Last week, tickets went on sale for Christopher Nolan’s much-hyped first-blockbuster-out-of-the-gates espionage-epic Tenet – and now it’s been given an official rating by the BBFC. With nine days until it’s expected in UK cinemas, it’s getting real – Tenet really is coming out this summer, after months of the year’s biggest movies being delayed by Coronavirus. The British ratings board has given Nolan’s latest a non-controversial 12A – the same rating awarded to Dunkirk, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, and Batman Begins. Ever since the 15-rated Insomnia, Nolan has managed to hit that 12-rated sweet spot with little in the way of compromises.
That said, the BBFC report shows that Tenet did seek advice from the ratings board in order to bag its 12A – the film passed uncut, but before being officially submitted, the filmmakers made a small change and reduced shots of “a man kicking a woman” in order to get the lower rating. The film received a 12A rating for “moderate violence, threat, domestic abuse, infrequent strong language”, and, as per the BBFC report, has a confirmed final runtime of 149 minutes and 50 seconds – about par for a Nolan film.
For the most part, Tenet itself remains a mysterious prospect – the film’s plot, as per most Nolan original movies prior to release, remains tightly under wraps. What we do know is that it stars John David Washington in the lead role, and revolves around the idea of ‘time inversion’ – with characters moving forward in time while everything around them moves backwards. We’ll find out how much Tenet fires up the brain and pumps the adrenal glands when it hits UK cinemas on 26 August – followed by a proposed US debut on 3 September.