“Tenet” Physicist thoroughly examines! What was this “retrograde” world? *Spoiler alert [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.9]

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2020.09.29Takayuki Oguchi

What is Neil's true identity?

Oguchi: I don't think Nolan would actually make it, but it's a movie that makes you want to see a sequel. The identity of Neil (Robert Pattinson) remains unclear. By the way, I support the theory that he is Kat's (Elizabeth Debicki) son.

Yamazaki: That possibility can actually be expressed using a Feynman diagram. I don't think Nolan will make a sequel to ``Tenet'' either, but this time he uses an idea similar to `` Memento '' (2000), which reverses the timeline. Therefore, I think there is a possibility that they will take on new challenges with even different ideas. But I guess I'm running out of time...(lol)

Oguchi: The idea of ``a person from the future who invented a revolving door or an algorithm and closed the timeline themselves'' is also common to the wormhole in Interstellar . The question remains, ``Did they make that?'', but we'll never be able to meet them. This is a mystery that is shared with questions such as ``How did the first universe form according to cyclic cosmology ?'' or ``Where did the first life originate from according to panspermia theory ?'' You can also think of the loop as being closed from the beginning.

Yamazaki: Cyclic cosmology was born out of the fact that if the universe had a beginning, it was impossible to understand that beginning, so we avoided that problem by making it cyclic. No matter how much time passes, we can't get rid of the "chicken or egg" mindset, but originally there was a universe like a ring-shaped sculpture floating in multidimensional space, and we could move through it in order. It's not strange if you think of a single cassette tape with no contradictions as it is being played back. Even in ordinary physics problems, it is impossible to imagine an infinitely large space, but the idea of infinitely repeating small spaces is a commonly used method.

Editorial Department: By the way, regarding Neil's case earlier, if he was going backwards in real time, he would have come from a relatively near future.

Yamazaki: Well, Neil meets a nameless man (protagonist: John David Washington) in Mumbai, and in terms of the ages of the actors, both are about 35 years old. So, I don't know when Neil was hired, but hypothetically, when he was around 25 years old, he met an anonymous man around 45 years old and asked him to hire me from the past, and 10 years ago. send. Then, when Neil turned 35, he met a nameless man who was only 35 at the time.

Editorial Department: In the movie, he was sleeping in a container, but that was a scene where he was moving backwards in real time.

Yamazaki: Yes, that's right. There is no depiction of Neil going backwards from the future in the movie, but if you think about it like I said earlier, Neil is lonely. After all, I was going backwards by myself for 10 years. Well, I don't know if I'm the only one. Maybe there are nine algorithms, so there could be nine stories like this one, and nine people like him.

Editorial Department: By the way, after Cat gets shot, she regresses, but is that because she was trying to heal the wound?

Yamazaki: Actually, that's one of the strange things about this work. Even if the person is going backwards, it's the same thing as going forwards, so the injury should actually get worse. So I think it's better to understand that as a performance.

Oguchi: Do you mean that the entropy of the wound has decreased...?

Yamazaki: But if that were the case, anything would become a no-brainer (lol). In the first place, he was shot by the retrograde Sator (Kenneth Branagh), so the wound should heal... In other words, it should be correct that Cat's condition gradually worsens, and that she completely recovers from her injuries the moment she is shot by Sator. In fact, that's how the scene where the main character stabs himself in the arm is done. That's why I use them differently depending on the situation.

Editorial Department: I recently rewatched `` Inception '' (10), and of course I was able to understand the story much better than before. Actually, Nolan's movies have various explanations (hints) in the movie, and I thought that they were actually made in a way that made it easy to understand.

So in the case of this time's ``Tenet'', I think there are actually a lot of things explained here and there that you wouldn't understand just by watching it once.

Yamazaki: Actually, I watched ``Tenet'' five times before it was released. I watch it once, spend 24 hours creating presentation materials, watch it again to clarify any questions I have, and then create another presentation, a process I repeat five times in total. The presentation was about 100 pages long. So, I thought of the events that appeared in the movie as experiments, compiled the results of the experiments, and made a presentation about the physics in ``Tenet'' by summarizing the results and saying, ``These are the rules, so it's OK.'' That is to say. When I sorted it out that way, about 80% of it was accurate, but about 20% remained that I felt like it was reversed for production purposes. For example, at the end, there is a scene where Neil unlocks the door, but if you look at it from Neil's point of view, it turns out that he is actually locking the door. I still don't understand that part (lol).

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Shiro Yamazaki (Physicist, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Completed doctoral course at Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo. Doctor of Science. Received the 10th Young Encouragement Award from the Physical Society of Japan for his research on quantum physical properties. He has held nearly 100 sessions nationwide explaining Interstellar(2014) using the theory of relativity, and continues to contribute to magazines and write web series. He was also selected as a lecturer on quantum mechanics and relativity at Tokyo Gakugei University. He has the nickname Dr. Koma, who won the Koma Wars, and has appeared on many TV programs including NHK. His books include ``The Science of Spinning Tops'' (Kodansha Bluebacks). https://www.kouenirai.com/profile/8007

Interview and text: Takayuki Oguchi

In 1982, he became the director of Japan's first CG production, JCGL. After working as the head designer for the IMAX Dome 3D video "Universe 2 ~Sound of the Sun~" at the Fujitsu Pavilion at EXPO'90, he became a freelance video creator. Won an Emmy Award for the NHK special ``Life: A 4 Billion Year Distant Journey'' (1994). His most recent work is the storyboard for the NHK special ``Space Spectacle'' (19). He is also a video journalist specializing in VFX, CG, 3D movies, art animation, exhibition videos, etc., and has contributed numerous articles to film magazines, theater pamphlets, the web, etc. In addition to being a visiting professor at Digital Hollywood University, he is also a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Animation Department, Waseda University Faculty of Science and Engineering, Japan Electronics College, Joshibi University of Art and Design Junior College, etc.

"Tenet"

Currently on nationwide roadshow

Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures

Official website: https://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/tenetmovie/index.html

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