Tenet (2020) Movie Script

[indistinct chattering]
[orchestra tuning instruments]
[indistinct chatter on radio]
[tuning radio]
[instrument tuning stops]
- [gunshot]
- [people screaming]
[gunfire]
- [gunfire]
- [people screaming loudly]
[sirens wailing]
[speaking Ukrainian]
[in English] Hey!
[gun clicks]
[tires squeal]
[gas hissing]
[indistinct shouting]
[metallic clattering]
[gunshot]
[people gasp]
We live in a twilight world.
[gun clicks]
We live in a twilight world.
And there are
no friends at dusk.
You've been made. This siege is
a blind for them to vanish you.
But I established contact.
Bring you in or kill you.
- I have two minutes. Make up your mind.
- [distant gunfire]
Where's the package?
Coat check.
[gunfire]
Stay.
[bomb timer beeping]
[SWAT speaking Ukrainian]
[gunshot]
[in English] No friends
at dusk, huh?
You'll do.
Get him to the rally point.
[knocking]
Swap clothes. The Ukrainians
are expecting a passenger.
I've never seen encapsulation
like this.
We don't know how old it is,
but it's the real deal.
Did you have an out?
Service tunnel to the sewer.
Take this. Take him. Take his exit.
I don't trust ours anymore.
Can you defuse that?
It's centrally synchronized.
Are there more?
Covering their tracks.
- Taking out the audience?
- They're just the cheap seats.
[American SWAT]
That's not our mission.
Mine now.
[bomb timer beeping]
[panting]
[gun cocks]
Walk away.
You don't have to
kill these people.
[gunshot]
That wasn't one of us.
I'll take the help.
Go, go, go.
[bomb timer continues beeping]
[van passenger
speaking Russian]
- [gunshot]
- [groans]
[tires screeching]
[groans loudly]
[panting]
[man groaning]
- [grunts]
- [continues groaning]
[driver in English]
A man can be trained
to hold out
for about 18 hours,
so your colleagues
will be clear by 7:00.
He didn't last 18 minutes.
He didn't have anything
to hide.
You were smuggling a nobody.
It's risky.
Or were you counting on this?
Death.
CIA issue.
Spare yourself,
once they clear.
[groaning]
Almost 7:00.
Uh-oh.
It's running fast.
We have to put it back
one hour.
[grunting]
Get it out!
[groaning]
Welcome to the afterlife.
You've been in a
medically-induced coma
while we got you out of Ukraine
and rebuilt your mouth.
[weakly] The suicide pills
are fake.
Why?
A test.
A test?
They pulled my teeth out.
Did my team get clear?
No.
Private Russians, we think.
Somebody talked.
Not you.
You chose to die instead of
giving up your colleagues.
We all believe we'd run
into the burning building.
But until we feel that heat,
we can never know.
You do.
I resign.
You don't work for us.
You're dead.
Your duty transcends
national interests.
This is about survival.
Whose?
Everyone's.
There's a cold war,
cold as ice.
To even know its true nature
is to lose.
This is knowledge divided.
All I have for you is a gesture
in combination with a word.
"Tenet."
Use it carefully.
It'll open the right doors,
but some of the wrong ones, too.
That's all they've told you?
That test you passed?
Not everybody does.
[grunting]
[gun cocks]
[grunting]
[ship horn blows]
[indistinct chatter]
With a high-vis vest and a clipboard,
you can get almost anywhere.
Almost.
An obscure tenet.
No small talk.
Nothing that might reveal
who we are or what we do.
I thought I was here
to find out what we do.
You're not here for "what,"
you're here for "how."
"What" is your department
and not my business.
Well, to do what I do...
I need some idea
of the threat we face.
[sighs]
As I understand it,
we're trying to prevent World War III.
Nuclear holocaust?
No.
Something worse.
Aim it and pull the trigger.
It's empty.
Aim it.
[gun cocks]
Check the magazine.
How?
One of these bullets is like us,
traveling forwards through time.
The other one's
going backwards.
Can you tell which is which?
How about now?
It's inverted.
Its entropy runs backwards.
So, to our eyes,
its movement is reversed.
We think it's a type of inverse
radiation triggered by nuclear fission.
You didn't make it?
No, we don't know how yet.
So, where'd it come from?
Someone's manufacturing them
in the future.
They're streaming back at us.
Try it.
You have to have dropped it.
How can it move
before I touch it?
From your point of view,
you caught it.
But from the bullet's point of
view, you dropped it.
But cause comes before effect.
No, that's just the way
we see time.
Well, what about free will?
That bullet wouldn't have moved
if you hadn't put your hand there.
Either way we run the tape,
you made it happen.
Don't try to understand it.
Feel it.
Instinct.
Got it.
Why does it feel so strange?
You're not shooting the bullet,
you're catching it.
Whoa.
I've seen this type
of ammunition before.
In the field?
I was almost hit.
Then you were
exceedingly lucky.
An inverted bullet passing through
your body would be devastating.
Not pretty.
These look like today's.
They may have been made today
and inverted years from now.
Where did you get them?
Came with the wall. I was assigned it,
like all the material I'm studying here.
Do you have an analysis
on the metals?
Sure. Why?
The mixture of alloys can tell me
where they might have been made.
Look...
I'm not seeing Armageddon here.
The bullet may not seem like
much, but it's a simple machine.
Lead bullet, brass casing,
gunpowder.
If they can invert that,
I see no reason they couldn't
invert pretty much anything.
Even a nuclear weapon
can only affect our future.
An inverted weapon might be
able to affect our past as well.
Now that we know what to look for, we're
finding more and more inverted material.
Remnants of complex objects.
What do you think we're seeing?
The detritus of a coming war.
- [indistinct chattering]
- [Hindi song playing on radio]
- [man on phone] Yep?
- We live in a twilight world.
No friends at dusk.
I was told you left the building.
Even the dead need allies.
Specifically?
I need an assist in Mumbai.
I need to get to Sanjay Singh.
Singh?
He never leaves his house.
And his house is...
- his house.
- Yes, it is.
I'm looking right at it.
I'll see who's on deck.
Bombay Yacht Club in two hours.
[man sighs]
It seems you need
an introduction
to a prominent Mumbai local
on short notice.
I'm Neil.
I need an audience
with Sanjay Singh.
That's not possible.
Ten minutes tops.
Time isn't the problem.
It's getting out alive
that's the problem.
Would you take a child hostage?
A woman?
If I had to.
I'm not looking to make much
noise here.
[waiter] Yes?
Vodka tonic. And a Diet Coke.
What?
You never drink on the job.
You're well-informed.
Well, pays to be
in our profession.
Well, I prefer soda water.
[chuckles softly]
- No, you don't.
- [chuckles softly]
How's your parachuting?
I broke an ankle
during basic training.
Singh's house isn't tall enough
to parachute off of.
It's bungee-jumpable.
I don't think "bungee-jumpable"
is a word.
It may not be a word, but it may
be our only way out of that place.
Or into it, for that matter.
- [indistinct chattering]
- [Hindi song playing]
[Sanjay] I know you're tired.
I'm also very tired.
[Priya speaking Hindi]
[whirring]
[whirring stops]
[Priya and Sanjay
chattering indistinctly]
[silenced gunshot]
[Priya gasps]
[in English] Stay back.
I was almost taken out by a very
unusual type of ammunition in Ukraine.
I want to know who supplied it.
My name is Sanjay.
And you are?
- No chitchat?
- [switch clicking]
There's no one
at the other end.
No one who's gonna
help you, anyway.
[alarm beeping]
Don't let it get cold.
Why should I know
who supplied it?
Combination of metals
is unique to India.
If it's from India,
it's from you.
- Fine assumption.
- Deduction.
Deduction, then.
Look, my friend...
guns are never conducive
to a productive negotiation.
I'm not the man they send
to negotiate.
[gun cocks]
Or the man they send
to make deals.
But I am the man
people talk to.
I can't.
I can't tell you.
You're an arms dealer, friend.
This may be the easiest trigger
I've ever had to pull.
[Priya] To say anything
about a client
would violate the tenets
he lives by.
If tenets are important to you,
then you can tell me.
Everything.
Not while you have a gun
to my husband's head.
Sanjay, make a drink
for our guest, please.
