信条Tenet Movie Script

WHEELER:

I can’t vouch for the handling, friction and wind resistance are reversed. You’re inverted, the world is not. You can’t fight the prevailing wind of entropy. Don’t try flying a plane – it’d fall out of the sky. Once again, you’re inverted, the world is not – and those forces will be pushing back on you continuously.

The Protagonist turns to Neil –

PROTAGONIST:

Was there a transponder on the case?

NEIL:

He’ll have tossed the case –

PROTAGONIST:

I’m going backwards – that’s the ball I have to follow. Give me the reader.

Neil hands him a phone. The Protagonist sticks a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, passes into the airlock – Wheeler shuts it behind him. Then opens the OUTER DOOR... EXT. YARD, TALLINN FREEPORT – CONTINUOUS The Protagonist emerges into a strange world – the air feels different, the friction of his feet on the asphalt feels different. He looks up at birds flying backwards... at steam contracting... at a pile of dust sucking itself bigger... In the yard he spots the SAAB... he runs over, finds the keys sitting on the front tyre – INT./EXT. SAAB – CONTINUOUS The Protagonist LOOKS in the glove box – NOTHING – LOOKS in the wheel well – NOTHING – the back seat – NOTHING. He gives up – starts the engine... pulls out, gently, feeling out the strange handling of the vehicle... INT./EXT. SAAB, TALLINN STREETS – MOMENTS LATER The Protagonist steers the car around BACKWARDS-MOVING TRAFFIC and BACKWARDS-WALKING PEDESTRIANS, MARVELLING... People STARE at the car as it approaches, as if they already know a backwards-driven car is heading their way (which, of course, they do).

He checks the phone – a blinking dot half a mile away – he GUNS it, FISHTAILING unexpectedly... EXT. HIGHWAY – CONTINUOUS We see the fire fight from before IN REVERSE – Neil laying down fire from between cars, Kat carried ‘back’ to the Audi... Behind Neil, Sator, MOVING FORWARDS, checks the glove compartment of the BMW... NOTHING. FUMING, he heads back to the Mercedes, DUCKING behind cars, bullets FLYING... INT./EXT. SAAB – CONTINUOUS The Protagonist pulls onto a busy highway where the cars are FACING HIM, BUT MOVING IN HIS DIRECTION... The Saab races along, the only normal-looking car on a road full of cars SPEEDING BACKWARDS... On the phone, the flashing dot is CLOSER... Slowing, the Protagonist spots the ORANGE CASE lying empty by the side of the road. He PULLS OVER some distance away – JUMPS out of the car – pulls out his BLUETOOTH EARPIECE and WEDGES it between the foam padding and the orange plastic... The Protagonist heads back to his car, checks the signal from his phone... PEERS at the case... The case SHUDDERS TO LIFE – LEAPS INTO THE WINDOW OF A PASSING CAR – THE MERCEDES – The Protagonist PEELS OUT, DUST FLIES UP IN CLOUDS THAT DON’T FULLY BLOSSOM as expected, but CONTRACT... The Protagonist STRUGGLES with the wheel, trying to keep the car on the road with its unaccustomed handling... Christ!

PROTAGONIST:

He can see the Mercedes up ahead, weaving through traffic... EXT. HIGHWAY, TALLINN – CONTINUOUS The Mercedes races back up the off-ramp – the Saab follows, weaving through traffic which faces him, but travels backwards – As the Saab gets within a couple car lengths, his phone cuts in with audio from his Bluetooth bug in the Mercedes –

SATOR:

(over radio) – the material’s not in the case – Sound cuts in and out – FRAGMENTS of voices – he struggles to keep pace with the Mercedes – he listens hard – SATOR (CONT'D) (over radio) –Get the other sections of the algorithm to the hypocentre– –He was lying– –it wasn’t in the BMW–

INVERTED DRIVER:

(over radio) So where is it?

INT. /EXT. SAAB – CONTINUOUS The Protagonist finds a clear lane and guns the engine, tracking the Mercedes as it pulls alongside the Audi, racing ‘forwards’, and Sator, orange case in hand, climbs from the Mercedes into the Audi... The Audi pulls alongside the BMW – the Protagonist, sensing the moment, LOWERS HIS WINDOW... Sator lifts the orange case, BUT HIS EYES ARE ELSEWHERE – Inside the Saab, the Protagonist hears BANGING – the BLACK METAL SHAPE ‘unwedges’ from where it’s been stuck down the side of a seat – ‘BOUNCING’ around the interior – The Saab CUTS between the Audi and the BMW – The orange case FLIES OUT OF SATOR’S HANDS – BOUNCES OFF THE SAAB’S WINDSHIELD, ‘LANDING’ IN THE BMW – JUST AS THE BLACK METAL SHAPE JUMPS OUT OF THE SAAB AND INTO THE (FORWARD) PROTAGONIST’S LOWER HAND... Sator, SEEING THIS, YANKS the wheel – CLIPS the Saab – the Protagonist STRUGGLES for control – but the Saab SPINS AND ROLLS DOWN THE HIGHWAY, COMING TO REST ON ITS ROOF.

The Protagonist, upside down in the car, regains consciousness... fuel leaks, pooling outside the window... he sees expensive shoes approach, then Sator’s face peering in at him. In his hand is a LIGHTER.

SATOR:

I saw the hand-off. You made me shoot her for nothing.

Sator tips his lighter to read his fitness tracker... SATOR (CONT'D) You did get my pulse above 130. No one’s done that before. Not even my wife.

Backing away, Sator DROPS the lighter, the fuel EXPLODES, THROWING THE CAR SIDEWAYS – BUT INSTEAD OF FULLY BLOOMING, THE FLAMES CONTRACT, SPARING THE PROTAGONIST WHO LIES THERE, FREEZING. HE PASSES OUT.

FADE IN:

INT. SHIPPING CONTAINER – LATER The Protagonist comes to on a stretcher. Kat is on a stretcher next to him. Neil sits between them. The Protagonist looks at his hands, feels his face, confused.

NEIL:

The heat transfer was reversed – you may be the first case of hypothermia from a gasoline explosion in history.

PROTAGONIST:

At this point, nothing surprises.

The Protagonist looks around the shipping container.

NEIL:

You left Ives and his team one hell of a clean-up.

PROTAGONIST:

We’re on our way back to Oslo?

NEIL:

In a Rotas shipping container.

PROTAGONIST:

He’s got the material, Neil. I handed it to him on a plate.

NEIL:

I warned you –

PROTAGONIST:

‘What’s happened’s happened.’ I get it, now. But it’s tough to take things on trust from people speaking half-truths.