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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 198 of 275 · ≈ 2 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.
Priya's full reveal at the Oslo War Memorial — the algorithm was deliberately split and hidden, and Sator's 'theft' was meant to happen — reframes defeat as the synthesis insight that shapes the endgame.
The inverted Protagonist exercises aboard the icebreaker.
He watches supplies airlifted aboard as Priya explains, over radio, that Tenet's origins lie in the future.
Tenet soldiers, forward and inverted, drill together in the hold.
This scene
The Protagonist enters. Kat sits at a window.
KAT
I can’t get over the birds...
The Protagonist follows her look to a bird flying backwards.
PROTAGONIST
How are you feeling?
She lifts her shirt to reveal a LARGE, JAGGED, ANGRY SCAR.
KAT
Tell me you’re going to kill him.
PROTAGONIST
I can’t.
Neil enters without interrupting. Kat rises. Steady.
KAT
Why not? I think you’ve probably
killed a lot of people –
NEIL
Not with a dead man’s switch.
KAT
A what?
PROTAGONIST
That fitness tracker he wears...
KAT
He’s obsessive about his health.
NEIL
It’ll be linked to a switch.
Probably a simple email burst,
revealing the location of the dead
drop, set to fire if his heart
stops.
PROTAGONIST
In effect, his death activates the
algorithm. He dies, the world ends
– no one dares kill him.
Kat realizes...
KAT
No, you’ve missed the point. He’s
intending to end his life.
PROTAGONIST
Why?
KAT
He’s dying. Inoperable pancreatic
cancer.
PROTAGONIST
And he’s taking the world with him.
KAT
If he can’t have her, no one can.
PROTAGONIST
What?
KAT
Something he said, once. He has a
child, for God’s sake.
NEIL
Kat, he gets to choose the time and
What moment? What does he choose?
PROTAGONIST
You told me about a holiday, where
you let him feel loved...
KAT
Viet Nam. On our yacht. His yacht.
PROTAGONIST
You said he vanished – what day?
KAT
I went ashore with Max, he flew
off. I don’t know what date it
was...
NEIL
The 14th. Ten days ago. He was in
Ukraine, stealing a section of the
algorithm from an American team.
PROTAGONIST
At the Kiev Opera siege. How do you
know about that?
NEIL
The point is – he wasn’t on the
yacht, so that’s his window.
KAT
To come back to that golden moment
and have it be his last.
PROTAGONIST
Everyone’s last. We have to lift
the algorithm from the dead drop
without Sator knowing. If he
believes it’s in there, he kills
himself.
NEIL
And not the rest of us. Where’s the
dead drop?
PROTAGONIST
Knowledge divided, friend.
NEIL
You’re not going to tell me?
PROTAGONIST
Ignorance is our ammunition.
(turns to her)
But I need you back on that boat.
KAT
Why?
PROTAGONIST
You have to stop him killing
himself until we know that
algorithm is out of the dead drop.
KAT
But if I’m caught there... and my
son sees... I don’t want those
moments full of anguish if they’re
going to be his last.
PROTAGONIST
They’re not.