Tenet/Transcript

Driver: (in Ukraininan) Wake the Americans.
Passenger: Hey.
Sign (text):
National Opera House
НАЦІОНАЛЬНА ОПЕРА
The Protagonist: "We live in a twilight world."
The Protagonist: "We live in a twilight world."
Well-Dressed Man: "And there are no friends at dusk."
The Protagonist: You’ve been made. This siege is a blind for them to vanish you.
Well-Dressed Man: But I established contact.
The Protagonist: Bring you in or kill you, I have two minutes, make up your mind.
The Protagonist: Where’s the package?
Well-Dressed Man: Coat-check
The Protagonist: Stay!
Ukrainian SWAT: (in Ukraininan) Grab his!
Ukrainian SWAT: (in Ukraininan) What are you doing?
Ukrainian SWAT: (in Ukraininan) What are you doing?
Ukrainian SWAT: (in Ukraininan) Who are you? Who are you?
Fake SWAT 1: No friends at dusk huh?
The Protagonist: You'll do. Get him to the rally point.
The Protagonist: Swap clothes! Ukrainians are expecting a passenger. I’ve never seen encapsulation like this.
Well-Dressed Man: We don’t know how old it is but it’s the real deal.
The Protagonist: Did you have an out?
Well-Dressed Man: Service tunnel to the sewer.
The Protagonist: Take this. Take him. Take his exit. I don’t trust ours anymore. Can you defuse that?
Fake SWAT 1: It's centrally synchronized. Are there more?
The Protagonist: Covering their tracks.
Fake SWAT 1: Taking out the audience?
The Protagonist: They're just the cheap seats.
Fake SWAT 2: That’s not our mission.
The Protagonist: Mine now.
The Protagonist: Walk away.
The Protagonist: You don’t have to kill these people.
Fake Well-Dressed Man: That wasn’t one of us.
The Protagonist: I’ll take the help!
The Protagonist: Go, go, go, go, go!
Passenger: It’s not the guy!
Fake Well-Dressed Man: (painful groans)
The Protagonist: (tortured grunts)
Driver: A man can be trained to hold out for about 18 hours, so your colleagues will be clear by 7:00.
Driver: He didn’t last 18 minutes. He didn’t have anything to hide. You were smuggling a no body. It's risky. Or were you counting on this? Death, CIA issue.
Driver: Spare yourself, once they clear.
The Protagonist: (tortured screams, drowned out by train)
Driver: Almost 7:00. Uh-oh. It’s running fast. We have to put it back 1 hour.
Driver: Get it out!
On-Screen (text): TENET
Fay: Welcome to the afterlife. You’ve been in a medically-induced coma while we got you out of Ukraine and rebuilt your mouth.
The Protagonist: The suicide pills are fake. Why?
Fay: A test.
The Protagonist: A test? They pulled my teeth out. Did my team get clear?
Fay: No. Private Russians, we think.
The Protagonist: Somebody talked.
Fay: Not you. You chose to die instead of giving up your colleagues.
Fay: We all believe we’d run into the burning building. But until we feel that heat, we can never know. You do.
The Protagonist: I resign.
Fay: You don’t work for us, you’re dead. Your duty transcends national interest. This is about survival.
The Protagonist: Whose?
Fay: Everyone’s. There’s a cold war, cold as ice. To even know its true nature is to lose. This is knowledge divided. All I have for you is a gesture, in combination with a word. “Tenet”. Use it carefully. It’ll open the right doors, but some of the wrong ones, too.
The Protagonist: That’s all they've told you?
Fay: That test you passed? Not everybody does.
Barbara: With a high-vis vest and a clipboard, you can get almost anywhere. Almost.
The Protagonist: An obscure tenet.
Barbara: No small talk. Nothing that might reveal who we are or what we do.
The Protagonist: I thought I was here to find out what we do.
Barbara: You're not here for “what”, you’re here for “how”. “What” is your department and not my business.
The Protagonist: Well, to do what I do, I need some idea of the threat we face.
Barbara: As I understand it, we're trying to prevent World War III.
The Protagonist: Nuclear holocaust?
Barbara: No. Something worse.
Barbara: Aim it and pull the trigger.
The Protagonist: It’s empty.
Barbara: Aim it.
Barbara: Check the magazine.
The Protagonist: How?
Barbara: One of these bullets is like us, traveling forwards through time. The other one's going backwards. Can you tell which is which?
Barbara: How about now? It’s inverted. Its entropy runs backwards. So, to our eyes, its movement is reversed. We think it’s a type of inverse radiation triggered by nuclear fission.
The Protagonist: You didn’t make it?
Barbara: No, we don’t know how yet.
The Protagonist: So where’d it come from?
Barbara: Someone's manufacturing them in the future. They're streaming back at us. Try it.
Barbara: You have to have dropped it.
The Protagonist: How can it move before I touch it?
Barbara: From your point of view, you caught it. But from the bullet’s point of view, you dropped it.
The Protagonist: But cause comes before effect.
Barbara: No. That’s just the way we see time.
The Protagonist: Well, what about free will?
Barbara: That bullet would have never have moved if you hadn’t put your hand there. Either way we run the tape, you made it happen.
Barbara: Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.
The Protagonist: Instinct. Got it.
The Protagonist: Why does it feel so strange?
Barbara: You're not shooting the bullet. You're catching it.
The Protagonist: Whoa.
The Protagonist: I’ve seen this type of ammunition before.
Barbara: In the field?
The Protagonist: I was almost hit.
Barbara: Then you were exceedingly lucky. An inverted bullet passing through your body would be devastating. Not pretty.
The Protagonist: These look like today’s.
Barbara: They may have been made today and inverted years from now.
The Protagonist: Where did you get them?
Barbara: Came with the wall. I was assigned it, like all the material I’m studying here.
The Protagonist: Do you have an analysis on the metals?
Barbara: Sure. Why?
The Protagonist: The mixture of alloys can tell me where they have might have been made. Look... I’m not seeing Armageddon here.
Barbara: The bullet may not seem like much, but it’s a simple machine. Lead bullet, brass casing, gunpowder. If they can invert that, we see no reason they couldn’t invert pretty much anything. Even a nuclear weapon can only affect our future. An inverted weapon might be able to affect our past as well. Now that we know what to look for, we’re finding more and more inverted material. Remnants of complex objects.
The Protagonist: What do you think we’re seeing?
Barbara: The detritus of a coming war.
Male voice: Yep?
The Protagonist: "We live in a twilight world."
Male voice: "No friends at dusk." I was told you left the building.
The Protagonist: Even the dead need allies.
Male voice: Specifically?
The Protagonist: I need an assist in Mumbai. I need to get to Sanjay Singh.
Male voice: Singh? He never leaves his house, and his house is um... his house.
The Protagonist: Yes it is. I’m looking right at it.
Male voice: I’ll see who’s on deck. Bombay Yacht Club in two hours.
Neil: It seems you need an introduction to a prominent Mumbai local on short notice. I’m Neil.
The Protagonist: I need an audience with Sanjay Singh.
Neil: That’s not possible.
The Protagonist: Ten minutes, tops.
Neil: Time isn’t the problem. It's getting out alive that' sthe problem.
Neil: Would you take a child hostage?
The Protagonist: (shakes head silently)
Neil: A woman?
The Protagonist: If I had to. I’m not looking to make much noise here.
Waiter: Yes? 
Neil: Vodka tonic. And a diet Coke.
Neil: What? You never drink on the job.
The Protagonist: You’re well-informed.
Neil: Well, pays to be in our profession.
The Protagonist: Well, I prefer soda water.
Neil: No you don’t.
Neil: How’s your parachuting?
The Protagonist: I broke an ankle during basic training. Singh’s house isn’t tall enough to parachute off of.
Neil: It’s bungee-jumpable.
The Protagonist: I don’t think “bungee-jumpable” is a word
Neil: It may not be a word, but it may be our only way out of that place. Or into it, for that matter.
Sanjay: I know you’re tired. I'm also very tired.
Priya: (gasps)
The Protagonist: Stay back. I was almost taken out by a very unusual type of ammunition in Ukraine. I want to know who supplied it.
Sanjay: My name is Sanjay. And you are? No chit-chat?
The Protagonist: There’s no one at the other end. No one who’s going to help you, anyway.
Neil: Don’t let it get cold.
Sanjay: Why should I know who supplied it?
The Protagonist: Combination of metals is unique to India. If it’s from India, it’s from you.
Sanjay: Fine assumption.
The Protagonist: Deduction.
Sanjay: Deduction, then. Look, my friend, guns are never conducive to a productive negotiation.
The Protagonist: I’m not the man they send to negotiate. Or the man they send to make deals. But I am the man people talk to.
