The Protagonist realizes that the inverted bullets were not manufactured by TENET. The scientist confirms they do not possess that level of technology, and so he asks where the bullets came from. After a brief sideways glance as she searches for the right words, she explains that someone in the future manufactures them, and they are “coming back to us.”
She then urges him to manipulate these objects himself. He puts on the glove, hovers his hand over the inverted bullet, but nothing happens. He looks tentative, slightly clumsy, almost groping for the right gesture. She smiles to herself, amused by his inability, and explains: “You have to have dropped it.” She tilts her head, meaning before. He nods, tries again, and this time the bullet leaps into his hand. Manipulating inverted objects requires a mental effort: anticipating their behavior by imagining the action that must have already occurred.
The Protagonist cannot help asking how the bullet moves before he touches it. As if expecting the question, the scientist shows him a video of the motion he performed seconds earlier, playing it forward and backward. She explains that his point of view differs from the bullet’s. While he believes he caught the bullet, the bullet “thinks” it was dropped.
He continues asking questions, and from this point on the scientist shows no hesitation. Even when she pauses, she remains in control; not because she lacks answers, but because she must decide how to break each piece of information to him.
He raises the problem of the cause coming after the effect. She replies that it is only a matter of how we perceive time. She still looks faintly amused as she watches him struggle to grasp the logic of inversion.
Then, unexpectedly, he asks: “And what about free will?” Any scientist might pause here, but she answers quickly: if he had not initiated the process, the bullet would not have moved. Either way, he is the one performing the action. Then she delivers the famous line: “Don’t try to understand. Feel it.”
She demonstrates what she means by manipulating the inverted bullet on the tabletop, causing it to roll toward him. He catches it. “Instinct,” he says. “I got it.”
I don’t. Or rather, I understand it only as science fiction: something one accepts on an emotional level because it does not fully make sense logically. Apparently, one can control inverted objects by mentally bending possibilities and acting through instinct. I wonder whether articulating this principle will help me understand the inverted action scenes that have puzzled me in the movie. Perhaps. But at this moment, I’m not entirely convinced.
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