The constructs of time have always been the greatest fascination of Christopher Nolan, whose new film Tenet is set to premiere on July 17th.
Nolan has a rich portfolio of movies that deal with abstract concepts. More often than not, these themes resonate around the idea of time and manipulating its capacities to drive the plot forward. In Memento, we saw a character suffering from anterograde amnesia, allowing the movie’s story to unfold backwards. In Inception, the world of dreams that Cobb and his team visit is relative in terms of time passage. Even Interstellar focused a lot of its emotional weight on time and its effect on different planes of existence. Now, with Tenet, Nolan is experimenting with another aspect of this strange phenomenon, revolving around a secret agent who must prevent World War III.
Though according to a new theory by the folks at ScreenRant, Tenet may be a sequel to Inception, or at the very least, its spiritual successor. First of all, the tech used to play events in reverse, called “inversion,” is pretty close to what the PASIV devices achieved in the 2010 flick. Nolan isn’t exactly a fan of the mythical, so it’s safe to say that the trick used in the upcoming movie has a technological explanation behind it.
Additionally, Robert Pattinson’s character certainly resembles Tom Hardy’s Eames in Inception. His indisposition towards the dramatic, and the British sense of ostentatious style and demeanor to back it up, all mirror the character in the previous movie. Speaking of characters, we know that Michael Caine will also appear in Tenet, so what if he’s reprising his role as Professor Stephen Miles to assist our new heroes? Granted, it’s a bit of a long shot, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the two films took place in the same fictional world.
And if not for that, based on what we’ve seen so far, Tenet feels like Inception‘s spiritual follow-up, and not in a thematic and narrative sense. Cinematically, the two movies share a lot of similar visual cues, so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Nolan ties the two together, even through subtle nods and hints, something that he’s proven to be good at over the years.
What do you think about this theory, though? Have you noticed the similarities between the two films? As usual, be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.