Every time a new Christopher Nolan film comes out, it seems to steal headlines left and right. Well, here’s one more. Nolan and his team have just released a short behind the scenes featurette for Tenet, giving audiences a taste of the impressive effects and choreography they can expect when the hotly anticipated movie finally releases.
Showing off various visual effects and stunts featured in the film, the featurette allows glimpses at massive set pieces and intense fight scenes, all while still holding back just enough to keep audiences hungry. Nolan aims to create a classic spy film for the modern age, complete with all the twists, turns, and over the top action that entails. “With Tenet, I’m hoping to really give the audience a reason for re-approaching action cinema,” he says, “so that they get some of that sense of excitement that I had when I was a kid watching the first spy movies I saw.”
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Tenet, a spy thriller about a secret agent (played by John David Washington) trying to prevent World War III, follows that same Christopher Nolan formula that audiences keep flocking to see. The formula features a rather typical premise (secret agent saving the world, or a team of thieves pull off a heist) with a completely unexpected addition that changes everything (by manipulating time, or by infiltrating people’s dreams). Early reviewers of Tenet have been favorably comparing it to Nolan’s surreal masterpiece Inception, and one look at the behind the scenes footage elicits a similar reaction from those still eager to experience it.
When watching the video, anyone not familiar with Nolan’s filming style might be surprised to see all the practical effects and on-location shoots. In fact, many behind the scenes features like this would normally be filled with green screens and empty space reserved for computer generated imagery. Well, there’s a reason studios seem to just throw money at Christopher Nolan when he says he wants to make a thing. His style is to make everything as real as possible, and while relying on physical objects and settings over CGI is more expensive, it always seems to pay off in a Nolan production.
The cast is well aware of the merits this filming style offers as well. “To be actually in the thing, to feel the thing physically move around you or feel the boat rock under you,” says Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Kat in the film, “it just obviously, organically feeds the truth of a performance.” Meanwhile John David Washington, who plays the film’s lead, clearly respects the effort put in to make seemingly impossible feats physically happen. “Nobody’s ever thrown an inverted punch before,” he says with a chuckle, “how do you make that real life?”
The stunts and practical effects featured in the video should be more than enough to whet the appetites of audiences everywhere. Whether it be the distinct feel reminiscent of classic spy stories or the incredible set pieces (such as how Nolan filmed a scene of a plane crashing by crashing an actual plane, because of course he did), excitement for Tenet is higher than ever. The world could use some well-crafted escapism right now, so the timing couldn’t be better.
Tenet will premiere exclusively in theaters on September 3rd in the U.S., and has already released internationally on August 26th.
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Source: Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube
