Chris Nolan Says You’re Not Meant to Understand Tenet

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Griff Griffin | Last updated 2/9/24

If you didn’t completely understand what was happening in Tenet, don’t worry. Its director didn’t want you to.

Speaking with Stephen Colbert, Tenet director Chris Nolan cleared up misconceptions people have about his 2020 time-shifting spy thriller.

“You’re not meant to understand everything in Tenet. It’s not all comprehensible. It’s a bit like asking if I know what happens with the spinning top at the end of Inception. I have to have my idea of it for it to be a valid, productive ambiguity, but the point of it is that it’s an ambiguity.”

The interview comes ahead of Tenet’s cinematic re-release. For one week only, starting February 23, Tenet is returning to Imax and 70mm locations.

Launching during COVID, audiences weren’t able to see Nolan’s film in cinemas, and it underperformed at the box office as a result.

This will be many people’s first time to see it on the big screen. And again, if just the thought of Tenet hurts your brain, Nolan wants you to know all interpretations are valid.

He continues, “If you experience my film you are getting it. I feel very strongly about that. I think where people encounter frustration with my narratives in the past, sometimes I think that they’re slightly missing the point.”