History Analysis / Tenet

There are lots and lots of youtube videos, internet articles, and such to describe what is going on in various tenet scenes, now TV tropes has some as well.\\\

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** The entire fight is one. Forward protag saw someone jump out of the turnstile, grab his neck, and assemble a gun. He than fought this mysterious person to the art room. Reverse protag was blown into a room where he was threatened with a gun and his his wound pressed. He than defended himself and fought to the turnstile. No one actually started the fight.
* Presumably, Inverted Neil got through the doors by waiting for them to open, going through, than hitting the code in reverse, or just opening them in reverse if a code isn't needed on the inside.
* How uninverted Neil and Kat get out is hard to figure out. There are some theories, but it seems he either has to time things really well, or use another exit. He than hides near the plane and leaves right after the engine explodes.

* In the scientist scene, protag picks up a bullet by holding his hand the right way, the inverted bullet than flies up into his hand. From its view, he dropped it normally. This is a stable time loop, protag tried to pick up the bullet because it was laying there, it was laying there because he moved his hand and dropped it. However, another stable time loop is possible, he may hold his hand and try to pick up the bullet for awhile, but than give up and leave the bullet where it is. More important to the plot, similar loops may happen elsewhere: inverted Neil in Oslo might, for example, wait by a door for awhile assuming it will let him through, but instead the door simply sits there until he finds another way through or something else happens to him.

* An inverted car in forward traffic (or forward car in inverted traffic) is safer than it looks. If the inverted car is still driving, it didn't hit anything to hard in the world's future. If the normal cars are all driving, the inverted car didn't hit them in the past. An inverted car coming towards you while driving normal has avoided you already in its timeline, while you driving away from it have avoided it in its timeline. Of course, if you do see an opposite time wrecked car, someone is in trouble (hopefully not you)

* Forward Sator must have been told by his goons that there was a case that was empty, otherwise he'd have no reason to pick it up, and would have no reason to ask protag where the algorithm "really" was. They likely did not tell him about it being in protag's inverted car, or Sator wouldn't have bothered searching at the gunfight.

** Flipping over the back in the first corner. interted protag flipped over forward protag, pulling him suddenly and arching his back. Inverted protag was flipped by forward protag de-arching his back and pulling forward.

** Floor crawl. Forward protag pushed inverted onto the floor, stood up, and backed away from weirdly moving inverted guy. Inverted guy got shoved onto floor, and backed away from forward guy stepping towards him.

** Sator's finger 3, 2, 1 is why they throw the empty case when they do, Sator threatens when he does because the case was just thrown.

* If you are attacked by an inverted weapon and fire back, you do not kill the attacker if they were inverted. If you did, their timeline would be fight --> die --. fire weapon. In fact, your firing may give them the position to fire at you, a StableTimeLoop where each attacker fires at the other who revealed their position. However, a same time enemy using an opposite time weapon can be hit, as can an opposite time enemy who is in the same location as whoever fired.
* Neil's emergency inversion isn't needed, he could have just told the red team about the tripwire during the normal briefing so they could prepare. Of course, this may mean Neil doesn't help later by pulling Ives and protag out, or by opening the door and taking the bullet, so if Volkov got the jump on Ives or the door stayed locked, the plan may have failed if he did this.

* Sator timeline: Other stuff --> Supervise Kiev --> other stuff --> meet protag --> Talinn, invert --> other stuff --> invert somewhere --> Yacht in Vietnam, dies
* Kat timeline: With Sator --> meet protag --> other stuff --> Talinn, invert --> Shipping container --> Oslo, revert --> invert, big tenet ship --> revert, Vietname yacht --> probably future, avoids Priya

StableTimeLoop is a common trope, but Tenet has quite a lot more of these than most time travel stories. Nolan may have just chosen to add more no matter the story, but inversion also lends itself to these. Characters can do something, an opposite time person sees it and reacts in their futre, original character past, original character react and does the original thing, and the loop forms. Inversion also has characters continuously interacting instead of jumping, giving more stuff to form loops out of. It helps that in the movie time is fixed, rather than having branching or changing timelines, so and loops or attempted changes must be stable.

Protag timeline: the movie we see. Kiev --> Boat, Scientists, Priya, Michael, Kat --> Oslo --> More meetings --> Talinn --> Invert, more Talinn --> shipping container --> Oslo, revert --> invert, big tenet ship --> Battle --> Probably future, kill Priya --> further operations
Neil timeline: Other operations --> Kiev --> Maybe other stuff --> Meet protag --> follow protag --> final battle, death
Sator timeline: Other stuff --> Supervise Kiev --> other stuff --> meet protag --> Talinn, invert --> other stuff --> invert somewhere --> Yacht in Vietnam, dies
Kat timeline: With Sator --> meet protag --> other stuff --> Talinn, invert --> Shipping container --> Oslo, revert --> invert, big tenet ship --> revert, Vietname yacht --> probably future, avoids Priya

* Overall timeline: Kat beaten --> Inverted Sator and driver arrive/Kat leaves freeport(in the same car) --> Algorithm stolen --> Sator blows up car and talks backwards, in either order --> Sator's car meets Neil/protag's car --> inverted car flip --> exchange --> saving kat, Sator gets empty case --> goons grab Kat and protag, inverted Sator searches for algorithm --> Kat, protag, inverted Sator at freeport, inverted protag bugs case --> interrogation, Neil meets Tenet sometime in here --> Tenet arrives --> inverted tenet leave at some point --> protag gets car, Kat looked at --> protag, Tenet, Neil, Kat inverted

* Protag timeline: Steal algorithm (the normal time part, I'll ignore this) --> hear backwards Sator --> Sator chase and threat --> Car flip --> tosses case and algorithm --> Saves Kat --> interrogation --> Tenet arrives ---> Turnstile --> Goes to car, bugs case, chases Sator --> Center car in exchange --> Car flip --> exploded by Sator --> Shipping container

* Sator timeline: Freeport, attacks Kat --> On radio --> pistol whip protag --> tenet arrives, invert --> interrogation --> give Kat to goons, get in car --> search for algorithm --> in car, get case --> get in Kat's car --> exchange, see algorithm tossed --> knocks over inverse protag car --> follows Protag and Neil car --> back to protag car, blows it up --> freeport, pick up Kat --> further adventures

Algorithm timeline: Truck --> Stolen --> case tossed to Sator, algorithm to inverted protag --> Case tossed/picked up by Sator --> Case bugged by protag --> Algorithm at car at freeport, presumably taken by Sator's goons

* If you find yourself in an extended fight with an opposite time opponent (happens to all of us), they are guaranteed not to die or be heavily injured. Because they are opposite time to you, if you do kill or injure them, their timeline would be fight(maybe) --> get killed/injured --> continue fighting, which is impossible. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to you, you are still able to die or be heavily injured in your future. If you do kill or disable an opposite time person, it will be the first interaction with them in any fight that occurs. (See Neil getting shot for an example) Their timeline would be do stuff -->die, yours would be kill person --> do stuff.

This is an analysis of the story logic of the scenes, not the physics/science. The physics is another analysis, but it is pretty clear the moviemakers focused on what looked fine backwards and forwards on camera, plus story logic, and the physics is somewhat inconsistent. It only looks at the scenes where inversion is a big part, not the entire movie. StableTimeLoop is a common trope, but Tenet has quite a lot more of these. Some may be Nolan deliberately adding a lot, but inversion also lends itself to these. Since characters are continuously interacting rather than jumping through time, there are a lot more opportunities for these to form. It helps that in the movie time is fixed, so loops must be stable with no branching timelines.

Our protagonist and his sidekick search for a painting, or possibly some plutonium (hard to tell apart, those), or possibly something else in mysterious Sator's vault. Later, they come back to help save Kat, and are in (well, one of them is in) for a surprise...

* Later Protag timeline: Exit container --> run to door --> blasted through door, fights himself --> turnstile --> runs from earlier Neil --> exit door, wave later Neil in --> Steal Ambulance --> Drive away

[[folder:Breakdown of Inversion setpieces in Tenet. Warning: Spoilers]]

This is an analysis of the story logic of the scenes, not the physics/science. The physics is another analysis, but it is pretty clear the moviemakers focused on what looked fine backwards and forwards on camera, plus story logic, and the physics is somewhat inconsistent. It only looks at the scenes where inversion is a big part, not the entire movie. StableTimeLoop is a common trope, but Tenet has quite a lot more of these. Some may be Nolan deliberately adding a lot, but inversion also lends itself to these, since characters are continuously interacting rather than jumping through time, giving more chances for such loops to form. It helps that in the movie time is fixed, so no branching different timelines.

Our protagonist and his sidekck search for a painting, or possibly some plutonium (hard ot tell apart, those), or possibly something else in mysterious Sator's vault. Later, they come back to help save Kat, and are in (well, one of them is in) for a surprise...

