Tenet's hidden Dark Knight, Inception and Prestige references, explained

Did you pick up on them?

After what feels like a lifetime, Tenet is out now in select cinemas around the world.

The new Christopher Nolan film is the first major movie to be released during the pandemic, with many cinemas reopening to mark the occasion.

Those who are deciding to venture out to see Tenet are finding themselves baffled and entertained in equal measure – it is the director’s most confusing film to date.

Excitingly, though, the film seems to feature some callbacks to Nolan’s previous films, including The Dark Knight and Inception.

*Minor spoilers below – you have been warned*

On the surface, the film’s structure brings to mind the filmmaker’s earlier films – namely Memento (2000) and The Prestige (2006). The former, just like Tenet, played around with time, moving backwards from its starting point.

Meanwhile, The Prestige plays around with the fact that there are two of the same character walking around in the same timeline, a fact that is originally unbeknownst to the viewer. Tenet also deploys this clever tactic.

The other references are more plain to see. Firstly, the film’s opening line could itself be a reference to 2010 blockbuster Inception, which many originally believed could be related to Tenet in some way.

What is the opening line? “Wake up the Americans.”

This would no doubt have excited supporters of the the above theory; it suggested that the the devices Leonardo DiCaprio’s team uses to “incept” people’s dreams – while they sleep – could be the same used by characters in Tenet.

Considering there are no direct links between the two presented in the film, it seems to be nothing but a nod to his decade-old head-spinner.

‘Tenet’ seems to feature a reference to ‘Inception’ (Warner Bros Pictures)

Then there is The Dark Knight (2008), a film that saw Heath Ledger win a posthumous Oscar for his performance as the villainous Joker.

The primary antagonist in Tenet is Kenneth Branagh’s Russian oligarch, Andrei Sator. We know he’s bad from the get-go, but we first see his evilness in action in a scene that sees him attack his wife, Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). This scene sees him bellow the words: “Look at me.”

This might make you recall the Dark Knight scene in which the Joker holds a member of Gotham’s police force hostage, and a video tape of his torture is broadcast on the news. These are the exact words the Joker bellows at the poor soul.

‘Look at me!’: Both villains in ‘Tenet’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ shout these words

The scene in Tenet in which The Protagonist (John David Washington) and Neil (Robert Pattinson) form part of a convoy in Tallinn to transport Sator’s plutonium also has similarities to The Dark Knight.

Using a fire engine, Washington and Pattinson’s characters eventually ambush the convoy to steal it.

'Tenet' stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson (Warner Bros)

Could this be a callback to the Batman sequel scene in which Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is being transported by a convoy comprised of Gotham’s police force after being taken into protective custody?

As you’ll remember, it’s the Joker and his goons who hijack that particular convoy, a sequence that is spearheaded by... a burning fire engine.

It’s unknown whether Nolan intended these to be references, but their memory certainly looms large when watching the film thanks to these particular moments.

Tenet is in cinemas in select countries around the world now