MovieChat Forums > Tenet (2020) Discussion > There’s no way inverted and non-inverted...

There’s no way inverted and non-inverted people can interact with each other

posted 4 years ago by SlackerInc (1101)
4 replies | jump to latest

I really don’t believe it’s the kind of thing you could figure out by watching the movie ten times or looking at diagrams or animations, or even by picking Christopher Nolan‘s brain. It just flat out does not compute.

The way inverted and non-inverted people and objects physically interact strikes me as nonsensical in general, although it took me a while to figure out how to verbally articulate exactly why. Just try to explain how the fight in the hallway can occur, with grappling, pushing, and punching. (If you don’t see the problem with that, imagine a blue team and red team engaging in a round of tug-of-war. It’s impossible.)

Another specific scene near the end that I can point to for anyone who claims the interactions make sense:

So from the POV of the inverted Neil, who is initially seen lying dead before being unshot and rising to let the Protagonist in, how did he experience this? What, he goes and waits for the Protagonist to back out of the open gate...and then locks it behind him? Seriously? There’s a reason the unlocking is shown so briefly, because Nolan knows that is some major “fridge logic”, as Hitchcock called it. There are countless such scenes in the film.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 3 years ago

yeah, the whole concept falls apart if you think about it logically.

Wow -- bullets that fly out of the wall and hit you, then go back in the gun! Watch out for those!

As opposed to regular bullets, which jump out of the gun, hit you, and land in the wall. Those are fine.

Actually, the bullets in the wall are less of a threat. Just don't stand in front of any bullet holes.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 3 years ago

Haha, true.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

I'm not going to make any argument that inversion could exist in the real world in the way Nolan is trying to invent. But I do think he's done a good job in making it as believable as possible within the limitations of our understanding (with trickery of editing of course).

But I do think you're misunderstanding a bit, particularly the example you gave.

What, he goes and waits for the Protagonist to back out of the open gate...and then locks it behind him? Seriously?

I'm not entirely sure of the exact moment/timing you mean when you say he "locks it behind him", so I'll just try and describe the sequence of events there and hopefully they'll cover the moment that you're calling out.

Inverted Neil jogs to gate, unlocks gate, opens gate, holds gate open, then closes gate while he protects Protag from the gunshot. Closing the gate probably locks the gate again (just a guess from the locking mechanism).

If it helps, remember that inverted individuals experience things in reverse relative to those that aren't.
If I experience A, B, then C, then an inverted person in that scene will experience C, then B, then A.

So think of it the way the Protag experiences it.
Protag sees locked/closed gate, is protected from gunshot, gate is held open while he fights, gate is closed (this is the moment where the inverted Neil unlocks the gate from his own perspective), inverted man jogs away.

So for Protag, the unlocking takes place after the gunshot.

For inverted Neil, the unlocking takes place before the gunshot, which makes sense, because gunshot ends Neil's life.
Inverted Neil does close the door while he blocks the gunshot but there is never a moment where Neil intentionally locks the gate behind someone.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 2 years ago

I never got a notification about this, just happened to see it.

Your explanation doesn't quite work. You say inverted Neil blocks the bullet, protecting the Protagonist, but how can he do that (or even get shot) when to him the bullet moves in reverse? How would he ever see "uh oh, the Protagonist is about to get shot, I better protect him" when the Protagonist and henchman are operating in reverse from his perspective?

I have freeze-framed this and tried to picture it backward, but it's all edited together very quickly with the scene on the boat intercut in a pretty obvious attempt to misdirect the audience away from really processing what happens.