Nolan’s next blockbuster thriller is supposedly coming to theaters on July 17, but that remains to be seen.
A new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Tenet just dropped, and fans are already speculating about the plot and mechanics of the sci-fi action film, which stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki.
The latest preview sheds a bit of light on the movie’s story and concept; it follows a group of spies, including Washington’s character, who are trying to prevent World War III. Typical action-movie stuff, right? Well, this being a Nolan film, there’s an extra wrinkle—the characters in Tenet are able to mess with the flow of time thanks to a concept called “Time Inversion.” And if you’re like Pattinson’s character, you’re probably thinking that we’re talking about time travel, but no, apparently they’re not the same thing.
With this fresh bit of insight on the film, fans are trying to piece together how Tenet works and how it’ll be in dialogue with Nolan’s other films. Below, we’ve rounded up a few of the different questions fans are trying to answer and the theories that some of them have.
What Is “Tenet?”
“All I have for you is a word: ‘Tenet,'” one character (played by Martin Donovan) says to Washington’s protagonist in the new trailer.
