Time Is Finally on Tenet’s Side

When Tenet released in 2020, it did so under the worst of circumstances. The context of the pandemic made the film a lightning rod when writer-director Christopher Nolan encouraged people to see it in theaters. Compared to his other recent movies, the time-bending spy thriller saw a more muted reaction. It made $365 million (against a $200M budget), and those who went to see it weren’t fully clicking with it.

Once Nolan jumped ship from Warner Bros. to Universal, it seemed like Tenet would just be an odd footnote in his filmography, kneecapped by an unprecedented global event. But flash-forward to 2024, and it’s safe to say fortunes have definitely reversed for Tenet. At time of writing, it’s been reissued to IMAX theaters around the U.S. until the end of the week. A preview of Dune: Part Two is meant to lure viewers in, but for some, that’s the appetizer to Tenet’s main course. In the years since its release, the film’s developed a cult following that’s eager for more people to become Tenet-pilled (for lack of a better word). Why?

A lot of that just comes from time, obviously. Years, or even months after seeing a film, opinions change. Some people who watched Tenet when it was first released probably gave it a second shot and realized there was more to like—see io9’s own Germain Lussier, for one. For others who waited for it to come to DVD or streaming, it was probably a film that made you wish that you could’ve first experienced it on the big screen.

I count myself among that latter group; after watching it on HBO Max in 2021, I subsequently got Tenet fever. Ahead of writing this, I spent hours this past weekend trying to find physical copies just to have, once I realized the reissue was playing in specific cities. I saw Oppenheimer in the theater, but along with Tenet, I’d avoided seeing Nolan’s Interstellar and Dunkirk in theaters. (And, frankly, I’ve still yet to see them.) The filmmaker’s affection for the theatrical experience was highlighted ahead of Tenet’s release, and it’s clear to see why. I was glad to watch it on my TV in my house where I was safe, but I also wish I’d gotten the opportunity to see it the old-fashioned way. Under better circumstances, Tenet could’ve been a pretty fun crowdpleaser.

No matter how else you feel about Nolan, you know you’re always going to get a spectacle with him, complete with impressively epic set pieces that can only be truly accomplished in movies. Tenet is full of them: car chases and fist-fights in reverse, John David Washington and Robert Pattinson bungee jumping up (then down) a Mumbai skyscraper. The time-travel logic in this movie is incredibly flimsy, to the point that several characters have to tell Washington’s Protagonist to just roll with it, but it all openly exists to justify its action scenes, and the film more than delivers on that front. Like with the Mission: Impossible films, the selling point of here is to see something wild—but instead of one standout sequence, Nolan’s movies usually come with at least two or three that’ll stick in your head.

And, to echo a sentiment shared by many, Tenet’s just got good vibes. Washington and Pattinson play off each other extremely well, and they feel like best buds right away. Composer Ludwig Göransson, working with Nolan for the first time here, delivers a great soundtrack that stands on its own, even without the surprising (and excellent) addition of Travis Scott’s “The Plan” to play over the credits. Tenet may not be the best Christopher Nolan movie, but it’s probably the most Nolan movie in that it’s easy to get swept up in what’s happening on screen, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Tenet’s far from the first movie to get reappraised years after release. But its shifting tide could only have come from the weird circumstances of how it came out, and what followed: Oppenheimer’s become a consistent winner this award season and while coming out the same day as Barbie certainly helped it, the biopic likely helped remind people why they like Nolan movies in the first place. During that film’s award run, Nolan’s gradually been shedding the general perception that he’s cold and emotionless by revealing he’s a Talladega Nights and Fast & Furious stan and has an interest in doing horror movies. All he really wants is for viewers to let themselves be absorbed by his films—and with Tenet, they’re deciding to really meet him halfway, four years later.

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