All-star Hollywood director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk) released a new trailer for his next sci-fi action thriller, TENET. The trailer was officially released on Thursday, May 21, at 8 P.M. ET on Fortnite, of all places.
The film stars actor John David Washington, fresh off his stellar performance as Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, as the film’s lead Protagonist. Supporting Washington is rising actor Robert Pattinson, who just recently wowed audiences in Robert Eggers’s psychological horror film, The Lighthouse, and is set to star as the Dark Knight himself in Matt Reeves’s The Batman.
What’s TENET About?
The official synopsis for Nolan’s mind-bending film, as described by Warner Bros., states:
“Armed with only one word – Tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journey through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond realtime. Not time travel. Inversion.”
The premise of this film harkens back to Nolan’s spy-thriller classic, Inception. Only instead of altering dreams, the heroes will be reversing time. This premise most likely explains the film’s title, which remains the same spelled backward.
Similar to the trailer for Inception, this one explains almost nothing about the plot to maintain the film’s mystery. What it does present are hints of a mission to prevent World War III, as well as spectacular shots of men running up buildings, cars crashing in reverse, and a plane crashing into an airport. There’s even the promise of Washington catching a speeding bullet in reverse. Whoa.
Like many of Nolan’s previous films, this new trailer promises moviegoers another thought-provoking and action-packed masterpiece, brimming with Nolan’s signature neo-noir aesthetic. The sight of Washington moving a gun through the air and into his hand like a Jedi alone is enough to make me say, “Shut up and take my money!”
The trailer’s unusual choice of venue is a result of Nolan’s partnership will Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games. According to Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Fortnite will even screen one of Nolan’s “iconic films” in its entirety for free in the game’s Party Royale Mode later this Summer. While this does sound like Fortnite will screen Tenet for gamers, it also implies it’ll screen one of Nolan’s previous films instead.
Alongside Washington and Pattinson, the film stars Nolan film alum Michael Caine, as well as actors Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Kenneth Branagh, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The film will also be scored by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who recently composed the scores for the groundbreaking superhero film, Black Panther, and the Star Wars web series, The Mandalorian.
While Tenet is set to release on July 17, 2020, Warner Bros. could be pushed back like many other films in this year due to COVID-19. This course of action could affect the release dates of other future films, including Mulan and Wonder Woman 1984. Thus, the trailer included no release date at its end, leaving the possibility open as the future unfolds.