[Priya] Cheers.
- Priya.
- Hmm.
This is your operation?
A masculine front in
a man's world has its uses.
The dealer you're looking for
is Andrei Sator.
The Russian oligarch.
- You know him?
- Not personally.
Made his billions in gas.
Moved to London. Said to be on
the outs with Moscow.
Very good.
Except the gas he made his billions
from was actually plutonium.
None of which explains how or why
you sold him inverted munitions.
When I sold him the rounds,
they were perfectly ordinary.
So how did he
get them inverted?
We believe he's functioning
as some sort of a broker.
Between our time
and the future.
He can communicate
with the future?
We all do, don't we?
E-mails, credit cards, texts.
Anything that goes into the record
speaks directly to the future.
The question is,
can the future speak back?
And I'm supposed to find out?
To get anywhere near Sator would
take a fresh-faced protagonist.
And you are fresh as a daisy.
Get close.
Find out what he's receiving
and how.
Is it safe to involve
British Intelligence?
I have a contact
who's out of Sator's reach.
[sirens wailing]
You must've had a plan for
getting out.
Not one I love.
May I help you, sir?
I'm Mr. Crosby's lunch.
I presume you mean
Sir Michael Crosby's lunch.
Presume away.
If you'll follow me.
Started without you.
Hope you don't mind.
I'll catch up.
Same for me, please.
[steward] I'll send the waiter.
No, just pass on the order.
I gather you have an interest
in a certain Russian national.
Anglo-Russian.
So I have to watch my step.
Indeed. He's tapped into
the intelligence services.
I've warned them
he's feeding them rubbish...
but they don't seem to care.
Tell me about him.
I assume you're familiar with
the Soviet-era secret cities.
Closed cities, not shown on maps.
Built around sensitive industries.
Most of them have been opened
up and renamed as regular towns.
Not the one Sator grew up in.
Stalsk-12.
In the '70s,
it had a population of about 200,000.
Thought to be abandoned.
Abandoned?
Some kind of accident. After which
it was used for underground tests.
Two weeks ago, same day as the
Kiev opera siege,
we spotted a detonation
in northern Siberia,
just where Stalsk-12 was.
Sator emerged from
this blank spot on the map
with ambition...
and enough money to buy his way
into the British establishment.
Through his wife?
Katherine Barton. Oldest niece
of Sir Frederick Barton.
She works at Shipley's.
Met Sator at an auction.
A happy marriage?
Practically estranged.
Well, how do I get to Sator?
Well, through her, of course.
You may have an inflated idea
of my powers of seduction.
Hardly.
We have an ace in the hole.
You're carrying a Goya
in a Harrods bag.
It's a fake by a Spaniard
named Arepo.
One of two we've confiscated
from an embezzler in Bern.
What happened to the other one?
It turned up at Shipley's.
Authenticated by Katherine Barton.
Put on auction.
And who do you think bought it?
Her husband?
Mmm-hmm.
Does she know it's a forgery?
Oh, it's hard to say.
Rumor has it that
she and Arepo were close.
Uh-huh.
Look, no offense,
but in this world, when someone
is claiming to be a billionaire...
Brooks Brothers won't cut it.
I'm assuming I'm on a budget.
Save the world,
then we'll balance the books.
Can I recommend a tailor?
I'll manage.
You British don't have a
monopoly on snobbery, you know.
Well, not a monopoly.
More of a controlling interest.
Could you box that up for me?
Certainly not.
[mouths]
Goodbye, Sir Michael.
[indistinct chattering]
How can I help, sir?
Sorry, I wasn't notified
of any appointments, Mr...
Goya.
Mr. Goya.
No. I'm told you're
the person to see about Goya.
That's extraordinary.
What's it worth?
Let's not get ahead
of ourselves.
Lots of work to do
before any kind of valuation.
Provenance, microscopic
examination, X-rays.
But what does
your heart tell you?
Sir, where did you say
you acquired this drawing?
Tomas Arepo.
I bought my Goya for cents on a
dollar from an irate Swiss banker.
Traced it back to Arepo,
then realized I scored a bargain
when he told me who paid top dollar
for another one of his pictures.
- Your husband.
- Where's your bargain?
Your drawing's an obvious fake.
My drawing's a very good fake.
You know that
better than anyone.
The information's the bargain.
[sighs]
The information that I helped
defraud my own husband?
He and I are in related businesses,
but he's a very hard man to meet.
If you and I were
to make an arrangement...
Arrangement?
You mean blackmail.
Don't be afraid of the word.
My husband isn't.
I'm sorry to tell you
he got there first.
He knows? And he's never done
anything about it?
Why would he?
He paid $9 million for it.
Barely cover the cost of the
holiday he just forced us on.
Where'd you go, Mars?
Vietnam, on our yacht.
His yacht.
You've got the suit.
The shoes, the watch.
Think you're a little
out of your depth.
People who've amassed fortunes,
like your husband's,
generally aren't okay with
being cheated out of any of it.
The drawing is his hold
over me.
He threatened me with police.
Prison. The works.
He controls me.
My contact with my son.
Everything.
Leaving would never have been
easy but now it's impossible.
You can't fight.
Just beg.
In Vietnam,
I tried to love him again.
Thought if there was love there,
he might give me my son back.
We sat on that bloody boat
watching the sunsets,
imitating some earlier time
in our lives.
He seemed happy,
so I asked him.
And he made me an offer.
He'd let me go if I agreed
never to see my son again.
I expressed myself.
I took Max ashore.
He called us, contrite.
And when we got back,
I glimpsed some other woman
diving off the boat,
and he'd vanished.
I never felt such envy.
You don't seem
the jealous type.
Of her freedom.
You know how I dream
of just diving off that boat?
But you share a son.
That's my life now.
Did you know the drawing
was a fake?
No.
Tomas and I became close,
maybe too close.
I failed.
Andrei can't conceive of
failure, only betrayal.
But I didn't betray my husband.
Retrospect, maybe I missed
my chance.
And he let Arepo walk free.
If you'd actually met Arepo
as you claimed,
you'd understand
he no longer walks anywhere.
We spoke on the phone.
He can't do that either.
- Where's the drawing?
- Why?
Get me an introduction.
I'll take the drawing
out of the equation.
No picture, no prosecution,
no more hold over you.
I might just be
your second chance.
No, I don't need redemption.
At betrayal.
Friends of your husband's?
You knew this was
going to happen?
Don't worry,
they won't kill you.
Andrei dislikes tangling with local
law enforcement on that level.
You must've really not liked
the look of me.
The look of you's fine.
It's best to get to the nasty part
before I care one way or the other.
There's a number
in your left coat pocket.
Don't call from home.
You won't be taking my call.
I might surprise you.
[indistinct chattering]
I ordered my hot sauce
an hour ago.
[grunts]
[sighs]
Can we get going?
[Protagonist grunting]
[all grunting]
Please?
He wants you to see.
[thug grunting]
[thug yells]
- And he gets what he wants.
- [sighs]
Not always, apparently.
[Max] Anna says we're going
to Pompeii
and see lava.
[Kat] We will.
We'll go together.
I'll be there, too!
[cell phone ringing]
Told you I'd surprise you.
He's a cute kid.
He's everything.
Where's the drawing?
Oslo. At the airport.
The airport?
Do you know what a Freeport is?
[Protagonist] A storage facility
for art that was acquired...
[Kat] But not yet taxed.
We started a network.
Rotas, this construction company,
built them. I brought in the clients.
The facilities are tax havens.
[Protagonist] The clients can view their
investments without importing them,
so they avoid paying tax.
It's sorta like
a transit lounge for art?
[Kat] Art, antiquities.
- Anything of value, really.
- [Protagonist] Anything?
Anything legal.
But it's not unlike
the Swiss banking system.
Opaque.
As I'm sure you are aware,
most Freeports are just warehouses.
But here we ensure that
you can actually enjoy...
Rotas has assets in the Oslo Freeport.
I'm guessing it's there.
And this way to the vaults!
- Guessing?
- Guessing?
We make trips there
four, five times a year.
- To view art?
- And whatever it is he does.
Turns out art's
of no importance to Andrei.
But the Freeports are.
The structure of the vaults
is based on the Pentagon.
Each vault a separate structure
within the others.
