1. The Protagonist: You wanna crash a plane? Neil: Well, not from the air. Don’t be so dramatic. The Protagonist: …well, how big a plane? Neil: That part is a little dramatic.
2. Andrei: This is where our worlds collide. How would you like to die? The Protagonist: Old. Andrei: You chose the wrong profession.
3. Neil: What the hell happened here? The Protagonist: It hasn’t happened yet.
4. “Each generation looks after its own survival.”
5. The Protagonist : You really going back in? Neil : I’m the only one who can got that door open in time, right, Ives? Ives : I don’t know any locksmiths as good as you. Neil : See? It’s me in there again. Weaving another past in the fabric of this mission.
6. “In a parallel world’s theory, we can’t know the relationship between consciousness and multiple realities.”
7. “Do you think you are the only one capable of saving the world?”
8. The Protagonist: You wanna crash a plane? Neil: Well, not from the air. Don’t be so dramatic. The Protagonist: Well, how big a plane? Neil: That part is a little dramatic.
9. “Sator’s lifelong mission, financed and guided by the future, has been to find and reassemble the algorithm.”
10. “You are not shooting the bullet, you are catching it.”
11. “A chance to save my child, you don’t know what that means to a mother.”
12. “You don’t negotiate with a tiger. You admire tiger, until it turns on you, and you feel its true f***ing nature!”
13. “This reversing the flow of time, doesn’t us being here now, mean it never happened?”
14. Ives: They’re running a temporal pincer movement. The Protagonist: A what? Ives: Pincer movement. But not in space, in time. Half his team moves forward through the event. He monitors them and then attacks at the end moving backwards. Knowing everything.
15. Neil : But in the future, those in power clearly believe you can kick grandpa downstairs, gouge his eyes out, slit his throat, without consequence. The Protagonist : Could they be right? Neil : Doesn’t matter, they believe it. That’s why they’re willing to destroy us.
16. Neil: It seems you need an introduction to a prominent Mumbai local on short notice. I’m Neil. The Protagonist: I need an audience with Sanjay Singh. Neil: That’s not possible. The Protagonist: Ten minutes, tops. Neil: Time isn’t the problem. Getting out alive is the problem.
17. “We’re the people saving the world from what might have been. The world will never know what could happen. And even if they did, they wouldn’t care. Because no one cares about the bomb that didn’t go off. Only the one that did.”
18. “What’s happened, happened. Which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.”
19. The Protagonist: Well to do what I do, I need some idea of the threat we face. Barbara: As I understand it, we are trying to prevent World War III.
20. “It’s the bomb that didn’t go off. The danger no one knew was real. That’s the bomb with the real power to change the world.”
21. “All I have for you is a gesture, in combination with a word. Tenet. Use it carefully. It’ll open the right doors, but some of the wrong ones, too.”
22. “Save the world and then we will balance the books.”
23. “We all feel like we would run into the burning building, but until you can feel the heat you will never know.”
24. “Smart Leaders Build Sustainability Into Their Leadership”
25. “Look, no offense, but in this world where someone is claiming to be a billionaire, Brooks Brothers won’t cut it.”
26. “I realized I wasn’t working for you. We’ve both been working for me. I’m the Protagonist.”
27. Neil : Vodka tonic, and a Diet Coke. What? You never drink on the job. The Protagonist : You’re well informed. Neil : It pays to be, in our profession. The Protagonist : Well, I prefer soda water. Neil : No, you don’t.
28. “Our clients use us because we have no priority above their property.”
29. “Lying is standard operating procedure.”
30. “I told you, you have to start looking differently at the world.”
31. The Protagonist : I’ve been thinking, we’re their ancestors. If they destroy us, won’t that destroy them? Neil : That’d bring us to the grandfather paradox. The Protagonist : The what? Neil : You went back in time, and killed your own grandfather. How could you’ve been born to commit the act? The Protagonist : What’s the answer? Neil : There’s no answer. It’s a paradox.
32. “You have to start looking at the world in a new way.”
33. “The world needs Tenet.”
34. “I made a bargain with the devil. Money for time. We sold our future.”
35. “We all believe we will run into the burning building. But until we feel the heat, you never know.”
36. “Bold I’m fine with. I thought you were gonna say nuts.”
37. The Protagonist: I’ll set you up as a go-between. But remember, to you, it’s all about the plutonium. Or when we’re done, they’ll kill you. Neil: Won’t you have to do that anyway? The Protagonist: I rather be my decision. Neil: So do I. I think.
38. “Fighting fire with fire is a treacherous business.”
39. “You were a part of this before we even met.”
40. “Someone manufacturing them in the future. And they’re streaming back to us.”
41. “One man’s probability of death is another man’s possibility for a life.”
42. “Leaders Make Choices And Then Their Choices Make Them”
43. “You have a future in the past. Years ago for me, years from now for you.”
44. “Great Leaders Never Confuse Activity With Accomplishment”
45. “Now that we know what to look for, we’re finding more and more inverted material.”
46. “From your point of view, you caught it. But from the bullet’s point of view, you dropped it.”
47. “We’re being attacked by the future. And we’re fighting over time.”
48. “But you’re not angry enough. Because anger scars over into despair. I look in your eyes—I see despair.”
49. All I have for you is a word: Tenet. It’ll open the right doors, some of the wrong ones too.
50. “The detritus of a coming war. Even the dead need allies.”
51. “I’m not the man they send in to negotiate, or the man they send to make deals. But I am the man people talk to.”
52. “Trust Is The Foundation Of Successful Relationships”
53. “Everyone assumes terrorism, but no one’s died so swift extradition then lost in the system. It’ll barely make the news.”
54. “We all like to believe we’d run into the burning building, but until we feel that heat, we can never know.”
55. “I realized we’re both working for me.”
56. “You went back in time and killed your own grandfather. How could you’ve been born to commit the act?”
57. “I’ll see you at the beginning, friend.”
58. “You don’t negotiate with a tiger. You watch the tiger until it turns on you and reveals its true fucking nature.”
59. “There’s a cold war. Cold as ice. To even know its true nature is to lose.”
60. “Even a nuclear weapon could only affect our future. An inverted weapon can affect our past also.”
61. “One of these bullets is like us, traveling forwards through time. The other ones going backward. Can you tell which is which?”