Sanjay: I can’t. I can’t tell you.
The Protagonist: You’re an arms dealer, friend. This may be the easiest trigger I’ve ever had to pull.
Priya: To say anything about a client would violate the tenets he lives by.
The Protagonist: If tenets are important to you, then you can tell me. Everything.
Priya: Not while you have a gun to my husband's head. Sanjay, make a drink for our guest, please.
Priya: Cheers. Priya.
The Protagonist: Hmm. This is your operation?
Priya: A masculine front in a man’s world has its uses. The dealer you're looking for is Andrei Sator.
The Protagonist: The Russian oligarch.
Priya: You know him?
The Protagonist: Not personally. Made his billions in gas. Moved to London. Said to be on the outs with Moscow.
Priya: Very good. Except the gas he made his billions from was actually plutonium.
The Protagonist: None of which explains how or why you sold him inverted munitions.
Priya: When I sold him the rounds, they were perfectly ordinary.
The Protagonist: So how did he get them inverted?
Priya: We believe he’s functioning as some sort of a broker between our time and the future.
The Protagonist: He can communicate with the future?
Priya: We all do, don’t we? Emails, credit cards, texts. Anything that goes into the records speaks directly to the future. The question is, can the future speak back?
The Protagonist: And I’m supposed to find out?
Priya: To get anywhere near Sator will take a fresh-faced fresh protagonist. And you are fresh as a daisy. Get close. Find out what he's receiving and how.
The Protagonist: Is it safe to involve British Intelligence?
Priya: I have a contact, whos’s out of Sator’s reach.
Priya: You must've had a plan for getting out.
The Protagonist: Not one I love.
Steward: May I help you, sir?
The Protagonist: I’m Mr. Crosby’s lunch.
Steward: I presume you mean Sir Michael Crosby’s lunch.
The Protagonist: Presume away.
Steward: If you’ll follow me.
Crosby: Started without you. Hope you don’t mind.
The Protagonist: I’ll catch up. Same for me, please.
Steward: I’ll send the waiter.
The Protagonist: No, just pass on the order.
Crosby: I gather you have an interest in a certain Russian national.
The Protagonist: Anglo-Russian, so I have to watch my step.
Crosby: Indeed, he’s tapped in to the intelligence services. I’ve warned them he's feeding them rubbish, but... they don’t seem to care.
The Protagonist: Tell me about him.
Crosby: I assume you’re familiar with the Soviet-era secret cities.
The Protagonist: Closed cities, not shown on maps, built around sensitive industries. Most of them have been opened up and renamed as regular towns.
Crosby: Not the one Sator grew up in. Stalsk-12. In the '70s it had a population of about 200,000. Thought to be abandoned.
The Protagonist: Abandoned?
Crosby: Some kind of accident. After which it was used for underground tests. Two weeks ago, the same day as the Kiev opera siege, we spotted a detonation in northern Siberia just where Stalsk-12 was. Sator emerged from this blackspot on the map with ambition and enough money to buy his way into the British establishment.
The Protagonist: Through his wife?
Crosby: Katherine Barton. Oldest niece of Sir Fredrick Barton. She works at Shipley’s. Met Sator at an auction.
The Protagonist: A happy marriage?
Crosby: Practically estranged.
The Protagonist: Well, how do I get to Sator?
Crosby: Well, through her, of course.
The Protagonist: Well, you may have an inflated idea of my powers of seduction.
Crosby: Hardly. We have an ace in the hole.
The Protagonist: You’re carrying a Goya in a Harrods bag?
Crosby: It’s a fake by a Spaniard named Arepo. One of two we confiscated from an embezzler in Bern.
The Protagonist: What happened to the other one?
Crosby: It turned up at Shipley’s. Authenticated by Katherine Barton. Put on auction, and who do you think bought it?
The Protagonist: Her husband?
Crosby: Mmhmm.
The Protagonist: Does she know it’s a forgery?
Crosby: Oh, it’s hard to say. Rumor has it that she and Arepo were close.
The Protagonist: Uh huh.
Crosby: Look, no offense, but in this world where someone is claiming to be a billionaire, Brooks Brothers won’t cut it.
The Protagonist: I’m assuming I’m on a budget.
Crosby: Save the world, then we’ll balance the books. Can I recommend a tailor?
The Protagonist: I’ll manage. You British don't have a monopoly on snobbery, you know.
Crosby: Well, not a monopoly. More of a controlling interest.
The Protagonist: Can you box that up for me?
Steward: Certainly not.
Crosby: (mouths) Bye.
The Protagonist: Goodbye, Sir Michael.
Representative: How can I help, sir?
Kat: Sorry, I wasn’t notified of any appointments, Mr...?
The Protagonist: Goya?
Kat: Mr. Goya?
The Protagonist: No, I’m told you’re the person to see about Goya.
Kat: That’s extraordinary.
The Protagonist: What’s it worth?
Kat: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Lots of work to do before any kind of valuation. Provenance, microscope examination, X-rays...
The Protagonist: But what does your heart tell you?
Kat: Sir, where did you say you acquired this drawing?
The Protagonist: Tomas Arepo.
The Protagonist: I bought my Goya for cents on the dollar from an irate Swiss banker. Traced it back to Arepo, then realized I scored a bargain, when he told me who paid top dollar for another of his pictures. Your husband.
Kat: Where’s your bargain? Your drawing's an obvious fake.
The Protagonist: My drawing's a very good fake. You know that better than anyone. The information's the bargain.
Kat: The information that I helped defraud my own husband?
The Protagonist: He and I are in related businesses, but he’s a very hard man to meet. If you and I were to make an arrangement...
Kat: Arrangement? You mean blackmail. Don't be afraid of the word. My husband isn’t. I'm sorry to tell you he got there first.
The Protagonist: He knows? And he’s never done anything about it?
Kat: Why would he?
The Protagonist: He paid $9 million for it.
Kat: Barely cover the cost of the holiday he just forced us on.
The Protagonist: Where’d you go, Mars?
Kat: Vietnam on our yacht. His yacht. You’ve got the suit, the shoes, the watch, Think you’re a little out of your depth.
The Protagonist: People who’ve amassed fortunes like your husband's, generally aren't okay with being cheated out of any of it.
Kat: The drawing is his hold over me. He threatened me with the police. Prison. The works. He controls me. My contact with my son. Everything. Leaving would never have been easy, but now it's impossible. You can’t fight. Just beg. In Vietnam I tried to love him again. Thought if there was love there, he might give me my son back. We sat on that bloody boat watching the sunsets, imitating some earlier time in our lives. He seemed happy, so I asked him. And he made me an offer. He’d let me go if I agreed never to see my son again. I expressed myself, and took Max ashore. He called us, contrite. And when we got back, I glimpsed some other woman diving off the boat, and he'd vanished. I never felt such envy.
The Protagonist: You do not seem like a jealous type.
Kat: Of her freedom. You know I dream of just diving off that boat?
The Protagonist: But you share a son.
Kat: That’s my life now.
The Protagonist: Did you know that the drawing was a fake?
Kat: No. Tomas and I became close, maybe too close. I failed. Andrei can’t conceive of failure, only betrayal. But I didn’t betray my husband. Retrospect, maybe I missed my chance.
The Protagonist: And he let Arepo walk free.
Kat: If you'd actually met Arepo, as you claimed, you’d understand that he no longer walks anywhere.
The Protagonist: We spoke on the phone.
Kat: He can’t do that either.
The Protagonist: Where’s the drawing?
Kat: Why?
The Protagonist: Get me an introduction. I’ll take the drawing out of the equation. No picture, no prosecution, no more hold over you. I might just be your second chance.
Kat: I don’t need redemption.
The Protagonist: At betrayal.
The Protagonist: Friends of your husbands?
The Protagonist: You knew this was going to happen?
Kat: Don't worry, they won’t kill you. Andrei dislikes tangling with local law enforcement on that level.
The Protagonist: You must've really not liked the look of me.
Kat: The look of you's fine. It’s best to get to the nasty part before I care one way or the other.
The Protagonist: There’s a number in your left coat pocket, don't call from home.
Kat: You won’t be taking my call.
The Protagonist: I might surprise you.
The Protagonist: I ordered my hot sauce an hour ago.
Kat: Can we get going?
Kat: Please?
Driver: He wants you to see.
Driver: And he gets what he wants.
Kat: Not always, apparently.
Max: Anna says we’re going to Pompeii and see lava.
Kat: We will. We’ll go together. I’ll be there, too!
The Protagonist: Told you I’d surprise you. He’s a cute kid.
Kat: He’s everything.
The Protagonist: Where’s the drawing?
Kat: Oslo, at the airport.
