1–17

   The Protagonist in his zone of comfort — a skilled, anonymous field operative, competent and confident inside the Kiev operation.

2. Scenes 18–20

   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.

3. Scenes 21–32

   He enters the wholly unfamiliar situation of Tenet — the wind turbine, the password test, and Barbara's proof that time itself can run backward.

4. Scenes 33–144

   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.

5. Scenes 145–158

   The Tallinn ambush succeeds — he gets what the mission wanted, extracting the plutonium '241' from the armored convoy.

6. Scenes 159–175

   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.

7. Just before
8. Scene 176

   Their container ship steams backward across the North Sea.

9. Scene 177

   Neil reports they're now being trucked onward.

10. Scene 178

    The Protagonist finds a growing lesion on his arm as Neil explains the algorithm's world-ending purpose.

11. Scene 179

    This scene