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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 241 of 275 · ≈ 1 min on screen · 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.
Mahir monitors Ives's radioed status, awaiting the signal to act.
The Protagonist and Ives, committed now, race deeper into the mine.
Neil spots Volkov extracting a booby trap and escaping by helicopter line, then sprints to catch up.
This scene
The Protagonist and Ives run down the tunnel... they slow as they see a BODY, blue armband, lying on the ground on the opposite side of a SET OF BARS at the end of the tunnel.
They can see into the hypocentre, the GIANT ATOMIC-HEWN CAVERN, daylight above, CAPSULE on the rock floor next to the mouth of a BORE HOLE. The Protagonist checks his watch – ‘4:06’, ‘4:05’ ... Ives checks the ELECTRONIC LOCK –
IVES
We don’t have anything big enough
to blow this. Try him –
The Protagonist reaches through the bars and checks the body – FREEZES: attached to a zip, a TALISMAN – A COIN WITH A HOLE HANGING FROM A SMALL LENGTH OF ORANGE AND YELLOW STRING...
The Protagonist looks at it, quizzical, rises –
PROTAGONIST
Nothing. Can you pick it?
SATOR (O.S.)
I hope not. I paid a lot for that
lock...
WHAM! Ives goes down – SHOT BY VOLKOV, bullet SPARKING off his helmet – on the other side of the bars – gun pointed at the Protagonist, FIELD RADIO held out... Sator’s voice ECHOES through the tunnel –
SATOR (CONT'D)
(over phone)
How do you like where my journey
began, and yours ends?
Volkov takes the Protagonist’s gun. Forces him to push Ives’s gun through the bars.
PROTAGONIST
A little radioactive for my taste.
Volkov drops the guns into the water, places the radio by the bars...