Third time watching Christopher Nolan's #TENET and I think this was the first time I really got it (though I had the gist the first and second times). I am more astonished each time at how:
a) the concept was developed,
b) timelines were interwoven to take account of the different perspectives,
c) coordination on several hugely complicated action sequences, and then
d) edited together
There are some great explainers out there, involving running the scenes backwards and forwards, with annotations. Ultimately the key point is we see the story unfold from The Protagonist's perspective, but key scenes can be viewed from other characters or even objects.
https://youtu.be/vvFVLYRNmsM?si=VBxZYwt_BVxk4kkB
I think there's a huge opportunity for a series or pre/sequel, as there are interesting untold stories about the Protagonist, Neil, Sator and the future scientist, that culminate at the Movie we saw.
I actually saw the filming of the ship/ windmill sequence whilst on holiday. Didn't know it at the time but just spotted some strange boat & helicopter activity on Vessel Finder and only made the connection when the movie came out
This is from an excellent timeline by Andrew Timme (https://dribbble.com/shots/15410048-Tenet-Timeline) and shows how the story plays out.
I've highlighted the section from the perspective of the future civilisation where the alogrithm is created.
That gives loads of options for either a limited series like Dark or a prequel movie.
Against a backdrop of catastrophic climate change, a scientist discovers the algorithm and creates the inversion machines. Those in power realise that this might offer a future in an Earth where the climate improves, albeit a a risk of destroying the Earth anyway either through annihilation (which we never see) or grandfather paradoxes.
Then we have a period where the baddies learn to do battle backwards, and start a war to control the machines. The war is mentioned, and there's a vast collection of "detritus" in a dedicated research institute.
Then there's the work to bury the artefacts in the past, which presumably must be multi-generational, and offer lots of scope for interesting interactions.