5 Reasons Why Tenet is Your Next Must-Watch Movie

If you’re looking to get lost in a piece of cinema, Inception and Interstellar director Christopher Nolan has your back. Serving up an all-star cast, gripping action and mind-bending timelines, his latest masterpiece Tenet is streaming with a NOW Cinema Membership.

Tenet pushes the boundaries of the thriller genre, following the story of the Protagonist (John David Washington), a CIA agent whose name we never actually find out. When he’s contacted by an organisation named Tenet, he gradually becomes drawn into an international espionage mission. The goal? To save the future from World War Three. This is time travel with a twist.

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We’ve devoured the action, and now it’s your turn. Here are five reasons Tenet needs to take top priority on your watch-list:

1. Award-winning special effects

In true Nolan fashion, the time travel effects in Tenet are a feast for the eyes. Elaborate and explosive action sequences will keep you on the edge of your seat. Special effects include buildings that explode and simultaneously put themselves back together, plus high-speed car chases that follow vehicles moving both forwards and backwards.

While you might assume these are post-production effects achieved by computer trickery, most of Tenet’s incredible scenes were actually created in real life; Nolan even bought an old 747 plane for one of the movie’s biggest action sequences. So it’s no surprise the movie has won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for its visual effects.

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2. A multilayered plot

Just like Inception, Tenet’s complex narrative will draw you back in for a second and third viewing to drain every last drop of mastery from the movie. Our Protagonist is drawn into a world where bullets move backwards and the future of the world is at risk. Partnering with Neil (Robert Pattinson), what follows is a complex mission where the characters find themselves in two places at once, never sure who to trust and constantly under attack – even by themselves.

With every watch, you’ll peel back another layer of plot, character or scenery that adds to the depth of the story, and there’s major buzz as cinephiles unravel the gripping storyline. Everyone has their own take on this compelling conceptual movie – this is one to discuss for years to come.

3. The distinctive soundtrack

Ludwig Göransson’s score is the driving force behind Tenet, and the movie owes a lot of its suspense to it.

The unsettling soundtrack encapsulates the fast-paced choppiness and glitchiness of Tenet’s plot, perfectly adding to the nail-biting big action sequences. Special attention was paid to exactly match the rise and fall of the music to the events happening on screen.

As time moves backwards, the orchestra’s score is inverted to mirror not only the narrative but the conceptual elements of the movie. Tense moments are built through staccato strings combined with punchy electronic beats in track Freeport, marrying modern and classical styles, while Rainy Night in Tallin merges a sinister crescendo of violin with growling electric guitar.

armed with only one word – tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the protagonist journey’s through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time

Warner Bros

4. A new twist on time travel

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.

In short, ‘inversion’ explains people being able to reverse through time, whilst bringing a new facet to time travel: characters can’t jump through time, but have to live backwards.

It’s easy to get so engrossed in this portrayal of time travel that, just for a second, you can forget that Tenet is a work of fiction.

5. An unexpected portrayal of friendship

All of Tenet’s A-list cast are brilliant in their own right, but the connection between the Protagonist and Neil (Robert Pattinson) is especially compelling.

Their friendship subtly builds throughout the movie without ever becoming the main focus, and that’s exactly why it works so well. It isn’t until quite late into Tenet that you realise the true extent of the pair’s relationship and just how essential it is to the movie’s plot.

Warner Bros

If you’re looking for an action-packed blockbuster to get lost in, Tenet is the movie for you.

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