Christopher Nolan is known for his secrecy almost as much as his filmmaking style. As
such, information on his next project, Tenet, is scarce. If you're looking for answers,
however, you've come to the right place. This is everything we know so far.
Christopher Nolan has been pretty consistent with his directorial schedule. Since his first
ever feature Following, which was released in 1998 he generally puts out a new film every
two or three years. Tenet, however, may be an exception to this pattern: with all of
the release date disruptions so far in 2020 due to theater shutdowns and other crises,
it's hard to say when the flick will actually land. Still, we've got our fingers crossed
for some kind of summer release.
If that's the case, it looks like Tenet won't have much competition. At the very least,
Nolan and company shouldn't have to face off with that box-office-dominating elephant in
the room, by which we mean the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the first film of the MCU's
Phase Four Black Widow now apparently arriving in November, the juggernaut franchise is leaving
the summer season clear.
"There are people in the future who need us…"
"Hurry up!" "
...Who need Tenet."
Christopher Nolan is pretty well known for putting together impressive casts with some
of the biggest-name actors out there. That said, Tenet might surprise you a bit with
its star. Leading the cast for the film is John David Washington, who has only appeared
in a handful of films at this point. And though he's clearly the lead character, we don't
really know what he does in the movie. After two trailers, we still don't even know his
name.
It isn't like Washington is a completely unknown or untested actor. His short career has made
a big impact. He has a recurring role as Ricky Jarret on HBO's Ballers, and he has appeared
in films like Monsters and Men and The Old Man & the Gun. Oh, and he starred in a little
film called BlacKkKlansman, which got him nominated for several acting awards, including
a Golden Globe. And oh yeah, fun fact: he's also Denzel Washington's son.
Thanks to BlacKkKlansman, Washington's star is burning very brightly right now. If Tenet
is as big a hit as Nolan generally puts out there, Washington's Hollywood clout will only
continue to increase.
Actors tend to flock to Nolan's films the interesting concepts, huge exposure, and the
fact that the director generally releases pretty good films makes him a big draw for
collaborators. In addition to central lead John David Washington, Nolan staple Michael
Caine, and returning thespian Kenneth Branagh, Tenet boasts some serious star power up and
down its cast list.
Two of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's Triwizard champions are cast in Tenet, as
both Robert Pattinson and Clemence Poesy are on board.
"You're not shooting the bullet. You're catching it."
"...Whoa."
Labeling them both as "Harry Potter actors" is a bit reductive; each has shown some impressive
acting chops outside of that franchise. Since his wizard and vampire days, Pattinson has
impressed with his work in films like The Lighthouse and Good Time, and Poesy has shown
plenty of range with television roles like The Tunnel and Genius.
There are plenty of other big names attached to Tenet besides those two. Elizabeth Debicki,
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Himesh Patel are just a few of the others you'll easily recognize
in the cast. And these are just the actors we know about you can always count on Christopher
Nolan to work in a few surprises. Fingers crossed for Cillian Murphy!
Right when we thought it might drop, the first trailer for Tenet was released to coincide
with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It doesn't give up much in the way of story,
but it does show off a lot of the mind-bending action and features some extraordinarily Christopher
Nolan-esque music playing in the background.
The trailer mainly focuses on star John David Washington, who is seemingly killed and given
a new lease on life for passing a "test." He then is granted some techniques that allow
him to rewind certain aspects of time. Or possibly see into the future. Again, not a
lot of the true plot is revealed. We are told, however, that these abilities will apparently
help him stop a global conflict before it even begins.
"We're trying to prevent World War III."
"I'm not seeing armageddon here."
"No. Something worse."
All in all, it appears to be shaping up to be another blockbuster adventure from Christopher
Nolan.
"Well, I've seen too much."
"Well, we'll try to keep up."
Alright, let's move into speculation territory. One of the biggest theories about Tenet seems
like it has to be, at least, partially true due to what we know so far. This theory posits
that the film is a giant palindrome.
"Palindrome! I see you're still speaking in sentences that are spelled the same forward
and backward!"
A palindrome is a word or phrase that is the same forwards and backwards, like "toot,"
"racecar," or that's right "tenet." Nolan is a director who doesn't dabble much in coincidences
and, as Yahoo Entertainment puts it, quote, "the idea of a film that works the same forwards
and backwards is so Nolan-esque we're surprised he hasn't done it already."
A few conclusions drawn from set photos help prop up this theory, which suggests the film
will start reversing about halfway through, with the characters maintaining the ability
to move forward in time. A few on-set clips of cars driving forward and backward down
the same street lend a bit of credence to the theory. Nolan has always loved playing
with nonlinear storytelling and our concept of reality, so this theory does not seem like
too big a stretch. Considering his filmography, he really could pull this concept off.
The most potentially explosive fan theory revolving around Tenet is that it is actually
a secret sequel to or at least set in the same universe as Nolan's 2010 hit Inception.
"Fan theory" doesn't even really do this idea justice even major news outlets like The Hollywood
Reporter have lent some credibility to the idea.
There is quite a bit of evidence to support this theory. The taglines about a "new mission"
and "new protagonist" seem to hint at a world we've visited before, but with new characters.
The "international espionage" aspect of the film, the mind-bending nature of everything...
heck, even the rotating logo could be seen as an homage to the top that Cobb uses in
Inception to discover if he's in the real world or not.
THR speculates that Tenet might just be moderately connected to Inception, and even suggests
that Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki could be playing the grown up versions of
Cobb's kids. Maybe that's why character names haven't been released yet if they listed Michael
Caine as "Stephen Miles," it would spoil the surprise.
Yeah, Michael Caine has been in the movie biz long enough that he knows how to keep
the hype train moving. That said, the tidbit he dropped about Tenet in a recent interview
sounds like just the type of secrecy that director Christopher Nolan is famous for.
Speaking with The Hindu, Caine spoke only a bit about the upcoming film, but what he
had to say about it speaks volumes. He said:
"[Nolan] is so secretive he won't let me have the script. All I had was one day's work and
he gave me my pages. I did my part and shot only with John David [Washington]. I haven't
heard anything since."
This quote gives us a few details. For one, Caine's role in the film is extremely small
he only shot for a single day. Secondly, it tells us that Nolan himself is probably one
of the few people who actually knows all the twists and turns we can expect from the film,
as he even wanted to keep actors and frequent collaborators in the dark! Hopefully we get
to see this thing soon, and find out what's going on for ourselves.
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