Damage to one structure
won't compromise the others.
[Klaus continues indistinctly]
[imperceptible]
Some of our clients opt for
biometric access, straight in...
off the tarmac.
From the terminal?
From their private planes.
Of course.
Our logistics department
ships to and from
any other Freeport in the world
without customs inspection.
[Neil] What are you hoping
to find in there?
You really wanna know?
[exhales] I'm not sure.
Bring some lead-lined gloves.
Jesus.
It's nuclear.
When you're on the tour,
pay attention
to the fire precautions.
[Klaus chuckling]
[Neil] Documents are
vulnerable to...
Fire? Absolutely!
No, I was going to say water
damage from the sprinkler systems.
We don't use sprinklers.
The facility is flooded
with halide gas,
displacing all the air
within seconds.
Can you show me?
If I did, we'd suffocate.
[both chuckle]
What about the staff?
Halide only fills the vaults,
they just have to get
into either corridor,
and there is
a 10-second warning.
At least you give them
10 seconds.
[chuckles] Well, sir, our clients
use us because we have no priorities
above their property.
Blimey.
All doors are fireproof.
Hydraulic closers, simple key
and electronic triggers.
Surprisingly easy
once there's a lockdown.
Why a lockdown?
Power switches to fail-safes,
sealing the outer doors,
but inner doors
revert to factory settings.
And pickable locks.
- Hmm.
- It's child's play, really.
Child's play?
They're inside
airport security.
They have to worry about climate
control, not armed raids.
[Neil] So, how do we get enough
firepower through the perimeter
to trigger
the lockdown procedure?
Back wall of the Freeport.
You've got something?
Not gonna like it.
You wanna crash a plane?
Well, not from the air.
Don't be so dramatic.
I want to run a jet
off the taxiway
and breach the rear wall
and start a fire.
Well, how big a plane?
Well, that part
is a little dramatic.
This is Mahir.
His team'll work the plane.
There can't be passengers.
[Mahir] Norsk Freight.
They use the hangar on
the west side of the Freeport.
You want to crash a transport plane?
What about the crew?
We pop the slides,
chuck 'em off.
On the move?
What's the problem?
They'll be fine.
Well, it seems bold.
Bold I'm fine with. I thought
you were gonna say nuts.
[Protagonist] And if you
get caught?
[Mahir] We won't.
[Protagonist] And if you do?
Everyone assumes terrorism,
but no one's died,
so swift extradition
then lost in the system.
It'll barely make the news.
[Neil] Oh, depends on the size
of your explosion.
Well, actually, the gold bars
might get some play.
Gold bars?
Norsk Freight ships Treasury
gold once a month.
[Mahir] Blow the back.
Drop it out on the runway.
No one will be looking at the building.
I guarantee you.
[Protagonist] The space in the
center of the pentagon is too big.
There's something there.
Can't figure it out,
it's just not marked.
- [exhales heavily]
- [timer clicks]
That's 45 seconds.
Ample.
Won't you be running?
[pants]
- All right, it's your turn.
- [starts timer]
Start packing.
[Protagonist exhaling sharply]
[Klaus speaks Norwegian]
[in English] Gentlemen, if you
would, through the detector, please.
[thanks in Norwegian]
[in English] Sir?
Oh. [chuckles]
And, sir.
I can offer you, perhaps,
a coffee, water?
[Protagonist] No,
I'll take an espresso.
- Sir?
- No, thank you.
Excellent.
[Mahir] Is everybody
on this plane vegetarian?
Because all I got here
is vegetarian.
So that looks like meat,
but I think that looks vegetarian.
I think they both look vegetarian.
I don't really know.
It's confusing, ya know?
Okay.
[keypad beeping]
This way, gentlemen.
[keypad beeping]
[Klaus] Gentlemen,
your assigned compartment.
Carry on. Not the radio.
[Mahir] Let's go.
- [rumbling]
- Uh...
[breathes deeply]
[breathing deeply]
Yoga.
Let's go! Now!
[jet thrusters accelerating]
[crew members shouting]
Go, go, go!
[chuckles]
[shouting continues]
- Right. Um...
- [rumbling]
[inhales deeply]
[indistinct chattering]
- You said 10 seconds, right?
- [alarm beeping]
[gas hissing]
[keypad beeping]
[both gasping]
[Neil grunts]
- [keypad beeping]
- [inhales sharply]
[door beeps]
[both gasping]
[siren wailing]
[officer shouting in Norwegian]
[whispers in English] There's
someone in here with us.
[keypads beeping]
[keypad alarm beeping]
- Need a hand?
- Actually, yes.
[door unlocks]
Don't touch them!
The hell happened here?
It hasn't happened yet.
[whirring]
[all grunting]
[man groans]
[shoes squeaking]
[both grunting]
[shoes squeaking]
Don't kill him!
We need to know
if we've been compromised.
[man grunting]
Why are you here?
Who are you?
- How'd you know we'd be here?
- [muffled explosion]
We need to go.
[sirens wailing]
What happened to the other guy?
- [keypad beeping]
- Took care of him.
[Klaus speaking Norwegian]
[Klaus shouts in Norwegian]
[in English] Well,
I've seen too much.
I'm still alive, which must
mean you've decided to trust me.
Or maybe I lost my edge.
Edge is still intact.
[chuckles]
There's a cold war.
Nuclear?
Temporal.
[laughs]
Time travel?
No.
Technology that can invert
an object's entropy.
You mean reverse chronology.
Like Feynman and Wheeler's notion
that a positron is an electron
moving backwards in time?
Sure, that's exactly
what I meant.
I have a master's in physics.
Well, try and keep up.
The implications of this are...
Beyond secret.
Then why'd you bring me in?
I thought we'd find a drawing
and a couple boxes of bullets.
Not as surprised as I was.
I'm going back to Mumbai
to get some answers.
I'll set you up as a go-between.
But remember, to you...
it's all about plutonium.
And when we're done,
they'll kill you.
Won't you have to
do that anyway?
I'd rather it be my decision.
So would I.
I think.
[chuckles]
[indistinct chattering]
Your work?
What did you find
in the vaults?
Two antagonists. One inverted.
We took out the regular one,
but the inverted one got away.
Both emerged
at the same moment?
Yeah.
They were the same person.
Sator's built a turnstile
in that vault.
Turnstile?
A machine for inverting.
You've told me that technology
hasn't been invented yet.
It hasn't.
He's been given it
by the future.
For what?
You have the best chance of
finding out.
[sighs]
- [Priya] Have you met him?
- [Protagonist] I was close.
What if you have
something he needs?
Such as?
Plutonium-241.
Sator tried to lift the only
loose 241 from under a CIA team
at the opera siege in Kiev.
He got the team.
Not the 241.
Who did?
Ukrainian Security Services.
It's moving to Tallinn
in a week.
Helping an arms dealer steal
weapons-grade plutonium
is unacceptable, Priya.
I'm just gonna take him out.
No, no, no.
Sator has to stay alive.
He has to stay alive until
we know his part in things.
Leverage the situation,
without losing control
of the 241.
It's too dangerous.
A terrorist's bomb,
even one that can kill billions,
is nothing compared with what will
happen if we don't stop Sator.
From doing what?
We are being attacked
by the future.
And Sator's helping.
You have to find out how.
[Kat] I saw the news from Oslo.
Do you have the drawing?
You don't have to worry
about it anymore.
You destroyed it?
I didn't think
you'd want it back.
Does he know?
Not yet. So sit tight.
Sit tight?
Every day my son spends with that
monster, he thinks a little less of me.
It won't be long.
In the meantime, introduce me.
As what?
I'm a former first secretary from
the American Embassy in Riyadh.
We met at a party last June.
We were at a party in Riyadh,
but I don't think it was in June.
It was June 29th. 7:00 or 7:30.
Salmon was on the printed menu.
Swapped for sea bass on the night.
Sator left early.
That's when we met.
I came into Shipley's
in London.
You ran into me here
and wanna show me your yacht.
He'll think we're
having an affair.
Then he'll wanna meet me.
Or have you killed.
Let me worry about that.
Did I look worried?
[Kat] Sleeps 70 with crew.
Two helicopters.
Missile defenses.
Afraid of pirates?
Andrei lives playing
one government off the other.
