It's funny because I'm black and I never thought about the fact that JDW was "black" as the protagonist because it was never brought up or focused on. It literally had nothing to do with the plot and I love that. Let an artist just be an artist.
@@sheeplastname430 Here's the thing ,there were certain dialog (as the one you mentioned) that would suggest it was there , however because of the scenes in which those dialog were written it leaves room for other interpretations .
lolol yeah and the questions are "what does Blue + Apple + 47 equal? Its a shitty movie that people who want to pretend to be more enlightened than they actually are love.
@ I wouldn’t call it shitty, but it’s definitely a movie that Chris Nolan likes more than anyone who saw it. Kinda fun watching him double-down on every criticism he’s ever received, though you could easily convince me it’s Nolan parody film.
Wow, I never realized he made Momento, that's one of the best movies I ever bought on Blu-ray. The whole thing was a mind fuck once you realized what was going on.
@@randomdude189, monstrosity would be accurate. But, then again, that is to be expected from someone that is trying to convince the world that this film is some sort of sophisticated puzzle. The selling point of this film and a lot of Nolan films is the gimmick. If you see past the gimmick there is a very simple story. Having said that, he deserves respect for making spectacular blockbuster films that aim for profundity.
@@lamAnyone In most of Nolan's movies? He should probably stop using him then. Lol But no. Nolan has said its his deliberate 'artistic' decision and that he doesn't care if people don't like it...
@@austridge31 He can say all he wants but I have a conspiracy theory for things behind all these. According to Google, he never WON an Oscar until Oppenheimer this year. Tenet was made before that. If he kinda thought that the usual movie genre (sort of fantasy, sci-fi type) he directed could never win him an Oscar, that is how he could get more Oscars under his belt: best score, sound effects, etc. Let's see he would do it differently after Oppenheimer....
There is also the fact that the film itself fundamentally requires a temporal pincer movement for it to actually make sense. You have to watch the film and then go back and rewatch it knowing everything you already know from the first viewing in order to piece together a coherent story. Only after having carried out the temporal pincer movement yourself will you have witnessed a coherent plot and movie. Watching it without rewatching it is as good as watching a series of nonsensical and unrelated pictures on a screen because watching it once through is only half of the pincer movement.
@@sankrut02 Whoah. I didn't realise people had seen this comment. But anyway, I forgot to add that this is why the film is so unpopular. People watched it for the first time and hated it because they only saw half a film but to them it was a full film that simply didn't make sense and was all over the place. And then because they hated it, most people didn't bother to watch it a second time and thus they missed out on genuinely great movie. Such a massive shame.
No amount of explaining this movie as “you just don’t get it” ever outweighs the fact the movie does not make sense, linear or otherwise. Its “smart people cope.” It’s a dumb movie meant to confuse ppl of avg intelligence and draw smart ppl into explaining it away as “too smart.” It’s dumb temporal schlock.
@@ferrarriohh Mate if you think the film still doesn't make sense after it being explained, you're the only one who's dumb enough not to get it😂. It just sounds like you're insecure about not getting the film and now you're taking it out on everyone else that does get it. What's wrong with people enjoying a complex film? Nolan was being ambitious for sure, maybe overly ambitious, but what makes it wrong for him to make intelligent films that make people think? That's his passion and that's just who he is. And people enjoy his films and enjoying it is the whole point. What the hell is wrong with ye?
I finally saw Tenet yesterday and this is the first video to accurately capture how electrified I felt by watching this movie, and helped me articulate how and why it did. Thank you!!
The final moment with Neil and the Protagonist hit my emotions like a truck. Especially the line about "for me, this is the end of a great friendship. For you, it's only the beginning."
The more you think about Neil, the more emotional the movie becomes, reaching its full emotional climax when you think about Ives saying, "We end our lives. It's the only way to be sure. But as to *when*... maybe that's every man's decision to make for himself." Neil's decision is to die for his friend. When a gun is pointed at his head, Neil's decision is to step in front of the bullet. That's how he chooses to die. "For me, this is the end of a beautiful friendship."
@@bullpup1337 It's also 'stolen' from the story of King Arthur, given that Merlyn lives backwards through time. It even has its own TVtropes page - 'Merlin Sickness'
If it was possible, I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop. Two years later, prepping for Oppenheimer, I have found myself deep diving into Tenet analyses like this one once again. I saw it 3 times in the cinema and countless time since. If it was possible I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop.
It was interesting to rewatch and notice the scene where they talk about Oppenheimer in Tenet, and how "the woman" who created "the algorithm" is essentially her generation's Oppenheimer. It's as if we saw the seed of Nolan's own idea to make his latest film without realising. And it's also like Oppenheimer is a prequel to tenet!
I was emotionally unfulfilled after my first viewing of tenet because there was no pulling of my heart strings that Inception has with Cob’s wife. On my second viewing I realized the emotion is subliminal between Washington and Pattinson’s friendship. Imagine finding out that your friend is really a future friend that you mentor and he will eventually mentor you again in this constant overlapping of time like the Dalai lama and Panchen Lama. I think that’s why Pattinson is drunk at their first meeting, he’s emotionally preparing for seeing his old mentor for the “first” time.
I realised on my second viewing how affecting was the last talk between these two. Pattinson knows he must return an die, Washington just realises it too, and he knows that he can't do (and MUSTN'T DO) anything about it and it almost brings tears to his eyes (and to my eyes as well).
I can't be the only one thinking that the kid at the end is a younger version of Neil. (Somebody came up with the idea that "Max" was short for "Maximillien" and if so, "Neil" is the last four letter's of Max's name backwards.)
Ben: This movie is just Christopher Nolan going ‘THE TEMPORAL PINCER MANOEUVRE! That’s fucked up, wouldn’t that be fucked up?!’ Me: *instant subscribe*
Great analysis!!! But you forgot to mention the subtext: Just like Inception is about filmaking, Tenet is about film watching. The Pincer manouver is just like when you watch a movie for the second time and you already know what's going to happen, and you still feel the same way... This is the underapreciatted genius of Nolan...
i loved how the entire film can be fractally grouped in forward-backward pairs first half is forward, second half is backwards (while moving the story forwards). then of the second half the first half of that is forward, and the second half backward and so it goes smaller and smaller until we reach the raid scene which again works forward to the midpoint and then backwards from there. all the while returning to the very beginning of the whole movie. to have this type of temporal structure and be able to follow it is extremely exciting. i noticed the fractal temporal structure about 2/3 into the movie, and while i understood it, it was still a pleasure to watch it unfold. like a virtuoso violinist performing before your eyes.
One of my favorite things about the temporal pincer is how the protagonist doesn't know really anything in the beginning, but as it turns out he's the temporal pincer head honcho and the reason the plot is happening
Well what’s cool about it is that he experiences the events. Commits himself to ensuring that the events continue to unfold that way. Then sends a team to move backwards in time with all of the information he has. Sends another team to ensure that he himself is committed to the mission so that a loop is created to preserve time as it is.
I've always noted this about Tenet and JDWs performance. JDW actually feels AGGRESSIVE. When he moves he moves with purpose, he does everything as efficiently and as best as he can and it was the first movie I've ever seen that actually drew me to the leads MOVEMENT more than anything, he's just a beast.
He really is a brilliant fucking actor. I am finding myself drawn more and more to films with less dialogue and more non-dialogue based acting. I saw JDW in Black Klansman, and, although his approach feels similar (that "aggression" as you call it), he certainly picks his moments, so to speak, very well. I am stoked to see him in more traditional movie roles (I could not get through the writing in that one he did with Zendaya.)
Damn dude well put! I definitely had a similar thought; a lot of JDW’s action has an ‘explosive’ quality - especially the kitchen fight - where you can tell he’s sizing everything up and then he goes HAM for maximum effect
True, but - unfortunately - his facial expressions don't reflect that. He often comes off as a wide-eyed, fish-out-of-water protagonist, even when it doesn't suit the scene.
Blacks are always the criminals, poor, in the background, asking questions and subordinate in Hollywood movies. Its an agenda. The China film administration is better than Hollywood. Hollwood really Hates Black on Blacks Love.
@@thetechsite9619 Never learn from other people kiddo. Never change your opinion, doesn't matter how much the new details make sense. Stay ignorant. /s
I remember being super hyped for this movie when I watched it, the first half was generally disappointing to me but the second half was phenomenal. Then I rewatched it and it became one of my favorites from start to finish. At this point, I think I have seen it 7 times and it never gets old
@@Sujay95 That's a bit hard to achieve here I think. Perhaps the plot might've been a bit too long for the movie, and it's already 2 and a half hours long. I've watched it 5 times I think, needed to watch the second time to actually connect all the dots.
I believe it to be a deliberate act by Christoper Nolan that the film needs be watched multiple times in order to observe, and absorb all the layers of pardox happening. Almost like red and blue team, your brain is required to already know what's going to happen, in order to see what you missed last time.
@@stonedvillain79 honestly that's not a good thing. If you're required to watch a movie several times just to understand the basic plot, then that's a major flaw in my eyes. Especially since people were saying (at the time this was coming to theaters) that this movie would need to be good to keep theaters alive. Thankfully this movies plot didnt kill off theater because of other easily understood movies coming out lol.
Loving stuff is so cool, and your enthusiasm for TENET is so contagious. I love to see TENET with friends who havent seen it and I watch your video everytime to pump me up. Firetrucks man ! Freaking firetrucks !!
I loved the part where the protagonist fights himself for the second time, and the lead up to all of that is awesome. I may not have all of the pieces in place with the whole timeline, but this movie is my favorite because it was a mindfuck and I love it for that.
When I watched it the first time, I was expecting the inverted soldier to be one of Sator’s henchman as I was still wrapping my head around the mechanics of inversion. When he got blown through the shutter door and right into the hands of his past self, it was the biggest jaw drop I’d ever gotten from a movie.
@@richos07when i watched it, by that point i barely even understood the existence of sator. i actually assumed itd be the protagonist because that would be the most fun way to take the story!
Just rewatched Tenet for the fourth time, this time in IMAX and this video is perfect. I watched this after the last time I watched Tenet and you made all the pieces come together for the first time. Having that knowledge going into this viewing truly made me realize that this movie is a MASTERPIECE. Great video.
Nolan has faith in his audience. I remember the first time I watched this film I knew I wouldn't understand it and I just enjoyed what I could which was still a lot! Films like Tenet and Memento are the best because the more you watch them, the more you appreciate them. The people that get annoyed at Nolan's films because they are too confusing don't understand what makes a good film. If I'm going to pay money to own a movie, it better be worth watching countless times unlike a simple Marvel movie.
you shouldnt have to watch a movie multiple times to understand it. Appreciate yes, but understand? no it costs money and time to watch a movie. If a person has to watch a movie 3 times to understand it, its not a good movie. Shit is expensive. But if people rewatch a movie to appreciate it, then the director did a good job of conveying their vision the first time Also I love Nolans works, but think Tenet is his weakest. And no, it doesnt make someone "intellectual" if they "understand" Tenet. No one will be impressed by it. It wont get you a job lol
Tenet is an extremely emotional movie, people just don't get invested enough in Neil and PT's relationship on first viewing so they miss it. It's gotta be the only movie in existence where someone has to say goodbye to their best friend that is going to die *before they even become best friends.* Once you make this emotional connection, it's honestly really hard not to cry at the end when PT realizes who Neil truly is.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this. Tenet hit me in the feels harder than I think any other movie has. Not only because of what you mentioned (which was already incredibly effective on me personally due to the uniqueness), but also because: 1. We realize Neil had to spend the last (months?) he had with his best friend acting as though they were complete strangers. "The end of a beautiful friendship" indeed. 2. PT now has to go hire and befriend Neil *knowing* that doing so has already gotten Neil killed. Especially since Neil got killed *saving PT,* I can't imagine what kind of guilt one would have to harbor the entire time they're friends. Not to mention the dread that would come from knowing exactly when Neil dies.
