nor able to sweep up brick dust on the floor for decades because it is “destined” to be reverse-bullet damage that is fixed in the future.
(In the movie, you see them walk into a pre-damaged room that is later ‘repaired’ by the inverted gunfire that caused it)
Here is my explanation, first I will introduce a scene from the movie to help explain.
Before the second pass of the airport heist when the protagonist and Neil are in the shipping container the protagonist starts noticing a wound manifesting on his arm and then it starts to bleed. Later in the fight with himself from the first pass of the heist he is stabbed in the arm but since he is moving backwards in time him being stabbed heals the wound. From his perspective he is stabbed directly in the wound and then the blade is pulled out and he is healed.
What I want to highlight is when the wound starts manifesting itself in the shipping container. This is not the natural healing process happening in reverse as one might initially assume. I have 2 reasons for thinking this.
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The wound manifests much faster than the body would take to heal. The bleeding starts happening way too soon before he is stabbed.
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His entire body is moving backwards in time. The main character does not materialise a chocolate bar out of his mouth when trying to eat.
What this means is that the wound that is manifesting on his arm is being caused by some unexplained phenomenon as a result of reverse entropy objects interacting. Not by his body healing in reverse, not by him being stabbed (because the stab heals him)
To extrapolate this to the glass window that takes a reverse entropy bullet. Here is the order of events from the perspective of a standard entropy glass window.
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The glass is manufactured and installed (no bullet hole in the glass)
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A bullet hole is manifested in the glass by the reverse entropy phenomenon. This scatters the glass for later.
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A reverse entropy bullet flies through the broken glass window and it is repaired.
This can be seen in the car chase scene as well. The mirror of the BMW is in perfect condition. During the chase but before it collides with anything the mirror starts getting more and more damaged until eventually being hit by a reverse entropy object and returning to perfect condition. I believe that in the logic of the movie when a standard entropy object interacts with a reverse entropy object some of the reverse entropy properties are passed on to the standard entropy object that makes it manifest the damage done to it, or alternatively makes it repair the damage done to it depending on your perspective.
I may not be explaining this as well as I would like to. Please ask questions about parts that don’t make sense. I love thinking about this sci-fi premise and I’m pretty confident I have a consistent (though perhaps not realistic) explanation.
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I have never seen tenet.
This does not make me want to see tenet. 😅
It sounds like the sort of premise that the writers thought sounded clever but is actually full of plot holes when you think about it for even a minute.
Is not a “plot hole” if you simply accept that we cannot comprehend reverse entropy.
For example you could “plug” that “hole” with the assumption that free will doesn’t exist and all of existence is predetermined. There were bullet holes in the wall from the perspective of those going forward, because there had to be in order for entropy to work for those going backward.
The movie is fun because it makes you think — assuming you find thinking fun. Actually it’s also fun if you just turn your brain off and watch things blow up.
It is actually a pretty good movie
You shoukd watch it. It’s really good but you do have to suspend disbelief for a bit.
It’s trash. Don’t waste your time.
If you ever do, have your volume control handy. It’s all ear blasting SFX and tiny little muted whispers of dialog. Every time somebody talks you need to turn up the volume by 200% and every time something happens you need to turn it down to 5%… it was infuriating.
That’s why everybody in the movie constantly says “Don’t think about it too hard”.
It’s more of an action movie, not some deep cerebral sci-fi. The way it works is an excuse to make some exquisite scenes and is totally worth it.
The whole thing is an exploration of one concept: temporal pincer maneuvers. The entire movie is one, and you have 3 more during the movie (car chase, Freeport, Stalsk).
I feel like the whole movie is just an excuse for them to blow up that one tower from both directions, meaning it only ever existed for a few seconds. That’s peak.
I guess you could say that they pincered the tower though, in which case I agree.
The whole movie was just an excuse for Nolan to run a plane into a building. That shit was real and epic.
Christopher Nolan makes awesome science fiction. Mostly, the science doesn’t work, so he’s being very liberal with the term “science fiction.” You could call it “science stupid” or you could just roll with it and enjoy the movie.
Not knocking your position. The first time I watched Tenet, I got a headache. There were some awesome action scenes and a couple nice “a-ha!” moments, but after three viewings, the battle at the end still gets me fucked up. Either I’m not smart enough or Nolan isn’t, but either way, the movie does not connect with me.
However, Interstellar is one of my favourite films. Prestige was good, too. I don’t care for his war or Batman movies.
His brother Jonathan Nolan makes some fucky movies (and shows), too — I think he was part of the Westworld TV series on HBO. The first season was solid, though it quickly went downhill after that. Stay exactly as long as Anthony Hopkins does, and then bounce.
They’re both brilliant and worth following, but sometimes Christopher Nolan gets a little too high on his own supply. I’ll still watch his science fantasy movies though.
Interstellar was alright. Didn’t care for the ending. I perfer my science fantasy to be more like star wars - i.e. the fact that it’s space magic is pretty obvious - and don’t like being sold a soft sci fi that pretends its a hard sci fi. (For example, I thought Everything Everywhere All of the Time was pretty good, because it was somewhat internally consistent but didn’t lean too hard into the ‘this is real science guys’ thing.)
But then again, i’m one of those people who can’t turn my brain off, thinks a difficult puzzle is ‘relaxing,’ and also knows a little physics. So I admit my tastes aren’t the same as the general audience’s.
I’d say it is the sort of premise that the writers thought sounded clever but is actually boring as hell (imho, after a single sloggy viewing)
Yes, in a nutshell. Tenet looks lovely, but the time consistency is appalling. The physics is also broken, and the whole thing just becomes a mess if you start thinking about it. There are very few consistent time travel films. Back to the Future is good, and the TV series Dark handles it brilliantly.
That’s because time travel is not (meaningfully) possible. If you want time travel fun, to have to accept broken physics.
Also consistent - and all very different from both Tenet, and each other:
Primer (2004) - American low-budget sci-fi darling that didn’t dumb itself down
Summer Time Machine Blues (2005) - Japanese comedy about a missing air conditioner remote
Timecrimes (2007) - Spanish mystery-thriller with twists
Primer is great, really enjoyed that one
Tenet is fucking gnarly. Confusing, but cool and very fun. The only other action movie I can think of with time travel is Timecop. And Timecop kinda sucks.
Edge of Tomorrow
Oh shit. How did I forget that one? It’s basically Groundhogs Day, but with robots and gunfights. 🤔
The Terminator franchise. Although the travel itself is more background than active plot.
Yeah, they’re not really time travel movies the same way so they didn’t even register lol
And now you understand how entropy and time are related. To go backwards in time means to violate entropy, which appears nonsensical to us.
Causality is overrated.
I’ve heard the notion that rising entropy is required to be able to create memories, which is why we have a sense of direction in time.
I’m not a movie guy… but this sounds wild. Can someone link me an IMDB or identifying info for the correct one?
I think there’s only one well known one
