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10 things you should know before watching TENET

By Rachelle / 21 Aug 2020 (Friday)

Christopher Nolan's Tenet is the filmmaker’s latest and most ambitious attempt to give his own personal twist to the spy-thriller genre. In honour of its opening in cinemas this week, we have compiled a list of interesting facts about the film.

Here are some things you should know about it before you catch it on the big screen:

1. The working title for the film was "Merry Go Round."

2. Tenet is director Christopher Nolan's eleventh feature film, and his sixth to be shot and released in 70mm IMAX.

3. Contains no green screens, just practical effects. This includes the inversion sequences, for which director Christopher Nolan chose instead to shoot each scene twice: one time moving forward and once with the actors doing everything backwards.

4. The production budget for this film is $205 million, making it Nolan's most expensive original film and one of the most expensive original films in history.

5. The production team purchased and then crashed a real 747 airplane into a hangar. The stunt was all practical effects, with no visual effects or CGI. Director Christopher Nolan had originally planned to use miniatures and set-piece builds, however, while scouting for locations in Victorville, California, the team discovered a massive array of old planes and it became apparent that it would actually be more efficient to buy a real plane of the real size, and perform the sequence for real in camera.

6. The film's title is a palindrome: a word that reads the same backwards as forwards.

7. This is Christopher Nolan's third film to be shot by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, after Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017).

8. This is the first Christopher Nolan film since The Prestige (2006) not to be scored by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer turned Nolan down for the first time in over a decade due to scheduling conflicts with scoring his longtime passion project Dune (2020). He was replaced by newcomer Ludwig Göransson, who had recently won an Oscar for his work on Black Panther (2018). Zimmer is friends with Göransson and had suggested him to Nolan.

9. Composer Ludwig Göransson was about to begin orchestral sessions for the film's score when the United States shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, the soundtrack was completed by putting together individual recordings of the musicians in their homes.

10. First Christopher Nolan movie to have an original song with a singer in it. Rapper Travis Scott officially announced he worked on a single, The Plan, that will lead track to the soundtrack of Tenet. Listen to it here!

Did this make you more excited to watch Tenet? Get your tickets here!

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10 things you should know before watching TENET