Christopher Nolan's ‘Tenet': Stunning First Trailer Reveals An ‘Inception'-Esque Spy World

As mentioned yesterday, we finally have our first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet.”

Thought the trailer does show us plenty of footage, not much is actually known about “Tenet,” Nolan’s upcoming 11th film, but EW does describe it as “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.” Its star John David Washington may very well be going to the “afterlife” and Robert Pattinson his intelligence partner. Nolan describes Washington as the “hero” of the film, but the trailer also give us a look at co-star Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki (“Widows”).

Could Nolan be returning to the twisty time-free dynamics of Inception here? Did he make yet another film in which time is used as a narrative ticking clock? Or maybe Nolan is doing some time-traveling? All we know is that there are numerous clues in this first look footage which deal with the surreal, including flying onto skyscrapers.

In an exclusive EW interview, Nolan does do his best to describe what “Tenet” might be about:

“We’re jumping off from the point of view of an espionage film, but we’re going to a number of different places,” he said. “We’re crossing a few different genres in a hopefully exciting and fresh way. [Producer] Emma [Thomas] and I have put together a lot of large-scale productions, but this is certainly the biggest in terms of international reach. We shot in seven countries, all over the place, with a massive cast and huge set pieces. There’s no question, it’s the most ambitious film we’ve made.”

When discussing Washington, Nolan added, “He’s a massively talented actor and physically gifted. He’s an athlete and pretty hard for anybody to keep up with, including the different vehicles we shot him from — cars and helicopters. [Laughs] This guy moves.”

It was reported earlier in the year that “Tenet,” had a budget of nearly $250 million. The cast also includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kenneth Branagh and, of course, Nolan regular Michael Caine.

As I mentioned yesterday:

“Isn’t it great being Christopher Nolan? I mean, the guy practically gets carte-blanche every time he decides to make a movie. No other director in Hollywood has the power to just show up on the front steps of a big studio, tell them he wants hundreds of millions of dollars to bring an original (non-sequel/non-superhero) vision to the screen and that complete artistic control must be granted to him. Name me another filmmaker that has that kind of power? Nobody else except Nolan.”

“Tenet” is expected to hit theaters on July 17, 2020.