Tenet is infamous for melting the minds of those who watched it.
Christopher Nolan's time-bending movie encompasses everything from backwards driving, temporal pincer movements, and at least a working knowledge of something called a Sator Square.
As it turns out, star Robert Pattinson – who played the mysterious agent Neil in the globetrotting adventure – still hasn't quite grasped the movie's plot.
Recalling his on-set confusion in a new interview with GQ for The Odyssey, Pattinson said, "I remember saying to John David [Washington] on pretty much the last week of the shoot: I’m like, ‘I think I’m dead. I think I’ve always been dead.’ And John David’s like, ‘You’re not dead. What are you talking about?’"
Can the Protagonist see dead people? Probably not. Besides, one of the prevailing theories revolves around Neil actually being the son of Elizabeth Debicki's Kat glimpsed at the end of the movie. Max, after all, can be the shortened name of 'Maximilien.' Flip those last four letters and you get 'Neil'. Mind. Blown.
Tenet released in August 2020 after a handful of COVID-related delays and featured Washington and Pattinson as a pair of agents for Tenet, a shadowy group that can move backwards through time. It has since been reappraised by some as a flawed Nolan masterpiece – particularly when it comes to the action sequences, which involved crashing a real Boeing-747. Naturally.
Next up for Christopher Nolan and Robert Pattinson is The Odyssey, a retelling of Homer's epic poem as Matt Damon's Odysseus fights his way back home after years away.
The Odyssey opens in cinemas on July 17. For more, check out the rest of 2026's big movie release dates. Then, dive into our picks of the best Nolan movies.
