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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 189 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.
Earlier-Neil stops the earlier Protagonist from executing the intruder.
Present-Neil guards Kat's gurney amid the surrounding chaos.
The Protagonist sprints through smoke and flame toward the emergency vehicles.
This scene
Neil (moving FORWARDS) ducks back behind the corner as Earlier Protagonist (business suit) and Earlier Neil (business suit) walk backwards away from the Rotas vault.
Neil pushes Kat towards the broken roller door and pushes her inside...