The Protagonist: The airport?
Kat: Do you know what a Freeport is?
The Protagonist: A storage facility for art that was acquired...
Kat: But not yet taxed. We started a network. Rotas, this construction company, built them. I brought in the clients. The facilities are tax havens.
The Protagonist: The clients can view their investments without importing them, so they avoid paying tax. 
Neil: So it’s sort of like a transit lounge for art?
Kat: Art, antiques, anything of value really.
The Protagonist: Anything?
Kat: Anything legal.
The Protagonist: But it’s not unlike the Swiss banking system. Opaque.
Klaus: As I’m sure you are aware, most Freeports are just warehouses. But here we ensure that you can enjoy...
Kat: Rotas has assets in the Oslo Freeport. I’m guessing it’s there.
Klaus: And this way to the vaults!
The Protagonist: Guessing?
Neil: Guessing?
Kat: We make trips there four, five times a year.
The Protagonist: To view art?
Kat: And do whatever it is he does. Turns out art's of no importance to Andrei.
The Protagonist: But the Freeports are.
Klaus: The structure of the vaults is based on the Pentagon. Each vault a separate structure within the others. Damage to one structure won’t compromise the others. 
Klaus: Some of our clients opt for biometric access, straight in... off the tarmac.
Neil: From the terminal?
Klaus: From their private planes.
Neil: Of course.
Klaus: Our logistics department ships to and from any other Freeport in the world without customs inspection.
Neil: What are you hoping to find there?
The Protagonist: You really want to know?
Neil: I’m not sure.
The Protagonist: Bring some lead-lined gloves.
Neil: Jesus. It's nuclear.
The Protagonist: When you’re on the tour, pay attention to the fire precautions.
Neil: Documents are vulnerable to...
Klaus: Fire? Absolutely!
Neil: No, I was going to say water damage from the sprinkler systems.
Klaus: We don’t use sprinklers. The facility is flooded with halide gas, displacing all the air within seconds.
Neil: Can you show me?
Klaus: Well if I did, we’d suffocate.
Neil: What about the staff?
Klaus: Halide only fills the vaults, they just have to get into either corridor, and there is a 10-second warning.
Neil: At least you give them 10 seconds.
Klaus: Well sir, our clients use us because we have no priorities, above their property.
Neil: Blimey.
Neil: All doors are fireproof. Hydraulic closers, simple key and electronic triggers. Surprisingly easy once there's a lockdown.
The Protagonist: Why a lockdown?
Neil: Power switches to failsafes, sealing the outer doors, but inner doors revert to factory settings. And pickable locks.
The Protagonist: Hmm.
Neil: It's child’s play really.
The Protagonist: Child’s play? They're inside airport security. They have to worry about climate control, not armed raids.
Neil: So how do we get enough firepower through the perimeter to trip their lockdown procedure?
Neil: Back wall of the Freeport.
The Protagonist: You’ve got something?
Neil: Not gonna like it.
The Protagonist: You want to crash a plane?
Neil: Well, not from the air, don't be so dramatic. I want to run a jet off the taxiway, and breach the rear wall and start a fire.
The Protagonist: Well how big a plane?
Neil: Well... that part is a little dramatic.
Neil: This is Mahir. His team will work the plane.
The Protagonist: There can’t be passengers.
Mahir: Norsk Freight. They use the hangar on the west of the Freeport.
The Protagonist: You want to crash a transport plane? What about the crew?
Mahir: Well, we pop the slides, chuck ‘em off.
The Protagonist: On the move?
Mahir: What’s the problem? They’ll be fine.
The Protagonist: Well, it seems bold.
Mahir: “Bold” I’m fine with. I thought you were gonna say “nuts”.
The Protagonist: And if you get caught?
Mahir: We won’t.
The Protagonist: And if you do?
Mahir: Everyone assumes terrorism, but no one’s died, so, swift extradition, then lost in the system. It’ll barely make the news.
Neil: Oh, depends on the size of the explosion.
Mahir: Well actually the gold bars might get some play.
The Protagonist: Gold bars?
Neil: Norsk Freight ships Treasury gold once a month.
Mahir: Blow the back, drop it out on the runway.
Neil: No one will be looking at the building. I guarantee you.
The Protagonist: The space in the center of the pentagon is too big. There’s something there. Can’t figure it out, it’s just not marked.
Neil: (exhales)
Mahir: That's 45 seconds.
Neil: Ample.
Mahir: Won’t you be running?
Mahir: Okay, it’s your turn. Start packing.
The Protagonist: (sharp breathing)
Klaus: Gentlemen, if you would, through the detector, please. Sir? Oh (chuckles). And, Sir.
Klaus: I can offer you, perhaps, a coffee? Water?
The Protagonist: Uh, I’ll take an espresso.
Klaus: Sir?
Neil: No, thank you.
Klaus: Excellent.
Mahir: Is everybody on this plane vegetarian? 'Cause all I got here is vegetarian. So that looks like meat, but, I think that looks vegetarian. I think they both look vegetarian, I don't really know. It's confusing, you know? Okay.
Klaus: This way, gentlemen.
Klaus: Gentlemen, your assigned compartment.
Mahir: Carry on. Not the radio.
Mahir: Let's go.
Klaus: Uh...
The Protagonist: (exhales)
The Protagonist: (deep breathing)
Neil: Yoga.
Fake crew member: Let's go! Now!
Mahir: Go, go, go!
Klaus: Right. Um...
The Protagonist: (deep inhale)
Neil: You said ten seconds, right?
The Protagonist and Neil: (gasp)
Neil: Whoop.
The Protagonist and Neil: (strong gasp)
Oslo police officer: (Norwegian) Nei, nei, nei, nei! (English) No, no, no, no!
Neil: There’s someone in here with us.
Neil: Need a hand?
The Protagonist: Actually, yes.
The Protagonist: Don't touch them!
Neil: The hell happened here?
The Protagonist: It hasn’t happened yet.
Neil: Don’t kill him! We need to know if we’ve been compromised.
The Protagonist: Why are you here?! Who are you?! How’d you know we’d be here?!
Neil: We need to go.
The Protagonist: What happened to the other guy?
Neil: Took care of him.
Klaus: (Norwegian) Komme! Kom igjen! (English) Come! Come on!
Neil: Well, I’ve seen too much. I’m still alive, which must mean you’ve decided to trust me.
The Protagonist: Or maybe I lost my edge.
Neil: Mmm, edge is still intact.
The Protagonist: There’s a cold war.
Neil: Nuclear?
The Protagonist: Temporal.
Neil: (chuckles) Time travel?
The Protagonist: No. Technology that can invert an object's entropy.
Neil: You mean reverse chronology, like Feynman and Wheeler’s notion that a positron is an electron moving backwards in time?
The Protagonist: Sure, that’s exactly what I mean.
Neil: I have a master’s in physics.
The Protagonist: Well, try and keep up.
Neil: The implications of this are...
The Protagonist: Beyond secret.
Neil: Then why did you bring me in?
The Protagonist: I thought we’d find a drawing and couple boxes of bullets.
Neil: Not as surprised as I was.
The Protagonist: I’m going back to Mumbai to get some answers. I’ll set you up as a go-between, but remember to you... it’s all about plutonium. Or when we’re done, they’ll kill you.
Neil: Won’t you have to do that anyway?
The Protagonist: I'd rather it be my decision.
Neil: So would I. I think.
The Protagonist: (chuckles)
Priya: Your work?
Newspaper (text):
The Indian Express
OSLO GOLD FREIGHT CRASH-
Terrorism? Robbery? Both?
Airport firefighters grapple with heavy smoke, jet fuel and priceless art.
Priya: What did you find in the vaults?
The Protagonist: Two antagonists. One inverted. We took out the regular one, but the inverted one got away.
Priya: Both emerged at the same moment?
The Protagonist: Yeah.
Priya: They were the same person. Sator's built a turnstile in that vault.
The Protagonist: Turnstile?
Priya: A machine for inverting.
The Protagonist: You told me that technology hasn’t been invented yet.
Priya: It hasn’t. He’s been given it by the future.
The Protagonist: For what?
Priya: You have the best chance of finding out.
Priya: Have you met him?
The Protagonist: I was close.
Priya: What if you have something he needs?
The Protagonist: Such as?
Priya: Plutonium-241. Sator tried to lift the only loose 241 from under a CIA team at the opera siege in Kiev. He got the team. Not the 241.
The Protagonist: Who did?
Priya: Ukrainian Security Services. It's moving to Tallinn in a week.
The Protagonist: Helping an arms dealer steal weapons-grade plutonium is unacceptable, Priya. I’m just gonna take him out.
