TENET Explained: What Really Happened To Neil At The End

[Music] neil's journey at the end of tenet is arguably one of the most confusing plot points in the entire film and seeing things from the character's point of view is the only way to really understand what happened and why throughout this video we're going to be breaking down the journey that he ended up going on through the use of reversed footage and a 3d animation that really details what happened we'll also be going over the theory of quantum immortality and how the characters in some way live forever due to theoretical physics now if this is your first time here welcome to the heavy spoiler show i'm your host paul now let's go back to the future as we break down neil's journey okay so neil joins the protagonist in india and follows him on the path to both the future and past as he tries to stop sator for the final mission at stalsk 12 he's separated into the blue team but after noticing that the entrance to the hippo's center is booby-trapped he reverts himself and ends up rescuing both ives and the protagonist from an explosion that happens in the base's core now during the mission to the hippo center the protagonist and ives encounter a locked door but this is opened by an unknown soldier seconds before he's shot in the head after the mission is completed it's revealed that this is actually neil and after that he says he will be the one to go back and unlock the door meaning that his fate is sealed and we know that the character died now ever since doing my neil timeline video i've had numerous people question me about the events of what neil did and whether the way we watched the film is the way that things happen now personally i believe that neil saved the protagonist and then went off into the helicopter with ives which took him back to the base and he then inverted once more went back out with the blue team and then unlocked the door however twitter user anecdotes sent me an edited version of my timeline in which they said that neil went on the helicopter and actually ended up going through the entirety of the movie in order to unlock the door i think this theory kind of falls apart because neil in the end asks if the protagonist is going to see cat in london which you wouldn't know about had he not experienced the events of the film however if that's the way you want to view the film then that's absolutely fine either way though after rescuing the pair and being told that the door was unlocked neil boarded the helicopter and at some point he inverted and returned with the original blue team during the briefing we can see before the majority of the team masked up that there are several people already wearing them and it would be easy for this version of neil to sneak in and join the team without alerting his past self for those around him we also see throughout the final battle that he slips off a notice very easily and it could even be possible that the cuts we see of neil interspersed throughout the climax are in fact the future version of the character making his final mission now as for the final act from his point of view neil knows that he's going to be shot before any of the events take place and this explains some of his actions in the finale after returning to the field neil obviously either starts off as part of the blue team or goes out with the red team and inverts himself by the turnstile with the blue team he clears the rocks that block the passage and heads in after the explosion has been set off whilst his past self on the surface is with the protagonist and ives as the decels he races towards the door and as it's already open from his point of view he simply has to go to the other side and hold it now the reason that he stands there is because he knows that his timing has to be perfect and that he has to take a bullet for the protagonist in order to not only save his life but shock sator's man he waits until the events plain reverse from his perspective and upon seeing the protagonist go backwards through the door he then closes it and he is the one who locks it now this is very confusing but in order for it to be unlocked from the point of view of the protagonist neil must actually lock it tennis is very much reversing the idea of cause and effect and making it affecting cause and thus the only way to have the door closed for the events to play out the same way is by this happening just after locking it he's then shot by saito's man who from neil's point of view would reverse and then be told by sator to shoot him in the head neil dies at this point which is when the protagonist notices the tag on his back and everyone starts crying on the second watch anyway now in many ways the future version of the protagonist knew that he was sending neil to his death and he allowed it to happen because it was imperative that he saved him in the past neil likely knew the mission as well and was willing to perhaps return the favor for him saving his life at some point and his mother which i i don't wanna i don't wanna go into the kneeler's max theory more times than i already have now as demonstrated in our timeline there are multiple versions of neil existing across this action scene as not only are there two reversed versions of the character there is also the one moving forward as well as the one at the opera thus neil is technically living forever in this constant loop and which is life and death are both happening at the same time now this ties into the idea of quantum immortality and if you know of the shrouding is cat thought experiment and it's sort of along the same lines as that the theory thought up by max tegmark discusses subatomic particles that have an upward spin that either fires or does not fire a gun but but basically yeah but basically what it is is if there was say a revolver with one bullet and you spun it and then fired the gun there would be six versions of you created in which five survived and one died because consciousness does not exist at the point of death your consciousness would automatically travel into one of these five alternate realities and thus you would find a form of immortality in which you would exist in the multiverse neil at one point in the film even says the line in a parallel universe you can't know the difference between consciousness and multiple realities and this sort of plays into the previous statement about death now though teneck kind of brushes to the side the idea of the multiverse and it exists in one strict timeline the fact that neil's consciousness would be snuffed out and yet still exist in another body would mean that he would automatically become part of this the other character would be unaware of exactly what's going on he would in many respects live for eternity it is thought that time only exists because we observe it and that the universe around us can only be there because it is what we perceive just in the same way that it's impossible to know whether a falling tree in an abandoned wood makes any noise it's impossible to know what truly happens to consciousness upon death and some even think that it breaks free of time and travels back to certain moments in life in which thoughts have occurred if consciousness is not truly bound by time then that would mean that neil would upon death travel back to one of his many bodies in this moment and that he would simply go through the motions once more now that's some high level thinking but hopefully this video has helped to simplify the journey that neil ended up going on throughout the film i'd of course love to hear your thoughts and theories on it and as a thank you for interacting with the video you'll be entered into a prize straw for a copy of the hobbit and lord of the rings 4k box set we're giving away three and all you have to do to be on the chance of getting it is like the video make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment below with your thoughts on the video the winners of last month's competition are on screen right now so if that's you then message me on twitter at heavyspoilers i also just want to give a massive shout out to both webley coffee spill and mukul say for putting together some of the footage i used and i'll link their channels in the description if you want to check them out if you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of the fan theory that sator is actually working for the future version of the protagonist throughout the entire film i definitely think it'll change the way you watch the movie so make sure you click it right now if not then thanks for sitting through the video i've been paul i see you next time take care peace just

Channel: Heavy Spoilers

Views: 808,191

Keywords: tenet, tenet explained, tenet ending, tenet neil, tenet timeline, tenet neil timeline, tenet neil timeline explained, tenet easter eggs, neil, reversed video, inverted video, tenet special features, tenet fan theory, the protagonist, tenet unanswered questions, tenet questions, tenet things you missed, tenet fan theories, tenet ending explained, is neil kats son, tenet review, tenet time inversion, tenet time inversion explained, time inversion explained, tenet end scene

Id: HFMr8OCXZHo

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 06 2021