I've watched Tenet probably more than 40 times. That scene tears me up every time. Just because there's no love interest in the movie doesn't mean there's no emotion.
@@drv4859 Exactly. There's also the whole thing with Kat being in an (extraordinarily) abusive relationship and PT helping her out of it, protecting her and her kid...etc. There's a lot of heart in Tenet, it's just that there's also a lot of mind-bending amazing spy-sci-fi that conceals it.
I do think Tenet is about this tragedy on multiple different levels. Yet I also feel the opposite, like a triumph. As in, if Oppenheimer is about the “Triumph and Tragedy”, Tenet is about the “Tragedy and Triumph”. Like, for Neil, the fact that they will always be best friends. The fact that this is like “ground truth”, it’s just both faith and reality. I feel that Neil is actually pretty happy about it.
@@akirachisaka9997 Couldn't agree more, I think Neil feels extremely proud of what he's doing at the end of the movie. He is the one who comforts PT and not the other way around, even though he's the one who is about to die!! I love what you write about faith and reality, I think this movie is a perfect example of how science and philosophy are both at their best when they're combined and intertwined.
An interesting detail of that scene Ben loves: the Protagonist is on the red fire truck as it merges into traffic that has a couple of blue trucks on it. I’m probably reading too much into it but it’s like the two teams coming together as part of the overall temporal pincer movie
Also women in red coat before the meeting 14:33 - its intentional The whole movie has this blue red color coding clues On the second movie watch it is very noticeable from the very beginning For small example bag with artefact in Opera is Blue balaclava mask on "terrorists leader" is clearly Red - and if it seems random - look at all colors and objects in each scene all colors dimmed but some specific things sometime has color accent
The synthesizer being pushed down in audio by the kick drum is an actual mixing technique known as sidechaining, it's often used in dance music or electronic music. Great work as always Ben!
It’s actually one of the technics that made Daft Punk so inspiring for a whole generation of producers (electronic music or not). The Robots didn’t invent Sidechaining, but they did it so freaking well and so on point that it made the brains of actual connoisseurs implode all over the world. It takes a lot of music (and branding) knowledge to understand how much care and perfectionism these guys have put into every single detail of their craft. To the point of not looking like sane human beings. A bit like Fincher or Nolan: everyone can tell they’re good and enjoy their pieces, but one needs technical knowledge about the craft to understand how good they actually are. It’s funny because besides being worldwide famous and globally recognized beyond their music genre and even beyond their art form (having worked with or for some great movie directors, photographers, Haute Couture brands, etc) Daft Punk are still kind of underrated by the masses.
I just don't get the enjoyment of trying to make sense of something that doesn't make sense... All with dialogue that sounds like the actors are under water. Because you know... art.
@austridge31 For some people the enjoyment is in figuring something out. People don't always want to just see or hear an interesting idea, they want to engage with it like a conversation. The sound thing is becoming a problem though.
This was an INCREDIBLE analysis. For what it's worth, the sweeping fades that are played during the truck heist are created by reversing a note into itself. The synths are played backward, then forward. The soundtrack is a temporal paradox.
This does not make it a good movie. The story is bullshit, the characters and their motivations is bullshit. Therefore, the whole movie is bullhit. It's easy.
I Loved this film, but then again I watched it on HBO Max with subtitles on and the ability to rewind whenever something was too wtf to grasp in real time. The ability to go back in time and rewind the movie was clutch, as I did a temporal pincer maneuver of my own in trying to understand this film.
Yeah I really hated the film because I watched it in the cinema and the sound mixing was soo god awful I couldn't understand what they were saying enough to only understand what was going on a very superficial level.
@@impyrobot I've seen some analysis of the film on here talking the sound mixing and after seeing that, it's understandable and it actually fit in well when you see it at that perspective
Personally think that the final Neil/Protagonist scene is one of the more emotionally engaging and interesting scenes in his career along with interstellar and the cillian murphy scene in inception
I think I’ve watched this film 30 times this year alone. I absolutely love it so much. One of the greatest realizations I had is that we are experiencing everything for the first time, just as the protagonist is. I appreciated JDW’s performance so much more when I realized every conversation, situation, experience, everything, he was experiencing it for the first time as the protagonist. I mean, the movie starts with him having just enough knowledge at the opera house. He later just gets in a car and hits go on the gps. It’s throughout the whole film and he did such a great job acting like his character is just trying to put the pieces together, LIKE US!
The first time you watch it you're seeing it through the eyes of the Protagonist, the second time you're seeing it through Neils eyes. The Protagonist doesn't know what's going to happen in his future, he doesn't know if the bomb is gonna go off and neither do we, its a new experience to us and we're just as confused as the Protagonist. But when we watch it the second time we know how the movie plays out and so does Niel, he knows the bomb isn't going to go off or he wouldn't be there to stop it, and we know the bomb won't go off because we've seen the end of the film before, in a way Niel has seen the end of the film and he's experiencing it exactly as we are, he's an actor playing a role as you say. We might feel like this movie has no stakes when we understand it, but isn't that true of every movie? Once you've finished a movie you know how it ends, but you still rewatch it because of the ride. In Tenets case there were never any stakes in the first place, but as we're watching we feel that there are, until in the end its revieled that there were never any stakes in the first place. You might feel kinda cheated, but the point of the movie is how you see it in your perspective.
You hit the mail on the head with this one. Tenet absolutely has to be watched twice to fully appreciate what’s going on. The first time I watched it I was ambivalent towards it, the second time I watched, I was riveted. This is an excellent film, I wish more people gave it that much needed second viewing.
@@danilejai7801 It’s a bit like The Prestige, once you know how the trick works you see the movie completely differently. You realize you weren’t watching closely, like you were told to in the beginning. Nolan is the GOAT.
@@dorianjareth9198 a predictable fairytale movie but is a feel good one. If you're having a bad day, go for it. I also watch weird movies but they make me feel good, like garden state on a gloomy monsoon day
It's crazy how many times ive rewatched Tenet now, even though after the first viewing I was like 'not nolans best movie'. It's truly a new type of movie experience and gets better after every rewatch. Nolan's ahead of the cinema game, he's doing mind blowing sci fi on a large scale that's based on modern theoretical scientific concepts and problems that have no real answers. Can't wait to see what he does next. p.s really glad someone else was so taken with that specific shot / music. I'm listening to that song in the OST over and over.
That shot hit so hard in the theatre, particularly IMAX. It's a favourite of mine for that reason as well, it's so damn good. And man, it's a bummer how many people write the movie off after one viewing, you literally can't appreciate it only having watched it once, I was so insanely confused after my first go but in a way that made me want to understand. I didn't even start really understanding the mechanics until the fifth watch, and I only figured out the interrogation room and how that worked on like the 8th watch. But it's so damn worth it to rewatch until you understand, then once you do you wonder how you didn't get it. I wish I could wipe my memory and watch it again for the first time.
My absolute favorite detail and trick nolan plays on us is with neil. The knowledge he’s privvy to really makes it seem like hes a double agent, and the film naturally leads you to believe that. What a marvel of a film
One of the really interesting things about the movie is that we never find out who the people from the future who want to use the algorithm are. It could easily be the characters in the film, if they changed their minds later on!
The greatest thing about this movie to me is realizing that in the end, the protagonist probably realized he’ll have an ally in the future of whom he *KNOWS* he can trust him because he already knows him and he already knows that he’ll be saved by him. Because let’s face it, how intensely reassuring would it be to know, with 100% certainty, you can trust a *”stranger”* you’ve only just met? To have someone you’ve only known for a couple of weeks making you feel like you’ve known him for more than a decade…
That is really interesting when you compare it to a series like Counterpart. In counterpart, which deals with parallel dimensions instead of time travel, the central tenet (heh) seems to be that multiple versions of the same person would inevitably go to war if their timelines didn't progress equally (ie a man's wife dies, but he knows she is alive and well in another dimension with his counterpart. So, rather than accepting her death, he attempts to go to the other world and replace his doppelganger).
It makes the point that the hype-o-meter is cranked up to 1000 amidst the whole time-reversal mindfuckery and that conveys a genuine feeling of excitement about the movie that contributes to how the movie worked for him and a lot of other people
Actually you don't at all, TENNET's concept is different from the (in my opinion) overused, just as unbelievable and nonsensical concept that is parallel universes. It's all bs time only goes in one direction.
I like the mention you made about puzzles early on, because it suddenly clicked in my brain: Nolan basically made a film that frustrates people because it's not like most movies, which are essentially puzzle that show the solution on the box; Tenet is a puzzle that you only understand as it's put together, and our stand-in (JDW) is a self-aware puzzle piece that spends the journey discovering where he fits, and the broader picture along with us. Maybe that's not what Nolan intended, but I think it's very cool; I watch enough movies that I don't often rewatch them, and I appreciate Nolan's craftmanship in making films absolutely worth returning to.
You're onto something. I think there's something cheeky in the fact that he literally calls himself the Protagonist, and that his redemption arc is to save a woman named Kat. Aside from anything else, it feels like a deconstruction of "movie." The triumphant ending is inevitable, yet that's not an excuse not to invest. It's just faith in the mechanics of the medium.
It's such a shame how underrated this movie is. I wish more people were open to concepts that might be unorthodox. I find it extremely frustrating explaining to people why I love this movie because people just don't "get it". They have to want to get it in order to do so, and most people probably entered the cinema with an expectation of an action movie like Batman. I watched this movie thrice on cinema, and it just gets better. The details and logic of the concept is extremely well thought through, not to mention that even coming up with a concept like this is astounding. It is literally just time travel but with the requirement to actually physically move to where you want to be instead of jumping there like all other sci-fi.
The average person can't even grasp the concept, that's why tenet failed. I watched it like five times, twice on the cinema. Easily one of the best sci-fy movies ever made.
It's a movie with no compelling characters, no actual theme or philosophical ideas presented, vague main plot that wasn't explored properly, action scenes that were designed to be unintuitive and hard to follow, and yes some times even christopher nolan forgot how inversion works. It's a shit film with a good premise, that's all.
Just watched this in the imax rerelease. So fun. I actually love how the protagonist doesnt have a back story. To me it like a POV almost like playable character in a video game.
Then watch Primer. When I finally thought "wait a second, this is starting to make sense" the end credits began to roll. 😂 It's the best movie about time travel I've seen (not counting Tenet), and it had a ridiculously low budget. And the acting was also great for a bunch of amateurs. Don't worry if you understand very little on your first watch, this is normal, do some research online before watching it again if you want, download a timeline chart, whatever you might think will help you.
I like to think that the audience experience of watching Tenet was also kind of a temporal pincer maneuver. On your first watch you move forwards through time, confused by everything happening and just gathering information. Then, on your second watch, you already know what's happened and you're just piecing together the pregathered info from the film. You move from past to future on your first watch then become inverted on the rewatch. Of course it can't really be paradoxical because you can't tell your first watch self what's going to happen, but I like to imagine that Nolan planned for the film to be watched like the characters lived it. Playing with time as a concept at every level.
@@stactionsmedia3318 ok you're entitled to that opinion but in mine the film does accomplish telling a story by the end, and that story (which is very complex) becomes clearer on a second watch for the reasons I said. If you're going to argue that good films shouldn't need to be re watched for a deeper understanding then I don't know what to say because that's pretty much untrue. It's not as simple as it seems, you just didn't enjoy it and that's perfectly fine. Maybe don't click on a video praising it then
@@stactionsmedia3318 yeah, you have no idea what you're talking about. If you "understand" a film after seeing it once, it's garbage. This doesn't even have anything to do with Tenet, it's just a fact. Every good film requires investigation, any director would tell you that. Sorry, your opinion is objectively wrong and childishly silly.
@@chanceseverson the thing is, its not just very complex, its borderline impossible, as always when trying to portray a paradox. i would say the film is good, but not for the reason, that you can try to unravel this paradox completely by watching it multiple times. yes you can understand parts based on the proposed concept of time travel, however this is limited and in my opinion if you try to understand the entire movie or think you do your just stupid. Nolan himself couldn't make sense of this and actually explain everything because its time travel and its not possible like this. You can however try to understand as much as possible based on the underlying concept and just enjoy the awesome cinematography!!