Priya: No, no, no, no. No, Sator has to stay alive. He has to stay alive until we know his part in things. Leverage the situation without losing control of the 241.
The Protagonist: It's too dangerous.
Priya: A terrorist's bomb , even one that can kill millions, is nothing compared to what will happen if we don’t stop Sator.
The Protagonist: From doing what?
Priya: We are being attacked by the future. And Sator's helping. You have to find out how.
Kat: I saw the news from Oslo. Do you have the drawing?
The Protagonist: You don't have to worry about it anymore.
Kat: You destroyed it?
The Protagonist: I didn’t think you’d want it back.
Kat: Does he know?
The Protagonist: Not yet. So sit tight.
Kat: Sit tight? Every day my son spends with that monster, he thinks a little less of me.
The Protagonist: It won’t be long. In the meantime, introduce me.
Kat: As what?
The Protagonist: I’m a former first secretary from the American Embassy in Riyadh. We met at a party last June.
Kat: We were at a party in Riyadh, but I don’t think it was in June.
The Protagonist: June 29th, 7:00 or 7.30. Salmon was on the printed menu, swapped for sea bass on the night. Sator left early, that’s when we met. I came into Shipley’s in London. You ran into me here, and want to show me your yacht.
Kat: He’ll think we’re having an affair.
The Protagonist: Then he’ll want to meet me.
Kat: Or have you killed.
The Protagonist: Let me worry about that.
Kat: Did I look worried?
Kat: Sleeps 70 with crew. Two helicopters. Missile defenses.
The Protagonist: Afraid of pirates?
Kat: Andrei lives playing one government off the other. The day they turn, that’s his refuge.
The Protagonist: May I join you?
Kat: Not sure Volkov's taking passengers just now.
The Protagonist: Then we’ll take mine.
Kat: Max!
Sator: Who’s the American?
Kat: He’s a friend.
Sator: The man from Shipley’s.
Kat: Who you tried to have beaten up.
Sator: I ask again, who is he?
Kat: We met in Riyadh last June at the American Embassy.
Sator: Good with fists for a diplomat.
Kat: Paranoia's your department, Andrei. He seems nice. I invited him to the dinner. Max?
Sator: He’s visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Kat: You just sent him off? I promised him I’d go with him.
Sator: I explained you were busy. With your friend.
The Protagonist: Hey, easy fella. Where I’m from, you buy me dinner first.
The Protagonist: Mr. Sator.
Sator: Don’t bother. Just tell me if you’ve slept with my wife yet.
The Protagonist: Uh, no. Not yet.
Sator: How would you like to die?
The Protagonist: Old.
Sator: You chose the wrong profession. There's a walled garden up the road. We're going to take you there, cut your throat. Not across, in the middle, like a hole. Then we take your balls and we stuff them in the cut to block the windpipe.
The Protagonist: Complex.
Sator: It’s very gratifying to watch a man you don’t like try to pull his own balls out of his throat before he chokes.
The Protagonist: Is this how you treat all your guests?
Sator: We’re finished.
The Protagonist: Do you like opera?
Sator: Well?
The Protagonist: Not here.
Sator: You sail?
The Protagonist: I’ve messed around on boats.
Sator: Be on the dock at 8:00 ready to do more than mess around.
The Protagonist: 8:00 am.
Kat: Max has missed too much school this year. I’m taking him back to England. The school won’t be okay with him missing so much of the term.
Sator: Yes, they will.
Kat: Can I finish? You bought the trappings of a king. We both know you’re a grubby little man playing power games with a wife that doesn’t love you anymore.
Sator: You seem... spirited today.
Kat: Do I?
Sator: Yes you do. 
Sator: Were you worried it had been destroyed? Rest assured, instinct told me to remove it from the vault. I’ve always had instincts about the future. That’s
how I built this life you no longer value.
The Protagonist: Sailing or diving?
Kat: Rising!
The Protagonist: Woo!
Sator: What do you know about opera?
The Protagonist: In 2008, a remote Russian missile station was overwhelmed and held for a week. When the station was retaken, 241 on one warhead was three-quarters of a kilo lighter. The missing 241 surfaced at the opera house siege in Kiev on the 14th.
Kat: Coming about!
Sator: What do you propose?
The Protagonist: Partnership.
Sator: I wouldn't partner with you. You can take care of yourself. You have no record.
The Protagonist: Someone in the arms trade, with training, who knows how to cover his tracks. Not that shocking.
Sator: For an intelligence agent.
Kat: Right!
Kat: Burn in hell, Andrei.
Sator: Ahh!
Kat: You can't jibe a boat like this!
The Protagonist: You can if you have to!
The Protagonist: Kat...
Kat: Why didn't you let him drown?!
The Protagonist: I need him.
Kat: What, to sell guns?
The Protagonist: I’m not who you think I am.
Kat: Well, that I know. He showed me the drawing.
The Protagonist: I'm sorry. I had to get close to him. I don't know what you think your husband does...
Kat: Oh, we both know he’s an arms dealer.
The Protagonist: He's so much more.
Kat: What, then?
The Protagonist: Andrei Sator holds all of our lives in his hands, not just yours.
Volkov: Mr. Sator wants to see you.
The Protagonist: Okay.
Volkov: Now.
The Protagonist: Uh, he wants to see me without pants?
The Protagonist: Trust me.
Kat: Save it. I'm not falling for it twice.
The Protagonist: You have a better option?
Kat: Whatever it takes to get what you want.Not a second's thought for me or my son.
Kat: What do you think he's going to do to me now?
The Protagonist: Try not to use it. On anyone.
Sator: Enough.
Sator: See? Pulse of a man half my age. Drink with me. Seems I now owe you my life.
The Protagonist: It's nothing.
Sator: My life is not nothing. And I don't like to be in debt.
The Protagonist: Then pay me. No retribution against your wife.
Sator: You think she released my harness? It was my own mistake.
The Protagonist: Then help me steal the 241. I need resources. It's weapons-grade plutonium, that means special handling, containment facilities...
Sator: I know what it means. You lecture me about radiation? Andrei Sator, digging plutonium from the rubble of my city as a teenager.
The Protagonist: Where?
Sator: Stalsk-12. My home. One part of a warhead exploded at ground level, scattering the others. They needed people to find the plutonium. It became my first contract. Nobody else even bid, they thought it was a death sentence. But... one man’s probability of death... is another man’s possibility for a life. I staked my claim in the new Russia. Even now, my company is the only one to operate in the ruins.
The Protagonist: The 241 is being transported through Northern Europe, on its way to the long-term nuclear storage depot in Trieste. I’m told you have resources in Tallinn.
Sator: Stay with us tonight. I insist.
Kat: What do you want?
Sator: We’re going to talk about today.
Kat: No, we’re not.
Sator: No? We’ll see.
Kat: Don’t think for a second you can treat me like you treat your other women.
Sator: And, uh... how do you imagine... I treat these other women, huh? You think I force them into conversation? You want to be quiet, fine. You can bite down on that.
Kat: Even a soul as blank and brittle as yours needs a response. Is fear and pain enough, Andrei? It's all I have to offer you.
Sator: Well, that'll have to do, then.
Kat: Why didn't you just let me go?
Sator: Because... if I can't have you... no one else can.
Kat: If you touch me, I scream so loud he hears.
Sator: You think I'll let him interfere?
Kat: If he tried, you'd have to kill him. End of deal. So you leave me alone.
Sator: Not now!
Sator: 98. Not bad for such exertion.
Volkov: He was at the window.
The Protagonist: I was curious.
Sator: My property shouldn't concern you. Who are you? How do you come by your information about the opera?
The Protagonist: You wouldn't do business with someone who wasn't savvy enough to be recruited. Hell, the CIA provides two thirds of the market for fissile material.
Sator: They're usually buying, not selling. But we do live in a twilight world.
The Protagonist: Is that Whitman? Pretty.
Sator: Next warning's a bullet in the brain.
The Protagonist: No balls in my throat?
Sator: There will be no time for such things... in Tallinn. You make your way there. I want Volkov on your team.
The Protagonist: No. I spring the material. You pay me off. Your wife does the exchange.
Sator: I never involve her in my business.
The Protagonist: Yeah, that’s why I trust her.
Sator: Put him ashore.
The Protagonist: How do I contact you?
Sator: You don't.
The Protagonist: How do you advance me the funds?
Sator: Handle the plutonium better than that.
The Protagonist: What did you find on the gold?
Neil: No franks, no mold marks. Nothing. How?
The Protagonist: Dead drops. He buries his time capsule, transmits the location, then digs it up to collect the inverted materials they sent.
Neil: Seemingly instantaneous. Where does he bury it?
The Protagonist: Some place that won't be discovered for centuries. What did the soil samples show?