The day they turn,
that's his refuge.
[Protagonist] May I join you?
Not sure Volkov's taking
passengers just now.
Then we'll take mine.
Max!
Who's the American?
He's a friend.
The man from Shipley's.
Who you tried to have
beaten up.
I ask again, who is he?
We met in Riyadh last June
at the American Embassy.
Good with fists for a diplomat.
Paranoia's your department,
Andrei.
He seems nice.
I invited him to the dinner.
Max?
He's visiting Pompeii
and Herculaneum.
You just sent him off?
I promised him I'd go with him.
I explained you were busy.
With your friend.
[bell tolling]
[indistinct chattering]
Hey, easy, fella.
Where I'm from,
you buy me dinner first.
- Mr. Sator.
- [Sator] Don't bother.
Just tell me if you've
slept with my wife yet.
Uh... No.
Not yet.
How would you like to die?
Old.
You chose the wrong profession.
There's a walled garden
up the road.
We are going to take you there,
cut your throat.
Not across. In the middle,
like a hole.
Then we take your balls
and we stuff them in the cut,
block the windpipe.
Complex.
It's very gratifying
to watch a man you don't like
try to pull his own balls out
of his throat before he chokes.
Is this how you treat
all your guests?
We're finished.
Do you like opera?
Well?
Not here.
You sail?
I've messed around on boats.
Be on the dock at 8:00 ready to
do more than mess around.
8:00 a.m.
[indistinct conversation]
[Kat] Max has missed
too much school this year.
I'm taking him back to England.
The school won't be okay with
him missing so much of the term.
- Yes, they will.
- Can I finish?
You have all the trappings
of a king.
We both know you're a grubby
little man playing power games
with a wife who
doesn't love you anymore.
You seem...
spirited today.
- Do I?
- Yes, you do.
Were you worried
it had been destroyed?
Rest assured, instinct told me
to remove it from the vault.
I've always had instincts
about the future.
That's how I built this life
you no longer value.
Sailing or diving?
Rising!
[whoops]
What do you know about opera?
In 2008, a remote
Russian missile station
was overwhelmed
and held for a week.
When the station was retaken,
241 on one warhead was three
quarters of a kilo lighter.
The missing 241
surfaced at the opera house
siege in Kiev on the 14th.
Coming about!
What do you propose?
Partnership.
I wouldn't partner with you.
You can take care of yourself.
You have no record.
Someone in the arms trade,
with training,
who knows how to
cover his tracks.
Not that shocking.
For an intelligence agent.
Right!
Burn in hell, Andrei.
[Sator yelps]
You can't jibe
a boat like this!
You can if you have to.
[boat creaking]
[gasps]
- Kat...
- Why didn't you let him drown?
I need him.
What, to sell guns?
I'm not who you think I am.
Well, that I know.
He showed me the drawing.
I'm sorry.
I had to get close to him.
I don't know what you think
your husband does...
Oh, we both know
he's an arms dealer.
He's so much more.
What, then?
Andrei Sator holds all of our
lives in his hands, not just yours.
[knocking on door]
Mr. Sator wants to see you.
Okay.
Now.
Uh, he wants to see me
without pants?
- Trust me.
- Save it.
I'm not falling for it twice.
You have a better option?
Whatever it takes
to get what you want.
Not a second's thought
for me or my son.
What do you think
he's gonna do to me now?
Try not to use it.
On anyone.
[pumping air]
Enough.
See? Pulse of a man
half my age.
Drink with me.
It seems I now owe you my life.
It's nothing.
My life is not nothing.
And I don't like to be in debt.
Then pay me.
No retribution
against your wife.
You think she released
my harness?
[Sator chuckles]
It was my own mistake.
Then help me steal the 241.
I need resources.
It's weapons-grade plutonium.
That means special handling,
containment facilities...
I know what it means.
You lecture me about radiation?
Andrei Sator,
digging plutonium from the
rubble of my city as a teenager.
Where?
[Sator] Stalsk-12.
My home.
One part of a warhead exploded at
ground level, scattering the others.
They needed people
to find the plutonium.
It became my first contract.
Nobody else even bid.
They thought it was a death sentence.
But...
one man's probability
of death...
...is another man's possibility
for a life.
I staked my claim
in the new Russia.
Even now, my company is the only
one to operate in the ruins.
The 241 is being transported
through northern Europe,
on its way to the long-term
nuclear storage depot in Trieste.
I'm told you have resources
in Tallinn.
Stay with us tonight.
I insist.
[Kat exhales sharply]
What do you want?
We're going to talk
about today.
No, we're not.
No?
We'll see.
Don't think for a second
you can treat me
like you treat
your other women.
[Sator] And, uh...
how do you imagine...
I treat these other women, huh?
You think I force them
into conversation?
You wanna be quiet, fine.
You can bite down on that.
[gasps]
Even a soul as blank and brittle
as yours needs a response.
Is fear and pain
enough, Andrei?
That's all I have to offer you.
Well, that will
have to do, then.
Why didn't you just let me go?
Because...
if I can't have you...
no one else can.
And if you touch me,
I scream so loud he hears.
You think I let him interfere?
If he tried,
you'd have to kill him.
End of deal.
So you leave me alone.
- [knock on door]
- Not now!
[door opens]
[helicopter approaching]
[Volkov speaking Russian]
[groaning]
[Sator breathing heavily]
[in English] Ninety-eight.
Not bad for such exertion.
[grunting]
- [struggling]
- [Volkov] He was at the window.
I was curious.
My property
shouldn't concern you.
Who are you?
How do you come by your
information about the opera?
You wouldn't do business with someone
who wasn't savvy enough to be recruited.
Hell, the CIA provides two thirds
of the market for fissile material.
They're usually buying,
not selling.
But we do live
in a twilight world.
Is that Whitman? Pretty.
Next warning's a bullet
in the brain.
No balls in my throat?
There will be no time
for such things...
in Tallinn.
You make your way there.
I want Volkov on your team.
No.
[groaning]
I spring the material.
You pay me off.
Your wife does the exchange.
I never involve her
in my business.
Yeah, that's why I trust her.
Put him ashore.
[Protagonist] How do I
contact you?
You don't.
How do you advance me
the funds?
Handle the plutonium
better than that.
[Protagonist]
What did you find on the gold?
[Neil] No franks,
no mold marks. Nothing.
- How?
- Dead drops.
He buries his time capsule,
transmits the location,
then digs it up to collect the
inverted materials they sent.
Seemingly instantaneous.
Where's he bury it?
Some place that won't be
discovered for centuries.
What did the soil samples show?
Northern Europe, Asia.
Radioactive.
Everything salvaged from Oslo's
been shipped here.
Why am I here?
I don't trust anyone else
to assess the pieces.
[Protagonist] Via convoy through
downtown, what's the thinking?
Crowded. Unpredictable
traffic patterns.
It's almost impossible
to plan an ambush.
They have a point.
Is the convoy monitored
from the air?
Tracked by GPS. One wrong turn,
in come the cavalry.
[Protagonist] We need big guns.
Guns that make the point
without being fired.
We need a fast car that doesn't
look fast. Four heavy vehicles.
All different.
Bus, coach, 18-wheeler.
One of them has to be a fire truck.
Most of all, we have to set this
up with nothing in the record.
Nothing electronic,
nothing paper.
I don't want Sator ambushing us
once we spring the material.
His ignorance is our only
protection.
[Sator] You see, Kat?
Some of my favorites.
Singed but, uh, salvageable,
wouldn't you say?
- That's not my area of expertise.
- Ah, that's right.
You would never have anything
to do with such things.
But this is where
our worlds collide.
What is this, Andrei?
You know perfectly well
what it is, Kat.
The filthy business
that put those clothes on your
back and our boy in his school,
that you thought you could
negotiate your way around.
[Volkov speaking Russian]
[gun clatters]
[Sator in English] Time to go.
I'm not going anywhere
with him.
Look at me!
And understand,
you don't negotiate
with a tiger.
You admire a tiger
until he turns on you
and you feel its true
fucking nature!
Don't.
You stay right there.
Green. Two minutes.
- [horn honking]
- [siren wailing]
You are not going to kill me.
I already tried.
You pushed me off a boat.
You are not going to shoot me
in cold blood.
My blood's not cold, Andrei.
No, but you're not
angry enough.
Because anger scars over
into despair.
I look in your eyes...
I see despair.
[groaning]
Vengeful bitch! Living off me!
Thinking that you're better!
Enough!
- [spits]
- [groans]
[yelling]
[whimpering]
Tell me everything
as it happens.
Seal me this side.
Yellow, 60 seconds.
60. Check.
[gun cocks]
Blue, 45 seconds.
Blue, 45, check.
[gun cocks]
[Neil] Okay, Red.
Coming to you.
[speaking Russian]
[in English] Watch everything.
Give me all the details.
All right, everyone set?
And five...
four...
three...
two...
one.
[brakes screech]
[tires screeching]
Go, Yellow!
[static crackling]
We got a problem!
Backup, we need backup! Shit!
[speaking Estonian]
[replies in Estonian]
[tires screeching]
[indistinct]
[in English] Check the
radio chatter.
[grunts]
[indistinct radio chatter
in Estonian]
[in English] I've seen samples of
encapsulation in every weapons class.
This is not one of them.
That's what he's after.
[Sator speaking indistinctly
on radio]
Can't understand this.
You said you spoke Estonian.
It's not Estonian.
It's backwards.
[tires screeching]
The hell is that?
Go, go, go!
Don't give it to him.
This isn't plutonium.
It's worse than that,
God damn it!
[tires screeching]
[Protagonist] Sorry.
He's getting away.
[Protagonist] He left her
in the car!
Go after her, go! Go, go, go!
[grunting]
Pull up alongside!
[Kat grunting]
[door unlocks]
Come on, come on. Closer!
Keep it steady, keep it steady!
[Kat] Hurry up!
Please!
[whimpering]
[brakes screeching]
[exhales sharply]
[gunfire]
All right, sit tight.
I'm calling the cavalry.
What cavalry?
[grunts]
[Protagonist grunting]
[struggling]
[panting]
[Sator] If you are not telling
the truth, she dies.
[speaking in reverse]
I don't know what you're
talkin' about.
You left it in the car,
not the fire truck, right?
[speaking in reverse]
- Who told you that?
- [Sator] Just tell me now,
is it really in the BMW?
[speaking in reverse]
I don't know.
Tell me or
I'll shoot her again!
[Sator speaking in reverse]
Leave her alone!
Kill him!
[Sator] I don't have time
to negotiate.
[speaking in reverse]
- Listen to me!
- [Sator] Three.
I can help you.
- Help me!
- [Sator] Two.
Please!
- Don't!
- [Sator] One.
- [gunshot]
- [Kat screaming]
[Sator] Next one's a bullet
to the head.
[speaking in reverse]
- No!
- One.
Two. Three.
Okay! Okay.
The car. The BMW.
I left it in the BMW.
[Sator] We're going to check
this is real.
[Sator speaking in reverse]
It's in the glove box!
- Where did you leave it?
- [Protagonist groaning]
Car or fire truck, which one?
Which vehicle did you leave it in?
I need to know before I go out there.
I already told you.
[Sator] I believe you.
You wanted her here,
I hope you'll be happy...
[gunfire]
[Wheeler] Clear!
[Ives] Wheeler, go check
the other side.
[Wheeler] You two.
Where did he go?
The past.
[all speaking in reverse]
[Kat screaming]
[Protagonist] It's in
the glove box!
[Sator] We're going to check
this is real.
[continues screaming]
- Three, two, one.
- [Protagonist] Okay, okay...
- Next one's a bullet to the head.
- [Kat screaming]
[gunshot]
- No! No!
- One.
- Listen to me.
- Two.
Three.
- [screams]
- [Protagonist] I can help you.
I don't have time to negotiate.
Tell me
or I'll shoot her again.
[shouting in reverse]
- [Protagonist] Leave her alone!
- [Sator] Tell me now,
is it really in the BMW?
I don't know.
You left it in the car,
not the fire truck, right?
[Protagonist]
Who told you that?
If you're not telling
the truth, she dies.
[Protagonist] I don't know
what you're talking about.
[Kat breathing heavily]
- [Wheeler] Medic!
- [Ives] Check in.
[Wheeler] She's been shot?
[Ives] Bring her back,
this side.
Was she shot with
an inverted round?
This is Ives. He's one of us.
"Us"! Who are these guys?
Priya's. Ours.
How did Sator know
about the ambush?
It's posterity.
An ambush in the middle of the
street can't stay out of the records.
Bullshit! He knew every move
we made! Every one of 'em.
Somebody talked. Who was it?
- Was it you?
- No. No.
At every stage,
you've known too much.
I'm going to ask you again.
Did you talk?
Nobody talked.
They're running
a temporal pincer movement.
A what?
The pincer movement.
But not in space, in time.
Half his team moves forward
through the event.
He monitors them, and then attacks
at the end moving backwards,
knowing everything.
Except for where
I stashed the plutonium.
Which isn't really plutonium,
is it?
[Neil] I told you
it was what he was after.
And you just told him
where it was.
I lied.
[sighs] Jesus.
You lied about it?
He couldn't verify inside the room.
He'd have shot her anyway.
Lying is standard
operating procedure.
It's spread too far.
Meaning what?
[Ives] She's gonna die.
[scoffs] Standard
operating procedure.
Can't you help her?
Can we do something?
Can't we stabilize the inverse
radiation by inverting the patient?
[Ives] Takes days.
Let's go.
We took control of this machine
minutes ago. Before that, it's Sator's.
How long is she gonna live
on this side?
[medic] Three hours, tops.
I'm taking her through.
I'm not gonna let her die.
I'll take my chances.
There's no way of
bringing you back.
We find another machine.
A week ago? Where?
Oslo.
That facility's inside
an airport security perimeter.
It's impregnable.
Mmm... It wasn't last week.
We're going in.
You might as well help us.
[sighs]
This is a proving window.
As you approach the turnstile,
if you don't see yourself
in the proving window,
do not enter the machine.
Why not?
If you don't see yourself
reverse-exit a machine,
then you ain't getting out.
- Is that gonna work?
- Yeah.
See for yourself.
There's your answer. Let's go.
[medic] She's stabilizing
slowly.
I'll clean and close,
but the rest is time.
How long does she need?
Four, five days.
A week to be sure.
Hey, Neil. Find a way
to get us to Oslo.
I'm going back out there.
To do what?
To stop Sator from getting away
with whatever it is I just gave him.
You didn't. You lied
about where it was.
Wait.
You're going out there for her.
He threatened to kill her
in the past.
If he does,
what happens to her here?
[sighs]
That's unknowable.
If you're there to make a change,
you're not here to observe its effect.
What do you believe?
What's happened's happened.
We need to save her,
here and now.
If you go back out there, you might
hand him exactly what he's after.
Don't let them
take her back through there.
Okay?
We can't stay here.
We don't have a lot of time.
So why don't you find us
a nice, cozy shipping container
that's just come off a ship
from Oslo?
This is cowboy shit.
You have no idea what you're
getting yourself into
if you go through that door.
Well, I'm going,
so any tips would be welcome.
Wheeler, brief him.
You'll need your own air.
Regular air won't pass through
the membranes of inverted lungs.
Number one rule:
don't come into contact
with your forward self.
It's the whole point of these
barriers and protective suits.
We don't have time.
Well, if your particles
come into contact...
What?
Annihilation.
That would be bad, right?
When you exit the air lock,
take a moment to orient yourself.
Things will feel strange.
When you run,
the wind will be at your back.
You encounter fire,
ice will form on your clothes
as the transfer of heat
is reversed.
Gravity will feel normal but appear
reversed for the world around you.
You may experience distortions
in your vision and hearing.
This is normal.
- Can I drive a car?
- [Ives] Cowboy shit.
[Wheeler] I can't vouch
for the handling.
Friction and wind resistance
are reversed.
You are inverted.
The world is not.
Was the transponder
on the case?
We've tossed that case.
I'm moving backwards.
It's the ball I have to follow.
Give me the reader.
Okay.
[Wheeler] You ready?
[seagulls cawing in reverse]
[ship horn honks]
[indistinct shouting
in reverse]
[gunfire]
[indistinct shouting
in reverse continues]
[engine idling]
[tires screeching]
[horn blaring]
[Sator over radio]
The material's not in the case.
Get the other sections of the
algorithm to the hypocenter.
He was lying.
It wasn't in the BMW.
[man] So, where is it?
[tires screech]
[choking]
[gasping]
I saw the handoff.
You made me shoot her
for nothing.
You did get my pulse above 130,
no one's done that before.
Not even my wife.
[groans]
[muffled shouting]
[lighter clicks]
[panicked breathing]
[muffled grunting]
[gasps]
[Neil] You left Ives and his
team a hell of a cleanup.
Heat transfer was reversed.
You might be
the first case of hypothermia
from a gasoline explosion
in history.
[scoffs] At this point,
nothing surprises.
We're headed back to Oslo?
In a Rotas shipping container.
He's got the material, Neil.
I handed it to him on a plate.
[sighs] I warned you...
What's happened's happened.
I get it now.
But it's hard to take things on trust
from people speaking half-truths.
That's not fair.
You were a part of this
before we met.
Were you working for Priya?
No.
Who recruited you, Neil?
It can't possibly do you any
good to know that right now.
When this is over, if we're still
standing, and you still care,
then you can hear
my life story, okay?
I'm sorry I involved you.
You need to tell me
what's going on.
Apparently Neil here knows
more about it than I do.
Good luck, pal.
By telling Kat anything,
we're compromising her in Priya's eyes.
In Priya's eyes,
she's already compromised.
She has the right to know
why she might die.
Am I gonna die?
Not if we have something
to say about it.
And we do.
Who are you?
Let's start with the simple stuff.
Every law of physics...
[Sator on recording]
The material's not in the case.
Get the other sections of the
algorithm to the hypocenter.
[groans]
You injured?
What's the algorithm, Neil?
241 is one section of it.
One out of nine.
It's a formula
rendered into physical form
so it can't be copied
or communicated.
It's a black box
with one function.
Which is?
Inversion. But not objects
or peoples.
The world around us.
I don't understand.
As they invert the entropy
of more and more objects,
the two directions of time
are becoming more intertwined.
But because the environment
essentially flows in our direction...
we dominate.
They're always
swimming upstream.
It's what saved your life.
Inverted explosion was pushing
against the environment.
Pissing in the wind.
[Neil] And the algorithm can
change the direction of that wind.
It can invert the entropy
of the world.
And if that happens?
Oh...
End of play.
"End of play." Can you be
a little more precise?
Everyone and everything that's ever
lived, destroyed. Instantly.
Precise enough?
Including my son.
[groaning]
The more you sleep,
the faster you'll heal.
[metal clangs]
On a truck.
Shouldn't be long now.
[Protagonist]
I've been thinking.
We're their ancestors.
If they destroy us,
won't that destroy them?
This brings us
to the grandfather paradox.
The what?
If you went back in time
and killed
your own grandfather,
how could you have been born
to commit the act?
What's the answer?
There's no answer.
It's a paradox.
But in the future,
those in power clearly believe
that you can
kick grandpa down the stairs,
gouge his eyes out,
slit his throat,
without consequence.
Could they be right?
Doesn't matter.
They believe it.
So they're willing
to destroy us.
Can I go back to sleep now?
No. I thought of
something else.
Great.
This reversing
the flow of time.
Doesn't us being here now
mean it never happens?
That we stop them?
Optimistically, I'd say
that's right.
Pessimistically?
In a parallel worlds theory,
we can't know the relationship
between consciousness
and multiple realities.
Does your head hurt yet?
Yes.
Try to sleep.
[truck stops]
[Protagonist] Shit.
They didn't take us inside.
[Neil] What do we do?
We use the breach.
The chaos right after impact.
Get ready.
She healed enough?
[sighs] I don't know.
I've never done this before.
- [sirens wailing]
- The fire crew's there.
You take Kat
through the breach,
I take care of Sator's men
and secure the vault.
Then you bring her in.
[groans]
How's your arm?
Not good.
We move as soon as
we hear the engines.
- Hold on, hold on.
- What?
[Neil] You're bleeding.
All right, let me take
a look at it.
[airplane engine starting]
[Protagonist] Ready?
[sirens wailing]
[indistinct shouting
in reverse]
Wait here. I'm going in.
[engine roaring]
[explosion]
[muffled grunting]
[shouting in reverse]
[Neil speaking in reverse]
[both grunting]
[muffled groan]
[shoes squeaking]
[groaning]
[gunshots]
[Protagonist] Come on!
Go, go, go!
[panting]
Go!
[shouts in reverse]
[alarm beeping]
[gas hissing]
[both gasping]
[siren wailing]
You knew it was me
coming out of that vault.
Why didn't you say?
That's a lot of explaining
when someone's about to put
a bullet in their own brain.
But afterwards?
Thing's the same,
I knew you'd be okay.
What's happened's happened.
If I told you and you acted
differently, who knows?
The policy is to suppress.
Whose policy?
Ours, my friend.
[both laugh]
We're the people saving the
world from what might've been.
Kat?
I'm here.
[Neil] It'll be quite a scar.
You'll be okay.
Did it. [sighs]
[Kat] You did what?
Andrei has the algorithm.
You don't know where he is.
Or when.
- Get Priya here to Oslo.
- Why?
If I don't do something, in two
days, she tells me about the 241.
Nothing can change that.
We'll see.
Just get her here.
[Protagonist] Hello, Priya.
What's going on?
Where's Neil?
Nursing Katherine Barton,
who almost died because of you.
What did I do?
It's what you're going to do.
In two days, you're gonna have
me dangle plutonium-241
in front of the world's
most dangerous arms dealer.
Now, I wanna know why.
You let Sator get hold of 241?
No, I let him get ahold
of the algorithm.
So, tell me about it, Priya.
It's... It's unique.
The scientist who built it
took her own life
so she couldn't be forced
to make another.
A scientist in the future?
Generations from now.
Why does she have to
kill herself?
You're familiar
with the Manhattan Project?
As they approached
the first atomic test,
Oppenheimer became concerned
that the detonation
might produce a chain reaction,
engulfing the world.
They went ahead anyway
and got lucky.
Think of our scientist as
her generation's Oppenheimer.
She devises a method
for inverting the world,
but becomes convinced
that by destroying us,
they're destroying themselves.
The grandfather paradox.
But, unlike Oppenheimer,
she rebels,
splitting the algorithm
into nine sections
and hiding them the best place
she can think of.
The past.
Here, now.
There are nine nuclear powers.
Nine bombs.
Nine sets of the most closely guarded
materials in the history of the world.
The best hiding place possible.
Nuclear containment facilities.
Sator's lifelong mission,
financed and guided
by the future, has been to
find and reassemble
the algorithm.
Why do they choose him?
Because he was at the right
place at the right time.
The collapse of
the Soviet Union.
The most insecure moment in the
history of nuclear weapons.
How many sections does he have?
After the 241, all nine.
Jesus Christ.
And that's why you're going to
do things differently this time.
To change things?
So Katherine won't get hurt?
So Sator won't get
the algorithm.
[chuckles softly]
If that universe can exist...
we don't live in it.
Well, let's try.
You're going to warn me.
No, I'm not.
Ignorance is our ammunition.
Come on.
If you had known
what the algorithm was,
would you have let it fall
into Sator's hands?
You want Sator to get
the last section.
That is the only way he'll
bring together the other eight.
I was supposed to steal it...
then lose it?
Mission accomplished.
You used me.
As you used Katherine.
Standard operating procedure.
[Protagonist scoffs]
You've done your part.
My part?
I'm the protagonist
of this operation.
You...
are a protagonist.
Did you think you were the only
one capable of saving the world?
[Priya scoffs]
No.
But I am.
Because I haven't told you
where he's assembling the
algorithm or when.
You're about to.
No, I'm not.
So, deal us in.
"Us"?
Why would you want to
involve her again?
Because she can get
close to him.
Does he still trust her?
He thinks she's dead.
But he used to.
You have started looking at
the world in a new way.
And now, it's your turn.
Assuming she
makes it out alive,
whether or not you feel
she knows too much.
I can't.
If you don't have
the authority,
then talk to whoever's
in charge of loose ends.
I need your word
that she and her son
will be safe, Priya.
What good is someone's word
in our line of business?
[sighs heavily]
They'll be safe.
There's a rally point
offshore at Trondheim.
Get yourselves up there.
Ives has a team
ready to invert.
[Protagonist] You have
a turnstile?
The exact technology
that we're trying to suppress.
Fighting fire with fire's
a treacherous business.
But there are some people,
in the future,
who want to continue the
algorithm's journey into the past.
You see...
Tenet wasn't founded
in the past.
It will be founded
in the future.
[Kat] Can't get over the birds.
How're you feeling?
Tell me you're gonna kill him.
I can't.
Why not?
Bet you've probably
killed a lot of people.
Not with a dead man's switch.
[Protagonist]
The fitness tracker he wears.
He's obsessive
about his health.
[Neil] It'll be linked
to a switch,
probably a simple e-mail burst
that reveals the location
of the dead drop,
set to fire if his heart stops.
His death activates
the algorithm.
He dies, the world ends.
No one dares kill him.
No, you've missed the point.
He's intending to end his life.
[Protagonist] Why?
He's dying.
Inoperable pancreatic cancer.
And he's taking the world
with him.
If he can't have her,
no one can.
He gets to choose the time and
place for the end of the world.
What moment?
What does he choose?
You told me about a holiday
where you let him feel loved.
Vietnam.
You said he vanished. What day?
I went ashore with Max and he flew
off, but I don't know what day it was.
It was the 14th. Ten days ago.
He was in Ukraine.
At the Kiev opera siege.
How do you know about that?
The point is, he wasn't on his
yacht, so that's his window.
To go back to that golden
moment and have it be his last.
[Protagonist] Everyone's last.
We have to lift the algorithm
from the dead drop
without Sator knowing.
If he believes it's there,
he kills himself.
And not the rest of us.
Where's the dead drop?
Knowledge divided, my friend.
You're not gonna tell me?
Ignorance is our ammunition.
But I need you back
on that yacht, Kat.
Why?
You have to stop him killing
himself until we know the algorithm
is out of the dead drop.
But if I'm caught there,
my son sees.
I don't want those moments
to be full of anguish
if they're gonna be his last.
They're not.
[Ives] It's time.
We're working our way
back to the 14th,
but without knowing
where the dead drop is,
there's only so much
I can do to prepare.
You know what a hypocenter is?
It's ground zero for
an underground nuclear test.
Sir Michael Crosby told me about a
detonation in Stalsk-12 on the 14th.
The dead drop is at the bottom
of the hypocenter.
That explosion
seals up the algorithm.
[Ives] Well, then we better
pull it out of that hole
before the bomb goes off, eh?
[announcer on PA] Line it up.
Move forward.
Next.
Line it up.
Where's Neil?
He must've
gone through already.
I didn't get to say goodbye.
This is goodbye, isn't it?
I'd like to say...
that you don't have to
do this, Kat...
Worst thing Andrei ever did to
me was that offer he made me.
Let me go if I agreed
never to see my son again.
I shouted and...
swore.
But he'd seen it on my face,
just for an instant.
I considered it.
I don't know if I hate him more
for what he's done,
or because he knows that
about me.
Oh.
A chance to help save my child.
You can't know
what that means to a mother.
No.
You've killed people
you've hated before.
It's not usually personal.
Well, he's dying anyway.
Maybe it doesn't even count.
It always counts, Kat.
You're not there to kill him,
you're the backstop.
If we don't lift that algorithm
and he kills himself,
he takes us all with him.
You just keep up
your end, okay?
[Protagonist] Today's the 14th.
Offshore of Siberia.
Time for us to go.
You keep going back
another day,
give you some time
to get back into Vietnam.
And who gets me on the yacht?
I've got somebody good
lined up.
When it's over, when you're
raising your boy, carry this.
There may be a time and place
you feel threatened.
Hit "talk," state your
location, hang up.
Who gets the message?
Posterity.
[Ives] Stalsk-12.
Hidden from the world is a city
where anything can happen.
And today, ladies and gents,
for ten minutes, it most assuredly does.
You've been divided into two teams
for a temporal pincer movement.
We're Red Team, moving forward.
In order to distinguish
the teams, you'll wear these.
Our friends over there,
Blue Team, led by Commander
Wheeler, are inverted.
Why don't they let us see them?
Maybe we won't like
what happened.
[Ives] One hour from now,
they had this briefing.
[Wheeler speaking indistinctly]
Then, were dropped on the ridge
above the hypocenter,
as close in time
to the detonation as possible.
Their objectives were clearance
and clarification.
Now, this briefing has the
benefit of their experience.
Both teams have
countdown watches.
Ours counts down from ten,
from landing
to zero to the explosion.
- Blue Team is reversed.
- [Wheeler] Everybody, look to your left.
If you are not at the LZ
at zero, you are not leaving.
Do you understand?
[Ives] We drop in, clear LZs
for Blue Team evacuation.
We make our way
into the city proper.
These buildings are abandoned,
but we learned
there is a turnstile.
Expect a bitemporal response.
They'll have inverse ordnance?
Inverse, conventional,
forward antagonists, inverted
antagonists, they have it all.
On the other side of the city,
the ground rises to the ridge
above the hypocenter.
A splinter unit will take this
tunnel from the city
to the floor of the hypocenter.
Blue Team located
an entrance here.
The bomb is in this rock,
high above,
to trigger a collapse,
sealing the cavern.
How do we defuse the bomb
up there?
We don't. The explosion
takes place as planned.
Now, our job is to fail
to defuse that bomb
while the splinter unit
achieves its task undetected.
Which is?
Need-to-know, and you don't.
Any other stupid questions?
Good. Well, let's go.
Let's get ready.
I wanted to be
on the first wave.
There is no first wave.
Red Team and Blue operate simultaneously.
Look,
don't get on the chopper if you
can't stop thinking in linear terms.
Now, you wanna be on the team that
lifts the contents of the capsule?
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's us.
We're splinter unit.
Just us?
No one who knows the contents of
that capsule can leave the field.
I thought we'd
manage ourselves.
[Mahir] It's 40 feet from the
private deck to the water.
Can you jump it?
I can dive it.
Until you see my signal,
you don't let him die.
[helicopter departing]
[Ives] Thirty seconds!
[explosions]
[Ives] Go! Go! Go!
[Wheeler] We're coming in
on a shockwave.
Hang on, people.
On your feet!
[Red Team member
shouting in reverse]
[Ives] There!
[crew member] Ma'am.
We thought you'd gone ashore.
Well, I snuck back
to surprise Andrei.
Oh, the boss left.
[helicopter approaching]
Well, have Mr. Sator
find me here.
And don't tell the others.
I'll get the mess.
[Protagonist] Mines!
[Wheeler] Mines!
[Sator] They told me
you'd gone ashore.
They told me you'd flown off.
I came back to see you and Max.
Max is on shore with Anna.
We need time, just you and me,
after what happened.
I was joking.
It was a stupid joke.
You think I'm
a terrible mother.
We both know my opinion of you
is higher than yours of me.
I want things
to be better, Andrei.
[Ives] Take cover!
Get me a goddamn AT4!
Take him out, now!
Provide some cover!
Move, move, move! Let's go!
Move, move, move!
[Protagonist panting]
[groans]
[Neil] Wheeler!
Get outta there!
[Wheeler] Come on!
[Protagonist] Ives!
Splinter unit. Here.
You know, it's going to be
a beautiful sunset.
I'll get Max brought back.
We should share the moment with him.
I'll make you a drink.
Bring my son back to the boat.
We're runnin' out of time,
let's go!
If they see us,
it's all for nothing.
We need a distraction.
Don't worry about that.
[Wheeler] On my mark!
RPG, hit the base!
[Ives] That building
on my mark!
Three! Two!
[Wheeler] One! Fire!
[Ives] Fire!
Move! Move!
[horn honking]
[beeps]
[Protagonist]
We're committed now. Come on.
[Kat] What's that?
[Sator] I borrowed it
from the CIA.
What is it?
The way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
I don't understand.
When I take this,
it's all over.
Then don't take it yet.
Why not?
Because we have
the sunset coming.
And a little vodka left.
And Max will be here soon.
They said they thought it was
you, not Anna, ashore with Max.
So long as you can tell
the difference.
A moment's business, my love.
