Tag: christoper nolan

Things I Learned From The Movie : Tenet

Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who produced it with Emma Thomas. A co-production between the United Kingdom and United States, it stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a secret agent who learns to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to annihilate the present world.

Nolan took more than five years to write the screenplay after deliberating about Tenet‘s central ideas for over a decade. Pre-production began in late 2018, casting took place in March 2019, and principal photography lasted six months, from May to November, in Denmark, Estonia, India, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot on 65 mm film and IMAX. Scenes of time manipulation were filmed both backwards and forwards. Over one hundred vessels and thousands of extras were used.

Delayed three times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tenet was released in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2020, and United States on September 3, 2020, in IMAX, 35 mm, and 70 mm. It was the first Hollywood tent-pole to open in theaters after the pandemic shutdown, and grossed $363 million worldwide, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2020. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, and won Best Visual Effects at the 93rd Academy Awards; it was also nominated for Best Production Design. (source :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenet_(film) )

Nolan in this movie, proved to be a visionary. He will have to be so, to present something so spectacularly brain-draining, in such a beautiful combination of chaos, thrill and suspense. Personally, watching it once or twice, may not be enough to truly grasp what the message or event the plot is. Not to mention, the more recent fan theories that have enveloped it. This article, however, is not about that, so lucky break for us.

If you had not watched it, please, this is a warning, there may be some spoilers that would make you hate me and we do not want that. If you have not watched it and want to know about it, well, you will not also be getting a lot from this article, so feel free. Trying to do a smooth segue here, but if this is your first time reading an article from this blog site, you may want to read the previous articles which highlights why I am trying my best to find some practical lesson from movies (if you had, thank you for doing so!).

So, here are three things I learned from the movie.

Lesson 1: The Past, Present and Future are intertwined

Time, a concept, an experience or the progression of events from past to present into the future. We have learned how to measure it, but truly, it is hubris to claim that we have gained the mastery of understanding it. Should you like a more explicit detail of time, you may check this link and read more, but this is not about time per se, but how the movie uses the beautiful mystery of time to teach us some lessons about ourselves, others and the orchestra of life.

Tenet, in all its convoluted story lines, intimates that the past, affects the present, and it in turn, ultimately shapes the future, but most certainly, too, the future has implications reaching our past and even the present. (I think I just lost all of you there, I even feel nauseated myself).

The movie begins with a CIA agent. The Protagonist, who was tested and entrusted by an organization called Tenet, with a mission to follow the trail of inverted bullets, bullets that deviate from the physical laws of nature (the second law of thermodynamics), which the organization thinks, together with other similar items, come from the future and are remnants of some future war.

In the course of this investigation our Protagonist, gets to meet his handler, who points him to an arms dealer in Mumbai, who happens to be a member of Tenet and informs them that a Russian arms dealer has the device that can invert items.

Fairly straightforward, until, we start seeing multiple unexpected events that course the movement of the Protagonist and his handler, directly in contact with their future and ultimately, shaping the ending of the movie which is in the past.

If you are about to give up on this article, what I am pointing to, is that it may not be quite literal that the future us can collide with our present selves face to face, but the actions that we do every day in our lives will ripple through time and oblivious to it, we may be,we are not exempt from its consequences.

Yes, that elevator we did not hold for another person, the garbage we did not segregate, is unlikely to haunt our past, but will definitely affect the future, which then, technically, once we get to that future will make us regret the past, for how socially irresponsible we are for the present.

Our perspectives then ought to change and may we always think, that every other man’s life affect another.

That what we do today, even the tiniest, will ripple throughout the ages. So, may we, daily, strive to do what is right, to secure a better future, where we shall not feel ashamed looking back at our past (from that standpoint).

Lesson 2: The Mind perceives, but the Heart Knows

The movie quite distinctly, in its creative intricacy of violating known science did not leave the part of being human. We get introduced to an art curator and wife, who amidst, what most would see, befit a the description of a happy life is trapped in the present, while hoping to have made better choices in the past and fearing the future.

Though, many of us, do not really give it much thought, but such is our daily life, is it not?

We may not always feel a sense of regret at everything and sure we may have trained our minds to be more positive in letting go of things in the past, to make sure it never happens again, but emotions, on the other, the feelings, we leave them at the specific moment and can only truly recover them in nostalgia.

So, we may move on from past experience, feel confident that we have learned from it to take action in the present, but the present nor the future, can never undo the emotional breadcrumb we have left in the past. That feeling, yes, that emotional state, that only nostalgia can bring back, is something that will be left in the time frame for posterity.

This is what makes our short lives on Earth beautiful. To know that we can do the same thing over and over, but we will never feel that same way about it, as the first time, nor the consecutive instances, because each passing of time is an experience that is not imprinted in the sands of time. Such is, we should make the most out of every day, for life being short is not the problem, but time, the human soul and life are battling forces that we should make the most of.

Lesson 3: We experience Time by our Choices

It is amazing, how the movie, makes us accept all accept the fact of time-travel to be as casual as boarding a plane. If you had watched it, I bet you never had the time to even question the science behind it, well, if you did, two thumbs up, you are one of the intellectually gifted, able to keep up.

Yet for those, who had just simply missed to consider how the science works, please do not worry. It may have slipped past us because, no matter how everybody else was just disrespecting time–we all see, that the time has little consequences compared to the choices we make at the time given.