Neil: Northern Europe, Asia. Radioactive.
Sator: Everything salvaged from Oslo's been shipped here.
Kat: Why am I here?
Sator: I don't trust anyone else to assess the pieces.
The Protagonist: My convoy through downtown, what's the thinking?
Neil: Crowded. Unpredictable traffic patterns. It's almost impossible to plan an ambush.
The Protagonist: They have a point. Is the convoy monitored from the air?
Neil: Tracked by GPS. One wrong turn, in come the cavalry.
The Protagonist: We need big guns. Guns that make the point without being fired. There's a fast car that doesn't look fast. Four heavy vehicles. All different. Bus, coach, 18-wheeler. One of them has to be a fire truck. Most of all, we have to set this up with nothing in the record. Nothing electronic. Nothing paper. I don't want Sator ambushing us once we spring the material. His ignorance is our only protection.
Sator: You see, Kat? Some of my favorites. Singed, but uh, salvageable, wouldn’t you say?
Kat: It’s not my area of expertise.
Sator: Ah, that’s right. You would never have anything to do with such things. But this is where our worlds collide.
Kat: What is this, Andrei?
Sator: You know perfectly well what it is, Kat. The filthy business that put those clothes on your back, and our boy in his school, that you thought you could negotiate your way around.
Volkov: (in Russian) The convoy's due downtown in ten.
Sator: Time to go.
Kat: I’m not going anywhere with him.
Sator: Look at me! And understand, you don’t negotiate with a tiger. You admire a tiger until he turns on you, and you feel its true fucking nature!
Kat: Don’t. You stay right there.
Neil: Green, two minutes.
Sator: You ‘re not going to kill me.
Kat: I already tried.
Sator: You pushed me off a boat, you're not going to shoot me in cold blood.
Kat: My blood’s not cold, Andrei.
Sator: No, but you’re not angry enough. Because anger scars over into despair. I look in your eyes... I see despair.
Sator: Vengeful bitch! Living off me! Thinking that you’re better! Enough!
Sator: Tell me everything as it happens.
Sator: Seal me in this side.
Neil: Yellow, 60 seconds.
Yellow: 60, check.
Neil: Blue, 45 seconds.
Blue: Blue, 45. Check.
Neil: Okay, Red. Coming to you.
Volkov: (in Russian) Three trucks in place.
Sator: Watch everything. Give me all the details.
Neil: Alight, everyone set?
Neil: And five... four... three... two... one.
Blue: Go, Yellow!
Convoy driver, Vehicle 1: We got a problem!
Convoy passenger, Vehicle 2: Backup, we need backup!! Shit!
Police Operator: (in Estonian) Radio's down.
Police Supervisor: (in Estonian) Are they still moving?
Police Operator: Jah.
The Protagonist: Check the radio chatter.
The Protagonist: I’ve seen samples of encapsulation in every weapons class. This is not one of them.
Neil: That’s what he’s after.
Neil: Can’t understand this.
The Protagonist: You said you spoke Estonian.
Neil: It’s not Estonian. It’s backwards.
Neil: The hell is that?
The Protagonist: Go, go, go, go!
Neil: Don’t give it to him.
The Protagonist: This isn’t plutonium.
Neil: It’s worse than that, God damn it!
The Protagonist: Sorry.
Neil: He’s getting away.
The Protagonist: He left her in the car! Go after her! Go, go, go, go, go!
The Protagonist: Pull up alongside!
The Protagonist: Come on, come on. Closer!
The Protagonist: Keep it steady! Keep it steady!
Kat: Hurry up!
Kat: Please!
Neil: Alright, sit tight, I’m calling in the cavalry.
The Protagonist: What cavalry?
Sator: If you are not telling the truth, she dies.
The Protagonist: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Sator: You left it in the car, not the firetruck, right?
The Protagonist: Who told you that?
Sator: Just tell me now, is it really in the BMW?
The Protagonist: I don’t know.
Sator: Tell me or I’ll shoot her again!
The Protagonist: Leave her alone!
Kat: Kill him!
Sator: I don't have time to negotiate.
The Protagonist: Listen to me!
Sator: Three.
The Protagonist: I can help you.
Kat: Help me!
Sator: Two.
Kat: Please!
The Protagonist: Don’t!
Sator: One.
Sator: Next time one's a bullet to the head.
The Protagonist: No!
Sator: One. Two, Three.
The Protagonist: Okay! Okay. The car, The BMW, I left it in the BMW.
Sator: We're going to check this is real.
The Protagonist: It’s in the glove box!
Sator: Where did you leave it?
Sator: Car or fire truck, which one? Which vehicle did you leave it in? I need to know before I go out there.
The Protagonist: I’ve already told you.
Sator: I believe in you. You wanted her here, I hope you’ll be happy...
Wheeler: Clear!
Ives: Wheeler, go check the other side.
Wheeler: You two.
The Protagonist: Where did he go?
Ives: The past.
The Protagonist: It’s in the glove box!
Sator: We're going to check this is real.
Sator: Three, two, one.
The Protagonist: Okay! Okay.
Sator: Next one's a bullet to the head.
The Protagonist: No. No!
Sator: One.
The Protagonist: Listen to me.
Sator: Two. Three.
The Protagonist: I can help you.
Sator: I don’t have time to negotiate.
Sator: Tell me or I’ll shoot her again.
The Protagonist: Leave her alone!
Sator: Tell me now, is it really in the BMW?
The Protagonist: I don't know.
Sator: You left it in the car, not the firetruck, right?
The Protagonist: Who told you that?
Sator: If you're not telling the truth, she dies.
The Protagonist: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Female Paramilitary: Medic!
Male Paramilitary: Check in.
Female Paramilitary: She's been shot? 
Ives: Bring her back, this side.
Ives: Was she shot with an inverted round?
Neil: This is Ives. He’s one of us.
The Protagonist: “Us”?! Who are these guys?
Neil: Priya’s. Ours.
The Protagonist: How did Sator know about the ambush?
Neil: It’s posterity. An ambush in the middle of the street can't stay out of the records.
The Protagonist: Bullshit! He knew every move we made! Every one of them! Somebody talked! Who was it? Was it you?
Neil: No. No.
The Protagonist: At every stage, you’ve known too much. I’m going to ask you again. Did you talk?
Ives: Nobody talked. They're running a temporal pincer movement.
The Protagonist: A what?
Ives: A pincer movement. But not in space, in time. Half his team moves forward through the event, he monitors them, and then attacks at the end moving backwards, knowing everything.
The Protagonist: Except for where I stashed the plutonium. Which isn’t really plutonium, is it?
Neil: I told you it is what he was after. And you just told him where it was.
The Protagonist: I lied.
Neil: Jesus. You lied about it?
The Protagonist: He couldn’t verify inside the room. He’d have shot her anyway. Lying is standard operating procedure.
Male Paramilitary: It's spread too far.
The Protagonist: Meaning what?
Ives: She’s gonna die.
Neil: Standard operating procedure.
The Protagonist: Can’t you-- can’t you help her? Can’t we do something?
Neil: Can't we stabilize the inverse radiation by inverting the patient?
Ives: Takes days.
The Protagonist: Lets go!
Ives: We took control of this machine minutes ago. Before that, it's Sator’s.
The Protagonist: How long is she going to live on this side?
Male Paramilitary: Three hours, tops.
The Protagonist: I’m taking her through. I’m not gonna let her die. I’ll take my chances.
Ives: There’s no way of bring you back.
The Protagonist: We find another machine.
Ives: A week ago? Where?
The Protagonist: Oslo.
Ives: That facility's inside an airport security perimeter. It’s impregnable.
Neil: Mmm, it wasn’t last week.
The Protagonist: We’re going in. You might as well help us.
Ives: This is a proving window. As you approach the turnstile, if you don't see yourself in the proving window, do not enter the machine.
The Protagonist: Why not? 
Ives: If you don't see yourself reverse-exit a machine, then you ain't getting out.
The Protagonist: Is that gonna work?
Ives: Yeah. See for yourself. There's your answer. Let's go.
Male Paramilitary: She's stabilizing slowly. I'll clean and close the wound, but the rest is time.
The Protagonist: How long does she need?
Male Paramilitary: Four or five days. A week for sure.
The Protagonist: Neil, find a way to get us to Oslo. I’m going back out there.
Neil: To do what?
The Protagonist: To stop Sator from getting away with whatever it is I just gave him.
Neil: He didn't. You lied about where it was. Wait. You're going out there for her.
The Protagonist: He threatened to kill her in the past. If he does, what happens to her here?
Neil: It's unknowable. If you're there to make a change, you're not here to observe its effect.
The Protagonist: Well what do you believe?
