Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020

Reunited with Neil and Ives, the Protagonist learns Ives will split the algorithm forever secret, and Neil reveals he was recruited by the Protagonist himself, years in Neil's past but still ahead in the Protagonist's future, closing the story's time loop.

Scene 271 of 275 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act three

Protagonist
Neil
Ives

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 2:22 into a 2:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 271

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.

Scenes 1–17
The Protagonist in his zone of comfort — a skilled, anonymous field operative, competent and confident inside the Kiev operation.
Scenes 18–20
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.
Scenes 21–32
He enters the wholly unfamiliar situation of Tenet — the wind turbine, the password test, and Barbara's proof that time itself can run backward.
Scenes 33–144
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.
Scenes 145–158
The Tallinn ambush succeeds — he gets what the mission wanted, extracting the plutonium '241' from the armored convoy.
Scenes 159–175
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.
Scenes 176–213
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.
Scene 262
Kat shoots Sator and tips him into the sea moments before his suicide would have triggered the algorithm — the decisive turn the whole operation was built to reach.
Just before
Scene 268
Wheeler evacuates the last Blue team soldier as the extraction countdown hits zero.
Scene 269
Kat cleans the scene and dives from the yacht just as her earlier self arrives with Max, unnoticed.
Scene 270
Safe on Mahir's boat, Kat radios the Protagonist and learns they succeeded despite her early shot.
Scene 271
This scene

271EXT. WINDSWEPT PLAIN OUTSIDE STALSK-12 – EVENING

A Chinook swirls snow around the blasted ruins... Ives and the Protagonist slump, bruised, exhausted, gas masks off, breathing hard. On the ground between them – the matte-black algorithm... Neil approaches, removing his gas mask...

PROTAGONIST

I thought you were inverted.

NEIL

Changed gears halfway – you needed

help here.

IVES

We needed help down there.

(to Protagonist)

How’d you get that lock open?

PROTAGONIST

It wasn’t me.

(to Neil)

Didn’t your team need you?

NEIL

I’ll get them on the next pass.

Right, Ives?

IVES

Once I’ve caught my breath.

The Protagonist reaches for the algorithm – Ives PULLS it out of his reach – his gun laying casually across his leg. As Neil and the Protagonist watch, Ives takes his weapon in hand, gets to his feet... He lifts the algorithm... looks around at the deserted plain above Stalsk-12...

IVES (CONT'D)

Nice and private.

Ives SEPARATES the algorithm into THREE COMPONENTS –

PROTAGONIST

No one who’s seen this leaves the

field...

IVES

We hide it, we end our lives. It’s

the only way to be sure.

Ives TOSSES them each one component...

IVES (CONT'D)

But as to when...

Ives HOLSTERS his sidearm.

IVES (CONT'D)

Maybe that’s every man’s decision

to make for himself.

NEIL

You’re not going to kill us?

IVES

If I ever find you I will.

NEIL