Meaning of the film Tenet: Ending Explained: The Biggest WTF Questions Answered. Among the new films of 2020, the film Tenet deserves special attention, in which the meaning of the picture remains a mystery until the very end. The logical chain of this dizzying puzzle is built quite difficult. Unlike many films, the director does not give direct explanations. Therefore, each viewer perceives the meaning of the film Tenet in his own way.
Synopsis for the movie Tenet
The idea of the creator of the film – director Christopher Nolan – is quite complex. While watching, the viewer has to follow several timelines at the same time. Therefore, in order to understand the meaning of the film Tenet, you need to briefly recall the plot of the film.
The main characters of the film:
- The protagonist is a CIA agent;
- Neil is a British special agent;
- Andrei Sator is a Russian oligarch, a ruthless and dangerous person;
- Kat is Sator’s wife.
The protagonist, trying to avoid capture after the failure of another operation, gets to the members of the mysterious organization “Tenet”. They invite him to participate in the operation to save the world.
In the future, the world is rapidly moving towards destruction. Descendants consider the actions of their ancestors to be the cause of the ecological catastrophe. Therefore, a special agency is being created, seeking to destroy the past. Members of this organization are confident that by rewriting the past, they will save the future, their real world.
A French scientist tells the protagonist about a mysterious technology – inversion, developed in the future. The process of inverting is the ability for people to move in the reverse time period.
As a child, Satoru accidentally fell into the hands of an Algorithm hidden by a brilliant scientist from the future. With his help, the terminally ill Sator is going to invert entropy to destroy the world.
The task of the Protagonist is to prevent the oligarch by taking away the Algorithm. To find out the location of the deadly mechanism, the Protagonist meets Andrei’s wife Kat. The protagonist is helped by Nile, sent to him from the future.
To neutralize the Algorithm, two commands are sent – a normal one and an inverted one. In real time, the Reds, led by the Protagonist, acted, in inverted time, the Blues with Nile acted. The time interval of both groups was the same and was 10 minutes. At the same time, the red team counted the time in ascending order, while the blue team – in descending one.
Interesting! The original name of the painting “Tenet” consists of two words denoting ten – ten and net.
The purpose of the blue group is to clear the area from Sator and his people. The task of the Reds is to take the Algorithm. During the operation, Andrei wounds Kat. The protagonist and Neil invert the woman to save Kat.
In the finale, the heroes manage to take possession of the Algorithm, preventing the destruction of the world.
What is the meaning of the movie Tenet?
The main meaning of the film Tenet in the first minutes of the film is quite difficult to understand. This film needs to be watched carefully. The picture is replete with many scientific theories, which the viewer does not have the opportunity to double-check. Some moments change so quickly that the viewer does not have time to analyze each episode in detail.
Interesting! Music helps to understand what is happening. In places where inversion is used, the melody is played backwards.
In the film, the director raises several themes at once:
- saving the world;
- environmental problems;
- woman’s deliverance from domestic tyranny;
- relationship between people.
But the main thing that the author of the film tried to convey was that the use of any technology carries a great responsibility.
Emotion and momentary desires should not influence the actions of people in whose hands the fate of the world is. But a person is weak, not always able to pacify feelings and be guided only by logic. Therefore, the use of such technologies may be too dangerous for humanity.
The hidden meaning of the picture is that a person must live in the present. The past should not influence his actions. It is impossible to change the events that happened once. Lessons can only be learned from the past that will help build the present.
What is the essence of the ending
The true meaning of the film Tenet is revealed closer to the final, full of many events.
Nil, having violated the order, inverts several times to save the Protagonist and prevent the end of the world. In the final scene, the Protagonist reveals the truth. He learns that he himself founded the Tenet organization, and that they are friends with Neil in the future.
This is a clear example of the interconnection of everything. In the world, nothing happens by chance, everything that happens is the result of actions taken in the past.
If usually by the end of any movie all the pieces of the puzzle are put together, then this picture is an exception. The viewer has to deal with what is happening on their own. The only clue is color. From the red lace on Neil’s bag, the viewer guesses who saved the Protagonist.
When you carefully view the picture, the end of the film comes with an insight. It’s especially nice when you start to understand the misunderstood a couple of minutes ago.
This is the main point of the ending of the film “Tenet” – to enable the viewer to think outside the box, ignoring obsolete patterns. The viewer does not just look at what is offered to him on the screen, but compares the facts, looking for flaws. The development of mental activity is the main goal of Nolan’s film.
The intricacies of the plot of the film “Tenet” complicate the understanding of the meaning of the picture. When you leave the cinema, you want to watch the movie again. But it’s not for nothing that the creators of the picture say that you don’t need to try to understand, you need to feel. Time is an abstract category, it is impossible to catch it. Therefore, you should not waste it trying to understand the inaccessible to the human mind, otherwise life will pass by.
