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Tenet (2020)
Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with his wife, Emma Thomas. It stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film follows a CIA officer who is recruited into a secret organization, tasked with tracing the origin of objects that are traveling backward through time…
Directed by Christopher Nolan · Shot by Hoyte van Hoytema · Cut by Jennifer Lame · Music by Ludwig Göransson · Ratio 2.2:1 · 150 min
How it was made
- Rather than build a miniature for the plane-crash sequence, Nolan decided that buying an actual retired Boeing 747 was more cost-effective than achieving the shot with visual effects.
- Sound designer Richard King sent teams to record real Chinook and Mi-8 helicopters at Eagle Mountain and F50 catamarans in Southampton, and captured live and blank automatic-weapon rounds at a gun range, to build the film's sound design.
- For the Estonia shoot, the arterial Laagna Road had to be closed for a month, requiring negotiation with Tallinn's mayor over detours to limit disruption.
- Composer Ludwig Göransson built the score around retrograde composition, writing melodies that sound the same played forward and backward, and recorded Nolan's own breath in a studio for the antagonist Sator's irradiated breathing.
- Production designer Nathan Crowley ordered around thirty analogue military wristwatches with digital countdown functions from the Hamilton Watch Company as props.
- Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot on a combination of 70mm film and IMAX, favouring Panavision lenses that performed best in low light for the time-inversion sequences.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Christopher Nolan
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