Did Neil use an inverted bullet at the opera?
At the opera in Tenet, when Neil saves the protagonist, he shot an inverted bullet. Before you say that he himself was inverted, I would say think again.
The protagonist sees him leaving running down the stairs in a normal movement, if he was inverted, he would be running down backwards, which in his normal time means he is arriving at the scene to shoot the bullet.
If he was actually inverted, then this means in his normal time he was arriving at the seen running up the stairs backwards, which doesn't make sense.
I lean toward that it is a mistake in the movie, just to allow the protagonist to see the red ribbon on his back pack for the final scene, but not 100% sure.
Best Answer
Yes, we can conclude that the bullet was inverted from the reverse effect it has before/after(?!) impacting the wall. Were Neil inverted no more explanation would be required, but he appears to be moving normally; a viable course of events is that, after (in his un-inverted perspective) Neil leaves the opera, he then removes the magazine from his pistol and unloads the inverted bullet from it (the casing, powder, and slug of which were sucked into the ejection port and barrel respectively after he shot the SWAT officer). That inverted bullet then continues moving forward in our timeline (backwards from its perspective) before reverse-entering the "blue" side of a turnstile, concurrent to its un-inverted counterpart entering the "red" side. Its un-inverted counterpart (the same bullet, ontologically) would have been moving forward in time since its conventional manufacture.
As to why Neil would go to the trouble of using inverted ammunition, hard explanations are scarcer. Perhaps it's because they leave no evidence behind? That they're lighter to carry around? I'd guess the real reason exists in the viewers reality: it was another opportunity in the narrative to show inverted objects in action.
Source on the bullet being inverted/disappearing hole (from the script, page 6):
BLAM! With EXPLOSIVE FORCE THE BULLET HOLE DISAPPEARS – A
NICK HAS APPEARED IN THE PROTAGONIST’S UNIFORM – he SPINS –
the SWAT is SHOT THROUGH THE CHEST AND DROPS... revealing a
FIGURE, also in a gas mask and tactical gear...
Pictures about "Did Neil use an inverted bullet at the opera?"
Was Neil inverted the whole time?
Neil was hired by the Protagonist in the future, quietly traveled backwards all the time to the Kiev Opera siege time, inverted forwards again and did what shown in the film \u2014 inverting backwards/forwards again and again as required. When moving forwards he does not need to wear oxygen mask.How did Neil take the bullet?
In normal timeline, the bullet path apparently was: Volkov's pistol, Neil's head, a part of the door (say Neil's head had bent the trajectory of the bullet which otherwise would still hit the Protagonist too), the floor or under it. Or the bullet could go near the Protagonist and past him into the corridor.Who saved the protagonist at the opera?
Day 1, Opera House, Kyiv: The Protagonist is able to seize the asset before the Ukrainian Special Forces get their hands on it, but is about to be taken out by one of them. Then on, a masked vigilante, who is, in fact, Neil, saves The Protagonist with the aid of a refracted bullet.TENET Opening Explained: Opera Scene And Train Yard Breakdown
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