@@stactionsmedia3318 I just enjoyed the movie and had my own theory it really doesn't go deeper then that. If you didn't like it you didn't like it, I'm not claiming it has anything to do with intelligence
I think when it’s revealed that the lead character assisting the main character is actually his best friend but he doesn’t know it until the moment before he dies was incredibly emotional. And that’s even more clever because when you watch it the second time, you really are emotionally invested in these characters and this friendship
I've lost count because I would literally watch it going to sleep, keep it on in the background, listen to the score while working out. Tenet is more for me then other movies it's not something I've been able to put into words but this video calling it a game seems appropriate. I hope more people interact with this movie the way I have and there can be more high budget interactive movie mind puzels in the future.
"I've seen it 10 times now" Obviously, that's how many times you've gotta watch it to understand whats going on! Joking...I liked it too, but I had to watch it twice to pick up what I missed the first time, where as Interstellar and Inception I got instantly. Its the only thing that bummed me out a little.
This is absolutely the way I see the movie, I feel like Ben's distilled my feelings coming away from the movie and I'm absolutely rewatching the film tonight because of this. This is a fantastic debut video for sure.
"Tenet almost refuses to make sense or generate the tension that we might expect and we might need. It's designed for us to observe the temporal pincer maneuver and watch all of it's parts perform and feed into each other" It's an MC Escher drawing made into a movie.
@@mr8883 no, they were obviously hired by two competing siblings in a gravel mining empire to duke it out between themselves perpetually using clones, weird teleportation devices and rockets
I think the best interpretation of this is "What if you were a character in a movie, but you knew you were in a movie and didn't know the outcome?" and the entire movie is about our protagonist discovering that he is the protagonist. However Nolan really likes playing with the perception of time in his movies as he'll bring scenes from the end, the middle, and the beginning, and put them together. He made a board where his movie time is U-Shaped (or honestly more s-shaped because movies do have a beginning, middle, and end) instead of linear. And so this entire movie is really just a meta commentary on that where he just decided to do it literally instead of figuratively by playing with scenes. It's about grappling with the unchangeable future as you cannot engage in a temporal pincer without already having grappled with this and acted upon it accordingly.
I was looking for someone who thought the same. I personally bought into the conceit of the movie as it's own temporal pincer for the viewer. That there are two protagonists. JDW and Neil. The first time you watch you're expereincing the movie in a linear fashion, grasping onto the idea that a comprehension of events will lead to a resolution you want rather than the resolution that has/is going to happen. The second time I felt like I was experiencing the movie as Neil would, knowing all the general plot points and exactly how things were going to pan out while still not fully grasping the implications of this. Just as Neil plays along and guides the course of actions with his participation, I too was playing along and guiding the course by actively participating in a second viewing. I don't know why people hate the idea of the main character being called the Protagonist or his (seeming) lack of character development when it was quite clear from the beginning that he was a suave, no bullshit ass kicking proxy for the viewer. I was even half tempted to invert the movie and watch it backwards before watching it for a second time for the full Neil experience, but there's a thin line between being a fan and being a madman. I agree with the core premise of the movie. I was a bit confused when people got miffed at the line "Don't try to understand it, feel it.". The scene was telling us not to lose sight of the experience over second guessing the mechanics behind the experience. It even had a video representation of what's to come.
@@stactionsmedia3318 for someone with the word “Media” in the channel name you have a remarkable lack of understanding regarding the topic. The movie is put together in a way that allows you too see the story from a new perspective on the second watch. This is a masterfully crafted piece of art. Not every movie has to be like a marvel movie. It seems as though you just don’t get a long with sophisticated and original filmmaking, since I was able to understand the movie just fine.
@@stactionsmedia3318 Then you’ll probably understand how hard it is for me to relate to that perspective as I understood the movie just fine on the first watch. With that said, this is most likely due to the fact that I was already aware of how the movie had been received by the masses. I don’t think the movie is even remotely a mess, it just makes you figure it out. I believe this is why I enjoyed the film so much, I felt like I was piecing everything together alongside the protagonist. The movie is just a little bit sophisticated for a casual audience and since Nolan’s movies are so mainstream, this was the result.
Agree. Watched it twice back to back the first day. And I was also slightly disappointed with the first viewing, but man, Nolan created a closed loop, and I got stuck.
@@stactionsmedia3318 you either haven't seen it at all or are incredibly dumb and willfully so. It took me a total of 3 watches to fully understand every detail, but one watch was enough to understand the main points and to decide that I enjoyed it. You don't have to like the film, but don't try to complain that it's somehow Nolan's fault that you failed to understand what he put out.
9:58 speaking about baggage! Robert Pattinson also did an amaaaazing job considering my baggage with him is the entire Twilight series, Harry Potter, and The Batman (I watched Tenet after Batman). Maybe because his hair was blond and he was tan, but I didn't see him as Edward Cullen or Bruce Wayne at all. And those characters were huge main characters! It didn't even cross my mind while I was watching the movie. He really sinks into his roles.🍿💯
Tbf he was larping Christopher Hitchens which helps. look him up, hes....got a way of speaking thats very very distinct Pattinson clearly took inspiration
Man, I saw this movie for the first time on its IMAX re-release, going into it with the "Vibes movie" mentality that RUclipsr Patrick Willems espoused, and I gotta say... I think it's my #2 favorite Nolan film. And I like all his movie! But wow, it was just so... different from anything I have ever seen. Ugh, my wife and I were going on and on about it for like 2 days after because we couldn't stop discussing all the timelines and implications. Such a fun experience. Edit: OMG YOU TALKED ABOUT HIS RUNNING. Yes!!!! I noticed this! He has this full-body intensity in his physical performance that I don't think I've even seen Tom Cruise equal. I think it comes from his football background. But yeah, whenever he's on the move, he is ON. THE. MOVE. There is something SO satisfying about it. Also, in a movie space that is so white-centric still, his skin was SO well-lit. Just gorgeous cinematography and it's so great to see with a Black lead.
@@stactionsmedia3318 well that's ur opinion. Because rather than having a cliche movie over and over and over again which gets kinda boring... Like endgame wasn't all that great to me because in the end the good guys never lose... This movie is different... What if you were a character in a movie, but you knew you were in a movie and didn't know the outcome?" the entire movie is about our protagonist discovering that he is the protagonist. You can watch it the first time through the protagonist P.O.V and then you can watch it again in Neils P.O.V... If I go and watch endgame, or The Batman (which are all great movies don't get me wrong) It won't be exciting, it won't be interesting because I know what's going to happen. This movie really keeps you invested in it and that is why its differently better than most movies, it's fine if you don't call it a masterpiece but to me, this is a Gold Jem in a haystack. But... again its all opinion. To say that Nolan failed to translate his vision tho? is quite the stretch. It's more like CAN YOU the viewer understand? And if you can't watch it again. and again. and again. Because you will always find something new and interesting to enjoy, what also makes the movie better than others is that EVERY NEW meaning will help piece the puzzle one way or another Nolan is excellent at that placing small but significant clues in a movie. To say that the meanings probably have nothing to do with the movie is wrong because everything is linked with each other in one way or another. Time travel in cinema is always a crowd pleaser, but Tenet puts a fresh spin on it that doesn't feel outlandish or forced. The use of 'inversion' is an ingenious concept - one that's hard to get your head around without seeing - and something that makes this film such a must-watch.
my favorite moment/easter egg, and it's not until you watch it a second time, was when Neil and the protagonist first meet in the hotel lobby in Mumbai. Neil orders another vodka tonic and orders a diet coke for the protagonist. The protagonist tells Neil, "FYI i prefer soda water" then Neil smirks and says "No, you don't"
I also love how the music in that scene feels kinda ‘nostalgic’ if thats the right word. It doesnt seem to match the idea of their first meeting, but of course its because this is a reunion
@@watchdominion00 YES!!! It's the Neil's theme music in the movie, it is nostalgic all the time whenever his scenes come and it only makes sense because for him everything is just revisiting old times! :'D
Did you notice when they “met” in the theater opening scene? During the raid and ensuing gun battle, an unknown agent shoots one of the immediate threats to the protagonist and promptly turns and walks away, like he had just shown up to shoot that one guy. Notice his backpack as he turns to leave.
@@ReadABookAndLearn That was actually the last guy he shot. On a third watch, I realized Neil was the one picking key shooters off in the background. He shoots 2+ people chasing Protag, so he can successfully collect the bombs.
There's actually a theory about Sator's real employers. I think it's a really good one, which would've added even more to the movie if Nolan had explored it. So, Tenet is basically a paradox movie in which the past and the future affect each other mutually, with a table spoon of time loops. The theory goes like this: Sator was wrong thinking he had been hired by some bad guys from the future in order to assemble all the pieces of the algorithm and bury it in Stalsk-12 explosion. In fact, he was hired for this job by the Protagonist (from the future). Think of it this way (keep in mind the paradoxical nature of the movie): the future version of the Protagonist was guiding the Sator from the past (using the instructions, buried in radioactive hot spots of the planet) to assemble the algorithm and send it into the future to the alleged 'bad people'. Yet the Tenet guys steal it from the hypocenter and keep it until the future Tenet guys (I'd say involving the 'Oppenheimer' scientist) revert it once again, so that the algorithm would travel back into the past. In the past, Sator is tasked by the Protagonist to assemble it and the whole thing starts over and over again. This way, we get a closed time loop that reminds me of a 'hot potato' - the Algorithm is kept relatively safe within a specific period of time between some point in the past and some point in the future, where everyone does their predetermined job and the Algorithm travels back and forth in time so that no one could really get a hold of it and use it. P.S. there's also a nice side theory that would add to the palindrome structure of the movie - at some point in the future, the Protagonist sacrifices himself to save Neil, so Neil travels back in time to save the Protagonist by getting shot in the face, lol. tl;dr It was the Protagonist who hired the Sator from the past to assemble the algorithm and send it into the future, only for it to be reverted again into the past, so that the Algorithm never falls into the wrongs hands.
This is literally the only explanation that makes any sense of the movie. I thought that in terms of a time travel movie it was a hot mess. The action is amazing, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the paradoxes. The thing is there is no paradox, the tape is played, it reads it forward for some backward for another, but nothing can change, it's locked. The only problem is that there are nested time loops that can build out to infinity. So I guess that is the job. counter every loop. Sounds exhausting.
@@johnboynb Christopher Nolan did a time travel movie with no paradox. That's the insane thing. The black guy is the one who created Tenet, he's the one who hired Sator yes, he is the one behind it all. Why ? To stop the apocalypse in the future.
I wanna read this fanfiction now. It totally works as an explanation too, I was always wondering why the people from the future (who would be trying to stop the OTHER people from the future from destroying the world) would want to send the pieces back in time rather than, you know, destroy them! But since this can be undone (and probably was before it even happened) an infinite stable loop of deployment preventions it is actually probs the only viable way to keep it from being detonated. It's in line with the whole pincer movement too and with the "where does the info come from" paradox, since the protagonist doesn't know what ultimately happened, he just realises it's up to him to make sure it works that way.
the part about there being no bad guys from the future doesn't make sense, but the idea that the Protagonist has long ago sacrificed himself for Neil is brilliant. (we know he can do that - he sacrifices himself at the beginning of the movie)
@@solakendend5866 There are some minor plot holes in the way time travel works though, for example when an inverted person or object is damaged by a non-inverted weapon or vice versa, sometimes the one receiving the damage gets more and more hurt up until the time they are hit at which point they are "healed" (like with inverted Protagonist getting stabbed by his non-inverted self), at other times they are fine until they are hit and then are injured/dead (think about how the ending would have been experienced from Neil's perspective, or what happened to Kat when she was shot by Sator's inverted gun). Also the way the future people deliver gold to Sator doesn't really make sense--if the future people bury a crate full of inverted gold in like 2300 AD, and Sator digs it up (without inverting it) on say Jan. 1 2019 AD, where is the gold on Jan. 2 2019? Still in the ground waiting to be dug up one day in the future from its perspective, or already dug up and in Sator's hands? If they're going by the fixed timeline theory it can't be both.
