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Tenet · written by Christopher Nolan · 2020
Scene 64 of 275 · ≈ 1 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.
The Protagonist begins surveilling Kat at her son's school gates — he commits to using her marriage against Sator, entering the upside-down world of the operation proper.
Kat's appraisal-room scene with the forged Goya begins the relationship — with Kat, and by extension her son Max — that will carry the story's theme of what a parent will do to save a child.
The Protagonist emerges into the alley, brushing himself off.
The Mercedes speeds off with Kat looking back at him.
The Protagonist confronts Kat again at the school gates; she reveals the drawing is stashed in the Oslo Freeport.
This scene
The Protagonist is standing on the roof of the Oslo Opera House, briefing Neil...
PROTAGONIST (V.O.)
– without importing them, so they
avoid paying tax.
NEIL
Sort of a transit lounge for art?
We go back to Kat, on the street, briefing the Protagonist...
KAT
Art, antiques, anything of value,
really.
PROTAGONIST
Anything?
KAT
Anything legal...
Then back to the Protagonist briefing Neil...
PROTAGONIST
But it’s not unlike the Swiss
banking system. Opaque.
Back to Kat –
KAT
Rotas has assets in the Oslo
Freeport. I’m guessing it’s there.
PROTAGONIST
Guessing?
Back to Oslo –
NEIL
Guessing?
Back to Kat –
KAT
We make trips there four or five
times a year.
PROTAGONIST
To view art?
KAT
And whatever he does – it turns out
art is of no importance to Andrei.
PROTAGONIST
But the freeports are.
Kat nods.