Tenet (2020) quotes

Cast
John David Washington.
Robert Pattinson.
Elizabeth Debicki.

Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

I’ll see you in the beginning, friend.
– Neil

What the hell happened here?
– Neil
Hasn’t happened yet.
– The Protagonist

That test you passed? Not everybody does.
– Fay

You wanna crash a plane?
– The Protagonist
Well, not from the air. Don’t be so dramatic.
– Neil
…well, how big a plane?
– The Protagonist
That part is a little dramatic.
– Neil

Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.
– Barbara

How would you like to die?
– Andrei Sator
Old.
– The Protagonist
You chose the wrong profession.
– Andrei Sator

You’re not shooting the bullet. You’re catching it.
– Barbara
Whoa.
– The Protagonist

I realized we’re both working for me.
– The Protagonist

They’re running a temporal pincer movement.
– Ives
A what?
– The Protagonist
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.
– Ives

You have to start looking at the world in a new way.
– Priya

Neil, wait.
– The Protagonist
We just saved the world, can’t leave anything to chance.
– Neil
But can we change things if we do it differently?
– The Protagonist
What’s happened, happened. Which is an expression of fate in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.
– Neil
Fate?
– The Protagonist
Call it what you want.
– Neil
What do you call it?
– The Protagonist
Reality. Now let me go.
– Neil

We all like to believe we’d run into the burning building, but until we feel that heat, we can never know.
– Fay

This reversing the flow of time, doesn’t us being here now, mean it never happened?
– The Protagonist

Lying is the Standard Operational Procedure.
– Neil

Look, no offense, but in this world, where someone is claiming to be a billionaire, Brooks Brothers won’t cut it.
– Michael Crosby
I’m assuming I’m on a budget.
– The Protagonist
Save the world, then we’ll balance the books. Can I recommend a tailor?
– Michael Crosby
I’ll manage. You British don’t have a monopoly on snobbery, you know.
– The Protagonist
Well, not a monopoly. More of a controlling interest.
– Michael Crosby

There’s a cold war. Cold as ice. To even know its true nature is to lose.
– Fay

You don’t appreciate the bombs that don’t go off.
– Neil

What’s happened, happened.
– Neil

His ignorance is our only protection.
– The Protagonist

You really going back in?
– The Protagonist
I’m the only one who can got that door open in time, right, Ives?
– Neil
I don’t know any locksmiths as good as you.
– Ives
See? It’s me in there again. Weaving another past in the fabric of this mission.
– Neil

Welcome to the Afterlife.
– Fay

Everyone and everything that has ever lived… destroyed. Instantly. Precise enough?
– Neil
Including my son?
– Kat