It’s finally happening — Christopher Nolan’s most divisive film, Tenet, is coming to Netflix on November 1. Nearly four years after its theatrical release, the mind-bending spy thriller that even its cast admitted they didn’t fully understand will soon be available for anyone brave enough to hit “play” (and probably “rewind”).
When it debuted in September 2020, Tenet was Nolan’s big, pandemic-era gamble — a globe-trotting epic meant to save movie theaters and reassert the director’s dominance as Hollywood’s master of cerebral blockbusters. Instead, it became one of his most polarizing efforts. Critics called it cold, confusing, and emotionally inert; fans called it brilliant but borderline indecipherable. Depending on who you ask, it’s either Nolan’s most ambitious experiment or his biggest misfire.
At its core, Tenet is Nolan’s riff on a James Bond film — sleek suits, exotic locales, high-concept action — but with one major twist: Time itself moves backward. John David Washington stars as “The Protagonist,” an unnamed CIA agent drawn into a temporal war to prevent World War III, aided by Robert Pattinson’s effortlessly charming Neil and Elizabeth Debicki’s Kat. The villain: Kenneth Branagh as Andrei Sator, a time-inverting arms dealer who wants to destroy the future out of pure nihilism.
The film’s central mechanic, “time inversion,” is meant to be felt, not fully understood. Unfortunately, that philosophy led to one of Nolan’s biggest filmmaking frustrations: a sound mix so overpowering that entire chunks of crucial exposition were swallowed by roaring engines and thunderous gunfire. Even Nolan’s biggest fans struggled to follow the plot, with some theaters reportedly handing out explanation sheets.
Why Is ‘Tenet’ So Bad?
Collider’s review of the film pulled no punches, heavily criticizing the sound mix and the fact that the movie would need “explainers” in order to be understood.
“At some point, Tenet washes over you, and you cease to care. When Aaron Taylor-Johnson shows up playing some secret military soldier talking about temporal pincer moves they’ll make, you’re left wondering why you should be invested beyond the device itself. I suppose some audience members will be very much on board with trying to follow the inverted and non-inverted timelines and characters. There will be YouTube explainers and diagrams and much rejoicing among this movies-as-puzzles community. But for people who want to see a movie with a riveting plot and complex characters, you’ve got nothing.”
Tenet will land on Netflix on November 1.
Release Date
September 3, 2020
Runtime
150 minutes
Franchise(s)
Tenet