Neil: What's happened has happened. We need to save her here and now. If you go back out there, you might hand him exactly what he’s after.
The Protagonist: Don't let them take her back through there. Okay?
Ives: We can't stay here.
Neil: We don't have a lot of time. So why don't you find us a nice, cozy shipping container, that's just come off a ship from Oslo?
Ives: This is cowboy shit. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into if you go through that door.
The Protagonist: Well I'm going, so any tips would be welcome.
Ives: Wheeler, brief him.
Wheeler: You'll need your own air. Regular air won't pass through the membranes of inverted lungs. Number 1 rule: Don't come into contact with your forward self. That's the whole point of these barriers and protective suits.
The Protagonist: Oh, we don't have time.
Wheeler: Well, if your particles come into contact...
The Protagonist: What?
Wheeler: Annihilation.
The Protagonist: That would be bad, right?
Wheeler: When you exit the airlock, take a moment to orient yourself. Things will feel strange. When you run, the wind will be at your back. If you encounter fire, ice will form on your clothes, as the transfer of heat is reversed. Gravity will feel normal, but if you're reversed for the world around you. You may experience distortions in your vision and hearing. This is normal.
The Protagonist: Can I drive a car?
Ives: Cowboy shit.
Wheeler: I can't vouch for the handling. Friction and wind resistance are reversed. You are inverted. The world is not.
The Protagonist: Was the transponder on the case?
Neil: We've tossed that case.
The Protagonist: I’m moving backwards. It's the ball I have to follow. Give me the reader.
The Protagonist: Okay. 
Wheeler: Are you ready?
Sator: The material is not in the case. Get the other sections of the algorithm to the hypocenter. He was lying. It wasn't in the BMW.
Driver: So where is it?
Sator: I saw the hand-off. You made me shoot her for nothing. You did get my pulse above 130. No one's done that before. Not even my wife.
Neil: You left Ives and his team a hell of a cleanup. Heat transfer was reversed. You might be the first case of hypothermia from a gasoline explosion in history.
The Protagonist: At this point nothing surprises. We're heading back to Oslo?
Neil: In a Rotas shipping container.
The Protagonist: He's got the material, Neil. I handed it to him on a plate.
Neil: I warned you...
The Protagonist: What's happened has happened. I get it now. But it's hard to take things on trust from people speaking half-truths.
Neil: That's not fair.
The Protagonist: You were a part of this before we met. Were you working for Priya?
Neil: No.
The Protagonist: Who recruited you, Neil?
Neil: It can't possibly do you any good to know that right now.
Neil: When this is over, we're still standing, and you still care, then you can hear my life story, okay?
The Protagonist: Sorry I involved you.
Kat: You need to tell me what's going on.
The Protagonist: Apparently Neil here knows more about it than I do. Good luck, pal.
Neil: By telling Kat anything, we're compromising her in Priya's eyes.
The Protagonist: In Priya's eyes she's already compromised. She has a right to know why she might die.
Kat: Am I gonna die?
The Protagonist: Not if we have something to say about it.
Neil: And we do.
Kat: Who are you?
Neil: Let’s start with the simple stuff. Every law of physics...
Sator: The material is not in the case. Get the other sections of the algorithm to the hypocenter.
Neil: You injured?
The Protagonist: What’s the algorithm, Neil?
Neil: The 241 is one section of it. One out of nine. It's a formula rendered into physical form, so it can't be copied or communicated. It's a black box with one function.
The Protagonist: Which is?
Neil: Inversion, but not objects or people. The world around us.
Kat: I don't understand.
Neil: As they invert the entropy of more and more objects, the two directions of time are becoming more intertwined. But because the environment essentially flows in our direction, we dominate. They're always swimming upstream. It's what saved your life. The inverted explosion was pushing against the environment.
The Protagonist: Pissing in the wind.
Neil: And the algorithm can change the direction of that wind. It can invert the entropy of the world.
Kat: And if that happens?
Neil: Oh...end of play.
The Protagonist: "End of play"? Can you be a little more precise?
Neil: Everyone and everything that's ever lived, destroyed instantly. Precise enough?
Kat: Including my son.
Neil: The more you sleep, the faster you'll heal.
Neil: We're on a truck. Shouldn't be long now.
The Protagonist: I've been thinking. We're their ancestors. If they destroy us, won't that destroy them?
Neil: Bringing us to the grandfather paradox.
The Protagonist: The what?
Neil: If you went back in time and killed your own grandfather, how could you have been born to commit the act?
The Protagonist: What's the answer?
Neil: There's no answer. It’s a paradox. But in the future, those in power clearly believe that you can kick grandpa down the stairs, gouge his eyes out, slit his throat, without consequence.
The Protagonist: Could they be right?
Neil: Doesn't matter. They believe it. So they're willing to destroy us. Can I go back to sleep now?
The Protagonist: No, I thought of something else.
Neil: Great.
The Protagonist: This reversing the flow of time, doesn't us being here now mean it never happens? That we stop them?
Neil: Optimistically, I'd say that's right.
The Protagonist: Pessimistically?
Neil: In a parallel worlds theory, we can't know the relationship between consciousness and multiple realities. Does your head hurt yet?
The Protagonist: Yes.
Neil: Try sleep.
The Protagonist: Shit. They didn't take us inside.
Neil: What do we do?
The Protagonist: We use the breach. The chaos right after impact. Get ready. Is she healed enough?
Neil: I don't know. I’ve never done this before.
The Protagonist: The fire crew's there. We take Kat through the breach. I take care of Sator's man and secure the vault. Then you bring her in.
Neil: How's the arm? 
The Protagonist: Not good.
The Protagonist: We move as soon as we hear the engines.
Neil: Hold on, hold on. 
The Protagonist: What?
Neil: You’re bleeding. Alright, let me look at it.
The Protagonist: Wait here. I’m going in.
The Protagonist: Go!
The Protagonist (inverted): Go!
The Protagonist: You knew it was me coming out of that vault. Why didn't you say?
Neil: That's a lot of explaining when someone's about to put a bullet in their own brain.
The Protagonist: But afterwards?
Neil: With things the same, I knew you’d be okay. What’s happened has happened. If I’d told you and you acted differently, who knows? The policy is to suppress.
The Protagonist: Whose policy? 
Neil: Ours, my friend.
Neil: We're the people saving the world from what might have been.
The Protagonist: Kat?
Kat: I’m here.
Neil: That'll be quite a scar. You'll be okay. We did it.
Kat: We did what? Andrei has the algorithm. You don't know where he is.
Neil: Or when.
The Protagonist: Get Priya here to Oslo.
Neil: Why?
The Protagonist: If I don't do something in two days, she tells me about the 241.
Neil: Nothing can change that.
The Protagonist: We'll see. Just get her here.
The Protagonist: Hello, Priya.
Priya: What’s going on? Where’s Neil?
The Protagonist: Nursing Katherine Barton, who almost died because of you.
Priya: What did I do?
The Protagonist: It's what you're going to do. In two days you're gonna have me dangle plutonium 241 in front of the world's most dangerous arms dealer. Now I want to know why.
Priya: You let Sator get hold of 241?
The Protagonist: No, I let him get ahold of the algorithm. So tell me about it, Priya.
Priya: It's--It's unique. The scientist who built it took her own life, so she couldn't be forced to make another.
The Protagonist: A scientist in the future?
Priya: Generations from now.
The Protagonist: Why does she have to kill herself?
Priya: You're familiar with the Manhattan Project? As they approached the first atomic test, Oppenheimer became concerned that the detonation might introduce a chain reaction engulfing the world.
The Protagonist: They went ahead anyway, and got lucky.
Priya: Think of our scientist as her generation's Oppenheimer. She devises a method for inverting the world, but becomes convinced that by destroying us, they're destroying themselves.
The Protagonist: The Grandfather Paradox.
Priya: But unlike Oppenheimer, she rebels, splitting the algorithm into nine sections and hiding them in the best place she can think of.
The Protagonist: The past. Here. Now.
Priya: There are nine nuclear powers. Nine bombs. Nine sets of the most closely-guarded materials in the history of the world. The best hiding place possible.
The Protagonist: Nuclear containment facilities.
Priya: Sator's lifelong mission, financed and guided by the future, has been to find and reassemble the algorithm.
The Protagonist: Why did they choose him?
Priya: Because he was at the right place at the right time.
The Protagonist: The collapse of the Soviet Union.
Priya: The most insecure moment in the history of nuclear weapons.
The Protagonist: How many sections does he have?
Priya: After the 241, all nine.
The Protagonist: Jesus Christ. And that's why you're going to do things differently this time.
Priya: To change things? So Katherine won't get hurt?
The Protagonist: So Sator won't get the algorithm.