* Earlier Neil's timeline: Same deal, butchases and catches a normal time man instead.
* Later Protag timeline: Exit container --> run to door --> blasted through door, fights himself --> turnstile --> runs from earlier Neil --> exit door, wave Neil in --> Steal Ambulance --> Drive away

* If you find yourself in an extended fight with an opposite time opponent (happens to all of us), they are guaranteed not to die or be heavily injured. Because they are opposite time to you, if you do kill or injure them, their timeline would be fight(maybe) --> get killed/injured --> continue fighting, which is impossible. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to you if you do kill or disable an opposite time person, it will be the first interaction with them in any fight that occurs. (See Neil getting shot for an example)
* The fight has a whole bunch of self-generating time loops/bootstrap paradoxes, where inverted protag does something in reaction to forward protag, who did it in reaction to what inverted protag did. Examples inlude:
** Flipping over the back in the first corner. Forward protag felt a surprise flip, which arches his back suddenly. Inverted protag was flipped by forward protag de-arching his back and pulling forward.

** Floor crawl. Forward protag pushed inverted onto the fllor, stood up, and backed away from weirdly moving inverted guy. Inverted guy got shoved onto floor, and backed away from forward guy stepping towards him.
** The entire fight is one. Forward protag saw someone jump out of the turnstile, grab his neck, and assemble a gun. He than fought this mysterious person to the art room. Reverse protag was blown into a room where he was threatened with a gun and his his wound pressed. He than defended himself and fight to the turnstile. No one actually started the fight.

* Kat timeline: Freeport, beaten by Sator --> car with inverted Sator and inverted driver --> left in car, saved by protag --> interrogated, shot --> tenet arrives --> inverted --> shipping container
* Overall timeline: Kat beaten --> Inverted Sator and driver arrive/Kat leaves freeport --> Algorithm stolen --> Sator blows up car and talks backwards, in either order --> Sator's car meets Neil/protag's car --> inverted car flip --> exchange --> saving kat, Sator gets empty case --> goons grab Kat and protag, inverted Sator searches for algorithm --> Kat, protag, inverted Sator at freeport, inverted protag bugs case --> interrogation --> Tenet arrives --> inverted tenet leave at some point --> protag gets car, Kat looked at --> protag, tenet, Neil, Kat inverted

** Sator's car behind Neil's car. Neil is trying to evade Sator's car that sticks on them like glue, while Sator's car just follows the movements Neil's car is making t evade them.

** In the interrogation, Protagonist answers (sort of) Sator's questions, while Sator is listening ot protag's answers and asking a question that make sense in response.

* An inverted car in forward traffic 9 or forward car in inverted traffic) is safer than it looks. if the inverted car is still driving, it didn't hit anything to hard in the world's future. if the normal cars are all driving, the inverted car didn't hit them in the past. An inverted car coming towards you while driving normal has avoided you already in its timeline, while you driving awat from it have avoided it in its timeline. Of course, if you do see an opposite time wrecked car, someone is in trouble (hopefully not you)
* Sator clearly has experience operating inverted, being very good at acting like a forward moving person. (Even though I heard the backwards lines in the interrogation, and kind of had a sense he was inverted, it stillsurprised me to see the scene in reverse.)

* Sator's guys would need to get the inverted chase car from the freeport to the traffic jam (in its own time, traffic jam to freeport if forward people did it. Ives and co would have to, in forward time, place a frozen car onto a highly and put a knocked out guy into it, which would look strange to civilians in the area.

* Overall timeline: red and blue team at lower landing area --> fight in lower area and city, Neil inverts, Volkov plants tripwire a bit later --> building blows up/unblows up --> protag and Ives enter cave, tripwire goes off, Beil tries to stop them --> red, blue teams fight in higher city to/from bomb area, protag and Ives in cave --> later Neil shot --> Volkov fights and is killed, early Neil to bomb area --> red, blue teams leave/arrive at upper landing area --> explosion, Neil pulls out protag and Ives

* If you are attacked by an inverted weapon for fire back, you do not kill the attacker if they were inverted. If you did, their timeline would be fight --> die --. fire weapon. In fact, your firing may give them the position to fire at you, a StableTimeLoop where each attacker fires at the other who revealed their position. However, a same time enemy using an opposite time weapon can be hit, as can an opposite time enemy who did not fire (was maybe part of a team)
* Neil's emergency inversion isn't needed, he could have just told the red team about the tripwire so they could prepare. Of course, this may mean Neil doesn't help later by pulling Ives and protag out, or by opening the door and taking the bullet, so if Volkov got the jump on Ives or the door stayed locked, the plan may have failed if he did this.

* Neil's involvement is, yes, a self generating time loop. He goes in because protag and Ives mentioned someone with than, his going in allows Ives and protag to see someone there with them.

There are lots and lots of youtube videos, internet articles, and such to describe what is going on in various tenet scenes, now TV tropes has some as well.