10 Secret Techniques Films Used To Ensure Perfection

When it comes to headf**k sci-fi, Michel Gondry’s intensely personal low-budget indie is one thing… but Christopher Nolan’s Tenet? An action thriller in which some of the set-pieces and characters are moving forward in time and some are moving backward in time? That must have needed some computer-generated effects to bring about, right?

Astonishingly, Tenet’s temporal inversion scenes were performed practically, in-camera, like the vast majority of Nolan’s previous films. Take the dumbfounding car chase between the Protagonist’s vehicle and the two inverted cars, for example.

Firstly, the set-piece itself was mapped out using 3D animation software to study all the moving parts - forwards and backwards - from every angle. It was important that the action make perfect sense from the perspective of each of the three vehicles involved.

As is often the case for car chases, multiple cars were rebuilt to allow filming to take place - but in this case, camera set-ups in pods on the roof and in the back were facing backwards, and the car transmission was converted so that they would, with a flip of the differential, be able to drive backwards as easily as forwards.

The stunt involving the flipping crash of the second inverted car was something they could only film once, and the car itself was surrounded by camera cars - in fact, the only digital effects in the whole sequence involved removing or editing cameras and converted vehicles that were in shot, because there were a lot of cameras involved.