TENET Explained Why Kat Is The TRUE Future Protagonist | Theory And Evidence

Ok, let’s do this one more time.

Tenet is a film I’ve up, down, left, right and inside out. Like the characters in the movie, it’s only upon going through the events of it several times that I started to see things from a new perspective and the more I watch the more it becomes clear that Kat is actually the Future Protagonist. So, in this post, we’re going through all the clues

Priya’s Clue 

This train of thought first came to me on my 797th watch of the film during the scene in which The Protagonist encounters Priya for the first time.

Upon reverse bungee jumping into her home he initially believes that her husband Sanjay Singh is the weapons trader that has been dealing in munitions. However, it’s revealed that Priya is actually the one behind this and she says “A masculine front in a man’s world has its uses.”

This sent me spiralling off into thinking that it could indeed be the case with The Protagonist and just like how he is the face of the operation, it actually goes far beyond that.

Now I think from the way that Priya acts and the things that she says that she has at some point interacted with The Future version of The Protagonist at some point. She has an air of arrogance to her about the events that are going on and doesn’t seem to respect the protagonist at all, even disobeying what he says at several points.

Now if she was aware that he would be the overseer of Tenet then surely she would respect and fear him more.

Is The Protagonist Being Controlled?

This got me thinking, what if the Protagonist is actually controlled by someone and he is simply being used as a masculine front to hide what’s going on? That made me really start to deconstruct his actual character and the more I thought about it the more I realised how he doesn’t really fit the mould of the God-Like person that we hear about controlling it all.

Throughout the film, the character has little to no agency at all. Whether it’s the opera scene at the start, being told what to do and wear by Michael Crosby, having Neil keep him in check and so on, he just doesn’t seem to be the person making decisions.

Even Ives shows up out of nowhere and tells him what to do and he almost kills both Neil and The Protagonist before changing his mind.

I know this is him likely just playing with the pair but The Protagonist doesn’t really strike me as someone who’s good at making choices. In fact, most of the time that The Protagonist does take charge of something it ends in failure. This is seen especially in the highway chase in which he ends up in a car crash and he only manages to stop the algorithm from being buried because Neil sacrifices himself.

Why Kat?

This idea of him following orders is further hammered home with what could be his opposite, Sanjay. The Protagonist says he’s not the person they send to negotiate and even admits to simply being a trigger that people send to pull. Like Sanjay, he’s in place to do one job but when it comes to making decisions, he’s not the person people turn to.

However, Kat often is and several moments point toward her directing him and even giving him orders.

During the school meeting scene, she tells him what to do to get into Rotas and by the end of the film, she is leaving him messages so that he can protect her, not the other way around. These orders sent back to the past are similar to what we see Sator getting and thus it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that The Protagonist is still just a trigger.

Hell, he even kills Priya at this moment, hammering home this idea that he still only really has one job.

Did Priya Know?

Now it’s this moment that we should also pay close attention to. Priya seems confused by the whole thing, especially because The Protagonist has shown up. The reason for this is because she knows that there are really others behind the scenes that aren’t him and this is confirmed by the line in which she says there are multiple protagonists.

Therefore we know that others exist who have controlled not only her but also the events that we see play out in the film.

Now because of this, he could very well just be the face of the protagonists, the hired gun that is directed by the others that lurk in the background. Tenet works on the idea that people are controlling the events of the movie that we don’t see and this is not only shown in the protagonist but it’s also very much a part of Sator’s story.

Similar to what we see happening to the Protagonist at the end, Sator simply receives messages from the future and then carries out what they tell him to do. Thus Kat could very much be doing something similar to The Protagonist without him even knowing.

Motive 

But what exactly is the evidence and what motive would she have for sending orders back to the Protagonist?

Well, Kat’s sole desire in life is to protect her son. She knows that The Protagonist is the only man capable of doing this and thus she likely manipulated things behind the scenes so that he would do this and save her too.

Another reason that cements that she is indeed one of the controlling figures in the future is that she knows the ins and out of Sator’s operation. Because of their marriage, she has had access to sensitive information on his organisation and likely knows intimate things about it that the protagonist never would.

She knows about where things go, when he started dealing ammunition, where his crew went on jobs and so on, making her a far better choice as a director of the events.

Because of this knowledge, she could easily put The Protagonist on the right path for the events that we see in the movie.

Subtle Hints

Now there are other things in the film that hint towards it and the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the colours blue and red are used throughout the film at several points.

These appear in the background of scenes, on certain objects and so on. They’re the colours that the key teams use to differentiate the past from the future and thus should be paid attention to.

However, as apparent as these colours are, the only character that we actually see wearing them full as part of their clothing is Kat who appears in not only a blue dress but also a red one.

I think that this is Nolan hinting to us that we should pay very close attention to her.

Now if we continue this idea of metaphors and understand Kat’s arc, then we have to see that the journey she goes on actually contradicts the idea that The Protagonist is looking over her and not the other way around.

She’s In Control

Throughout the film, she is under her husband’s control completely and it seems weird to me that she would break free of this in the finale, only to fall back under The Protagonist.

Now though he is looking out for her it still sets up the idea that the character has control over her life.

This is really opposite to what she could go on and it’s clear that the end of the movie is meant to free her from control. Now another hint towards this I think is because she actually chooses in the finale.

Though everyone tells her that she shouldn’t kill Sator before they have the algorithm, she does it anyway and gets her own way, even though others tell her not to.

Clearly, she is not under the control of anyone else anymore and the fact that she can do this without ending the world shows that she has an almost a god-like ability to control things and get her own way.

The algorithm was supposed to detonate when Sator’s heart stopped and yet the fact that it doesn’t highlight just how powerful Kat can be seen as.

Now the other characters such as The Protagonist, Neil and Ives, they’re all on paths that they can’t divert from whereas Kat making a choice shows that she is above them.

What the Ending Means 

I very much view the ending as her being free from her husband’s control and the way that she looks at her past self on the boat before leaping, very much highlights to me that she has come full circle and knows that she has broken free of the hell that she was trapped in.

So in summary, Kat is actually the Future Protagonist and the movie is about her saving her son and the world. Similar to what we see in the end she orders the protagonist to carry out the events that would lead to her being able to do this.

Nolan has often said that in the same way that Inception was his take on the heist movie Tenet is his take on the spy one. Thus if we take the archetypes from that and apply them to this, The Protagonist is very much James Bond, whereas Kat is the M.

As Priya says there are multiple protagonists and similar to her relationship with Sanjay, the Protagonist is likely a blunt instrument that carries out orders for the others.

She has access to Sators inner operations and also has the motive to make sure he falls because he mistreats her.

That’s what you get for shooting her mate.

She becomes free in the end because unlike the other characters she makes a choice and therefore is the true Future Protagonist…

Or you know…might not be.

And that’s the video ruined but if you’re someone who watches Tenet every week like me then I’d love it if the next time that you went through it that you had this theory in mind. The beauty of the film is that it’s different every time you go through it and there are lots of different things that you can take from it.

I’d obviously love to hear your thoughts and theories on this and whether you agree or not.