To me, the movie, required astute attention because of the plot, but it harkened our attention–because, even with the inverter, the capability to move back and forth time, with nonchalant casualty–it was the actions of everyone that dictated the outcomes. It was as if, and perhaps, in reality, very well be, that time is merely the stage we are all in, by which we are tested by the decisions and choices we make.


Then, too, with these decisions, with time as a witness, our mettle is tested, by how we stand by the consequences of them. Life can be many things–beautiful, sad, happy, fulfilled. Time can be defined philosophically, scientifically or spiritually.

But our decisions and our actions, can only be right, wrong or unknown.

Things I Learned From The Movie: Batman Begins

The Batman franchise has been, if not the most lucrative superhero movie on the cinema since the comics hit the screen to date. Over the years, and after many iterations of the caped crusader, there has never been a loss in appeal for fandom.

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While many of us miss to recognize this, there is something about the life of Bruce and Batman, that connects the story to us, something in a very subtle way resonates with all of us profoundly.

Not entirely sure about everyone, but the fact that Batman has been the most filmed superhero in history, must account for that.

In this article, we will be referencing to the Batman in the Christopher Nolan trilogy. For me, each segment was just a masterful way to teach the deep philosophical queries we encounter every day.Some of which, we have either learned to ignore, left others to answer or are still figuring out.

And so, I am listing two things that I have learned from its first installment—Batman Begins.

Lesson 1, We All Need and Can Be an Alfred

In the Batman Begins, we see that as a child, teenager and even during his crime fighting years, Alfred had not just been integral, but crucial in the success of Bruce Wayne.

From caring for Bruce as kid, to welcoming him from Princeton even to picking him up when Scarecrow got the best of him—it will be fair to say, that there will have been no Batman without Alfred.

But it is not just in these moments, that we find how essential Alfred was to Bruce and Batman if we could treat those two differently.

alfredAlfred took care of Bruce as a boy, basically raised him up.

He watched over the family business, which must have been daunting, imagining the sharks that attend those board meetings.

Most importantly, as Bruce comes to his crusade, he had been his voice of reason, devil’s advocate, first fan, partner in crime, only friend and father.

Arguably, I will go as far as saying that maybe Alfred had been a better parent to Bruce than Thomas would have been. This by no way, discounts Thomas Wayne being a respectable man, but how many fathers, especially billionaire fathers support their boys’ decision to put on a mask, fight crime come home with broken angles or even worse (as wee in the course of the trilogy). I doubt there will be many.

alfred 2

Again this is subject for debate or another article. The point is, for all intents and purposes, perhaps without Alfred, there would be no Batman. The ultimate scene the encapsulates Alfred’s role in the mythos of Batman, for me, would be that scene where he takes the drugged Rachel Dawes home, comes back to rescue Bruce from getting killed as Wayne Manor burnt and reminding of why we fall—so we can get back up.

We all need an Alfred.

We need that parent, that we wish we had, that friend that knows how to throw witty sarcastic jokes (we had puns before memes), that person that allows us to experiment on who can be so our potential can come out, but wait patiently on the sides to catch us when we fall and redirect us when we go astray.

We can all be an Alfred.

We can be that friend that supports our friends in their wild imaginations, that friend who never gives on our friends, that friend that is always there to tell the hard truths, but at the same time give all out support.

Lesson 2, We Have to Be Who We Are Not, And Not Be Who We Are

In many scenes of the movie, particularly in the Batman Begins, we see Bruce having to show a personality quite contrary to his true self.

He unduly imposes himself by buying a hotel to let his escorts bathe in a decorative pool, acts like incapable to handle the family business and pushes people out of Wayne Manor on his birthday at his celebration. Rude, seemed an understatement.

Though, many of us think that these scenes were about showing how hard it is to maintain a normal life and truly those may well be specifically to detail that, I found a different context.

One scene that is less for the trailer, but quite captivating was that chance meet Bruce had with Rachel, after he exits the hotel he just purchased, because he can.

rachel dawes 2

That scene, where Bruce was trying so hard to be explain himself to be contrary to the actions Rachel sees is quite familiar, to me, if not for many of us.

You know, when we so badly want to tell people, that we are really something more, deep inside, and they tell us that our actions define who we are?

Well, I have been told that many times growing up. That for some reason, you cannot be artistic if you do not do art or be a god-fearing person if you skip church and have a tattoo or something. That you cannot be a good person, if you do bad.

While I disagree to that an all levels, I caution at the more popular interpretation of the just-be-yourself-digital-age wisdom.

For example, we cannot attend a funeral and act like we are having fun, be in a church service and sleep, be in class drunk or tardy at work for no reason. No, that is not the point here.

What I really mean, is that we are all forced to wear a mask, for reasons far less than Bruce. Some of them worth doing so, perhaps several that are not. While the mask maybe our real self, or the one we chose to show—like Rachel telling Bruce, that Bruce Wayne is the mask and Batman is the true persona, is subject for many debates, I just settle on the questions of—is it still worth it?

Even Bruce had to hang the cape.

Are you part of the LGBT community, but come home wearing a mask to be the person your family expects you to be? The corporate leader who has to keep the strong façade to secure authority, respect and leadership? Or the

umasked Bman

preacher’s kid who wants to study science over the Bible? Or maybe, that friend who had fallen for your best friend, but cannot tell them because he is not into same-gender relationships?

Whoever you may be, we have all worn masks.

The only thing that may be different from what Bruce does, to ours, it that at least at the end of the day, he takes the mas of knowing it has helped achieve something.

Is your mask helping you do so?