Enjoyed this a lot. I was the guy also urging my friends to watch the movie more than once. It’s like a completely different experience. This video makes me want to watch it again, because fire trucks ARE cool
The best part is that the pace of the movie is so good when the protagonist itself is like the audience figuring it out one point at a time and when you do figure it out in the end it’s such a great release wow
Omg!... when someone states a point or saids a thing that you didn’t know how to express or explain, it is an entire different level of just being cathartic... Ben from Canada God dam I’m so happy that I know why I love this movie
Your analysis of John David Washington’s acting is spot on. I thought he was brilliant, suave, and fierce as you mentioned and I can’t wait to see him in more films.
@@stactionsmedia3318 Agree. It may be an interesting concept, but it doesn't make the audience care about anything they are watching. If I don't care about about the characters, plot, if there is no real message for the film, why would I ever re-watch this? Maybe it works for a small small audience, but I think this films fatal flaw is that it just doesn't make it's audience care about what is happening, and doesn't even bother to attempt to make us care. For me, that constitutes a poor movie, regardless of who made it. This film was most fun for the filmmaker and nobody else.
I loved it, honestly wasn't even hard to understand for me, im sure I missed a bunch. The song on the pattinson talk with the art guy was deliberately done to show pattinson didn't care about what he said and was focusing on everything in the room to get knowledge of the room setup. I may be alone but I liked this more than inception
I put this movie as the most Nolanest movie he ever created! And yes, I get the purpose of loud music scene while walking with gallery guy, can't underatand why nobody understand that subtlety.
Glad I'm not alone in that sentiment. Nothing in that whole scene was relevant except what kind of people used it that gallery, and how the doors worked. The rest was just blah blah, oh my this music is a banger
I’m pretty sure everyone knows you weren’t supposed to hear the dialogue in that scene, but there’s so many other scenes where you’re supposed to be able to hear what characters are saying, and just... can’t
This is and will always be an insanely underrated and misunderstood film. So sad, its kind of an example how film makers aren't rewarded for taking chances. Its hard for me to even explain this so well done for trying, but when I watch it, it makes perfect sense.
Once I understood Tenet is meant to be a "palandromic" viewing, it became easier to understand what Nolan was going for. I can't recall if other reviewers or critics who made essays on Tenet ever pointed it out or if it's that obvious, but the inspiration for the movie was how the Sator Square is a palindrome, so the movie plays out as sort of a palindrome with how the events play out. The puzzle aspect comes with how you can catch all the details happening in the background in when you rewatch it, like when you re-read a palindrome forwards and backwards.
@@HockeyNinja13 It's not only a famous palindrome, it's a unique word that isn't used elsewhere, so Google takes you right to it. Well, now it finds the movie. But try "Tenet palindrome" FWIW, the Sator Square was brought up at-length as videos after the movie was announced.
I watched TeneT when it came out in an empty theater (except 1 old man in the corner) and I loved it. The action sequences were fantastic and the inverse action new. I'd lie if I told you that I understood all of it, but once you let go of the complicated inverted tech, it becomes a fun and visually stunning action film.
One of the best moments watching it the 2nd time and after is the final battle. The scene showing the helicopters both arriving and leaving is the focus. If you look down on the ground watching the explosion from the air, you can see Neil pulling them out of the hole, which is brilliant.
I need to save your video link and send it to every mf that says they didnt like tenet, I personally got obsessed with it after first watch and now I have seen the movie like 10 times and never watched a video about it, this is my first, i just wanted to wrap my head around the concept of time in the movie and it was great once you have everything figured out, truly the best movie for me
Your content is brilliant. Also you are so good at explaining things, i have watched a few of your videos already! Can’t believe you only have 77k subs, this channel is very underrated
"Brilliant" is definitely the word. Informative too - Up until watching this, I hadn't realised that John David was Denzel's boy. Thanks Ben From Canada.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Tenet is a movie about a man
Thanks to you both for making this video, it was awesome! 😁
Agreed.
This man is Protagonist, he will fight... an Antagonist. :P
Good to see you here CJ, it’s important to support your less successful siblings
Or is it a man about a movie?
''The real Tenet was literally the friend he made along the way'' had me dying
fucking genius hahahaha
I laughed far too loud for 03:45 in the morning.
And let's not forget 5:11 haha
It had Neil dying too 😢
@@daved2352 you should go to bed
It's funny because I'm black and I never thought about the fact that JDW was "black" as the protagonist because it was never brought up or focused on. It literally had nothing to do with the plot and I love that. Let an artist just be an artist.
This.
That's hilarious because I am also black, and when he brought up JDW being black in the movie, it felt like I just realized it.
"He must not like the look of me"
"The look of you is fine"
It is brought up once.
literally nothing to do with the plot at all. very refreshing. JDW is just as amazing an actor as his father man
@@sheeplastname430 Here's the thing ,there were certain dialog (as the one you mentioned) that would suggest it was there , however because of the scenes in which those dialog were written it leaves room for other interpretations .
The saddest part was that Neil had to pretend he didn't know an old friend the entire time. That always got me.
Because of this comment I had to go and watch the movie.
Oh no……
@@ForbiddenFruit999 That comment got me really curious, it reminded me of 12 Monkeys, 1 of the characters is trapped in a loop watching himself dying.
@@sabreaion6074 ulala, I havent heard from that movie in a while, Ill watch again today. Great taste there mate
Agreed. I felt the loss when i realized what was inevitiable.
Tenet was like the final exam for some Chris Nolan masters degree that we've all been studying for since Memento.
Then Oppenheimer took us through a temporal pincer to when we were studying for it
lolol yeah and the questions are "what does Blue + Apple + 47 equal? Its a shitty movie that people who want to pretend to be more enlightened than they actually are love.
@ I wouldn’t call it shitty, but it’s definitely a movie that Chris Nolan likes more than anyone who saw it. Kinda fun watching him double-down on every criticism he’s ever received, though you could easily convince me it’s Nolan parody film.
Wow, I never realized he made Momento, that's one of the best movies I ever bought on Blu-ray. The whole thing was a mind fuck once you realized what was going on.
@@saucyrossy3698 I loved this movie, and that has nothing to do with you. So please don't make your confusion and subsequent insecurity about me.
Incredible video that's what I think!
I’m sure you feel like a proud dad, as a father
Awesome
{insert smart comment here}
We don't pay you to think!
James have you stopped paying ben money and now are paying him in confidence
"9 foot Goddess energy" is the perfect way to describe Elizabeth Debicki.
When I heard it I stopped the video to literally shout: "YES THAT'S THE PERFECT DESCRIPTION FOR HER"
Another description was "she looked like a man".
Goddess? Has the bar been that bastardized?
@@cjewe1z that’s the more accurate
@@randomdude189, monstrosity would be accurate. But, then again, that is to be expected from someone that is trying to convince the world that this film is some sort of sophisticated puzzle. The selling point of this film and a lot of Nolan films is the gimmick. If you see past the gimmick there is a very simple story. Having said that, he deserves respect for making spectacular blockbuster films that aim for profundity.
Inception: time goes slow
Interstellar: time goes fast
Tenet: time goes brrr
more like Skrrrt Skrrt
Time goes emiT
Dunkirk: time goes slow, fast, and faster.
@@thomastmc no in Dunkirk, there are 3 events happening at different times at the same time.
@@random-jn8ec Each story takes place over 3 different lengths of time. It seems both the comment and film went over your head.
The sixth time I watched this film, I turned on subtitles and it really opened up the entire thing for me.
Because Nolan deliberately made the audio trash. What an awful movie...
@@austridge31 thank you, the first honest comment i have seen.
@@austridge31Nope. It's the music composer who messed up the dialogue part of the audio to make his music stood out, ± the sound effects guy.
@@lamAnyone In most of Nolan's movies? He should probably stop using him then. Lol
But no. Nolan has said its his deliberate 'artistic' decision and that he doesn't care if people don't like it...
@@austridge31 He can say all he wants but I have a conspiracy theory for things behind all these. According to Google, he never WON an Oscar until Oppenheimer this year. Tenet was made before that. If he kinda thought that the usual movie genre (sort of fantasy, sci-fi type) he directed could never win him an Oscar, that is how he could get more Oscars under his belt: best score, sound effects, etc. Let's see he would do it differently after Oppenheimer....
There is also the fact that the film itself fundamentally requires a temporal pincer movement for it to actually make sense. You have to watch the film and then go back and rewatch it knowing everything you already know from the first viewing in order to piece together a coherent story. Only after having carried out the temporal pincer movement yourself will you have witnessed a coherent plot and movie. Watching it without rewatching it is as good as watching a series of nonsensical and unrelated pictures on a screen because watching it once through is only half of the pincer movement.
Broooo this is really a good take.... Haven't thought this way until now😅
@@sankrut02 Whoah. I didn't realise people had seen this comment. But anyway, I forgot to add that this is why the film is so unpopular. People watched it for the first time and hated it because they only saw half a film but to them it was a full film that simply didn't make sense and was all over the place. And then because they hated it, most people didn't bother to watch it a second time and thus they missed out on genuinely great movie. Such a massive shame.
…..HUH
No amount of explaining this movie as “you just don’t get it” ever outweighs the fact the movie does not make sense, linear or otherwise. Its “smart people cope.” It’s a dumb movie meant to confuse ppl of avg intelligence and draw smart ppl into explaining it away as “too smart.” It’s dumb temporal schlock.
@@ferrarriohh Mate if you think the film still doesn't make sense after it being explained, you're the only one who's dumb enough not to get it😂. It just sounds like you're insecure about not getting the film and now you're taking it out on everyone else that does get it. What's wrong with people enjoying a complex film? Nolan was being ambitious for sure, maybe overly ambitious, but what makes it wrong for him to make intelligent films that make people think? That's his passion and that's just who he is. And people enjoy his films and enjoying it is the whole point. What the hell is wrong with ye?
you couldn't have picked a better subject for a first video, we need more of these!
2 seconds in and already ITS A CLASSIC
COLLAB WHEN
I say two videos ah week and more in the future
I was confused by your comment cause I know this isn't Ben's first video essay. But then I remembered that it was on a different channel.
I hope you've watched his video about Moneyball on Mr Sunday Movie's channel, it's really great...makes me glad he has his own channel now
Thank you for making this video specifically for me
Your TENET hype's never going to end, is it?
(Don't blame you, Jack ;)
I finally saw Tenet yesterday and this is the first video to accurately capture how electrified I felt by watching this movie, and helped me articulate how and why it did. Thank you!!
The final moment with Neil and the Protagonist hit my emotions like a truck. Especially the line about "for me, this is the end of a great friendship. For you, it's only the beginning."
isnt that directly stolen from doctor who? doctor whos wife travels backwards in time
The more you think about Neil, the more emotional the movie becomes, reaching its full emotional climax when you think about Ives saying, "We end our lives. It's the only way to be sure. But as to *when*... maybe that's every man's decision to make for himself."
Neil's decision is to die for his friend. When a gun is pointed at his head, Neil's decision is to step in front of the bullet. That's how he chooses to die.
"For me, this is the end of a beautiful friendship."
like a firetruck???
who cares
@@bullpup1337 It's also 'stolen' from the story of King Arthur, given that Merlyn lives backwards through time. It even has its own TVtropes page - 'Merlin Sickness'
"The real Tenet was the friends you made along the way..."
That cracked me up so hard. Love it.
me too, wasn't ready for this one XD
The real friends was the Tenet you made along the way.
The real tenet is the new friends you already had.
