Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020

Sanjay's wife invokes 'tenets,' prompting the Protagonist's password gesture and a truce.

Scene 42 of 275 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Sanjay
Protagonist
Woman

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 20 min into a 2:28 film

The story so farBefore scene 42

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.
Just before
Scene 39
Sanjay and the Woman in the sari step out onto the balcony.
Scene 40
The Protagonist holds Sanjay at gunpoint, demanding to know who supplied the inverted ammunition that nearly killed him.
Scene 41
Neil holds the security guards at gunpoint, keeping the breach quiet.
Scene 42
This scene

42EXT. BALCONY, HIGH-RISE HOUSE – CONTINUOUS

Sanjay tries to turn to see the Protagonist –

SANJAY

Why would I know who supplied it?

The Protagonist pushes his head back around with the gun –

PROTAGONIST

The combination of metals is unique

to India. If it’s from India, it’s

from you.

SANJAY

A fair assumption –

PROTAGONIST

Deduction.

SANJAY

Deduction, then. Look, my friend,

guns are never conducive to a

productive negotiation.

PROTAGONIST

I’m not the man they send to

negotiate...

He COCKS his weapon – puts the gun to Sanjay’s head –

PROTAGONIST (CONT'D)

But I am the man people talk to.

SANJAY

(charm curdles)

I can’t. I can’t tell you.

PROTAGONIST

You’re an arms dealer, friend –

this may be the easiest trigger

I’ve ever had to pull.

WOMAN (O.S.)

To say anything about a client

would violate the tenets he lives

by...

The Protagonist GLANCES at the Woman... whose fingers are casually INTERTWINED. The Protagonist brings his free hand up to hold the gun in both hands, fingers INTERLACED...

PROTAGONIST

If tenets are important to you,

then you can tell me. Everything.

WOMAN

Not while you have a gun to my

husband’s head.

The Protagonist releases him.

WOMAN (CONT'D)

Sanjay, make us a drink.