🧠 Food for Thought - Frame Narratives: Inception v Tenet.

"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea." This quote by Inception's lead, Cobb, couldn't be any truer for stories and storytelling. All great stories were once meager ideas which persisted and grew into the great stories we know and love today.

Christopher Nolan is perhaps one of the best storytellers of the 21st century. Known for his subversion and non-linear story arcs, the filmmaker often pushes the boundaries of storytelling with exciting stylistic devices. One such technique is the frame narrative which he deploys profoundly in his sci-fi action flicks Inception and Tenet. But before we delve into which film used the device better, we must first fathom the tool itself. As always, spoiler alert!

Christopher Nolan continues to push the boundaries of storytelling | Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

What is a Frame Narrative?

According to StudioBinder, a frame narrative, also known as a sandwich narrative, an intercalation or a frame story, is a storytelling technique that involves a main narrative that sets the stage for one or more secondary stories. The inner story is called an embedded narrative, or simply, a story within a story. Multiple layers of stories within stories are called nested stories.

Inception v Tenet.

Frame narratives are typically laid out in two ways; they can start and end a story, or they can be interwoven throughout a runtime. Notably, Inception deploys both strategies while Tenet emphasizes the latter. How? Let's break that down and afterwards, you can decide for yourself which film did it better. Remember, details matter.

1. Inception.

With the high-concept premise of mind jumps and the ability to build entire new worlds in dreams, Inception fashions itself in pole position to be able to tell infinite stories, each capable of being embedded within the other. As such, the film is naturally laden with frame narrative elements as discussed below:

Inception vehemently explored four nested stories with the concept of a four-layered dream | Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

Bookends.

These are similar narrative opening and ending styles. The movie begins with Cobb washing up on a seashore in a fit to try and save an old Saito stuck in limbo. The movie climax concludes with this limbo scene, just before the epilogue.

Flashbacks.

Involves characters recalling past events. Since we begin the movie with Cobb attempting to save an old Saito in limbo before going back to see how we got here, the entire movie is basically a flashback. There are also flashbacks within the flashback such as Cobb recalling the events leading to his wife's demise and how he ended up being forced to leave his kids behind.

Nested Stories.

These are stories within stories within stories. Perhaps, arguably, no movie does this better than Inception. In an attempt to extract intel from Saito's mind early on in the movie, Cobb and his team deploy a two-layered simulation (a dream within a dream), albeit unsuccessfully.

Later on, in an extremely ambitious effort to implant an idea (inception) in Robert Fischer's mind, they run a three-layered simulation (a dream within a dream within a dream), which further escalates into four levels (a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream), with the 4th level being limbo. Each level tells a story of its own, hence the nested stories.

Furthermore, the blatant differences in time mechanics emphasize the distinctions between the worlds. "Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream."

Series of Stories.

Multiple stories enable the exploration of multiple themes.

i) Cobb and Mal.

Cobb and Mal's marriage helps explore the themes of love, loss and grief, for obvious reasons. Guilt is also expounded upon as Cobb's guilt over the loss of his wife fuels the antagonistic Mal, allowing her to compromise Cobb and his missions.

ii) Saito and Cobb.

Redemption is the highlight here as Saito offers Cobb the chance to see his kids again and he grabs it with both hands. Cobb also stays behind in limbo to extract Saito when things go awry and despite the opportunity being there, he chooses not to perform an "inception" on Saito like he did his wife, essentially forgiving and redeeming himself.

iii) Maurice and Robert.

The complicated father-son dynamic is on show via the complex relationship between both Fischers. In typical fashion, the oligarch father, Maurice, is disappointed in his son and makes sure to tell him as much on his death bed.

Inception's character Mal played the anatagonistic force and helped highlight Cobb's internal struggles

2. Tenet.

While Inception dwells profoundly on space exploration via the dream realm, Tenet primarily focuses on time. The mere concept of inversing an object's entropy so it moves back in time in itself is highly fascinating, but more than that, it also means the possibilities of how a creative can portray a narrative suddenly become virtually limitless. Let's explore how Tenet manages to execute this via frame narrative elements.

Tenet takes us on a wild ride through time

Flashbacks x Flashforwards.

Tenet combines these two stylistic devices ever so brilliantly! When Kat recalls the events of her being on a boat with her husband, trying to rekindle some semblance of happiness in their otherwise doomed marriage, we see a woman dive off the boat in the flashback. This is also a flashforward as we later find out the woman was her inverted self from the future. Also, when the antagonist, Andrei, recalls being a teenager in Stalsk-12 and unearthing a time capsule, this flashback also doubles as a flashforward since the capsule is from the future and is yet to be buried.

In-Story Media.

These are pieces of media in the story world that have their own narrative. We see these littered throughout the film, such as mainstream media, time capsules, records and archives which directly speak to the future, allowing posterity to effectively coordinate attacks into the past.

Two Timelines.

Tenet in its entirety is a temporal pincer. As explained in the movie, a temporal pincer movement is a pincer attack deployed not in space, but in time. Two or more attacks are coordinated simultaneously forwards and backwards in time. In the first half of the movie, we move forward in time through the Protagonist's POV right up until Tallin, Estonia, when he goes through a turnstile and is inverted. From there on, we move back in time, experiencing earlier events from an informed place and with subtle nuances.

"Ignorance is our ammunition."

- Priya

Series of Stories.

As described earlier, multiple stories help establish multiple themes in a work of art.

i) Neil and the Protagonist.

This dynamic helps explore the themes of friendship and loyalty. Notice the genuine look of awe and adoration on Neil's face when he first meets the younger naive Protagonist back in time, before he even founded Tenet. He also knows the Protagonist never drinks on the job. Later, the Protagonist weeps for his friend, Neil, when he finds out he'll recruit him and though he's losing him, he's yet to actually find him.

"I'll see you in the beginning, friend."

- Neil

ii) Kat and Andrei.

This relationship is abusive and the marriage helps establish that theme in the narrative. More than just beating her, insulting her, and even putting a radiated bullet in her, perhaps the worst thing Andrei did to Kat was making her an offer to leave if she promised she'd never see her son again.

iii) The Protagonist and Priya.

Trust and betrayal are explored here as throughout the run of their relationship, Priya never fully trusts the Protagonist with complete intel, only feeding him bits and pieces. Also, the Protagonist asks Priya to give him her word that no harm will come to Kat and her son, which she does, but doesn't keep and betrays him by going after Kat later on, forcing the Protagonist to "take care" of her.

Tenet's character Neil aptly complemented the Protagonist and helped highlight vital themes

The Nutshell.

So, in a nutshell, both films intelligently deploy and execute the frame narrative stylistic device and even share some of the elements explored such as flashbacks and series of stories. Inception stands out for its execution of nested stories, especially with the successful simulation run of a four-layered dream. However, Tenet comes up trumps for its brilliant merging of flashbacks and flashforwards, as well as cleverly founding its entire plot on the basis of a temporal pincer. It just about edges it for me.

The entire Tenet movie was a temporal pincer

"I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today's movies. They believe everything they're hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up."

- Christopher Nolan