· · ·
turning to page one
turning to page one
Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 219 of 275 · ≈ 1 min on screen · First scene of act three
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.
Recovered and re-briefed by Priya, he returns to a now-familiar situation — the Tenet operation — but changed, moving to Stalsk-12 with the full picture of what's at stake.
Neil braces as Blue team's container shudders through the reversed blast.
The reverse explosion peaks as the landing intensifies.
Red team storms the anti-aircraft position while Blue team scrambles backward out of their containers.
This scene
The reverse explosion PEAKS. SUDDEN CALM as the Chinooks place the containers down – they open and Blue team runs out, ‘FORWARDS’, Neil at
the head, guns raised, BLASTING at the ENEMY SOLDIERS on the ridge... Neil checks his watch – a BRIGHT-BLUE ‘9:57’, ‘9:56’... he turns to see a GREY TRUCK ‘REVERSING’ towards the hole, tyres sucking up dust... a rope from its rear hitch TAUT into the hole...
BANG! BANG! SHOTS are sucked out of the ground around him – Blue team FORCES the enemy away from the hole, towards Red team (whose members fight ‘backwards’) – Neil shouts to Wheeler –
NEIL
Draw their fire! Pull them away...
He RACES down the ridge, following Wheeler...