@@peteryouth what in the fuck.........I am dying
@@peteryouth the real tenet is the friend he has
If it was possible, I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop. Two years later, prepping for Oppenheimer, I have found myself deep diving into Tenet analyses like this one once again. I saw it 3 times in the cinema and countless time since. If it was possible I would just sit and watch this movie on a continuous loop.
It was interesting to rewatch and notice the scene where they talk about Oppenheimer in Tenet, and how "the woman" who created "the algorithm" is essentially her generation's Oppenheimer. It's as if we saw the seed of Nolan's own idea to make his latest film without realising. And it's also like Oppenheimer is a prequel to tenet!
I see what you did there with the first and last sentence of your comment, lol
@@aceman0000099You know what's cool? They have Tenet in reverse on RUclips. The full movie in reverse!! Go watch it man. It's pretty unreal!
@@PopsiCOLE they also have memento in reverse.
It is possible.. You literally could if you wanted to..
I was emotionally unfulfilled after my first viewing of tenet because there was no pulling of my heart strings that Inception has with Cob’s wife. On my second viewing I realized the emotion is subliminal between Washington and Pattinson’s friendship. Imagine finding out that your friend is really a future friend that you mentor and he will eventually mentor you again in this constant overlapping of time like the Dalai lama and Panchen Lama. I think that’s why Pattinson is drunk at their first meeting, he’s emotionally preparing for seeing his old mentor for the “first” time.
I realised on my second viewing how affecting was the last talk between these two. Pattinson knows he must return an die, Washington just realises it too, and he knows that he can't do (and MUSTN'T DO) anything about it and it almost brings tears to his eyes (and to my eyes as well).
Something about the idea of him needing to drink to handle meeting the Protagonist for the "first" time just hits me in the most heartbreaking way 🥺
I can't be the only one thinking that the kid at the end is a younger version of Neil. (Somebody came up with the idea that "Max" was short for "Maximillien" and if so, "Neil" is the last four letter's of Max's name backwards.)
@@eddiejc1 this^!!!
There is no emotion in that movie. It's a bad action movie overlayed with techno mumbo jumbo
Ben: This movie is just Christopher Nolan going ‘THE TEMPORAL PINCER MANOEUVRE! That’s fucked up, wouldn’t that be fucked up?!’
Me: *instant subscribe*
Great analysis!!! But you forgot to mention the subtext: Just like Inception is about filmaking, Tenet is about film watching. The Pincer manouver is just like when you watch a movie for the second time and you already know what's going to happen, and you still feel the same way... This is the underapreciatted genius of Nolan...
Oh, that’s a great point!
HOLY SHIT
You're right, rewatching it is a pincer maneuver!!!
how did you know what was going to happen? Seems like you just assumed it was going to be a happy ending
wtf? daaaamn
i loved how the entire film can be fractally grouped in forward-backward pairs
first half is forward, second half is backwards (while moving the story forwards).
then of the second half the first half of that is forward, and the second half backward
and so it goes smaller and smaller until we reach the raid scene which again works forward to the midpoint and then backwards from there. all the while returning to the very beginning of the whole movie.
to have this type of temporal structure and be able to follow it is extremely exciting.
i noticed the fractal temporal structure about 2/3 into the movie, and while i understood it, it was still a pleasure to watch it unfold. like a virtuoso violinist performing before your eyes.
One of my favorite things about the temporal pincer is how the protagonist doesn't know really anything in the beginning, but as it turns out he's the temporal pincer head honcho and the reason the plot is happening
at the begging he knows nothing, but at the end he knows everything...which means at the beginning, he knows everything...he just doesn't know it yet
@@arogueburrito *Mind-boggling*
@@arogueburrito He truly is the protagonist
Bro was lost taking orders from himself 😂
Well what’s cool about it is that he experiences the events. Commits himself to ensuring that the events continue to unfold that way. Then sends a team to move backwards in time with all of the information he has. Sends another team to ensure that he himself is committed to the mission so that a loop is created to preserve time as it is.
In case no one has mentioned it, JDW's physicality as an actor is probably tied to his background as an NFL RB prospect.
Loved him in ballers glad he’s getting his big break
This is Denzel Washingtons son right
@@mittendemon4493 Yes
whaa. I didn't know that
I've always noted this about Tenet and JDWs performance. JDW actually feels AGGRESSIVE. When he moves he moves with purpose, he does everything as efficiently and as best as he can and it was the first movie I've ever seen that actually drew me to the leads MOVEMENT more than anything, he's just a beast.
Man was denied his hot sauce!!
He really is a brilliant fucking actor. I am finding myself drawn more and more to films with less dialogue and more non-dialogue based acting. I saw JDW in Black Klansman, and, although his approach feels similar (that "aggression" as you call it), he certainly picks his moments, so to speak, very well. I am stoked to see him in more traditional movie roles (I could not get through the writing in that one he did with Zendaya.)
Damn dude well put! I definitely had a similar thought; a lot of JDW’s action has an ‘explosive’ quality - especially the kitchen fight - where you can tell he’s sizing everything up and then he goes HAM for maximum effect
I really liked that about the first Bourne movie, conservation of movement and efficacy.
True, but - unfortunately - his facial expressions don't reflect that. He often comes off as a wide-eyed, fish-out-of-water protagonist, even when it doesn't suit the scene.
I loved it.
This first week it streamed,
I probably watched 5xs.
Your enthusiasm is contagious!
Blacks are always the criminals, poor, in the background, asking questions and subordinate in Hollywood movies. Its an agenda. The China film administration is better than Hollywood. Hollwood really Hates Black on Blacks Love.
This video helped me realize that I actually like Tenet
I love this video because I don’t like tenet but I completely understand why it works for him.
Now thats a temporal pincer movement
You alreeady did.
This totally doesn't make you sound like a person that is easily swayed. /s
@@thetechsite9619 Never learn from other people kiddo. Never change your opinion, doesn't matter how much the new details make sense. Stay ignorant. /s
This video of Tenet perfectly described my experience with tenet, “I don’t know what’s going on, it I love it!”
For me it was “I don’t know what’s going on and I can’t stand it”
I remember being super hyped for this movie when I watched it, the first half was generally disappointing to me but the second half was phenomenal. Then I rewatched it and it became one of my favorites from start to finish. At this point, I think I have seen it 7 times and it never gets old
FULL AGREE
For me it was the complete opposite. Loved the first half, confused by the second but totally in awe. It should've been simplified a little imo.
@@Sujay95 That's a bit hard to achieve here I think. Perhaps the plot might've been a bit too long for the movie, and it's already 2 and a half hours long. I've watched it 5 times I think, needed to watch the second time to actually connect all the dots.
I believe it to be a deliberate act by Christoper Nolan that the film needs be watched multiple times in order to observe, and absorb all the layers of pardox happening.
Almost like red and blue team, your brain is required to already know what's going to happen, in order to see what you missed last time.
@@stonedvillain79 honestly that's not a good thing. If you're required to watch a movie several times just to understand the basic plot, then that's a major flaw in my eyes.
Especially since people were saying (at the time this was coming to theaters) that this movie would need to be good to keep theaters alive.
Thankfully this movies plot didnt kill off theater because of other easily understood movies coming out lol.
Loving stuff is so cool, and your enthusiasm for TENET is so contagious. I love to see TENET with friends who havent seen it and I watch your video everytime to pump me up. Firetrucks man ! Freaking firetrucks !!
The movie title “TENET”, is the TEN minutes temporal pincer movement, both TEN forward and backward met.
Yo
Nice try, but nope. TeneT is a palindrome, it's spelt the same way forwards as it is backwards. That's it.
I like that!
@@Fidel_L.Bousquet1970 why is it called Tenet then
@@dlaniganohara bruh he already answered
JDW’s blackness having no thematic reasoning is such an underrated point
that this is underrated makes it actually overrated if you think twice about it
@@Charizardlison An underrated/overrated pincer maneuver.
@@TheMusicalFruit 🤣
interracial tension between him and the guys wife
It used to be that way in the 70s and 80s before universities became completely corrupted by an ideological cult
I loved the part where the protagonist fights himself for the second time, and the lead up to all of that is awesome. I may not have all of the pieces in place with the whole timeline, but this movie is my favorite because it was a mindfuck and I love it for that.
When I watched it the first time, I was expecting the inverted soldier to be one of Sator’s henchman as I was still wrapping my head around the mechanics of inversion. When he got blown through the shutter door and right into the hands of his past self, it was the biggest jaw drop I’d ever gotten from a movie.
@@richos07 i watched this first time, high as a giraffes vagina, i dont think ive ever been so flabbergasted
@@richos07when i watched it, by that point i barely even understood the existence of sator. i actually assumed itd be the protagonist because that would be the most fun way to take the story!
Just rewatched Tenet for the fourth time, this time in IMAX and this video is perfect. I watched this after the last time I watched Tenet and you made all the pieces come together for the first time. Having that knowledge going into this viewing truly made me realize that this movie is a MASTERPIECE. Great video.
"9 foot goddess energy" is not a term I was expecting to hear today
So accurate lol
I HAVE BEEN YELLING AT BEN SINCE THE MONEYBALL VIDEO TO START A CHANNEL, LETS FUCKING GO DUDE.
Nolan has faith in his audience. I remember the first time I watched this film I knew I wouldn't understand it and I just enjoyed what I could which was still a lot! Films like Tenet and Memento are the best because the more you watch them, the more you appreciate them. The people that get annoyed at Nolan's films because they are too confusing don't understand what makes a good film. If I'm going to pay money to own a movie, it better be worth watching countless times unlike a simple Marvel movie.
He's one of those directors who refuse to dumb down his films for the audience, and I love him for that.
@@RickReasonnzpeople tend to forget that artists make art for themselves first & foremost, they just allow us to experience it.
you shouldnt have to watch a movie multiple times to understand it. Appreciate yes, but understand? no
it costs money and time to watch a movie. If a person has to watch a movie 3 times to understand it, its not a good movie. Shit is expensive. But if people rewatch a movie to appreciate it, then the director did a good job of conveying their vision the first time
Also I love Nolans works, but think Tenet is his weakest.
And no, it doesnt make someone "intellectual" if they "understand" Tenet. No one will be impressed by it. It wont get you a job lol
@@giantqtipz6577 boring take
@@justinmercier293 spoiled kid
Tenet is an extremely emotional movie, people just don't get invested enough in Neil and PT's relationship on first viewing so they miss it. It's gotta be the only movie in existence where someone has to say goodbye to their best friend that is going to die *before they even become best friends.* Once you make this emotional connection, it's honestly really hard not to cry at the end when PT realizes who Neil truly is.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this. Tenet hit me in the feels harder than I think any other movie has. Not only because of what you mentioned (which was already incredibly effective on me personally due to the uniqueness), but also because:
1. We realize Neil had to spend the last (months?) he had with his best friend acting as though they were complete strangers. "The end of a beautiful friendship" indeed.
2. PT now has to go hire and befriend Neil *knowing* that doing so has already gotten Neil killed. Especially since Neil got killed *saving PT,* I can't imagine what kind of guilt one would have to harbor the entire time they're friends. Not to mention the dread that would come from knowing exactly when Neil dies.
I've watched Tenet probably more than 40 times. That scene tears me up every time. Just because there's no love interest in the movie doesn't mean there's no emotion.
@@drv4859 Exactly. There's also the whole thing with Kat being in an (extraordinarily) abusive relationship and PT helping her out of it, protecting her and her kid...etc. There's a lot of heart in Tenet, it's just that there's also a lot of mind-bending amazing spy-sci-fi that conceals it.
I do think Tenet is about this tragedy on multiple different levels. Yet I also feel the opposite, like a triumph.
As in, if Oppenheimer is about the “Triumph and Tragedy”, Tenet is about the “Tragedy and Triumph”.
Like, for Neil, the fact that they will always be best friends. The fact that this is like “ground truth”, it’s just both faith and reality. I feel that Neil is actually pretty happy about it.
