Nolan’s Tenet: It's science and it's serious fiction

Let me start off with a bit about second law of thermodynamics…hey be there…I know that’s not the best way to start a story. But I can make it simple, in fact over-simplified at cost of accuracy.

So here we go — any activity that is irreversible is called entropy. Now, time is one of the four dimensions in which we live, other three being, of course, space. However, unlike the three dimensions in space where we move back and forth, time moves only forward. In other words, passage of time is irreversible. So going back to the second law, time is entropy; entropy is time.

Tenet, as the symmetry in spelling suggests, stands on the doctrine that entropy is rather reversible. That is, time can move backwards. Yet, our senses cannot see or feel it. The activities in reverse time happen in a parallel space ( say, some wonderland where Alice lives).

Now, man has somehow found a way to operate in the reversed direction of time. A machine, powered by a plutonium isotope, allows inversion of time in our current living space itself. Here, there are objects (including humans!) called ‘invertibles’ that move reverse while we move forward in time. It’s a lot like Michael Jackson moonwalking as he slides backwards (was he actually an invertible?). The “invertibles” can interact with usual objects that move forward in regular time. The interaction looks quite weird, as in a fight scene where the protagonist wrestles with an inverted person who appeared to repell from an impact while he was actually pouncing on him. Quirky huh! That’s where Nolan is good at. The interaction between a regular object and the inverted was immaculately shown using complex juxtaposition of forward and rewinding motions.

Cool, so what is this all about? The serious stuff is the next world war fought in future (I am speaking in inverted time, hence past tense used!). It was fought using time invertibles instead of usually feared nuclear weapons. The protagonist comes from future to avert the apocalyptic consequences of it. And then, all the things we usually see in Nolan movies happen. Detail is not so interesting unless watched.

Schematically, the movie is a mix of Inception (immersion of one reality into another) and Interstellar (irony of one meeting oneself across time), with reminiscence of Terminator in the future protagonist part (bit hackneyed there).

Like any Nolan movie, you would need to watch it three times. First time, you understood nothing but curiosity simmers. Second time, you could crack the theory with the internet being handy. Third time, you begin to appreciate the movie. In between, couple of days gap would help in mental rehab. For, each time one watches a Nolan movie, there is entropy in brain — irreversible impact. Good luck.

This article represents the author’s personal opinion and it makes no association with any forum or organization he is associated with or employed in. Image rights belong to movie owners.