Priya: If that universe can exist, we don't live in it.
The Protagonist: Well let’s try! You're going to warn me.
Priya: No I'm not. Ignorance is our ammunition. If you had known what the algorithm was, would you have let it fall into Sator's hands?
The Protagonist: You want Sator to get the last section.
Priya: That is the only way he'll bring together the other eight.
The Protagonist: I was supposed to steal it... then lose it?
Priya: Mission accomplished.
The Protagonist: You used me.
Priya: As you used Katherine. Standard operating procedure. You’ve done your part.
The Protagonist: My part? I’m the protagonist of this operation.
Priya: You... are a protagonist. Did you think you were the only one capable of saving the world? Ha.
The Protagonist: No. But I am. Because I haven't told you where he's assembling the algorithm, or when.
Priya: You're about to.
The Protagonist: No. I'm not. So deal us in.
Priya: “Us”? Why would you want to involve her again?
The Protagonist: Because she can get close to him.
Priya: Does he still trust her?
The Protagonist: He thinks she’s dead. But he used to.
Priya: You have started looking at the world in a new way.
The Protagonist: And now it’s your turn. Assuming she makes it out alive, whether or not you feels she knows too much...
Priya: I can't...
The Protagonist: If you don't have the authority, then talk to whoever's in charge of loose ends. I need your word... that she and her son will be safe, Priya.
Priya: What good is someone's word in our line of business?
Priya: They'll be safe. There's a rally point offshore at Trondheim. Get yourselves up there. Ives has a team ready to invert.
The Protagonist: You have a turnstile? The exact technology that we're trying to suppress?
Priya: Fighting fire with fire is a treacherous business. But there are some people in the future who want to continue the algorithm's journey into the past. You see, Tenet wasn't founded in the past. It will be founded in the future.
Kat: Can't get over the birds.
The Protagonist: How are you feeling?
Kat: Tell me you're gonna kill him.
The Protagonist: I can't.
Kat: Why not? Bet you're probably killed a lot of people.
Neil: Not with a dead man’s switch.
The Protagonist: The fitness tracker he wears.
Kat: He's obsessive about his health.
Neil: It’ll be linked to a switch. Probably a simple email burst, that reveals the location of the dead drop, set to fire if his heart stops.
The Protagonist: His death activates the algorithm. If he dies, the world ends. No one dares kill him.
Kat: No, you've missed the point. He's intending to end his life.
The Protagonist: Why?
Kat: He's dying. Inoperable pancreatic cancer.
The Protagonist: And he's taking the world with him.
Kat: If he can't have her, no one can.
Neil: He gets to choose the time and place for the end of the world. What moment? What does he choose?
The Protagonist: You told me about a holiday where you made him feel loved.
Kat: Vietnam.
The Protagonist: You said he vanished. What day?
Kat: Well, I went ashore with Max and he flew off, but I don't know what day it was.
Neil: It was the 14th, ten days ago. He was in Ukraine.
The Protagonist: At the Kiev Opera. How do you know about that?
Neil: The point is, he wasn't on his yacht, so that’s his window.
Kat: To go back to that golden moment and have it be his last.
The Protagonist: Everyone’s last. We have to lift the algorithm from the dead drop without Sator knowing. If he believes it’s there, he kills himself.
Neil: And not the rest of us. Where's the dead drop?
The Protagonist: Knowledge divided, my friend.
Neil: You're not going to tell me?
The Protagonist: Ignorance is our ammunition. But I need you back on that yacht, Kat.
Kat: Why?
The Protagonist: You have to stop him killing himself until we know the algorithm is out of the dead drop.
Kat: But if I’m caught there, and my son sees... I don't want those moments to be full of anguish if they're going to be his last.
The Protagonist: They're not.
Ives: It's time. We're working our way back to the 14th, but without knowing where the dead drop is, there's only so much I can do to prepare.
The Protagonist: You know what a hypocenter is? It's ground zero for an underground nuclear test. Sir Michael Crosby told me about a detonation in Stalsk-12 on the 14th. The dead drop is at the bottom of the hypocenter. That explosion seals up the algorithm.
Ives: Well then we better pull it out of that hole before the bomb goes off, eh?
Kat: Where’s Neil?
The Protagonist: He must have gone through already.
Kat: I didn't get to say goodbye. This is goodbye, isn't it?
The Protagonist: I'd like to say that you don't have to do this, Kat...
Kat: Worst thing Andrei ever did to me was that offer he made me: let me go if I agreed never to see my son again. I shouted and... swore. But he had seen it on my face just for an instant. I considered it. I don't know if I hate him more for what he has done, or because he knows that about me. 
The Protagonist: Oh...
Kat: A chance to help save my child. You can't know what that means to a mother.
The Protagonist: No.
Kat: You've killed people you've hated before.
The Protagonist: It's not usually personal.
Kat: Well he's dying anyway. Maybe it doesn't even count.
The Protagonist: It always counts, Kat. You’re not there to kill him. You’re the backstop. If we don't lift that algorithm and he kills himself, he takes us all with him.
Kat: Just keep up your end, okay?
The Protagonist: Today's the 14th. Offshore of Siberia. Time for us to go. You keep going back another day, give you some time to get back into Vietnam.
Kat: Who gets me on the yacht?
The Protagonist: I've got somebody good lined up. When it’s over and you're rasing your boy, carry this. There may be a time and place you feel threatened. Hit “talk”, state your location, hang up.
Kat: Who gets the message?
The Protagonist: Posterity.
Ives: Stalsk-12. Hidden from the world is a city where anything can happen. And today, ladies and gents, in 10 minutes, it most assuredly does. You've been divided into two teams for a temporal pincer movement. We're Red Team moving forward. In order to distinguish the teams, you'll wear these. Our friends over there, Blue Team, led by Commander Wheeler, are inverted.
Red Soldier 1: Why don't they let us see them?
Red Soldier 2: Maybe we won't like what happened.
Ives: One hour from now, they had this briefing. Then, were dropped on the ridge above the hypocenter, as close in time to the detonation as possible. Their objectives were clearance and clarification. Now, this briefing has the benefit of their experience.
Ives: Both teams have countdown watches. Ours count down from ten from landing, to zero to the explosion. Blue Team is reversed.
Wheeler: If you are not at the LZ at zero, you are not leaving. Do you understand?
Ives: We drop in, clear LZs for Blue Team evacuation. We make our way into the city proper. These buildings are abandoned, but we learned there is a turnstile. Expect a bitemporal response.
Red Soldier 1: They'll have inverse ordnance?
Ives: Inverse, conventional, forward antagonists, inverted antagonists, they have it all. On the other side of the city, the ground rises to the ridge above the hypocenter. A splinter unit will take this tunnel from the city to the floor of the hypocenter. Blue Team located an entrance here. The bomb is in this rock, high above, to trigger a collapse, sealing the cavern.
Red Soldier 2: How do we diffuse the bomb up there?
Ives: We don't. The explosion takes place as planned. Now our job is to fail to diffuse that bomb, while the splinter unit achieves its task undetected.
'Red Soldier 3: Which is...?
Ives: Need to know, and you don't. Any other stupid questions? Good. Well, let's go. Let’s get ready.
The Protagonist: I wanted to be on the first wave.
Ives: There is no first wave. Red Team and Blue Team operate simultaneously. Don't get on the chopper if you can't stop thinking in linear terms. Now, you want to be on the team that lifts the contents of the capsule?
The Protagonist: Absolutely.
Ives: Yeah, that's us. We're splinter unit.
The Protagonist: Just us?
Ives: No one who knows the contents of that capsule can leave the field. I thought we'd manage ourselves.
Mahir: That's 40 feet from the private deck to the water. Can you jump it?
Kat: I can dive it.
Mahir: Until you see my signal, you don't let him die.
Ives: 30 seconds!
Ives: Go! Go! Go!
Wheeler: We're coming in on a shockwave! Hang on, people!
Wheeler: On your feet!
Ives: There!
Crew member: Ma'am, we thought you'd gone ashore.
Kat: Well, I snuck back to surprise Andrei.
Crew member: Oh, the boss left.
Kat: Have Mr. Sator find me here. And don't tell the others. I'll get the mess.
Neil: Mines!
Wheeler: Mines!
Sator: They told me you'd gone ashore.
Kat: They told me you'd flown off.
Sator: I came back to see you and Max.
Kat: Max is on shore with Anna. We need time, just you and me, after what happened.
Sator: I was joking. It was a stupid joke.
Kat: You think I’m a terrible mother.
Sator: We both know my opinion of you is higher than yours of me.
Kat: I want things to be better, Andrei.
Ives: Take cover!
Ives: Get me a goddamn AT4! Take him out! Now!
