CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S QUANTUM SPY MOVIE IS MAKING A STAND FOR CINEMA, WELCOME TO THE EPIC, MIND-BENDING REALM OF TENET

WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD

AS WITH ANY supersized spy yarn, the stakes in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet are global and sky-high. On screen, our heroes are fighting to save us from a reality-melting apocalypse. Beyond the screen, Nolan’s out to reboot cinemagoing itself, staring down a pandemic that has closed the world’s communal dream palaces and seen other blockbusters surrender their release dates. It’s the kind of mission even Bond or Ethan Hunt might baulk at.

Tenet aims to resurrect the theatrical experience with an adrenalin stab of pure cinema: inventive, muscular set-pieces, continent-spanning glamour, daredevil world-savers and planet-threatening bastards. Speedboats. Natty tailoring. And enough theoretical physics to fry your skull.

“He wanted to make a film that would give audiences the same feeling he had when he was a kid watching the big action movies,” says Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and production partner. “They had a lot of scope and transported you to different countries, different places, and were slightly aspirational - you wanted to be that guy. I think ultimately every film that he makes is because he wants to see it.

“When he makes films he thinks about how he would experience them as an audience member. And I think that’s how he connects with the public. He’s very much thinking about what it would be like if he was sitting in that audience, what he would like to see.”

While Tenet’s finer details are buried beneath characteristic secrecy - speaking to SFX via Zoom, the cast confess they can’t even disclose their characters’ names - it’s obvious that the project marries two of Nolan’s enduring obsessions: the high-end thrill-ride of the Bond movies and the nature of time, in all its stop-watch march and tick-tocking paradoxes. Essentially it’s an old school espionage adventure smashed into the bleeding edge of science fiction.

“Chris’s films often tread a fine line between genres,” says Thomas. “He never likes to make films that fit so perfectly in a box. It’s fun to make a film that engages you and makes you think about things while also entertaining you. That’s the nice thing about taking a piece from different genres. It’s exciting to explore questions that we haven’t explored before in our films. It’s exciting to explore worlds that we haven’t explored.”