If that sounds like a strange plot, it's only as strange as Tenet's marketing campaign. Warner Bros. released the second trailer via Fortnite of all places, and footage released so far has managed to mostly conceal Tenet's primary plot points. Cinema-goers will head into Tenet with only the briefest notion of what's going to happen. What fans certainly have gleaned from Tenet's marketing campaign are palindromes. Even the word "Tenet" itself has been presented both normally and in reverse, playing into the whole theme of "inversion." But this motif might be more than simple wordplay - it could hint towards the ending of Tenet itself.
Although Tenet's trailers leave a lot (or, indeed, almost everything) to the imagination, there are numerous references to the forthcoming cataclysm the heroes are trying to prevent. One of the most revealing lines is "there are people in the future who need us." This strongly suggests that the grim event Washington and Pattinson are trying to stop has already happened in the future, but those in the present have somehow been forewarned - perhaps seeing a message before it's written or some such inversion craziness. The main Tenet group use their ability to invert time to try and save the future.
Palindromes are, of course, words that give the same outcome regardless of whether you go backwards or forwards. Perhaps the same will be true of Tenet - that even if the Protagonist and his allies reverse time, the ultimate outcome will still be the same. Rather than just a neat promotional trick and a play on the movie's title, the palindrome theme could be spelling out clearly that the heroes' plan won't work as intended in Tenet.
Another intriguing possibility the palindromes could hint towards is that Tenet's inversions create a causal loop. Christopher Nolan has confirmed that his new offering isn't strictly a time travel movie, but that doesn't rule out a good old-fashioned paradox. Instead of the inversions just failing to prevent the dark future, it's possible that manipulating time actually causes whatever event the characters are afraid of. After receiving a warning from the future, the Tenet team start inverting time, but inadvertently trigger the very thing they were trying to stop, again playing into the palindrome idea that going backwards is just as dangerous as taking the usual route.
Time will tell whether or not Inception sequel, which speaks volumes about Nolan's ability to fascinate an audience with next to nothing. The lure of Tenet is even enough to consider the possibility that a simple palindrome could be a major plot hint.