@@akirachisaka9997 Couldn't agree more, I think Neil feels extremely proud of what he's doing at the end of the movie. He is the one who comforts PT and not the other way around, even though he's the one who is about to die!! I love what you write about faith and reality, I think this movie is a perfect example of how science and philosophy are both at their best when they're combined and intertwined.
An interesting detail of that scene Ben loves: the Protagonist is on the red fire truck as it merges into traffic that has a couple of blue trucks on it. I’m probably reading too much into it but it’s like the two teams coming together as part of the overall temporal pincer movie
Nice
Yes, Nolan uses blue and red before making it explicit for the final battle
Aaaaaah well spotted. And I am dumb
Also women in red coat before the meeting 14:33 - its intentional
The whole movie has this blue red color coding clues
On the second movie watch it is very noticeable from the very beginning
For small example bag with artefact in Opera is Blue
balaclava mask on "terrorists leader" is clearly Red
- and if it seems random - look at all colors and objects in each scene
all colors dimmed but some specific things sometime has color accent
I doubt you're reading too much into it. Knowing Nolan, even the most minute detail is probably intentional
Great Essay, Ben. Looking forward to more!
Ami!!
@@jonbaxter2254 my
The synthesizer being pushed down in audio by the kick drum is an actual mixing technique known as sidechaining, it's often used in dance music or electronic music. Great work as always Ben!
He probably knew that, considering his latest track is a very well made electronic track, likely he just didn't wanna get incredibly technical lol
I'm pretty sure the base sound is actually orchestral strings played backwards?
It’s actually one of the technics that made Daft Punk so inspiring for a whole generation of producers (electronic music or not).
The Robots didn’t invent Sidechaining, but they did it so freaking well and so on point that it made the brains of actual connoisseurs implode all over the world.
It takes a lot of music (and branding) knowledge to understand how much care and perfectionism these guys have put into every single detail of their craft.
To the point of not looking like sane human beings.
A bit like Fincher or Nolan: everyone can tell they’re good and enjoy their pieces, but one needs technical knowledge about the craft to understand how good they actually are.
It’s funny because besides being worldwide famous and globally recognized beyond their music genre and even beyond their art form (having worked with or for some great movie directors, photographers, Haute Couture brands, etc) Daft Punk are still kind of underrated by the masses.
@@GuillaumeRx AMEN
I’ve been wondering how this has been done for years, thanks for finally helping me put a term to it!
8:44 - “this film is an intellectual exercise” - thank you for explaining why I FREAKING LOVE THIS MOVIE.
I just don't get the enjoyment of trying to make sense of something that doesn't make sense...
All with dialogue that sounds like the actors are under water. Because you know... art.
are you open to a talk about this movie?
@austridge31 For some people the enjoyment is in figuring something out. People don't always want to just see or hear an interesting idea, they want to engage with it like a conversation. The sound thing is becoming a problem though.
@@fibanocci314 well said! And spot on.
This movie is my top 10! Anyone needing anything answered on this movie drop a comment
This was an INCREDIBLE analysis. For what it's worth, the sweeping fades that are played during the truck heist are created by reversing a note into itself. The synths are played backward, then forward. The soundtrack is a temporal paradox.
I didnt care for tenet, and something nerd writer did reminded me why. "When spectacle eclipses story"
@@DegenerateSpeculator Neil Degrasse? Why does he always say that
This does not make it a good movie. The story is bullshit, the characters and their motivations is bullshit. Therefore, the whole movie is bullhit. It's easy.
At the end, the reversed Blue Team action sequences have a reversed music soundtrack
I think you like the word "temporal" more than you understand the word "paradox"
I Loved this film, but then again I watched it on HBO Max with subtitles on and the ability to rewind whenever something was too wtf to grasp in real time. The ability to go back in time and rewind the movie was clutch, as I did a temporal pincer maneuver of my own in trying to understand this film.
Yeah I really hated the film because I watched it in the cinema and the sound mixing was soo god awful I couldn't understand what they were saying enough to only understand what was going on a very superficial level.
@@impyrobot I've seen some analysis of the film on here talking the sound mixing and after seeing that, it's understandable and it actually fit in well when you see it at that perspective
I did exactly this.
“Too wtf to grasp in real time…” - ive never heard a more perfect alternate expression for the term “confused”
This movie is extremely insulting to the intellect. It's contrived nonsense. Pattinson was great though.
Personally think that the final Neil/Protagonist scene is one of the more emotionally engaging and interesting scenes in his career along with interstellar and the cillian murphy scene in inception
the most outside interstellar for me, it's true love in a brotherly way
@@uchihagaeshi1169 word
makes me tear up everytime
I think I’ve watched this film 30 times this year alone. I absolutely love it so much.
One of the greatest realizations I had is that we are experiencing everything for the first time, just as the protagonist is. I appreciated JDW’s performance so much more when I realized every conversation, situation, experience, everything, he was experiencing it for the first time as the protagonist. I mean, the movie starts with him having just enough knowledge at the opera house. He later just gets in a car and hits go on the gps. It’s throughout the whole film and he did such a great job acting like his character is just trying to put the pieces together, LIKE US!
Heck yeah. I've watched it so many times... Sometimes even watching it again right after watching it lol. Such a fantastic film I love it so much.
If nothing else, this video reignited my boyish love for firetrucks.
FIRETRUCKS FUCKING ROCK
FUCK YEAH FIRETRUCKS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck yeah, go fire trucks! They really fuck up those fires !
Lol
YESS!!!😅
The first time you watch it you're seeing it through the eyes of the Protagonist, the second time you're seeing it through Neils eyes. The Protagonist doesn't know what's going to happen in his future, he doesn't know if the bomb is gonna go off and neither do we, its a new experience to us and we're just as confused as the Protagonist. But when we watch it the second time we know how the movie plays out and so does Niel, he knows the bomb isn't going to go off or he wouldn't be there to stop it, and we know the bomb won't go off because we've seen the end of the film before, in a way Niel has seen the end of the film and he's experiencing it exactly as we are, he's an actor playing a role as you say.
We might feel like this movie has no stakes when we understand it, but isn't that true of every movie? Once you've finished a movie you know how it ends, but you still rewatch it because of the ride. In Tenets case there were never any stakes in the first place, but as we're watching we feel that there are, until in the end its revieled that there were never any stakes in the first place. You might feel kinda cheated, but the point of the movie is how you see it in your perspective.
You hit the mail on the head with this one. Tenet absolutely has to be watched twice to fully appreciate what’s going on.
The first time I watched it I was ambivalent towards it, the second time I watched, I was riveted. This is an excellent film, I wish more people gave it that much needed second viewing.
@@danilejai7801 It’s a bit like The Prestige, once you know how the trick works you see the movie completely differently. You realize you weren’t watching closely, like you were told to in the beginning. Nolan is the GOAT.
@@the5thgeneral That movie was better than tenet.
You're giving me way too much credit in knowing what was going to happen the 2nd time watching it.
In the word of a Southern accented James Bond: "Makes no goddamed sense, compels me tho".
Lmao
🤣🤣
Benoit Blanc
@@dennisreynolds6196 LMAO yes
Dude, this was a great breakdown. Tenet is a magic trick that I don’t want to know how it’s done. Just sit back and enjoy the mind boggling
Well... I'm watching Tenet again tonight. And Chef.
is Chef worth the watch? i dont really care for Jon Favreau
@@dorianjareth9198 a predictable fairytale movie but is a feel good one. If you're having a bad day, go for it. I also watch weird movies but they make me feel good, like garden state on a gloomy monsoon day
@@dorianjareth9198 it’s a fun movie, worth at least one watch. Nothing too deep, just a good detox movie if you’ve been watching heavy stuff
"I'm only about 37% stupid" is a mood I can understand 😆
it should be 31% stupid and 69% smart
It's crazy how many times ive rewatched Tenet now, even though after the first viewing I was like 'not nolans best movie'. It's truly a new type of movie experience and gets better after every rewatch. Nolan's ahead of the cinema game, he's doing mind blowing sci fi on a large scale that's based on modern theoretical scientific concepts and problems that have no real answers.
Can't wait to see what he does next.
p.s really glad someone else was so taken with that specific shot / music. I'm listening to that song in the OST over and over.
That shot hit so hard in the theatre, particularly IMAX. It's a favourite of mine for that reason as well, it's so damn good.
And man, it's a bummer how many people write the movie off after one viewing, you literally can't appreciate it only having watched it once, I was so insanely confused after my first go but in a way that made me want to understand.
I didn't even start really understanding the mechanics until the fifth watch, and I only figured out the interrogation room and how that worked on like the 8th watch. But it's so damn worth it to rewatch until you understand, then once you do you wonder how you didn't get it. I wish I could wipe my memory and watch it again for the first time.
My absolute favorite detail and trick nolan plays on us is with neil. The knowledge he’s privvy to really makes it seem like hes a double agent, and the film naturally leads you to believe that. What a marvel of a film
One of the really interesting things about the movie is that we never find out who the people from the future who want to use the algorithm are. It could easily be the characters in the film, if they changed their minds later on!
If you guys never notice that Neil was basically the main plot
@@Nation_of_Imagination not upon first viewing.
@@Nation_of_Imagination Neil's entire life is a pincer maneuver. It gets even gnarlier if you assume he is also Max (it's arguable, but I do).
The greatest thing about this movie to me is realizing that in the end, the protagonist probably realized he’ll have an ally in the future of whom he *KNOWS* he can trust him because he already knows him and he already knows that he’ll be saved by him. Because let’s face it, how intensely reassuring would it be to know, with 100% certainty, you can trust a *”stranger”* you’ve only just met? To have someone you’ve only known for a couple of weeks making you feel like you’ve known him for more than a decade…
and he sent his friend to be an ally of his past.
That is really interesting when you compare it to a series like Counterpart. In counterpart, which deals with parallel dimensions instead of time travel, the central tenet (heh) seems to be that multiple versions of the same person would inevitably go to war if their timelines didn't progress equally (ie a man's wife dies, but he knows she is alive and well in another dimension with his counterpart. So, rather than accepting her death, he attempts to go to the other world and replace his doppelganger).
Dang love your dialogue pacing. The “I love firetrucks” part is 10/10
...why? It makes no point about why this movie is supposed to work in his opinion.
It makes the point that the hype-o-meter is cranked up to 1000 amidst the whole time-reversal mindfuckery and that conveys a genuine feeling of excitement about the movie that contributes to how the movie worked for him and a lot of other people
To explain the temporal pincer, we first have to understand parallel universes…
Hey, TimTom! (first by the way lol)
Except whether parallel universes exist, has never been proven.
Not really.
Its not about parallel universe its about time reversing concept. There were two timelines moving simultaneously but in opposite directions.
Actually you don't at all, TENNET's concept is different from the (in my opinion) overused, just as unbelievable and nonsensical concept that is parallel universes. It's all bs time only goes in one direction.
I like the mention you made about puzzles early on, because it suddenly clicked in my brain: Nolan basically made a film that frustrates people because it's not like most movies, which are essentially puzzle that show the solution on the box; Tenet is a puzzle that you only understand as it's put together, and our stand-in (JDW) is a self-aware puzzle piece that spends the journey discovering where he fits, and the broader picture along with us.
Maybe that's not what Nolan intended, but I think it's very cool; I watch enough movies that I don't often rewatch them, and I appreciate Nolan's craftmanship in making films absolutely worth returning to.
You're onto something. I think there's something cheeky in the fact that he literally calls himself the Protagonist, and that his redemption arc is to save a woman named Kat. Aside from anything else, it feels like a deconstruction of "movie." The triumphant ending is inevitable, yet that's not an excuse not to invest. It's just faith in the mechanics of the medium.
“John David Washington doesn’t bring any baggage.”
To be fair, nobody noticed that the British spec ops guy with a beard was kick-ass.
