What’s bigger than an event film? ‘Tenet’ might just be

Christopher lan movies are always events.

Larger-than-life, action-packed, ideas-driven and (mostly) original, y’re created to be big screen spectacles that awe mass audiences and drive hefty returns. For lan to say that his latest, “ Tenet ,” a palindromic global spy thriller starring John David Washington, is his most ambitious is small thing. d fact that it’s first major Hollywood film in COVID-era to open in U.S. cinemas in almost six months and you can understand why even “event film” feels too small for “Tenet.”

In best of times releasing a film is exciting and tense. But w?

“This is a very heightened experience for all of us,” lan said.

It is a film that has been brewing in lan’s mind, in some ways, for deces. It started with an im of a bullet being sucked back into gun. He toyed with symbolic concept in “Memento,” but always wanted to make it more concrete. Over next 20 years, lan and his producer and wife Emma Thomas would see ir films amass nearly $4.8 billion at box office. And with each new one, y challenged mselves to go furr.

With a starry ensemble including Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh and, naturally, Michael Caine, “Tenet” takes audiences to Tallinn, Estonia, Italy’s Amalfi Coast, England, Oslo, Denmark, Mumbai and Sourn California’s Mojave Desert as Washington’s character, Protagonist, tries to save world. Seven international locations is a massive undertaking for any film, but in each one re was a big action set piece to accomplish.

“I think back to where we were even 10 years ago and one or two of set pieces in ‘Tenet’ could have probably been climax of one of those earlier movies,” Thomas laughed.

To give a sense of its scale, consider 747 jumbo jet crash sequence. Everyone assumed at beginning that grandiose concept would be accomplished with computer graphics and miniatures.

“But as we looked into it, team became convinced that most efficient way to do it, even from a financial point of view, sensible way to do it was to buy a 747 and crash it,” lan said. “It sounds bizarre to say sensible, but it actually wound up getting us what we wanted on screen at a reasonable cost.”

re is very little CG in film at all, which lan is particularly proud of. His cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema would often hoist massive IMAX camera on his shoulder and shoot actors and stunt performers, including Washington and Pattinson bungee-jumping up side of a building in Mumbai.

Part of reason lan can push action is that he relies on teams he’s used before. For water sequences, lan called on a marine unit he used in “Dunkirk.” For car chases, he brought back man who flipped Joker truck in “ Dark Knight.”

“You want to feel a little overwhelmed,” lan said. “And you want a team around you who can pull off what you’re asking.”

Thomas also ted that lan pushes narrative more than he has before. “Tenet” challenges audiences to think about concepts like inversion and entropy. He said it does for spy genre what “Inception” did for heist genre.

If that’s a little hey to process, it’s OK. One of his characters vises Protagonist t to try to understand it, but to feel it. It’s what lan recommends too.

“ film is intended as an entertainment. It’s a thrill ride, first and foremost,” lan said. “You really want m to just sit back, enjoy ride. It’s a spy story. It’s a familiar genre. So re are plenty of ways in for audience to just have a great time at movies. If re’s stuff beyond that that people want to kind of puzzle, wher that resonates or, you kw, lingers on in mind once you’ve seen film, hopefully that’s a bonus.”

Thomas is still discovering new nuances even after seeing it, “more times than I choose to count.” While editing and finishing film, y watched it from beginning to end every Friday to check that any changes me worked.

“ more you come to understand way things are working in film, more you see,” she said.

only way to do so for foreseeable future is on big screen. And after months of uncertainty, “Tenet” is actually opening in aters. Warner Bros. started its roll out internationally to promising returns this weekend and in limited screenings in U.S. , where aters are open, before rolling out wider Thursday.

Washington said submitting again to big screen was a “great escape.”

“You do forget about everything for those two and a half hours,” Washington said. “You forget about what’s happening.”

lan is “very pleased” with Warner Bros.’ invative release plan that is allowing for a slow, patient and safe roll out. He also said it’s “completely understandable and completely fine” if some audiences aren’t yet rey to rush back to ater. $200 million picture will likely be playing for a long time as entertainment industry finds its footing again.

t only does slow roll out remind him of seeing movies as a kid, when he could see “Star Wars” in Ohio at his grandmor’s in summer, and n again when it opened in England at Christmastime, but it also might be more gratifying than helines about record opening weekends.

“From an emotional point of view, it’s become tougher and tougher for filmmakers who spent years and years working on something and, even in success, it’s done in culture within three weeks,” he said. “I think in some ways for people who’ve me film, it might actually feel more complete when all is said and done.”