A CIA operative known only as the Protagonist discovers a technique for reversing the entropy of objects. He has to stop Andrei Sator, a Russian arms dealer in contact with the future, from using it to run time backward and wipe out the present. I feel like Christopher Nolan made a James Bond plot and ran it through a physics thought experiment.
Tenet is a 2020 action, science fiction and thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 editing, 1 narrative and 2 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Dark Knight uses several of the same techniques.
Running the story backward, by ordering the scenes from last to first or by playing action in reverse on screen. You see results before you see their causes.
How this film uses it
Nolan films sequences both forward and backward, then cuts them together inside single action scenes. To choreograph the reverse-entropy fights, the stunt performers had to learn movements that would look inverted on screen.
Where to see it
The Tallinn car chase. Forward-moving and inverted vehicles share the same sequence. The physics of entropy and reverse-entropy collide in one continuous action scene.
Telling the story out of order by jumping between time periods. The order you see events in changes how you understand them.
How this film uses it
The film's time mechanics make its out-of-order storytelling literal. Characters live through events from opposite directions in time. Scenes come back from different entry points, and cause and effect run both ways at once.
Where to see it
The opera house opening. A masked soldier saves the Protagonist with an inverted bullet, and a trinket hangs from his pack. The film never replays the scene. At the end, you see the same trinket on Neil's bag and rebuild the opening yourself.
Shooting on very large-format 70mm IMAX film, which gives a much sharper, deeper and taller picture. It captures huge scale and small detail in the same shot.
How this film uses it
Hoyte van Hoytema shoots sequences on IMAX film to make the most ambitious set pieces as big as possible. The format gives the time-inversion action a huge visual scale, which matches how ambitious the film is about time.
Where to see it
The Stalsk-12 set piece. The battle is fought in both directions of time at once. The IMAX frame is wide enough to hold both armies as they move in opposite time.
Staging large-scale destruction for real with actual structures, explosions and extras, and using no digital simulation. The chaos on screen has real weight and scale.
How this film uses it
Nolan crashed a real Boeing 747 into a building for the Oslo airport sequence. Destroying a real plane gives the scene a physical reality that no digital composite could match. You can see the scale of the actual plane in every frame.
Where to see it
The Boeing 747 impact. It is a real aircraft and a real explosion. The camera is close enough that you can't doubt the scale.
Questions
Tenet: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Tenet use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Tenet (2020): Reverse Scene Sequence, Non-Linear Narrative, IMAX Cinematography and Practical Destruction.
Who directed Tenet?
Christopher Nolan directed Tenet, released in 2020. CineCode also covers Following (1998), Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006), The Dark Knight (2008).
What films are similar to Tenet?
Films that share techniques with Tenet include The Dark Knight (2008), Oppenheimer (2023), The Odyssey (2026), Inception (2010).
