Difference between Tenet Inversion and Time Travel

This is a brief explanation of what time inversion is in Christopher Nolan's Tenet, as well as how it differs from the time travel in other sci-fi movies. This video is great for those who have already seen Tenet, but are still a little (or a lot) confused about inversion and how it works.

[maxgonzalez]

I’ve been waiting for someone with a PHD in tenet to explain this

[numspacsym]

Absolutely excellent analysis! There is one flaw though at 6:18 — if you inverted yourself in 2020, say, and remained inverted for 5 years, and then un-inverted in 2015, you’d have to wait an additional 5 years before you could get back to 2020. So you’d be 10 years older, not just 5.

[McCoymiked]

I’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to understand inversion better. There are some great videos and animations out there. But this approach really crystallized the idea for me. Thank you!

[JMELLOW]

I’m surprised this doesn’t have more views. Big props to you for actually understanding and explaining it to the rest of us.

[marcovirtual]

Helpful explanation, done in a pace I could understand it better than other "explanation" videos. Thanks!

[matthewkeyes]

Awesome video! I thought you did an excellent job of explaining everything. Inversion can easily be a difficult thing to grasp but I can tell you really did your homework to explain it so well.

[kumaSOevl]

even though im still not smart enough to grasp this i have this feeling you have explained it better then anyone else on YT

[Unam-et-Solum]

Really good breakdown, nicely explained. I never noticed this while watching the film, but at 4:50 when we first see an inverted bullet at the Opera, it clips the protagonists arm as it flies back into the gun. You can see a bit of blood. I wonder if they were initially going to show the reverse injury mechanic at play but thought it might be confusing this early in the film.

[ThompsonExpress]

Time Travel: There a bus taking you through time.

Inversion: You're hitchhiking back through time.

[Knowthyself]

At first I was completely confused on how this actually worked when I first seen the movie. But you've broke it down beautifully. Thanks to you I'll definitely be looking into this a lot more.

[utakanu]

One question - why the protagonist (uninverted) was able to catch bullet when scientist was explaining her the concept?

[FreshGuava]

I clearly wasn't destined to be a physicist. I will need to watch this video several time

[badjesus]

THANK YOU. you did better job than Christopher Nolan explaining it.

[_JudgeDredd]

Dude. This blew my mind even more. I think I get it though. But holy crap!

[veo]

The other analysis videos, even the 1M view ones, fail to catch a lot of this minutiae. Like an inverted version of oneself not existing unless and until they use a turnstile. And the idea that you can’t follow your inverted self unless you are also traveling in the same direction. Red can follow red, but red cannot follow blue.

[unluckyalt]

Best explanation I’ve seen on this, good shit bro

[be]

So what happens if you go thru Inverted machine and become inverted and never come back to this mean to get back to normal.. are you stuck as being "inverted" forever and seeing everything in reverse until you die of old age?

[steelfire]

What happens to you if you enter a turnstile but your inverted self is not on the other side.

[kwameoluwasomi]

I'm not sure the permanence of inversion was stressed enough in Tenet... perhaps I was already straining too hard to keep up.

[shanepye]

I wonder what happens when you toss in time dilation. Travel away and back at X percent speed of light, then go into the turnstiles. Or turnstiles near a black hole.