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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 191 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.
The Protagonist sprints through smoke and flame toward the emergency vehicles.
His earlier self and earlier Neil walk away unaware, while present-Neil pushes Kat toward the breach.
He commandeers an ambulance to retrieve Neil and Kat from the breach.
This scene
The Protagonist DRIVES, sirens blaring.
PROTAGONIST
You knew it was me coming out of
that vault. Why didn’t you say?
NEIL
That’s a lot of explaining when
someone’s about to put a bullet in
their own brain.
PROTAGONIST
But afterwards –
NEIL
With things the same, I knew you’d
be okay. What’s happened happened.
If I’d told you and you acted
differently... who knows? The
policy is to suppress.
PROTAGONIST
Whose policy?
Neil GRINS, offering his hand –
NEIL
Ours, my friend. We’re the people
saving the world from what might
have been...