Tenet (2020)

I don’t pretend to fully understand Nolan’s latest film, “Tenet.” But I don’t think you have to (or even that it is necessarily possible to fully understand it). It is enjoyable on a level completely independent from the plot.

At the risk of over-simplification, a plot outline for Tenet would go as follows:

At some point in the future, it is discovered that one can reverse the entropy of the universe and flow or live backwards in time. Using this discovery, a madman intends to explode a reverse-entropy bomb ending time and space. Working both forwards and backwards in time, a group is resisting his efforts, trying to save the universe.

Hurts your head, right?

Never mind all of that. The film is really about the timeless debate between fate and freewill. Do we choose what we do in life, or is it predetermined for us?

Thus, the clever name of the film: “Tenet.” The definition of the word is, “a principle of belief, especially a foundational one to religion or philosophy.” And that is what the movie is exploring. And, bonus, the word is a palindrome which neatly reflects the plot of the movie.

The answer that the movie gives to the question of whether freewill or fate governs our actions is: both. And that is precisely the answer that true Biblical Christianity lands on as well. There is a paradoxical tension in scripture between the absolute sovereignty of God and the personal responsibility of man. He is in control, but we have to choose.

In the film, this is best seen in Robert Pattinson’s character, Neil. Towards the end of the film, he is preparing to head back into the battle for an extra, third, time. He is headed to accomplish a task that ensures their success but means also that he will die. When asked if they can’t just change the future through different choices, he sums up the tenet, “What's happened, happened. Which is an expression of fate in the mechanics of the world. It's not an excuse to do nothing.”

Even if you know that God is in control, and that His plans will work out, that is not an excuse from making choices and living life according to our best understanding of God’s plan. If we know He will win, then that is a huge motivation to act! But, to those hyper Calvinists who claim that we need do nothing for God’s plan because it will work out in the end without our choices or actions… I hate to break it to them, but in their nomenclature that are most likely among the predestined to damnation.