Nolan Performs a Timely Stealth Mission with the Official "Tenet" Trailer

Scene from Tenet (2020)

In case you haven't been to the theaters in the past six months, you'll be surprised to know that Christopher Nolan has a new movie coming out next year. In a move that's largely unprecedented, the first teaser for Tenet premiered in theaters and miraculously avoided any official version on the internet. Even if it didn't generate a consistent buzz, it at least managed to create a need to be at a certain place at a certain time and wonder in ways that most movie marketing won't allow in this day and age. After months of guessing what this movie is about, it's finally revealed an official trailer on the internet. The issue is that while some questions about what Tenet is have been answered, several more have only begun to surface. It's a Nolan trailer, and that means you'll want to watch this a few times before making up your mind on what's going on.

There have been few filmmakers that have used the teaser trailer as well as Nolan has. To those who follow events in real-time, there's a strong memory of watching trailers for Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, or even Dunkirk and trying to predict what will happen. They serve as their own memorable short films that get the audience excited. Tenet has gained attention for its unique teaser trailer release, making some wonder what that bullet-through-glass is supposed to be about, and what exactly is John David Washington doing in a Nolan movie? Oh, so many questions arose from those who had the pleasure of seeing the trailer once, many more from those who were lucky to have it bombard additional showings. It's managed to keep in-depth analysis of trailers to a standstill, until now.

The truth is that Nolan has become his own commodity as a filmmaker. After making The Dark Knight trilogy, he has become a more interesting filmmaker who has experimented with stories of sliding scales of wonder. Because he's got the acclaim, he's allowed to get away with these thrilling action movies that are sure to draw a crowd. Part of the fun is that he knows that the way to get audiences in is to tease them, make them wonder what lies beyond the marketing. It's what helped make Inception a phenomenon for an entire summer as people tried to understand the "dream-within-a-dream" logic and turned Dunkirk into more than a conventional World War II film. He knows how to appeal to audiences on a deeper level, understanding the language of film in a way that you can't help but engage with, even if you don't have a degree in film studies.

Check out the trailer below:

Looks really fun. Here's the plot description according to IMDb:

The plot is currently unknown. The project is described as an action epic revolving around international espionage, time travel, and evolution.

Okay, usually citing IMDb ends with more satisfying results. Then again, that was the magic of the early Inception trailers. More than his other films of the past decade, it was one that existed in a mind-bending world that audiences weren't yet introduced to. You wanted to learn more right away, but all you had were these trailers that had super-cool imagery. Tenet follows suit with a trailer that doesn't seem to give away a whole lot in terms of plot, but what is there is an expansion on the teaser, showing many memorable moments that pop off the screen. For instance, why are they bouncing up the side of the building? How is that car reversing out of a crash? Why is Washington in a trainyard? There are so many questions to be asked.

In truth, part of the game with Nolan is just going along for the ride. In an age where everything is based on a property, he's the one who's guaranteed to push limits and make one wonder what he'll do next. Considering that he's pulled together an excellent cast also featuring Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh (of what we know), he's sure to present a story that makes us excited and wants to see it again and again. While we're still working our way through this Oscar season, one has to wonder if this will be a phenomenon on par with Nolan's Inception that can break into the Best Picture race, or if it will be like Interstellar and miss the cut. With that said, he looks to be going in a new direction in some ways (Ludwig Goransson replaces Hans Zimmer as Nolan's go-to composer) and that could be fun. Speaking as an artist going on 20 years of messing with our heads, it's great to know he still knows how to make us confused in a good way.