COWBOY SHIT
I did BUT he has done a lot of movies as a badass so wasn’t baggage to me
Crazy how Aaron Taylor Johnson as Ives looks nothing like he did in Kick-Ass
It's such a shame how underrated this movie is. I wish more people were open to concepts that might be unorthodox. I find it extremely frustrating explaining to people why I love this movie because people just don't "get it". They have to want to get it in order to do so, and most people probably entered the cinema with an expectation of an action movie like Batman.
I watched this movie thrice on cinema, and it just gets better. The details and logic of the concept is extremely well thought through, not to mention that even coming up with a concept like this is astounding. It is literally just time travel but with the requirement to actually physically move to where you want to be instead of jumping there like all other sci-fi.
Correct: sometimes it’s about the mystery not the answer
The average person can't even grasp the concept, that's why tenet failed. I watched it like five times, twice on the cinema. Easily one of the best sci-fy movies ever made.
It's a movie with no compelling characters, no actual theme or philosophical ideas presented, vague main plot that wasn't explored properly, action scenes that were designed to be unintuitive and hard to follow, and yes some times even christopher nolan forgot how inversion works. It's a shit film with a good premise, that's all.
Just watched this in the imax rerelease. So fun. I actually love how the protagonist doesnt have a back story. To me it like a POV almost like playable character in a video game.
The experience of Tenet in a nutshell: I have no idea wtf just happened but goddamn it was cool as shit.
Then watch Primer. When I finally thought "wait a second, this is starting to make sense" the end credits began to roll. 😂
It's the best movie about time travel I've seen (not counting Tenet), and it had a ridiculously low budget. And the acting was also great for a bunch of amateurs. Don't worry if you understand very little on your first watch, this is normal, do some research online before watching it again if you want, download a timeline chart, whatever you might think will help you.
I like to think that the audience experience of watching Tenet was also kind of a temporal pincer maneuver. On your first watch you move forwards through time, confused by everything happening and just gathering information. Then, on your second watch, you already know what's happened and you're just piecing together the pregathered info from the film. You move from past to future on your first watch then become inverted on the rewatch. Of course it can't really be paradoxical because you can't tell your first watch self what's going to happen, but I like to imagine that Nolan planned for the film to be watched like the characters lived it. Playing with time as a concept at every level.
@@stactionsmedia3318 ok you're entitled to that opinion but in mine the film does accomplish telling a story by the end, and that story (which is very complex) becomes clearer on a second watch for the reasons I said. If you're going to argue that good films shouldn't need to be re watched for a deeper understanding then I don't know what to say because that's pretty much untrue. It's not as simple as it seems, you just didn't enjoy it and that's perfectly fine. Maybe don't click on a video praising it then
@@stactionsmedia3318 yeah, you have no idea what you're talking about. If you "understand" a film after seeing it once, it's garbage. This doesn't even have anything to do with Tenet, it's just a fact. Every good film requires investigation, any director would tell you that. Sorry, your opinion is objectively wrong and childishly silly.
@@chanceseverson the thing is, its not just very complex, its borderline impossible, as always when trying to portray a paradox. i would say the film is good, but not for the reason, that you can try to unravel this paradox completely by watching it multiple times. yes you can understand parts based on the proposed concept of time travel, however this is limited and in my opinion if you try to understand the entire movie or think you do your just stupid. Nolan himself couldn't make sense of this and actually explain everything because its time travel and its not possible like this.
You can however try to understand as much as possible based on the underlying concept and just enjoy the awesome cinematography!!
@@stactionsmedia3318 you’re just not smart enough to understand the movie.
@@stactionsmedia3318 I just enjoyed the movie and had my own theory it really doesn't go deeper then that. If you didn't like it you didn't like it, I'm not claiming it has anything to do with intelligence
The cinematography of this movie is so perfect.
I think when it’s revealed that the lead character assisting the main character is actually his best friend but he doesn’t know it until the moment before he dies was incredibly emotional. And that’s even more clever because when you watch it the second time, you really are emotionally invested in these characters and this friendship
Finally someone who appreciated this movie as much as me. I've seen it 10 times now.
I saw it 16 times in theatres, it's too damn good. And looks absolutely spectacular in Laser IMAX.
I've lost count because I would literally watch it going to sleep, keep it on in the background, listen to the score while working out. Tenet is more for me then other movies it's not something I've been able to put into words but this video calling it a game seems appropriate. I hope more people interact with this movie the way I have and there can be more high budget interactive movie mind puzels in the future.
@@natf7942 if you would have seen it in a regular theatre you wouldn't have been able to hear shit
@@bitchface235 I saw it in a regular theatre once and heard things well enough.
"I've seen it 10 times now"
Obviously, that's how many times you've gotta watch it to understand whats going on!
Joking...I liked it too, but I had to watch it twice to pick up what I missed the first time, where as Interstellar and Inception I got instantly. Its the only thing that bummed me out a little.
This is absolutely the way I see the movie, I feel like Ben's distilled my feelings coming away from the movie and I'm absolutely rewatching the film tonight because of this. This is a fantastic debut video for sure.
"Tenet almost refuses to make sense or generate the tension that we might expect and we might need. It's designed for us to observe the temporal pincer maneuver and watch all of it's parts perform and feed into each other"
It's an MC Escher drawing made into a movie.
Only two films I know have done that; The Fountain and Tenet.
Til this day, I have not seen more than 2 soldiers from Andrei Sator's army. Red team & blue team pretty much running & shooting at No one.
@@mr8883 no, they were obviously hired by two competing siblings in a gravel mining empire to duke it out between themselves perpetually using clones, weird teleportation devices and rockets
I think the best interpretation of this is "What if you were a character in a movie, but you knew you were in a movie and didn't know the outcome?" and the entire movie is about our protagonist discovering that he is the protagonist. However Nolan really likes playing with the perception of time in his movies as he'll bring scenes from the end, the middle, and the beginning, and put them together. He made a board where his movie time is U-Shaped (or honestly more s-shaped because movies do have a beginning, middle, and end) instead of linear. And so this entire movie is really just a meta commentary on that where he just decided to do it literally instead of figuratively by playing with scenes. It's about grappling with the unchangeable future as you cannot engage in a temporal pincer without already having grappled with this and acted upon it accordingly.
I was looking for someone who thought the same. I personally bought into the conceit of the movie as it's own temporal pincer for the viewer. That there are two protagonists. JDW and Neil. The first time you watch you're expereincing the movie in a linear fashion, grasping onto the idea that a comprehension of events will lead to a resolution you want rather than the resolution that has/is going to happen.
The second time I felt like I was experiencing the movie as Neil would, knowing all the general plot points and exactly how things were going to pan out while still not fully grasping the implications of this. Just as Neil plays along and guides the course of actions with his participation, I too was playing along and guiding the course by actively participating in a second viewing.
I don't know why people hate the idea of the main character being called the Protagonist or his (seeming) lack of character development when it was quite clear from the beginning that he was a suave, no bullshit ass kicking proxy for the viewer.
I was even half tempted to invert the movie and watch it backwards before watching it for a second time for the full Neil experience, but there's a thin line between being a fan and being a madman.
I agree with the core premise of the movie. I was a bit confused when people got miffed at the line "Don't try to understand it, feel it.". The scene was telling us not to lose sight of the experience over second guessing the mechanics behind the experience. It even had a video representation of what's to come.
Rather I would say the entire movie is about our protagonist discovering that he is the director/producer.
@@danielrafferty4108 thank you for writing this
@@stactionsmedia3318 for someone with the word “Media” in the channel name you have a remarkable lack of understanding regarding the topic. The movie is put together in a way that allows you too see the story from a new perspective on the second watch. This is a masterfully crafted piece of art. Not every movie has to be like a marvel movie. It seems as though you just don’t get a long with sophisticated and original filmmaking, since I was able to understand the movie just fine.
@@stactionsmedia3318 Then you’ll probably understand how hard it is for me to relate to that perspective as I understood the movie just fine on the first watch. With that said, this is most likely due to the fact that I was already aware of how the movie had been received by the masses. I don’t think the movie is even remotely a mess, it just makes you figure it out. I believe this is why I enjoyed the film so much, I felt like I was piecing everything together alongside the protagonist.
The movie is just a little bit sophisticated for a casual audience and since Nolan’s movies are so mainstream, this was the result.
This movie sounds like a really good book.
I concur...
And that book is called The Peripheral by William Gibson.
Not exactly, but sort of.
I wish they would make a book out of it
I greatly disliked Tenet. Yet I've watched it at least 7 times and will gladly watch it again. Congratulations Nolan. You created your paradox.
After discovering and measuring love, the advanced humans from Interstellar used a black hole to bestow upon you inverted love for this film.
Agree. Watched it twice back to back the first day. And I was also slightly disappointed with the first viewing, but man, Nolan created a closed loop, and I got stuck.
Best comment ever 🤣
@@stactionsmedia3318 you either haven't seen it at all or are incredibly dumb and willfully so. It took me a total of 3 watches to fully understand every detail, but one watch was enough to understand the main points and to decide that I enjoyed it. You don't have to like the film, but don't try to complain that it's somehow Nolan's fault that you failed to understand what he put out.
@@stactionsmedia3318You think you understand movies but you don't.
This video is spot on. It is so fun to rewatch tenet and spot all details and try to put together the temporal pincer strategies.
9:58 speaking about baggage! Robert Pattinson also did an amaaaazing job considering my baggage with him is the entire Twilight series, Harry Potter, and The Batman (I watched Tenet after Batman). Maybe because his hair was blond and he was tan, but I didn't see him as Edward Cullen or Bruce Wayne at all. And those characters were huge main characters! It didn't even cross my mind while I was watching the movie. He really sinks into his roles.🍿💯
He was great as Batman but sucked as Bruce Wayne.
Tbf he was larping Christopher Hitchens which helps.
look him up, hes....got a way of speaking thats very very distinct
Pattinson clearly took inspiration
Lighthouse 100% got rid of the Pattinson baggage for me.
@@OoJohnisbackoOhe was talking the way Debicki speaks and also dyed his hair to be more like hers. It's part of an implication that he's her son Max.
Yea same
best quote of this video: "this blaring army of synthesisers is consistently pushed backed by the kick drum, like chaos firmly under control"
Also known as sidechain.
this movie is a classic bromance movie, in the end when the protagonist finally realized it's him who recruited neil, ngl that is really awesome
Man, I saw this movie for the first time on its IMAX re-release, going into it with the "Vibes movie" mentality that RUclipsr Patrick Willems espoused, and I gotta say... I think it's my #2 favorite Nolan film. And I like all his movie! But wow, it was just so... different from anything I have ever seen. Ugh, my wife and I were going on and on about it for like 2 days after because we couldn't stop discussing all the timelines and implications. Such a fun experience.
Edit: OMG YOU TALKED ABOUT HIS RUNNING. Yes!!!! I noticed this! He has this full-body intensity in his physical performance that I don't think I've even seen Tom Cruise equal. I think it comes from his football background. But yeah, whenever he's on the move, he is ON. THE. MOVE. There is something SO satisfying about it.
Also, in a movie space that is so white-centric still, his skin was SO well-lit. Just gorgeous cinematography and it's so great to see with a Black lead.
well said, 100% agree on all counts
This analysis has single-handedly made me want to watch Tenet again. Awesome!
@@stactionsmedia3318 well that's ur opinion. Because rather than having a cliche movie over and over and over again which gets kinda boring... Like endgame wasn't all that great to me because in the end the good guys never lose... This movie is different... What if you were a character in a movie, but you knew you were in a movie and didn't know the outcome?" the entire movie is about our protagonist discovering that he is the protagonist. You can watch it the first time through the protagonist P.O.V and then you can watch it again in Neils P.O.V... If I go and watch endgame, or The Batman (which are all great movies don't get me wrong) It won't be exciting, it won't be interesting because I know what's going to happen. This movie really keeps you invested in it and that is why its differently better than most movies, it's fine if you don't call it a masterpiece but to me, this is a Gold Jem in a haystack. But... again its all opinion. To say that Nolan failed to translate his vision tho? is quite the stretch. It's more like CAN YOU the viewer understand? And if you can't watch it again. and again. and again. Because you will always find something new and interesting to enjoy, what also makes the movie better than others is that EVERY NEW meaning will help piece the puzzle one way or another Nolan is excellent at that placing small but significant clues in a movie. To say that the meanings probably have nothing to do with the movie is wrong because everything is linked with each other in one way or another. Time travel in cinema is always a crowd pleaser, but Tenet puts a fresh spin on it that doesn't feel outlandish or forced. The use of 'inversion' is an ingenious concept - one that's hard to get your head around without seeing - and something that makes this film such a must-watch.
