The New Trailer For Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is Here

If you want a one-word reason for why there simply is no substitute for seeing a film in a movie theater, we give you Tenet, Christopher Nolan‘s latest. Nolan is one of those filmmakers who relishes the opportunities the biggest screens and the most pristine sound systems can deliver. This is why, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe and productions and movie theaters worldwide were closing, Nolan penned this tribute to movie theaters and the folks who work at them for the Washington Post. Now Warner Bros. has delivered the new trailer for his latest film, and it reminds us, once again, how eager we are to get back to watching movies on the big screen once it’s safe to do so.

“As I understand it, we’re trying to prevent World War III,” says Clémence Poésy’s character at the start of the new trailer, swiftly setting up the stakes for Nolan’s latest sci-fi epic. Tenet stars John David Washington as the Protagonist (yup, that’s what they’re calling him), a man who plunges into the world of time-inverting international espionage to try and stop armageddon from happening. “You’re not shooting the bullet,” Poésy’s Q-like character says later, “you’re catching it.” And that’s precisely what happens; the Protagonist re-shells a bullet that flies out of a target and back into his gun. Yup, we’re firmly in Nolan Country, and we’re so happy to be back.

Tenet will doubtlessly recall Nolan’s Inception, which played with the notion of dreams-within-dreams in a massive, ingeniously crafted sci-fi caper that firmly established him as one of the most ambitious filmmakers alive today. Like the lead-up to that film’s release, Tenet is not going to reveal many of its secrets in the trailer. Yet as we’re all itching—safely and smartly, one hopes—to re-enter a world in which you could see a Christopher Nolan movie in the theater, Tenet feels like the perfect film for whenever that occasion arrives. Co-starring alongside Washington is Robert Pattinson, playing his partner in their attempts to save the world by “catching the bullet.” You couldn’t ask for two more charismatic leads. Joining Washington, Pattison, and Poésy are a bunch of stellar actors, including Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, and Nolan’s longtime collaborator Michael Caine.

Check out the trailer here. Tenet was due in theaters on July 17, but the trailer leaves out any specific release date. We’ll let you know when we do.

Here’s the official synopsis from Warner Bros.:

John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.”

Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time.
Not time travel. Inversion.

Featured image: Caption: (L-r) ELIZABETH DEBICKI and JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action epic “TENET,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures