Tenet (2020) is without a doubt among the most innovative espionage-sci-fi films ever produced. While time travel in sci-fi films is not new, the film features technology that can reverse entropy permitting objects and characters to travel backwards in time. This premise departs from the standard ways time travel is depicted in film, namely by presenting scenes where objects and characters traveling forward through time interact with objects and characters traveling in the reverse temporal direction. The film’s action scenarios are given a novel twist as a result of this narrative premise. In the film, fights, battles, and rescues feature forward and reversed temporality fundamentally altering the narrative logic of these action scenarios and extending what can be imaginatively conceived when staging action for the screen.
