Christopher Nolan’s baffling thrillerTenetis a movie that continues to confound audiences four years after its release. LikeInceptionbefore it, Nolan’s thriller plays around the concept of reality in a way that leaves many people scratching their head, and for the director, this is perfectly fine.
In a new sit-down interview withThe Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, theOppenheimerfilmmaker discussed his latest movie, but also touched on his previous work, includingTenet. The film stars John David Washington as the Protagonist, alongside Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film’s intricate plot, which navigates through a complex world of international espionage, time manipulation, and a looming threat of global annihilation, is not one you can easily follow if you have put the movie on for a little bit of background noise. For Nolan, it doesn’t matter if people don’t get it.
Colbert asked the director if he understood everything inTenet, to which Nolan replied:
“If you experience my film you are getting it. I feel very strongly about that. I think where people encounter frustration with my narratives in the past, sometimes I think that they’re slightly missing the point. It’s not a puzzle to be unpacked. It’s an experience to be had, preferably in a movie theater but also at home, hopefully in an unbroken period.You’re not meant to understand everything in Tenet. It’s not all comprehensible. It’s a bit like asking if I know what happens to the spinning top at the end of Inception.”
Colbert interjected to ask if Nolan knows what happens to the top at the end of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, garnering the appropriately ambiguous response:
I have to have my idea of it for it to be a valid, productive ambiguity. But the point of it is it’s an ambiguity.
Tenet: Explaining the Story and the Ending
With Tenet being one of Christopher Nolan’s most confusing and complex movies, here’s our explanation of the story and the film’s ending.
Christopher Nolan Has No Issues Leaving his Audiences Perplexed
At the box office,Tenetfaced the unprecedented challenge of launching during a time when many theaters were closed or operating at limited capacity due to the Covid pandemic. Despite this, the director once again managed to ensnare an audience eager to have their minds bent in ways they can’t quite comprehend.Tenetended up grossing over $363 million worldwide, although it did also gain very mixed reviews.
Reactions toTenetended up being very polarized, with some critics praising Nolan for his ambition, innovative storytelling, and the film’s visual spectacle. Others decided that the complexities of the film’s story were just too much to comprehend, and they were not willing to take more time to attempt to understand it.
Unlike movies such asOppenheimer, or his Batman trilogy,Tenetsat very much in the same basket as Inception, his previous movie that defied audiences to work out what was real and what was not, and ended without really giving them the answers they wanted. But that, in many ways, iswhat makes Nolan a fearless filmmaker. His comments to Colbert make it clear that his movies do not always explain everything, but that is one of the things that makes movies such asTeneta unique cinematic experience, even if you do come out questioning exactly what you have just watched.
Tenetis available to stream on Direct TV, or can be rented from Apple TV+