"And at the end of this grand experiment, Travis Scott says..."
I lost a lung laughing
SKRRT SKRRT
Someone’s gonna have to essplain dis one out for me…
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
my favorite moment/easter egg, and it's not until you watch it a second time, was when Neil and the protagonist first meet in the hotel lobby in Mumbai. Neil orders another vodka tonic and orders a diet coke for the protagonist. The protagonist tells Neil, "FYI i prefer soda water" then Neil smirks and says "No, you don't"
I also love how the music in that scene feels kinda ‘nostalgic’ if thats the right word. It doesnt seem to match the idea of their first meeting, but of course its because this is a reunion
@@watchdominion00 YES!!! It's the Neil's theme music in the movie, it is nostalgic all the time whenever his scenes come and it only makes sense because for him everything is just revisiting old times! :'D
Yeah, I remember that, that’s when he meets Neil for the first time, but Neil has known him for so much longer
Did you notice when they “met” in the theater opening scene? During the raid and ensuing gun battle, an unknown agent shoots one of the immediate threats to the protagonist and promptly turns and walks away, like he had just shown up to shoot that one guy. Notice his backpack as he turns to leave.
@@ReadABookAndLearn That was actually the last guy he shot. On a third watch, I realized Neil was the one picking key shooters off in the background. He shoots 2+ people chasing Protag, so he can successfully collect the bombs.
"Like chaos firmly under control." 😢 *sniffs* That was beautiful.
Washington's performance was one of best parts of the movie. I didn't realize he was Denzel's son
It was literally the worst part, so boring and devoid of any character. Robert Pattinson however was insanely phenomenal.
You kidding me? Sounds exactly like him.
You should watch Blackkklansman, he's even better in that
People with 0 criteria lol. This guy is like Ben affleck they dont act they are just themselves, crappy actors tbh
@@DashzRight stop 🤣 he wasn't acting as himself
There's actually a theory about Sator's real employers.
I think it's a really good one, which would've added even more to the movie if Nolan had explored it.
So, Tenet is basically a paradox movie in which the past and the future affect each other mutually, with a table spoon of time loops.
The theory goes like this: Sator was wrong thinking he had been hired by some bad guys from the future in order to assemble all the pieces of the algorithm and bury it in Stalsk-12 explosion. In fact, he was hired for this job by the Protagonist (from the future).
Think of it this way (keep in mind the paradoxical nature of the movie): the future version of the Protagonist was guiding the Sator from the past (using the instructions, buried in radioactive hot spots of the planet) to assemble the algorithm and send it into the future to the alleged 'bad people'. Yet the Tenet guys steal it from the hypocenter and keep it until the future Tenet guys (I'd say involving the 'Oppenheimer' scientist) revert it once again, so that the algorithm would travel back into the past. In the past, Sator is tasked by the Protagonist to assemble it and the whole thing starts over and over again.
This way, we get a closed time loop that reminds me of a 'hot potato' - the Algorithm is kept relatively safe within a specific period of time between some point in the past and some point in the future, where everyone does their predetermined job and the Algorithm travels back and forth in time so that no one could really get a hold of it and use it.
P.S. there's also a nice side theory that would add to the palindrome structure of the movie - at some point in the future, the Protagonist sacrifices himself to save Neil, so Neil travels back in time to save the Protagonist by getting shot in the face, lol.
tl;dr It was the Protagonist who hired the Sator from the past to assemble the algorithm and send it into the future, only for it to be reverted again into the past, so that the Algorithm never falls into the wrongs hands.
This is literally the only explanation that makes any sense of the movie. I thought that in terms of a time travel movie it was a hot mess. The action is amazing, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the paradoxes. The thing is there is no paradox, the tape is played, it reads it forward for some backward for another, but nothing can change, it's locked. The only problem is that there are nested time loops that can build out to infinity. So I guess that is the job. counter every loop. Sounds exhausting.
@@johnboynb Christopher Nolan did a time travel movie with no paradox. That's the insane thing. The black guy is the one who created Tenet, he's the one who hired Sator yes, he is the one behind it all. Why ?
To stop the apocalypse in the future.
I wanna read this fanfiction now. It totally works as an explanation too, I was always wondering why the people from the future (who would be trying to stop the OTHER people from the future from destroying the world) would want to send the pieces back in time rather than, you know, destroy them! But since this can be undone (and probably was before it even happened) an infinite stable loop of deployment preventions it is actually probs the only viable way to keep it from being detonated. It's in line with the whole pincer movement too and with the "where does the info come from" paradox, since the protagonist doesn't know what ultimately happened, he just realises it's up to him to make sure it works that way.
the part about there being no bad guys from the future doesn't make sense, but the idea that the Protagonist has long ago sacrificed himself for Neil is brilliant. (we know he can do that - he sacrifices himself at the beginning of the movie)
@@solakendend5866 There are some minor plot holes in the way time travel works though, for example when an inverted person or object is damaged by a non-inverted weapon or vice versa, sometimes the one receiving the damage gets more and more hurt up until the time they are hit at which point they are "healed" (like with inverted Protagonist getting stabbed by his non-inverted self), at other times they are fine until they are hit and then are injured/dead (think about how the ending would have been experienced from Neil's perspective, or what happened to Kat when she was shot by Sator's inverted gun). Also the way the future people deliver gold to Sator doesn't really make sense--if the future people bury a crate full of inverted gold in like 2300 AD, and Sator digs it up (without inverting it) on say Jan. 1 2019 AD, where is the gold on Jan. 2 2019? Still in the ground waiting to be dug up one day in the future from its perspective, or already dug up and in Sator's hands? If they're going by the fixed timeline theory it can't be both.
Enjoyed this a lot. I was the guy also urging my friends to watch the movie more than once. It’s like a completely different experience. This video makes me want to watch it again, because fire trucks ARE cool
This is the best movie review I have ever seen in my life and also very educational because to this day I still don’t know what the movie was about
Chris Nolan is so smart he decided to make a cult movie and it dekrow.
Dekrow?
@@katarishigusimokirochepona6611 Worked
@@strahljd Uoy knaht.
@@strahljd LoL
*it was never understood 🤣
The best part is that the pace of the movie is so good when the protagonist itself is like the audience figuring it out one point at a time and when you do figure it out in the end it’s such a great release wow
JDW in Tenet made me forget his dad was Denzel but now you realize when your dad is the Equalizer, ofc you’re the Protagonist and run Tenet! 🤘🏽
It’s funny talking about John David Washington running because he was literally an nfl running back
Yes, and it shows. That how a running back runs too.
I loved the movie. Watched it three times already
Videoidee: Tenet auf LSD schauen :D
Same, it’s actually so incredible
Mein junge gib dem anime "Redline" eine chance
rookie shit, Try 9
Shitty ass movie
Omg!... when someone states a point or saids a thing that you didn’t know how to express or explain, it is an entire different level of just being cathartic... Ben from Canada God dam I’m so happy that I know why I love this movie
THANK YOU!!! That timeline you put up I literally made it in my head it was so amazing to see. I love this film. Amazing work!
Your analysis of John David Washington’s acting is spot on. I thought he was brilliant, suave, and fierce as you mentioned and I can’t wait to see him in more films.
@@stactionsmedia3318 Agree. It may be an interesting concept, but it doesn't make the audience care about anything they are watching. If I don't care about about the characters, plot, if there is no real message for the film, why would I ever re-watch this? Maybe it works for a small small audience, but I think this films fatal flaw is that it just doesn't make it's audience care about what is happening, and doesn't even bother to attempt to make us care. For me, that constitutes a poor movie, regardless of who made it. This film was most fun for the filmmaker and nobody else.
he was the most bland actor I'd ever seen.
13:48 This is the kind of in-depth analysis I came here for. You just earned yourself a new subscriber.
I loved it, honestly wasn't even hard to understand for me, im sure I missed a bunch. The song on the pattinson talk with the art guy was deliberately done to show pattinson didn't care about what he said and was focusing on everything in the room to get knowledge of the room setup.
I may be alone but I liked this more than inception
I put this movie as the most Nolanest movie he ever created! And yes, I get the purpose of loud music scene while walking with gallery guy, can't underatand why nobody understand that subtlety.
Glad I'm not alone in that sentiment. Nothing in that whole scene was relevant except what kind of people used it that gallery, and how the doors worked. The rest was just blah blah, oh my this music is a banger
I would have loved to watch this movie with you guys..
I've watched it more times than Inception
I’m pretty sure everyone knows you weren’t supposed to hear the dialogue in that scene, but there’s so many other scenes where you’re supposed to be able to hear what characters are saying, and just... can’t
This is and will always be an insanely underrated and misunderstood film. So sad, its kind of an example how film makers aren't rewarded for taking chances. Its hard for me to even explain this so well done for trying, but when I watch it, it makes perfect sense.
Love it for the first time i saw it. Now i watched Tenet like 5 times and loved even more. This movie is a treasure
Once I understood Tenet is meant to be a "palandromic" viewing, it became easier to understand what Nolan was going for. I can't recall if other reviewers or critics who made essays on Tenet ever pointed it out or if it's that obvious, but the inspiration for the movie was how the Sator Square is a palindrome, so the movie plays out as sort of a palindrome with how the events play out. The puzzle aspect comes with how you can catch all the details happening in the background in when you rewatch it, like when you re-read a palindrome forwards and backwards.
Ya, I'm not sure why this isn't mentioned more often. The title of the movie is a literal palindrome.
@@HockeyNinja13 it's not mentioned because it's obvious
@@sirthursday6159 legit I am very smart material lmao. The whole issue with tenet is thinking it’s so smart but it’s not it’s fucking dumb
@@HockeyNinja13 im sorry, it need to be mentioned? Haha
@@HockeyNinja13 It's not only a famous palindrome, it's a unique word that isn't used elsewhere, so Google takes you right to it. Well, now it finds the movie. But try "Tenet palindrome"
FWIW, the Sator Square was brought up at-length as videos after the movie was announced.
I watched TeneT when it came out in an empty theater (except 1 old man in the corner) and I loved it. The action sequences were fantastic and the inverse action new. I'd lie if I told you that I understood all of it, but once you let go of the complicated inverted tech, it becomes a fun and visually stunning action film.
The old man was you from the future.
@@crupt1023 He was wearing a weird oxygen mask...
@@crupt1023 good one 😂
One of the best moments watching it the 2nd time and after is the final battle. The scene showing the helicopters both arriving and leaving is the focus. If you look down on the ground watching the explosion from the air, you can see Neil pulling them out of the hole, which is brilliant.
this is just a professional team that screens for continuity errors.. not brilliant or anything..
@@Charizardlison no dude, it's pretty fucking brilliant
I need to save your video link and send it to every mf that says they didnt like tenet, I personally got obsessed with it after first watch and now I have seen the movie like 10 times and never watched a video about it, this is my first, i just wanted to wrap my head around the concept of time in the movie and it was great once you have everything figured out, truly the best movie for me
The "firetrucks are so cool" part really sold this video for me.
Your content is brilliant. Also you are so good at explaining things, i have watched a few of your videos already! Can’t believe you only have 77k subs, this channel is very underrated
"Brilliant" is definitely the word.
Informative too - Up until watching this, I hadn't realised that John David was Denzel's boy. Thanks Ben From Canada.
This is the best film review/exposition I've ever watched. Amazing. Great work!