Ives: Provide some cover! Move, move, move! Let's go! Move, move, move, move, move! 
Neil: Wheeler! Get out of there!
Wheeler: Come on!
The Protagonist: Ives! Splinter unit. Here.
Sator: You know, it's going to be a beautiful sunset. I'll get Max brought back. We should share the moment with him.
Kat: I'll make you a drink.
Sator: Bring my son back to the boat.
The Protagonist: We're running out of time! Let's go!
Ives: If they see us, it's all for nothing.
The Protagonist: We need a distraction.
Ives: Don't worry about that.
Wheeler: On my mark!
Wheeler: RPG, hit the base!
Ives: That building on my mark!
Ives: Three! Two! 
Wheeler: One! Fire!
Ives: Fire!
Ives: Move! Move!
The Protagonist: We're committed now. Come on!
Kat: What's that?
Sator: I borrowed it from the CIA.
Kat: What is it?
Sator: The way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Kat: I don't understand.
Sator: When I take this, it's all over.
Kat: Then don't take it yet.
Sator: Why not?
Kat: Because we the sunset coming. And a little vodka left.
Sator: And Max will be here soon. They said they thought it was you, not Anna, ashore with Max.
Kat: So long as you can tell the difference.
Sator: A moment's business, my love.
Ives: (radio) Mahir, do you copy? Not clear. I repeat, not clear!
Mahir: Copy that.
Ives: I repeat, not clear!
Wheeler: Neil! Neil!
Wheeler: Go!
The Protagonist: We don't have anything big enough to blow this.
Ives: Try him. See if he's got a grenade.
Ives: Anything?
 The Protagonist: Nah, nothing.
Ives: Here, you try having a look. Can you pick it?
Sator: (radio) I hope not. I paid a lot for that lock. How do you like where my journey began and yours ends?
 The Protagonist: Little radioactive for my taste. 
Sator: My fate was always bound up with radiation. We'd work where no one else would. I made a bargain with the Devil. Money for time. We sold our futures. 
 The Protagonist: And now you're about to make the same mistake for the entire world.
Sator: (radio) It wasn't a mistake. I made the bargain I could. What was yours? You fight for a cause you barely understand, with people you trust so little, you've told them nothing. When I die, the world dies with me.
Sator: And your knowledge dies with you
Sator: (radio) buried in a tomb like an anonymous Egyptian builder sealed in a pyramid to keep his secret.
Sator: Your faith is blind. You're a fanatic.
 The Protagonist: (radio) What's more fanatical than trying to destroy the world?
Sator: I'm not, I'm creating a new one. Somewhere, sometime, a man in a crystalline tower throws a switch and Armageddon is both triggered and avoided. Now time itself switches direction.
Sator: (radio) The same sunshine we basked in will warm the faces of our descendants generations to come.
 The Protagonist: How could they wanna kill us?
Sator: Because their oceans rose and their rivers ran dry.
Sator: (radio) Don't you see? They have no choice but to turn back. We're responsible.
Sator: Knowing this, do you still want me to stop?
 The Protagonist: Yes. Each generation looks out for its own survival.
Sator: That's exactly what they're doing.
 The Protagonist: (radio) But not you. You're a traitor. Bringing death to because you have no life of your own left.
Sator: (radio) When I'm done, life continues.
 The Protagonist: (radio) Not your son's.
Sator: My greatest sin was to bring a son into a world I knew was ending.
Sator: (radio) You think God will forgive me?
Wheeler: Cover me!
 Wheeler: Go! Go! Go!
The Protagonist: You don't believe in God, or a future, or anything outside of your own experience.
Sator: (radio) The rest is belief.
Sator: And I don't have it.
 The Protagonist: Without it, you're not human. You're just a madman.
Sator: Or a god.
Sator: (radio) Of sorts.
 The Protagonist: Like I said.
 The Protagonist: Don't. Jesus.
Sator: Our time is up.
Sator: I'll give your love to my wife.
 The Protagonist: You're forgetting. I haven't met her yet.
Sator: (radio) That's right.
Sator: After you meet her, she dies.
Sator: (radio) I'll just give her my love instead.
 The Protagonist: Don't do...!
Sator: Volkov...
Sator: (radio) (in Russian) Shoot him in the head.
Kat: Enough business, my love.
Sator: You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?
Kat: But it sounds terribly important.
Sator: Where are you going?
Kat: Aren't you hot?
Sator: What are you doing now?
Kat: I spilled sunscreen.
Sator: So what?
Kat: Slippery!
Sator: Just come here.
Kat: Turn over. You'll like it!
Kat: I can't do this. I can't let you think you've won.
Sator: Don't spoil this moment, Kat.
Kat: I'm not letting you go to your grave thinking we're coming with you.
Kat: You're dying alone, Andrei.
The Protagonist: Come on, come on, come on!
Ives: Tunnel's sealed, gate's closed. Mahir, do you copy?
Mahir: Yeah. Hold. I repeat, hold!
Kat: Look in my eyes. Which do you see? Despair? Or anger?
Kat: I'm not the woman who could find love for you even though you scarred her on the inside. I'm the vengeful bitch you scarred on the outside.
Sator: NO!
Mahir: Shit.
Mahir: Ives, she's killed him. Ives, do you copy? She's killed him. She jumped the gun. She killed him.
Blue Soldier 1: Come on, come on! Do you think they made it?
Neil: Ah, screw it.
Neil: YEAH!
The Protagonist: (radio) Kat! You jumped the gun!
Kat: I couldn't do it. I couldn't let him die thinking he'd won. I knew you'd find a way. Wait, you found a way, we're okay, right?
The Protagonist: (radio) Yeah, found a way. Be safe.
The Protagonist: Thought you were inverted.
Neil: Changed gears halfway. Looked like you needed help here.
Ives: Here? We needed help down there.
Ives: How'd you get that lock open?
The Protagonist: Wasn't me. Didn't your team need you?
Neil: I'll get 'em on the next pass.
Neil: Alright, Ives?
Ives: Once I've caught my breath.
The Protagonist: No one who's seen this leaves the field.
Ives: Alright. 
Ives: We hide it. We end our lives. That's the only way to be sure. As to when...maybe that's every man's decision to make for himself.
Neil: You're not gonna kill us?
Ives: If I ever find you, I will.
Neil: But you won't look to hard?
Ives: Yes, I will.
Neil: You're not going back to London to check on Kat, are you?
The Protagonist: No. It's far too dangerous.
Neil: Even from afar?
The Protagonist: Even from afar.
Neil: Ives! Wait. 
The Protagonist: Are you really going back in?
Neil: I'm the only one who could've got that door open in time, right, Ives?
Ives: Well, I don't know any locksmiths as good as you.
Neil: See? It's me in there again. Weaving another past in the fabric of this mission.
The Protagonist: Neil, wait!
Neil: Just saved the world. Can't leave anything to chance.
The Protagonist: But can we change things if we do it differently?
Neil: "What's happened's happened." Which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It's not an excuse to do nothing.
The Protagonist: Fate?
Neil: Call it what you want.
The Protagonist: What do you call it?
Neil: Reality. Now let me go.
The Protagonist: Hey, you never did tell me who recruited you, Neil.
Neil: Haven't you guessed by now? You did. Only not when you thought. You have a future in the past. Years ago for me. Years from now for you.
The Protagonist: You've known me for years?
Neil: For me, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship.
The Protagonist: But for me, it's just the beginning.
Neil: We get up to some stuff. You're gonna love it. You'll see. This whole operation's a temporal pincer.
The Protagonist: Whose?
Neil: Yours! You're only halfway there. I'll see you at the beginning, friend.
Neil: (voiceover) We're the people saving the world from what might have been. World will never know what could've happened. And even if they did, they wouldn't care. 'Cause no one cares about the bomb that didn't go off. Only the one that did.
Priya: Do it before the boy comes out.
The Protagonist: That's your idea of mercy? You gave me your word.
Priya: And I told you then what it would be worth. Here...today...how did you know?
Kat: (over phone) Cannon Place, 3:00. Probably nothing, I'm...
The Protagonist: Posterity.
Kat: Cannon Place, 3:00. Probably nothing, I'm...
The Protagonist: I told you you'd have to start looking differently at the world.
Priya: I have to tie up the loose ends.
The Protagonist: That was never your job.
Priya: Then whose was it?
The Protagonist: Mine. I realized I wasn't working for you. We've both been working for me. I'm the Protagonist.
Priya: Then you'd better tie up those loose ends.
The Protagonist: Mission accomplished.
Neil: (voiceover) It's the bomb that didn't go off. The danger no one knew was real. That's the bomb with the real power to change the world.
Category:Transcripts
Category:Warner Bros. Transcripts