Tenet (film)

Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with his wife Emma Thomas. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a former CIA agent who learns how to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to annihilate the present world. Nolan continued his relationship with Warner Bros. and his production company Syncopy for the film's production and distribution. Nolan took over five years to write the screenplay after deliberating about Tenet 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. After being delayed three times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tenet was released in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2020, and in the United States on September 3, 2020, in IMAX, 35 mm, and 70 mm. It was the first Hollywood tent-pole to open in theaters during the pandemic and grossed $365 million worldwide on a$200 million budget, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2020 but also a box-office disappointment. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its ambition, direction, musical score, visual effects, action sequences, cinematography, and cast performances (particularly Washington and Pattinson), but received criticism on its sound mixing and complicated plot. It was nominated for two awards at the 93rd Academy Awards, winning Best Visual Effects, and received numerous other accolades. On a date referred to as "the 14th", the Protagonist leads a covert CIA extraction during a staged terrorist siege at the Opera House in Kyiv.