Thanks for checking out the post, this was Heavy Spoilers, you’ve been the best and I’ll see you next time….wait we started in the future again.
Neil’s timeline in Tenet is one of the most confusing out of all the characters. Throughout this, we’re gonna be going through it step by step and discussing how the events play out from his point of view.
There will be Heavy Spoilers here so if you haven’t seen the film yet and don’t want anything ruined then I recommend that you turn off now.
Since my first Tenet video, I’ve been getting a lot of requests to do a full timeline breakdown for all the characters in the film. I’ve actually already made one for Kat which you can see here. Now you might not realise but she and Sator go on pretty much the exact same journey throughout the film as far as inversions are concerned so if you wanna see what happens to her and the antagonist then check that video out after this.
Mirroring this, Neil and The Protagonist go on very similar journeys and for pretty much all of the film bar a couple of scenes, they are on the same path.
Is Neil Kat’s Son?
Now before starting the timeline that we see in the film, I wanna talk about one of the major fan theories floating around about the character. That is that Neil is actually the adult version of Max aka Kat’s son.
If you don’t subscribe to this way of thinking that’s fine but I think it gives us a good point to start the character’s timeline off and we will still be giving a proper jumping-off point as far as things in the movie are concerned.
So the first time we see Max chronologically is on the boat during Kat and Sator’s vacation. Kat catches a woman diving over the edge of her husband’s yacht and because of this, it sets the character off on a path that would lead to her future version killing him minutes before this event.
Max, apparently unaware of everything that’s going on then carries on like normal.
I say unaware, look at the boy’s face when Kat dives off the boat!
Anyway, Max is taken to school, where his mother visits him for a brief few moments at the end of the day between its finishing and the boy being picked up by his father’s men.
I’ll move this point to the start now as things for the character at this point continue to travel chronologically. The events of the movie split not long after this with The Protagonist and his mother travelling back in time.
Max continues forward until the end of the movie which is when he’s picked up by his mother at school and he actually gets to go home with her due to his father’s death.
Now if the theory is true, then after the Protagonist ties up the last loose end in Priyah, he joins the pair and becomes part of their life. This is the start of the beautiful friendship that Neil was referring to and he grows with him.
Tenet agents throughout the film keep themselves to themselves, even refusing to have chit-chat in case they learn anything about each other so the fact that Neil knows The Protagonist’s favourite drink does hint at them being close.
That’s just one of many things that support the theory and I don’t wanna belabour the point as I’ve already done a full video covering it.
Max then grows up and gets a Masters in physics, he learns about his father and also how the protagonist saved not only his mother’s life but also the world itself. He and The Protagonist form a friendship and through him, he is recruited and trained. With Sator being his father he was likely raised bilingual and this explains how he can speak Estonian. Because of this, he realises that he will be the perfect person to go back and help in the mission and thus decides to return the favour by saving the protagonist’s life.
As for his identity, he knows that if he tells the Protagonist that his name is Max then he will figure out who he truly is so he takes the last four letters of his name, does a Tenet on them and calls himself Neil.
Neil then inverts himself and travels back.
Again this is all just a theory and you can totally roll your eyes at it, I just thought I’d include it as I don’t think that this would be a full timeline video without looking at what Neil was doing before the events of the movie.
Meeting Neil
Anyway if you skipped that part of the video and are back with us, our first encounter with Neil happens at the Opera house.
Throughout the movie, we learn that during this moment that the events of the finale are also playing out which includes the battle at Stalask 12 and Kat’s mission to the boat.
So there are actually four versions of Neil existing at this point.
Try to get your head around that.
Travelling Forward
Anyway, we’re just gonna be following the one and I’m gonna turn the background red as in Tenet this is used to show time travelling forward.
During, this whilst the Protagonist is dumped at a wind turbine, Neil hides in the shadows.
The pair then meet which is the first time for the protagonist, here they do the mission with Priyah and shortly after decide to carry out the siege on the airport.
This is pretty much a central location for the film and one that we will be travelling to again in just a bit.
The movie continues to play out in chronological order with us then arriving at our next point at the car chase.
This goes to hell and Kat is shot with an inverted bullet not long after.
The Protagonist decides they must invert and Neil joins them.
They realise that there is an inversion turnstile at the Airport and thus they will be able to revert back to normal.
Time Inverted
I’m gonna turn this part of the diagram blue as that’s the colour that is used in the movie to show when time is inverted.
With the protagonist and Kat, they then go back to the airport which is where the fight happens between The Protagonist and himself.
Neil manages to revert Kat back to normal and in secret the trio travel alongside their past selves figuring out what to do next.
They realise that Sator will have travelled back to his time on the boat as this is when he was at his happiest.
The group then once more invert and go back to the day of this with Neil remaining in inverted time whilst the Protagonist switches back to normal.
However, during the mission, he sees one of Sator’s men setting up a booby trap at the entrance of the tunnel. Left with little option Neil decides to invert once more and thus he travels back into the red zone.
Though he fails in warning them about the trap, he does still come in useful as he pulls them out of the cavern before it collapses in on itself.
It’s here that Ives, The Protagonist and Neil have their farewell and decide to split the pieces of the algorithm up.
Neil actually gives The Protagonist his piece of the algorithm as he realises that he’s the only person who can unlock the door for the protagonist in the bunker.
He explains exactly what’s been going on and how the pair were actually friends. Pattinson delivers one hell of a performance and when he says I’ll see you at the beginning friend I still get goosebumps…I’m not crying you’re crying.
For him, this is the last time that the pair will actually see each other and it ends what he sees as a beautiful friendship.
Four Neils
Neil then inverts once more and travels to the bunker where he unlocks the door for The Protagonist before diving in front of a bullet to save the character’s life.
At this point, there are actually four versions of the character spread across the timeline both moving backwards and forwards to get to this one final moment.
Across all four Neil is doing whatever he can to save the Protagonists’ life and it shows just how much he values the friendship that they had.
Back to the Start
Now whatever way you look at it, whether it be the Max theory or not, from this point on the Protagonist then travels back to the events after the car chase with Max, tying up all the loose ends that were left behind.
You may not agree with us but if we’re right in our speculation then The Protagonist then joins the pair and we then go back to the start of our timeline in which we followed Max growing up.
This ends the movie and also our time with the character, creating a perfect loop in which he and his friend saved the world.
Your Thoughts
And that’s the video, now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the video and the film itself so make sure you comment below and let me know. This video gave me a migraine making it so if you appreciated it then please drop a thumbs up as it massively helps us out.
I also wanna give a huge shoutout to cookpete on Twitter for putting together a massive timeline of the movie. I actually came across it when trying to put this video together and it really helped me fine-tune the events…so you’re the true Neil of this video.
If you enjoyed this and wanna watch more Tenet-based content then make sure you check out our full breakdown of the theory of why Neil is Kat’s son after this. If the first part of the video had you rolling your eyes a bit then definitely check that out as we’ve compiled all the evidence that supports the theory.
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