Physicist Slams ‘Tenet’ for Missing Science Advisor – Rates Sci-Fi Masterpieces’ Credibility!

Tenet, a Sci-Fi Masterpiece That Boggles the Mind…

The storyline of “Tenet” revolves around an American spy tasked with preventing a foretold apocalypse. Released in 2020, the film was praised for its intricate plot that incorporates complex scientific theories. Science philosopher and research director at CEA, Etienne Klein, who has authored several scientific essays, was initially excited to see this futuristic movie that tackles challenging concepts from the hard sciences. However, the film ended up irking him more than impressing him!

…But Lacks Seriousness for a Prominent Scientist

The physicist is not particularly convinced by alien invasion scenarios like in “Mars Attack”: “Can Martians land on Earth? No. The travel time of several million years is far too long; reproduction during the trip would be necessary.“

He is equally skeptical about time travel to the future and the past as depicted in “Back to the Future,” explaining: “In all cinematic time travel, there is a problem because you need two times: the personal time of the time traveler, plus the time within which they travel! Thus, we can’t really talk about time travel, but rather about one time within another time.” And what about “Tenet”? It’s safe to say that the massive 2020 hit left him cold!

The movie-loving scientist elaborates: “The film mixes the course of time and the arrow of time, it confuses the reversibility of time with the reversibility of temporal phenomena. These are two completely different things, so yes, it annoyed me. There are those who come from the future, there are strange battles…“

In his view, another Nolan success, made with the help of Kip Thorne, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist widely recognized by his peers, holds a scientifically acceptable credit. From this, one might conclude that hardcore scientists would prefer “Interstellar” over “Tenet”!