Between Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet, an online hypothesis proposes a Christopher Nolan universe. Here's how they could be connected.
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| [Tenet, Interstellar, Inception] |
According to a common online hypothesis, Christoper Nolan's high-concept sci-fi films Tenet, Inception, and Interstellar are all linked, implying the existence of a Nolan-connected universe outside of his Dark Knight trilogy. These three films are heavily intertwined with these ideas, as Nolan has a knack for mind-bending time and space-related scientific theories in his work. The Nolanverse theory is a clever way to present fictional humanity's worldwide problems in an integrated manner, as seen in Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet, which all share high-concept solutions for mankind.
Inception (2010) stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a thief who, with the help of his squad, steals knowledge from the subconscious minds of his victims. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper in Interstellar (2014), and he and his fellow explorers must search alternate, habitable worlds to save humanity from an apocalyptic Earth. Tenet (2020) stars John David Washington as The Protagonist, an investigator charged with manipulating time entropy to prevent an assault on present humanity by future villains.
The Nolanverse theory proposes that Tenet's characters Neil, The Protagonist's case handler, and Barbara, the scientist who first describes the time entropy of future artifacts, are Dom Cobb's grown-up children from Inception. Cobb's children were young at the time of Inception, but the girl was clearly a few years older than the son, which explains why Neil is younger than Barbara. In both films, the characters have sandy brown hair, which is notable because Tenet's casting description for Neil included a requirement for light-brown hair (Robert Pattinson dyed his hair for the role).
Barbara is obviously French (played by French actress Clémence Poésy), and the children's mother Mallorie is also French (played by Marion Cotillard).
The Tenet and Inception link is a stretch unless the two kids changed their names, as Phillipa and James Cobb are in Inception and Barbara and Neil are in Tenet. And, since the characters in Tenet don't have given last names, it's entirely possible that they changed their names after their mother's death and Dom's possible disappearance into a dream world. It wouldn't make sense for Barbara to adopt her mother's French accent while Neil, unlike his American father, has a British accent. The Inception-Tenet link is tenuous because the children were separated and raised in different countries.
The Tenet-Interstellar link is more plot-based, with the theory that the dystopian Earth of Interstellar is actually Tenet's future, with the Time Bomb being used to kill Earth and mankind because it becomes uninhabitable in the future. Since Tenet's Time Bomb was destroyed, the future Earth will still be uninhabitable, which is exactly what happened to Earth in Interstellar. It's likely that The Protagonist from the Future wanted to mastermind "Tenet" and stop Sator's Time Bomb because he was aware that Interstellar government agencies such as NASA were already working on ways to get humanity off Earth.
Tenet and Interstellar (and, by extension, Inception) may just be a common theme of humanity's end and various reactions to it, rather than an actual universe relation, given Nolan's penchant for incorporating the idea of human crisis into his tales. The protagonists of Tenet (The Protagonist and Neil) and Interstellar (Cooper, Brand, and Murph) are all more hopeful that they will save mankind from a dying Earth using high-concept science. They're both up against enemies in their near-impossible missions.
Professor Brand and Dr. Mann of Interstellar give up on the humans already on Earth and sabotage the attempt to save them, while Tenet's Sator takes matters into his own hands to build a Time Bomb and destroy mankind. Nolanverse relations will have to wait until Nolan's next sci-fi film to be reinforced and verified.