[Ives] Mahir, do you copy?
Not clear. I repeat, not clear!
Copy that.
[Ives] I repeat, not clear!
[both panting]
[Wheeler] Neil!
Neil!
Go!
[Ives] We don't have anything
big enough to blow this.
[beeping]
Try him.
See if he's got a grenade.
Anything?
[Protagonist] Nah, nothing.
[Ives] Here, you try having
a look. Can you pick it?
[Sator on phone] I hope not.
I paid a lot for that lock.
How do you like where my
journey began and yours ends?
Little radioactive
for my taste.
My fate was always bound up
with radiation.
We'd work where
no one else would.
I made a bargain
with the devil.
Money for time.
We sold our futures.
And now you're about to make the
same mistake for the entire world.
[Sator] It wasn't a mistake.
I made the bargain I could.
What was yours?
You fight for a cause
you barely understand...
with people you trust so little,
you've told them nothing.
When I die,
the world dies with me.
And your knowledge
dies with you,
buried in a tomb like an
anonymous Egyptian builder
sealed in a pyramid
to keep his secret.
Your faith is blind.
You're a fanatic.
[Protagonist] What's more fanatical
than trying to destroy the world?
[Sator] I'm not,
I'm creating a new one.
Somewhere, sometime, a man in a
crystalline tower throws a switch
and Armageddon
is both triggered and avoided.
Now time itself
switches direction.
The same sunshine we basked in
will warm the faces of our
descendants generations to come.
How could they wanna kill us?
Because their oceans rose
and their rivers ran dry.
Don't you see?
They have no choice but to turn back.
We're responsible.
[breathing heavily]
Knowing this,
do you still want me to stop?
Yes.
Each generation
looks out for its own survival.
That's exactly
what they're doing.
But not you. You're a traitor.
Bringing death to all,
because you have no life
of your own left.
When I'm done, life continues.
Not your son's.
My greatest sin was to bring a son
into a world I knew was ending.
You think God will forgive me?
- Wait!
- [horn honking]
Wait!
God...
[Wheeler] Cover me!
Go! Go! Go!
[Protagonist] You don't believe
in God, or a future,
or anything outside
of your own experience.
[Sator] The rest is belief.
And I don't have it.
Without it, you're not human.
You're just a madman.
Or a god.
Of sorts.
Like I said.
Don't. Jesus.
Our time is up.
[Protagonist exclaiming]
I'll give your love to my wife.
You're forgetting.
I haven't met her yet.
That's right.
After you meet her, she dies.
I'll just give her
my love instead.
Don't do...
Volkov... [speaks Russian]
[in English] Enough business,
my love.
- [Volkov groans]
- [shouts]
You have no idea
what I'm talking about, do you?
But it sounds
terribly important.
Where are you going?
[Kat] Aren't you hot?
[both grunting]
What are you doing now?
I spilled sunscreen.
- So what?
- Slippery!
Just come here.
Turn over.
You'll like it.
[both grunting]
[Volkov screaming]
I can't do this.
- I can't let you think you've won.
- Don't spoil this moment, Kat.
I'm not letting you go to your grave
thinking we're coming with you.
You're dying alone, Andrei.
[Protagonist] Come on, come on,
come on!
[Ives] Tunnel's sealed,
gate's closed.
Mahir, do you copy?
Yeah.
[Ives] Hold. I repeat, hold!
Look in my eyes.
Which do you see?
Despair or anger?
I'm not the woman
who could find love for you
even though you scarred her
on the inside.
I'm the vengeful bitch
you scarred on the outside.
[Sator] No!
[wheezing]
[sunscreen squelching]
Shit.
[Mahir] Ives, she's killed him.
Ives, do you copy? She's killed him.
[Ives] She jumped the gun.
She killed him.
[beeping]
Come on, come on!
Do you think they made it?
Ah, screw it.
[yells]
[panting]
[Protagonist on radio] Kat!
You jumped the gun!
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't let him die
thinking he'd won.
I knew you'd find a way.
Wait, you found a way,
we're okay, right?
Yeah, found a way. Be safe.
[gasping in relief]
Thought you were inverted.
Changed gears halfway.
Looked like you
needed help here.
[panting] Here?
We needed help down there.
How'd you get that lock open?
Wasn't me.
Didn't your team need you?
I'll get 'em on the next pass.
All right, Ives?
Once I've caught my breath.
[continues panting]
No one who's seen this
leaves the field.
All right.
We hide it.
We end our lives.
That's the only way to be sure.
As to when...
maybe that's every man's
decision to make for himself.
You're not gonna kill us?
If I ever find you, I will.
But you won't look too hard?
Yes, I will.
You're not going back to London
to check on Kat, are you?
[Protagonist] No.
It's far too dangerous.
Even from afar?
Even from afar.
Ives!
Wait.
Are you really going back in?
I'm the only one who could've got
that door open in time, right, Ives?
Well, I don't know any
locksmiths as good as you.
See?
It's me in there, again.
Weaving another past
in the fabric of this mission.
Neil, wait!
Just saved the world.
Can't leave anything to chance.
But can we change things
if we do it differently?
"What's happened's happened."
Which is an expression of faith
in the mechanics of the world.
It's not an excuse
to do nothing.
Fate?
Call it what you want.
What do you call it?
Reality.
Now let me go.
Hey, you never did tell me
who recruited you, Neil.
Haven't you guessed by now?
You did.
Only not when you thought.
You have a future in the past.
Years ago for me.
Years from now for you.
You've known me for years?
For me, I think this is the end
of a beautiful friendship.
But for me,
it's just the beginning.
We get up to some stuff.
You're gonna love it.
You'll see.
This whole operation's
a temporal pincer.
Whose?
Yours!
You're only halfway there.
I'll see you
at the beginning, friend.
[Neil] We're the people saving the
world from what might have been.
World will never know
what could've happened.
And even if they did,
they wouldn't care.
'Cause no one cares about
the bomb that didn't go off.
Only the one that did.
Do it before the boy comes out.
- [silenced gunshot]
- [gasps]
That's your idea of mercy?
You gave me your word.
And I told you then
what it would be worth.
Here, today.
How did you know?
[Kat on recording] Cannon Place, 3:00.
Probably nothing, I'm...
[Protagonist] Posterity.
Cannon Place, 3:00.
Probably nothing, I'm...
I told you you'd have to start
looking differently at the world.
- I have to tie up the loose ends.
- That was never your job.
Then whose was it?
Mine.
I realized I wasn't working for you.
We've both been working for me.
I'm the protagonist.
Then you'd better tie up
those loose ends.
- [silenced gunshot]
- [Priya groans]
Mission accomplished.
[Neil] It's the bomb that
didn't go off.
The danger no one knew
was real.
That's the bomb with the real
power to change the world.
[hip-hop music playing]
[man singing]
You
Don't know where we stand
It's true
Know the plan
Last time I wrecked it
Last time I whipped around
Last time I did the whippets
Last time I live reverse
Pour the brown, Hit the reverend
Last time I hit your crib
Last time there weren't
No tenants
I done went back in myself
Felt like hell
Felt like I risked it
Pace yourself
Found you livin',
Know you thrillin' Not for sinnin'
How I got my stripes And pendants
Backin' out in the street
What is wild, let it be
Ragers out, gotta eat
Not a vibe, but a wave
With the sound, by the way
Count it down, by the days
To myself, know they wicked
With the moves
I'm drinkin', off the juice
Know I'm drinkin'
I be smooth, then I lose it
Yeah, yeah, now
You
Don't know where we stand
Yeah, yeah
It's true
Know the plan
Close the opera
Hear the red and blue outside
I think our option's up
I recrossed it 'round the map
I had to line it up
I be swervin' on the waves
It's like a line of us
Move in 'verse on my turf
I'm outta line, I put in work
I draw the line
And cross it first
I need the time,
I need to search
It's just like wine,
It make it worse
Skrrt, skrrt in the 'vert
Skrrt, skrrt
Ride on land, Boeing jet,
Make it land
In slow motion when I dance
In your eyes
I see your trance
I run away
And then you prance
If I show the hideaway Will
you hide out And let it blam?
Ain't no time,
I'm facin' scams Nah, nah
You
Don't know where we stand
Yeah
It's true
Ooh
You